If Friends were like Flowers by Astrid

Hello everyone and thank you for visiting! Astrid here with my first project for this month.

I decided to have a play with the wonderful large Manila tags. I'll list links to all the other products I used at the bottom of this post.
I started by  stamping the beautiful swirl in embossing ink and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. Next I inked the tag with a variety of Distress Inks, blending from the lighter colours at the top to the darker ones at the bottom. I stamped my chosen images first in Maroon and then Jet black archival ink on smooth stamping paper. I cut out the detailed images that I stamped in black, coloured them with a mix of Distress inks, Distress Markers and Inktense pencils and then glued them onto the ones that I had stamped in Maroon and adhered them to the tag.

Following this I masked the top stamp and stamped the Speckled background and the calligraphic Mat 12 around the image for some interest, inked the edges and ran one side of the tag through an embossing folder to add some texture and balance out the design. Finally I inked the raised bits in Blue Sapphire Distress ink, and rubbed over it with a little bit of Treasure Gold in White Fire. I also shaded a little bit with a charcoal pencil around the stamped images to add some depth. Finally I  added my sentiment in black Archival and embellished with some seam binding, a bit of lace and a flower.

Hope you like my friendship tag and like always, thank you for all your lovely comments, they make my day!
These are the stamps and products I used that are available at the Artistic Stamper:
Botanical 3
Garden Plate
Calligraphic Mat 12
Speckle Background
Distress Inks: Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Barn Door, Vintage Photo, Chipped Sapphire, Weathered Wood
Archival Ink Jet Black and Maroon
Distress Markers same range of colours as the Inks