Tatty Button Projects

Well, after the intial gazing happily at the lovely pristine new Tatty Button rubber stamps that arrived, not wanting to get them dirty (how sad is that...I'm usually chomping at the bit to work with new stamps!)...and getting over my slight nervousness that these are MY designs and I have to think of something to make with them that does them justice....

....I've finally come up with a small selection of projects that I think shows that the designs are very workable and have scope...from distressed effects to downright pretty and girly. I have a number still WIP and will upload photos once completed...but for now here are a few finished pieces.

'HEART HANGER' - This piece shows that the stamps can be used to create embossed metal projects. I used the 'Best Friends' image and stamped with black Stazon ink onto silver craft metal sheet, then used various metal embossing tools (TenSecondsStudio) and a foam mat to trace around and in the design to create depth and texture. The back was filled in with polyfiller (speckle) to stop the embossed areas from getting crushed or flattened and once dried, mounted into a chipboard heart frame which was completey covered in pink handmade mulberry paper to seal it all up securely. After setting eyelets and attaching a chain I set about making embellishments. The two flowers were created by stamping the plain Tatty Flower image three time (for each flower) onto metal sheet, cut out and shaped and layered to create dimensional petals. I felt the metal looked to bright and shiny, so toned it all down a bit by working black stazon ink into the metal. This, not only brought out the embossing but gave it a nice gunmetal colour finish.
'PONY PAL CARD' - The original Tatty Button drawings are sketchy graphite pencilwork in grey scale and when the images were adapted for the rubber stamps this look was sadly lost but I was determined to see if the stamps could actually be used to recreate that original pencil look again. I'm delighted to say it is possible...and this card shows it wonderfully. The stamp 'Pony Pal' was inked and stamped out in a pale grey then used as a guide to pencil and shade back in with HB graphite pencil. The completed image was then framed with cardstock, embossed (cuttlebug) and die cut (Spellbinders nesties) and embellished with co-ordinating ribbon and a small charm which is the 'Tatty Button' stamped on clear shrink plastic.

'PIP PENDANT' - I was keen to see how far I could go to create an 'ungirly' piece and although there are more stamp designs in the pipeline that I think would be more suited to this, rather than wait, I went for the small 'Pip Mouse' image that will be available in this first range. 'Pip' was stamped onto copper craft sheet and slightly distressed and hammered to create a bit of aging and texture. It was then mounted into a frame of embossed and silver inked Grunge Paper (Tim Holtz). The frame was assembled using cold connection technique (ie not soldered as it is fabric) by way of metal rivets (which can actually be removed so that the image can be replaced with something else) and then hung on heavy linked chain. I'm sitting on the fence over this piece at the moment as, I really like the idea, but not so keen on the choice of material used. I think I might rework this one at some point and perhaps used metal for the frame.'FAIRY SHOE' - And now for something really girly! I found the project and template for this shoe in an old CraftStamper magazine (I'll sort out links for this later and also give credit to the original designer of the piece once I find her name!) and is made out of Grunge Paper which I painted with white acrylic paint then stitched together using fluffy pink threads. It was given a spritz of Cosmic Shimmer Mist (Angel Mist) although this sadly doesn't show up very well in the photo and decorated with handrawn swirls. The 'Tatty Button' and 'small flowers' images were stamped and cut out of more grunge paper then attached and wings added with ironed and stamped fantasy fibres....and sections coloured pink with a Promarker. Further embellishments include silver glitter, gems and tiny silver bells.'CHARM BRACELET' - At some point I want to make pieces using all the individual stamps from this initial Tatty Button range but time is short at the moment so....I have made a 'showcase' charm bracelet using all the stamps on white frosted shrink plastic, with additional coloured and silver beads. I think the clean simple lines of the designs work well when shrunk down on this craft material...with no detail lost at all. I had fun making this bracelet and might have a go at making a coloured version at some point too.'PURPLE FLOWER TATTY CARD' - I wanted to concentrate more on the embellishment stamps in the range on this card, and so stamped out multiple 'flower' and 'leaves' images onto purple card and used them layered up to create a frame around a simple stamped 'Tatty Button' image. These flower stamps have a fair bit of scope and can be stamped out as outline only if desired and also cut out and shaped to create more dimensional paper flowers...more on that later!

'PIP MOUSE CARD' - The 'Pip' stamp comes in two sizes, one tiny stamp that is great for embellishments, and background papers etc and this one used in the card above, which is the larger version. This is just a simple stamped card showing the image stamped out in brown Tsukineko Memento ink and coloured in using ProMarkers. All the Stamp packages come with the images shown coloured in to help as guidence should you wish to create work in the original colours (as found in the cd) but obviously these stamps can also be coloured in any shade you wish!

'GREEN TATTY FLOWER CARD' - A card that shows the embellishment type stamps can stand alone from the main Tatty Button character images. Using co-ordinating patterned papers and cardstock, two 'flower' and 'leaf' stamps were stamped out and layered up multiple times to create depth. The stems were drawn in freehand using a black fineliner pen.