Over the Seas and Far Away

Hi everybody! It's Toni here and it's my turn to share a little project with you today. I was lucky enough to purchase a set of Tim Holtz 'Travel Ways' Stamps from the clearance section  in Kim's lovely eclectic Paperie shop and once they arrived, I knew exactly what my first project would be. It's a tag  that tells a little part of my late father's story. He was born in Nigeria and came to live in England in the late 1940's. The photograph of him here, was taken in 1950. I love his big smile and his even bigger hat! He initially studied tailoring, before working on the railways and later in a factory. At heart though, he was a musician. He played rhythm  guitar and was in several bands as my brothers and I were growing up.There's lots more to say, but I'll save that for another day.

I started off by cutting a tag from manila card, I wanted something a little bigger than my usual size 8. I laid on a bit of colour with Distress Stains and dried with my heat gun. I then used my favourite Tim Holtz 'Latticework' stencil, with  Liquitex Gesso, to add some interest to the background. 

I layered on some pieces of a printed napkin to create the music script. These were a useful 'post Christmas' find. I then  added some stamping in black Archival Ink. I created the clip board with a Movers and Shapers die, and painted it with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint. The next step was to use some of the Travel Ways stamps to create some vintage travel ephemera.

I also printed out the ocean liner, as my dad travelled to England on a ship. I assembled the pieces together and adhered them to the tag with Studio Matte Medium. I popped the Ship up with some dimensional tape. The photo is a copy of the original, reduced in size. I did a little additional  distressing to the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I die cut the Dress form, as a reference to his early tailoring days and used a Sticky backed canvas ATC to add texture to the body. I also stenciled over it with the Lattice work stencil as I realised I'd covered a lot of the background stenciling and I do so love that pattern! So this tag pays homage to my lovely father's journey to a new and very different life in England and that's another story.......x

Here are some of the products I used on this tag. I think Kim may have one or two sets of the Travel Ways stamps left if you're quick !

Tim Holtz - Tarnished Brass Distress Paint	Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) - Travel Ways	Tim Holtz Alterations - Mini Clipboard & Bottom - Movers & Shakers	Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Crinkle Ribbon 10 Yards	Distress Ink Pad - Iced Spruce
Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Antique Linen	Distress Stain - Vintage Photo	Distress Stain - Pumice Stone	Distress Stain - Antique Linen
Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Claudine Hellmuth Studio-Multi-Medium Matte	Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Latticework	Ranger Heat It Craft Tool	Inkssentials Foam Blending Tool