'Dead Stylish' Tag my first post for Andy Skinner

Very excited to get my mucky paws on Andy Skinners new
'Spook' stamps set and make my first project
as a member of the Creative Team!!!

Here's a fun tag, and how I made it. Links for the products I used can be found on Andy's blog and the end of this post.  

First thing I did was to immerse the thick greyboard tag in a bowl of cold water for about 3 minutes so that I could split it into several thinner tags!

I usually do this when embossing Tando greyboard pieces as it makes it easier to run them through my machine, and the embossing is more defined. Make sure the layer is dry before you start to work on it. 

Don't worry about leaving the tags in water for longer, I've come back a couple of hours later and the shape is still in tact in the water and doesn't split until I pull it apart.

I randomly painted the embossed tag with 3 colours of DecoArt metallic paint (Tin, Emperors Gold and Zinc).

Once dry I very lightly added in two more metallic colours (expresso and Copper), dry brushing them across the embossing.

Using a Pyrography tool, I carefully singed the edges of the tag (be cautious if you try this, it gets flippin' hot - and could set fire to the tag if you held it there for much too long. Have your water pot handy in case it does - or to put your hand in if you burn yourself trying!!!

The 'Ouiga' stamp on this set is a fantastic alphabet set! I stamped and embossed the whole thing twice and cut out the letters I needed (saved the rest for another time). I stained the white paper with Andy's famous dirty wash of Paynes Grey and Quinacrydone Gold. Painted a white bit of card with Pyrole Red, glued on the cut out letters and tore around them to get the tatty ripped edge around the words.

I stamped the skeleton onto white card a few times. Coloured various bits and once I decided which colours I liked, I cut them out and layered them (paper pieced) onto a plain heat-embossed image and cut it out.

After gluing the image and words onto the background I felt it needed something else, and found this piece of bronze jewellery wire.

I'd decided to use the skulls from this set too, just for a play. Stamping them onto white 'shrink plastic' and shrinking it down to this size with a heat gun....I punched the holes in BEFORE shrinking as it is so thick once you've done it. Using a bit more of the wire I twisted it through the holes to hang the skulls like a sign from the top of the tag.

Finally I made some spirals with the wire and fixed them at the back of the tag with Pinflair 3D gel, so they bent round to the front. All done!

Thanks for looking. Any questions please leave a comment, and click on the link under the logo below to access Andy's shop and see all the new goodies!

Enjoy, Suz x

Click HERE to access the store.

DecoArt products used:

Media Fluid Acrylics: Cobalt Teal, Titan Buff, Pyrol Red Quinacrydone Gold, Paynes Grey

Dazzling Metallics and Extreme Sheen: Copper, Splendid Gold, Zink, Tin, Iced Espresso

Andy's/ AI products used:

Spook Stamp Set and Sunburst Stencil

From my general supplies I also used Archival and Versamark ink pads, jewellery wire, shrink plastic, cosmic shimmer glue a hole punch and the pyrography tool.

Tando Products used:

Greyboard Tag