This is my entry for the November tag in the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 blog series.
I chose to do a poppy themed tag in remembrance of relatives who died in the wars.
For this project I will be using the Poppy stamps and dies by Sheena Douglass, Distress Ink by Ranger, Derwent Inktense pencils and rubber stamps.
Poppy Tag Background
As with the previous tags in the series, I first cut out a large tag from mountboard using the Tim Holtz Tag & Bookplates die by Sizzix.
I used a round ink applicator and sponged Tea Dye Distress Ink all over the mountboard. It was quite uneven, which is exactly what I wanted in this case.
Next I used Peeled Paint Distress Ink and the Large Dotty Closed stamp by The Artistic Stamper to cover the tag with big green dots. 
Then I used Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and the little leaves from the Giving Thanks stamp set by Simon Says Stamp all over the background.
I put a blob of white acrylic paint onto my craft mat and added a little water to make it runny. Then I used a small paint brush and flicked the paint onto the tag to create fun splatters. I left this to dry.
I took a piece of self adhesive paper lace from Innovations by Salco and inked all over it with Barn Door Distress Ink. I stuck this to the tag, near the bottom. I then added the “Lest we forget..” words with a black Sharpie pen.
Poppy Tag Embellishments
I die cut 4 poppy petals and 2 poppy centres using the Victorian Floral – Poppy dies by Sheen Douglass. I do not have the full set of these dies as the version I have came free with a issue of Crafter’s Companion’s Inspirations magazine, and it included these two dies and the matching stamps. The full commercial set includes matching dies for the other stamps too.
I used 300 gsm Bockingford Watercolour Paper.
I used the matching Sheena Douglass poppy stamps to stamp the petals, leaves, stems and other poppy components on to the watercolour paper. I used Jet Back StazOn ink for this as I wanted it to be waterproof.
To colour the leaves I used Derwent Inktense pencils and a water brush. I applied Apple Green pencil around the edge on the leaf, and a stripe of Field Green up the middle (leaf on right of picture).
Then I used the water brush to first push the lighter green gently towards the centre, then to pull the darker green out to meet it. This gives a nice shaded effect over the leaf.
I used the same technique to colour the petals. For these I used Tangerine Inktense pencil around the edges of the petals then Poppy Red (how suitable!) in the middle area. Again I pulled the ink into the middle with the water brush, blending it gently where it meets. I coloured the other stamped components the same way.
I glued pairs of petals together to make a flower, then added the two central components. I added a little black Wink of Stella brush pen to the middle of the poppy.
I stuck the stems and leaves in place then added some tiny pearls as accents.
The tag has green garden twine instead of a ribbon.
Finally I tied some more of the green garden twine over the lace to balance out the tag a bit more.
And here is the finished poppy tag.
