So this project was inspired by a random thought one day as I sat looking at the new Tim Holtz Sizzix release. The Mechanical Bigz and Wildflower Stems 3 caught my attention and I liked the contrast of the industrial gears with the dainty flowers. The juxtaposition intrigued me and an image of wildflowers growing up through old rusted machinery came to mind. The idea of rebirth. A rising from the deterioration, destruction, decay. A reminder that anything is possible. A reminder that today is full of possibilities. Just like the wildflowers you can push through and new growth is possible.
From that idea I began by die cutting all the gears from from chipboard using the Mechanical Bigz. To give them an aged look, I applied Distress Grit Paste randomly over the surface. Once this was dry, I painted each one with Black Soot Distress Paint. I let this dry and then used my finger to randomly dab on Walnut Stain, Antique Bronze, Rusty Hinge and Evergreen Bough Distress Paint. I recommend only applying one color at a time and allowing that to dry to avoid muddying the colors. For even more distress I added some Distress Crayon to them using Antique Bronze, Tarnished Brass and Ground Espresso. With the gears completed, I then moved on to the wildflowers.
Using the Wildflower Stems 3 I die cut the shapes from pieces of watercolor paper. I then colored each flower using Distress Ink and a water brush. The ink colors I used are Peeled Paint, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Milled Lavender and Shaded Lilac.
The background was created on a piece of Distress Heavystock sized to fit a Thickboard Mini Tag. I sprayed the paper with a mix of Distress Spray Stain in Tumbled Glass, Old Paper and a tiny bit of Ground Espresso. Once this was dry, I inked over the paper here and there with Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Ink. I then spritzed the paper with my Distress Sprayer and dabbed it dry. After this was completely dry, I adhered it to the Thickboard Mini Tag using Distress Collage Medium and then trimmed off any excess overhang. To add a little more interest to the background I stamped images from the Field Notes and Tiny Toadstools Stamp Sets using Archival Ink in Vintage Photo. And as always, I inked the edges with a bit of Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
With the background completed, it was time to begin adding the gears and wildflowers to create the scene I had imagined in my mind. For added interest on the gears, I adhered a mix of Machinery and Hardware Heads distressed with Mushroom and Pitch Black Alcohol Inks.
Another small touch was the addition of the bug to the center of one of the gears. This is an Idea-ology Adornment colored with Alcohol Inks. I used Pearl Mixative for the wings, Mushroom for the legs and Gilded for the body.
At the bottom of the tag, and the final step in completing this project, was the addition of the shelf and sentiment. The shelf was created using a couple of Pinked Chipboard Trims. These were distressed with the same technique I used on the gears and once dry, I adhered them to the base of the tag to create a shelf. I then finished it off with the Quote Chip and a couple of Hardware Heads.
Supplies
Below you can find the products I used to create this project along with compensated affiliate links to Scrapbook.com. These links are at absolutely no extra cost to you. If you want to learn more about what an affiliate link is, you can see my full affiliate and product disclosure statement here.
