Michelle the Nutshell ~ TEW new release

Hi Everyone,  Today I'm sharing a tag I created with the new The East Wind release from Monday called Michelle the Nutshell. This was one of the winning photos from the portrait game that Kyra then drew and released as a digi. We all loved the photo and the image is a delight to colour and create with.

I coloured Michelle with Prismacolor pencils, adding a little detail with silver gel pen and a green half pearl for her earring. Michelle was then matted in black partially to add strength to the image because I knew her head would require several layers of foam tape in order to match the level of the metal.

The background started as a black #8 tag (3 x 6.25 inches). I applied Perfect Medium through a Dylusions harlequin stencil and then dusted the gluey spots with Interference Green Perfect Pearls. It has a gorgeous shimmer in real life and yet remains subtle. The metal sheet which is black on one side and silver on the other is from Add a Little Dazzle. It's fabulous stuff...embosses and cuts like butter, can be torn, rolled, so many possibilities. I embossed it with my favourite Tim Holtz folder, Riveted Metal. I then cut it down the center about half way and rolled the two halves back towards the edge like it was opening up. Before I adhered it to the background, I applied Black and Rust Alcohol inks and blending solution to age and grunge it up.

On the image, Michelle has a buckle at her neck so to repeat that I threaded a dotty ribbon through an Idea-ology buckle and wrapped the ribbon around the tag, using the same ribbon for the topper. As soon as I saw the photo and then Kyra's image, the word Fierce popped into my head as in a fierce competitor, fierce friend, and "don't mess with me" kind of fierce. I love the attitude I am imagining. The gold metal beads spell out Fierce and repeat the metal from the lower part of the tag. The last element is the heart with wings. It started out brushed gold but I added a little Treasure Silver wax to highlight the detail and tie it in with the other metals. I chose the heart because to me it represents both freedom to be an individual and speed from her roller skates.

Thanks for visiting today. We have a couple of challenges going on right now ~ our Facebook challenge theme is Wedded Bliss and our blog challenge theme is Ribbon. We'd love to see your projects entered into either of those or just shared with us on The East Wind FB group.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie