Finally back to my craft table

It has been the longest time that I was away from my craft table.  It was hard.  I wish I was traveling or having some other activities, but the truth is, I didn't heed the doctor's advice and my right eye needed more treatments.  Guess I could still do a lot with my left eye alone but that was a mistake because I had a swollen left eye the day after.  It was a lot of rest or boredom this past week as I could not even read magazines or watch TV.  Having said that, I came to truly understand the importance of taking GOOD care of myself.  For those who are temped to skip medication or treatment, don't do that!!

What was the first thing I did when I got back to my craft desk?  Playing distress products and I had so much fun.  So.  Much.  Fun.

I started playing with alcohol inks and made these tags:

The techniques employed from top left to right:  Faux patina, tinted tinsel, ombre, monoprint and faded layers. 

I can't decide which technique I like the best but I love experimenting the techniques!  For faux patina, in addition to using the traditional bluish green, I also tried it in reddish purple and I like it.  I have a feeling that this color will appear on my Valentine's Day projects soon!

Then I also played with my distress paints:

The techniques I tried are, from top left to right:  Distress Paint Marbling, Colored Crackle, Altered Surface, Eroded Metallic, Stamping Resist and Industrial.

Eroded Metallic technique totally burned me out.  I have tried at least five times to get to this result that is marginally acceptable.  But I didn't let that take me down.  Instead, I tried it on some metal charms and wow, it was much easier to get that look on those charms than on paper. 

I love the Industrial technique as I am constantly looking for ways to make great masculine cards and isn't this background perfect for a man?  Again, since I have my pack of metallic charms on my table, I couldn't resist to try the technique on the little trumpet.  It looks very cool!

The Stamping Resist technique reminded me of a quick experiment.  How will the result change if I use distress stain? 

The tag on the right used the Stamping Resist technique with distress stain instead of paint.  The background is faint, compared to the one on the left.  Distress paint does a far better job in getting all the details of the stamp.

Just in case you are wondering how the un-altered music charms/foil tape look, here's a quick comparison:

The un-altered music charm is placed in the middle of two tags.  This violin (or viola, cello or bass, whatever it is) has a clean pewter color.  The drum and sticks on the far left look really rusty.  No one wants to play a drum like this.  The trumpet on the right, however, has this aged look and I can absolutely imagine a handsome man playing it in a band........  The un-altered foil tape on the far right is much more bright and shiny compared to the portion on the tag.  Both are nice but I do like the one with Industrial technique has it shows more depth. 

It has been a fun-filled day and there are so many other things I'd like to try.  Now that my eye only needs regular treatment, I will have more time to play and yes, I'm going back to my craft table now.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!