Phoenix or Flamingo

Greetings Nomad friends.  Hope you are all having a crafty good weekend.  I was hoping my man was going to go and fish today but he didn't.  A nice bit of fresh fish would go down a treat.  I must admit to being a very bad fisherperson.  It's OK when I catch something but there is nothing more disheartening than sitting in a boat, or on the ice as it would be at the moment seeing as the fjord is frozen, and not catching anything.  Maybe it's a man thing.  They seem to delight in sitting for hours waiting for a bite.  I am probably too impatient.  It is quite nice lying on the ice and listening to the pops and groans as it shifts up and down with the waves.  A bit scary the first time but pretty amazing.  Ah well, unless they are biting I would rather be crafting.

Have you checked out the PaperArtsy blog?  Some lovely work being done by the DT over there.  I have been very inspired by Linda Cain and have based this tag on her tutorial.   Linda, thanks for sharing that it's OK to make mistakes.  Everyone blogs their best so it's reassuring to know that we are all making mistakes, but hopefully happy ones.

I coloured my tag with Distress Inks Barn Door and Picked Raspberry then spritzed it with water.  For my first attempts my spray was too course and I ended up washing out my inks.  So I took Linda's advice and flicked water off of my fingers.  Then I did a bit of splatting with white paint.  My splats were small and irregular, not the nice round splats Linda had but I'm not starting again now.  Note to self, work on your splats.  Then I stamped with PaperArtsy Ding & Dong SIDD5.  I used the bird and also some of the scrolls from this set.

 
My white pen obviously wasn't the right sort because it didn't want to play with the distress inks.  So I resorted to Winsor and Newton white ink and my glass pen.   Any suggestions on the brand/type of white pen needed to give a nice sharp doodle gratefully received.

I added a bow, a Tando Creative key from their mini grab bag which I had sprayed with gold ink and some computer generated words.

I used a preprinted chipboard heart washer and some pink and black fancy fringe for the tie.  I added some gold blending filament as well but it's a bit stiff so happy with the colour but not the overallness of my tie.  I backed the tag with a layer of black card and did some faux stitches (Linda inspired). 

So Phoenix or Flamingo?

Entering this for
PaperArtsy Challenge
Tando Creative Challenge - Love, love me do used a Tando mini key
That Craft Place - Valentines
Kortgleder - Alt er Lov
Craft-room Challenge - Something for a man  Well, I know it's pink but I made it with a man in mind.  Why can't it be pink?  This is love after all.  Hot, hot, hot. 

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great weekend and may all your mistakes be happy ones.