You can always count on me...

Hello everyone!  Alison (butterfly) here with a quick tag.  Dealing with moving house means the post might be (a little) shorter than usual too!

The inspiration for this tag came from the song You Can Always Count On Me from the musical City of Angels.  I needed numbers to "count" with - so I used mainly the stamps from Katy Fox's Numerical plate, along with a Crafter's Workshop stencil to create this tag.

I started with the stencil, and blended Broken China and Salty Ocean Distress Paints through it with a blending tool.

Once that was dry, making the DPs permanent, I inked over it with various Distress Inks - pretty sure Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn and maybe some Peacock Feathers are in there.

Next, a quick bit of spritz and flicking with water to give added texture.

Then I started layering in the stamps.

They're all stamped in Jet Black Archival, but - following one of Tim Holtz's tips last Stamptember - for some of them I patted the ink onto the stamp (gives you the nice dark stamping)...

...and for others I swept the pad across the stamp rather than tapping (gives you the paler version).

My trusty £1 alphabet stamps came out to stamp the title of the song.  I stamped it onto another tag that was lying around where I'd been playing with Dylusions sprays - the blues and greens over some white paint, which is what gives you the slightly pastel opaque look.

I cut out the words and mounted them on some mesh ribbon so that they'd stand out from my numerical background.

And, of course, my stand-by topper of Distress Stain dyed seam binding with some curled paper string tied in a bow, and we're done!

Thanks so much for dropping in today.  You've still got time to join in with our Autumn challenge here at The Artistic Stamper this month - we'd love to see you there.  Happy crafting!

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps: Katy Fox Numerical Plate
Crafter's Workshop stencil
Distress Paints: Broken China, Salty Ocean
Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Broken China
Distress Stains: Mowed Lawn, Broken China, Salty Ocean, Picket Fence
Dylusions: Cut Grass, London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise
Seam binding
Manila Tag
From my stash: paper string, mesh ribbon