Tie It Up - Challenge #11 At Anything But A Card

Hi everyone. Time for another challenge at Anything But A Card and I do hope you'll play along with us.

Your challenge this fortnight is called 'Tie It Up' and you can use ribbon, braid, lace, twine, string - anything that you can tie something up with really! The wonderful thing about the challenges at Anything But A Card is  you can literally design and make anything as long as it's not a card. I love these kind of challenges and judging by the number of entries we're receiving, I think lots of you do too!

As soon as I read the theme, I knew that I would be using natural jute string/twine and braid as I love these materials. They go with so many different colour palettes. I do  love ribbon, but find I rarely use it in my craft work - need to have a play with some I think.

Please do pop over to the blog and see the wonderful work the design team have come up with. Don't forget we have a week 1 design team and another for week 2 so look out for their wonderful makes halfway through the fortnight. (next sunday)

I've made a little gift bag and matching tag using layers of stamping, masking and die cuts.

Here's my make with quite a few photos (so be warned!):

The completed bag with matching tag.The bag was cut using a TH die which I found half price last year and this is the first outing for it. The light is not good for photography at present  so please forgive the shadows.

The completed tag which is attached to the bag with knotted jute twine.

The flower on the tag was die cut and inked with shimmer spray and dylusion ink spray. Once shaped and layered, some untwisted twine was added as the flower centre.

The background was created on white card using layers of distress ink, stamping and a little stencil work. The card was first lightly sponged with distress ink then randomly stamped with a mesh image and dragon fly image from The Artistic Stamper, using the same colour ink mixed with chalky ink. I wanted these to have a subtle effect but to be seen if you look hard enough. The final stamped layer was done with archival ink. One more layer involved using a dylusion mask with a harlequin image in the gaps between the diamonds.

Two layers of punched scalloped lace edging were used at the top of the bag. One layer was coloured with distress and stamped with script in the same colour. The second layer was cut from kraft card and the edges were inked. The kraft card was used to match with the natural jute braid and twine. Once the edgings were in place, I covered the cut edge with jute braid and used some more to make the bag handles. A little bow was added to complete the look.

The tag shape was die cut in white card which had more of the same stamped and stencil layers but only using distress ink. A further tag was cut in kraft card and the bottom edge was removed and used as a second scallped edging to match the idea used on the bag.

A contrast ring from kraft card was used to strengthen the hole. Jute twine was used to attach the tag to one of the handles.

Some additional die cuts were used to complete the tag in matching colours. The blue die cuts were stamped and coloured. Yet again I need to apologise for my continued absence around blogland. I've commented where I have to and then after that it depends how well I feel. Winter is proving difficult for my chest and sinuses this year so please bear with me. If I don't feel well enough to sit at my desk then you know there's a problem! Positive thinking will hopefully conquer all!! I hope you like my project this time. Do let me know what you think.