Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Masking/Bee/Shimmer Tag

Ooh, did you see the tags for yesterday's Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog? Wowzee.

It's only day 2 & I'm already having a ton of fun making tags, something I'm never really done. Oh I make tags for presents, but not the kind of pieces of art that folks are making. Today's tag needs to incorporate the following: Masking, Shimmery effect, and Bees. Yep, Bees!

Okay, so I know that my tag is a little odd perhaps, but when I think of bees I think of the recent lack of them, and how we actually need more bees in our garden (how else do our veggies get pollinated‽). Martha Stewart says that you can make your garden more inviting for bees by putting out bundles of bamboo that they can live in. We have a perfect place in the yard for one, but well I'm sure I'll get to it someday! It kinda bugs me to buy bamboo since the Baltimore area actually has some gorgeous stands of bamboo, but my husband frowns on me acquiring things off the side of the road & probably wouldn't appreciate having to explain my hacking at someone's bamboo side yard.

Anyhoo, that's how I came to the bee-and-bamboo theme. Also, I've been itching to use the Bamboo stamps from my Inkadinkado sets.

Somehow I only have 2 bee stamps, and one reminded me of the freaky bees from Futurama, so I settled on this waspy guy.

The photos didn't come out great, but I masked the bees before stamping the bamboo images. For the border piece, I ink-distressed it with "Peeled Paint" Tim Holtz ink (I used the same distress ink to edge all the pieces). I sprayed the pieces with Tattered Angels chalk mist (Banana Pudding) to add the required shimmery effect. After removing the masking paper (and saving the pieces to reuse later), I colored the bees (except for the wings) with Copics (Y000, FY1, FYG1). Then, because I just got my hot little hands on a Vermsamark watermark ink pen, I used it to heat-emboss the bees' wings with clear lemon embossing powder. I added added extra-distressing to the broder piece by cutting it out with deckle scissors before sanding it.

So fun! Can't wait for tomorrow's!