DIAMONDS AND PEARLS

So, I was getting caught up on reading blogs early this afternoon.  I happened on my good friend, "Airport Girl" and Ranger U Sister;  the lurvely and multi-talented Hels Sheridan's blog.  She does something every Sunday called the SUNDAY STAMPER CHALLENGE. You have GOT to check this out!!!  This week the challenge is themed "Diamonds and Pearls".  So THAT caught my attention.  I played around this afternoon and made this tag.

Guess I was feeling all "girly" today with this theme.  I thought of Marilyn Monroe and her famous song "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend". 

The background was done using Claudine Hellmuth's layered (text) paper technique.  Simply layer text onto a tag using Matte Multi Medium and let it dry.  Then burnish pieces of masking tape onto the paper and pull it off.  This creates a really interesting background texture.

Next I used Claudine's Studio pink, white and teal paints to create my background.  I also brushed a little Iridescent Medium over the top to create that wonderful pearlized effect. 

I typed "Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend" on my computer, sized it to fit, transposed it and did a transfer technique to apply it to my tag.  To do the transfer technique, I printed out the words onto a piece of inexpensive copy paper (on my inkjet printer).  Next I brushed it generously with Matte Multi Medium and pressed it down onto the tag.  I lightly burnished it onto the tag and let it dry for several hours.  Then I sprayed the paper with water and rubbed off all of the white copy paper, leaving only the transferred phrase showing. 

I added a couple of stamped Wendy Vecchi flourishes and a decorative pink pearl strip.  Marilyn is printed out on semi gloss photo paper and glued onto the tag.  Isn't she amazing??  I added some "diamonds" around her neck from some vintage diamond trim I found at a flea market.  She needed some "bling" around her neck!  In the picture, she has a white feather boa around her shoulders.  I loved that idea but decided that pink was more her color for this tag!

  

Finally, I added pink and black ribbon and I made my own little jeweled embellishments to hang from the ribbon using pink pearls and fire polished Swarovski crystals.  So there you have it...my rendition of "DIAMONDS AND PEARLS".