A is for Apple

Hey everyone! Tut tut, it's been nearly a fortnight since I last posted - I've been working on a project which just HAD to be finished by today, so everything else has been on hold but IT'S DONE NOW! Phew - can't tell you about it just yet but it's very exciting ... watch this space!
Anyway, back to the Apple (and I'm not talking about my iPod) - this year at Tag Tuesday Carolyn has challenged us to work through the alphabet, taking a new letter each week and letting it inspire us to create a tag. So I went with the first word that popped into my head for the letter "A" - APPLE! Here's my creation

Tags are a great way to

• try out techniques,
• use up scraps,
• have a play with stuff that's been lurking in your workroom all unloved since the Middle Ages

They're only small, so not too daunting and you can just have fun with it :o) Go on - you know you want to!
This one only took about half an hour - here's what I did -

• The base is an old coaster (I have a set of 12 to get rid of - they're tacky and I hate them but now they have a new destiny) covered it with green paper from my store of scraps, sanded and inked the edge.
• The apple was drawn on scrap white card, cut out, stuck onto a scrap of red paper and cut out again, leaving a small margin of red showing.
• The pips were drawn in with a felt pen
• A Distress Ink pad in "Mowed Lawn" was used direct to the white card to give a line down the middle and then with an applicator tool working inwards from the edge to add a hint of colour.
• The leaves were cut from the same green paper using Shapeabilities "Foliage" die, folded along the length of the leaves, then the colour was deepened with the same DI
• The felt pen was used again to colour the stalk and add definition to the leaves
• A chipboard alpha was covered in scrap pp, sanded and inked
• The little words were cut from a vintage children's book I've been saving for special
• The Crop-a-Dile came in handy yet again to make the hole and finally some ribbon to finish it off.

This was so much fun - have a go at one yourself, and if you haven't visited Tag Tuesday yet, what are you waiting for?! It's really inspiring to see so many interpretations of the theme and they're a really friendly lot too - I love being on the Tag Team :o)