Edge of the seat stuff...

The match - Murray V Ferrer, more of that later.  First to a challenge, the Tim Holtz July Tag.  A friend had posted it on our group and I thought I'd have a bash,  but I needed to get one thing,  one of those PC air compressed cleaners.  So grabbed one at the supermarket,  oh and I would like to thank the woman who damn nearly squashed my flowers with her bloody shopping at the checkout - stupid woman!

Anyway back to the tag, you need,  glossy paper,  alcohol inks, the air thingymebob,  stamp,  coredinations card (red and blue), sandpaper, glue,  butchers twine,  distress inks and patience!

TH says to splat one drop of the alcohol ink onto the paper then squirt it with the air thingy,  this was my first effort, which I wasn't too happy with.  I had a few more practices and discoverd that the best way to spread the ink was to keep the air thingy almost level with the card, and to work quickly as the ink dries quickly,  you get a bit more time if you use the glossy paper (I was using Clarity card).

So here is the second attempt,  bit happier with the 'splat',  at least I got it to spread a bit more.  TH used a Statue of Liberty stamp, I chose Big Ben.   I think a bigger stamp would have been better?   So got that bit sorted... next up was to sort out the cardstock. He naturally suggests using his coredination card,  haven't got any so used another version, cut it and sanded it as he had done.   Then TH used one of his distress ink (dabber thing),  didn't have any of those so went with the ordinary ink pad,  tattered something or other.

Then TH had again used some of his metal charm, once again I didn't have any, so just used a sentiment stamp onto a thin strip of card.

Here's the card,   I got it when I bought my Sizzix embossing machine.  Tim's card has a grunge feel,  this has a white core.  I also chose to use a piece of card from the Kanban kit for the back of the tag.

At this point the Murray match started...  time to start chewing nails as his opponent was a tough nut.   It did wonders for my exercise bike regime, was pedalling like mad at one point!   So was distracted by match,  but got on with tag.  Once the sanding was done I inked the edges of the card as he'd done,  added the sentiment.

Then attached some of the twine,  TH had gone mad with a ribbon, but didn't have any plain ribbon, so didn't bother with it.  But quite happy with my first effort.   Not sure if I'd bother with the ink splat thing again,  alcohol inks just aren't meant to be moved around!   I saw something on CnC that did do a very effective splat, so I may investigate them.  It was nice to try something different and challenge myself.

A tip to pass on,  when using alcohol inks if you spill some the best way to clear them up is to use the dilution,  well I decanted some into a mini spray bottle, and it worked a treat in doing the cleaning up.

The match went on for ages, and then the rain came down.  A real nail biter,  I thought Murray may not win as Ferrer is such a good player,  but he hung on in there.   So now have to go through it all again on Friday with the semis!

Thanks for the lovely comments,  much appreciated.