Why I Don't Do Shabby-Chic...

... or vintage, or distressed, or steampunk, or any of the many styles I admire outside of my usual clean and simple (CAS) way:

This is what I end up with. ☺
I have to admit, I have grown to like this artsy tag I have created -- good thing too, as it took shape over three days! This tag is really the responsibility of two very talented people. (But don't blame them.) The talented Savannah O'Gwynn posted this tag a few days ago. Isn't it beautiful? It made me realize that a tag would be a great canvas for experimentation. Somehow it seems more, I don't know, wasteful to experiment  on and perhaps trash a card? Then another talented crafter, Janna Werner, posted this great tutorial on how she makes her artistic background layers.
My background layer started with a piece of an LCBO paper bag. (Ontario readers will know of which I speak.) My first discovery: paper bags absorb acrylic paint REALLY EASILY, so the lovely vine pattern on the paper immediately disappeared. Oh well. Janna then uses this incredibly cool tool called a punchinella to add some decorative circles to her paper. Nope, don't have one. What I do have -- BUBBLE WRAP! I brayered some peeled paint distress ink on it and stamped it on. Then, just for good measure, I ran the brayer over part of the paper, too. Next I added two stamps from the Unity August 2010 Kit of the Month. I now had a background paper I liked, so I layered it on the tag layer, which is... a piece of an old manilla folder. I stamped the sentiment, from the October 2010 Kit of the Month, on another piece of the folder. Needed to fancy that up a bit, so I restamped part of it on white cardstock and made a faux brad of the "L". The bottom part of the tag has some Tim Holtz tissue tape and my first ever rolled paper flower.

The flower could probably be bigger, but if I spent any more time on this little tag, I might have to claim it as a dependent on my income tax. :D

After all is said and done, my little tag has the colours and just enough decorative embellishments to qualify it for the current Embellish Magazine challenge!

Now, to figure out what people do with the artsy tags they make... ☺

(Note: regularly scheduled programming -- i.e., my usual style of stamping -- will resume shortly.)

Supplies: manilla folder, paper bag, white cardstock, white acrylic craft paint, unknown green patterned paper, Unity August and October 2010 Kits of the Month, peeled paint distress ink, bubble wrap, Tim Holtz Symphony tissue tape, raffia