Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Lots of Texture Tag using AALL & Create's Intricatags, Heartnook, and Frayed Frames Dies

Adding lots of texture is this week's challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog.  I just can't get enough of these fabulous AALL & Create jaggedy-looking dies lately, so I used three different sets of those on my tag.  I love the grungy wonky look of them.  And how did I add some texture, you ask?  I incorporated fabric and some hole-punched paper made with Simon's Stitching Panel die.  Behold the end result!

I started by cutting out the tag with AALL & Create's Intricatags die set.  I used Kraft Distress Heavystock paper, which I added some white paint to.  While that dried, I cut through some white sketch paper with Simon Says Stamp's Stitching Panel die.  I love all the tiny circular holes that come from the Stitching Panel die, but I did have to add a shim (a piece of cardstock folded in half) to my Sizzix and run it back and forth about 4 times to get the holes to cut cleanly through.  A small price to pay for a gorgeous panel of circles, but worth noting.  Once I had my hole-y paper cut, I watercolored it and added some Just Walnut Infusions color stain.

Next I sprinkled some Green Man Infusions color stain onto my tag and spritzed it with water.  I used a lot of water so that the brown would show up more than the green.  With Infusions, the more water you add, the more muddy it looks.  If you want to highlight the dark brown, add more water.  If you want more color and want the brown to be less prominent, add less water.  I also threw some fluorescent pink (Dina Wakley's Stoked) into the mix and put just a touch of dark black-purple paint (Dina Wakley's Night) around the edges of the tag.

While that was drying, I used AALL & Create's Heartnook die set to cut some rings.  I used both the ring shape and the negative shapes it left behind and painted them with acrylic paint.  I also tore my hole-y paper into scraps so it was ready to be collaged onto my tag and added some more of that fluorescent pink paint here and there.

I assembled my tag elements, then decided it needed something to go across the bottom of the tag horizontally, so I cut a strip of paper using AALL & Create's Frayed Frames die set.  I painted this thin little strip in shades of blue and black and added that across the bottom.  I'd added a lot of watery stuff to the Kraft Distress Heavystock tag and it was getting pretty warped at this point, so I ended up cutting a second tag out of sturdy Strathmore Mixed Media paper and glued the Kraft tag to the Strathmore tag so it had more stability.

I found a quote from Dina Wakley's Ledger paper (set 1) that I really liked, so I glued that onto my tag and outlined each word with a black pen.  To finish it off, I punched a hole at the top, put in an eyelet, and threaded some fabric strips through the top.  While I had fabric on my mind, I found some polka dot fabric in my stash that I glued onto the front of my tag for a final bit of textural oomph.

Here are the supplies I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

• Kraft Distress Heavystock
• AALL and Create Frayed Frames Dies
• AALL and Create Heartnook Dies
• AALL and Create Intricatags Dies
• Sizzix Big Shot
• Simon Says Stamp Stitching Panel Die
• Watercolors
• Infusions Color Stain: Just Walnut, Green Man
• Dina Wakley Ledger Paper, Set 1
• We R Makers Cool Metal Wide Eyelets
• We R Makers Crop-A-Dile
• Dina Wakley Paint: Stoked, White, Cheddar, Mustard, Night
• Strathmore Mixed Media Paper

Make something that is loaded with textural goodness this week and upload it to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store.