A special thanks ....

... Hello! When I moved to Michigan in 2012 I was fortunate to find a craft shop, Stampeddler, in my local town of Northville. And I've been a regular visitor since then. However, it took me somewhat longer to find Scrappy Chic on 8 Mile in Livonia - but I've really enjoyed it since then and attended several classes there. It's a fun shop. At the beginning of last month the owner, Chris, notified her customers that she was having close the shop. She was hoping to find someone to buy. In the meantime, we were all very sad, but completely under Chris's reasons.

Following the visit of Dyan Reaveley in 2015, a group called the Scrappy Chic Kitchen Roll Sprayers was formed and we meet on the last Sunday of every month at Scrappy Chic. It's been a fabulous time and we decided to make a thank Tag book for Chris. Michelle organised it and has, hopefully, given it to Chris by now. So I'm going to share with you the tag that I made for her.

Stamps: Dylusions - Background Love, Oh Deer!, Word Love, Around the Edge, Passage of Time, Basic Backgrounds, Graphic Background; Dylusions Clear Stamps - Clearly the Right Words, Mushrooms; Dina Wakley Stamps - Assorted Borders, Handwritten Quotes; Paper Source - Hamsa Hand
Inks & Paints: Dylusions Paints - Lemon Zest, Fresh Lime, London Blue; Archival Ink - Jet Black, Manganese Blue, Leaf Green; Distress - Walnut Stain; Stampin' Up! - Crushed Curry; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Dylusions Media Media #12 Tag; White Lustre Card; Copics; Wink of Stella - Clear, Green, Yellow; Signo White Pen; Sharpie Black Pen; Stencil - Tim Holtz Mini Set 11; Black Aquarell Pencil; Glossy Accents; Fibres

I actually painted the tag during Dyan's last class in October using the baby wipe technique. Then I had lots of fun combining stamps and stencils to create the background. I stamped the Passage of Time woman on white card, coloured her with Copics, cut her out and adhered her to the tag. I edged the image with a black pencil and used my aqua brush to pull out the black paint. I finished by added some details with a black and white pen. On the back I added some cascading leaves which I coloured with several shades of green Wink of Stella brushes. I created a little scene at the bottom of the tag and drew in some lines for our message. To complete the tag I added some fibres from my stash.

Above are some close-up photos of the tag.

When we actually met last Sunday, we had some wonderful news about Scrappy Chic. So for all my crafty friends in the Livonia, Michigan area, Scrappy Chic is remaining open. Chris, who was the owner, has managed to sell the shop. We don't know who the new owner is yet, but the shop reopens on 4th November. Such great news!!

That's all for now - I'm off to my craft room to tidy up a bit and make some more Christmas cards. I need about 100 cards to send each year and, despite being on a Christmas Card design team, I still only have 54 cards made! So I need to get busy. See you soon.