Paper Smooches Sparks DT Call

I spent this weekend working on a little something for the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge Design Team Call.  The call requires you to make something NEW using one of their past challenge inspiration photos.  I chose to use the Distressed Ocean photo from the February challenge:

When I played along with this challenge the first time around I made an acetate card with an ocean theme (you can see that card here).  This time around I decided to use a page from a clear mini album to make a tag.  Maybe the clear materials remind me of water :-)

I have a fondness for the little gnome from the Forrest Whimsy set and the reason I decided to use this photo is because I immediately thought that he'd make a great little pirate.  Pirates are ocean-y and dirty so I thought it'd be perfect for the distressed feeling of the photo.  I also wanted to do some complicated layer on an image and thought now would be a good image to use.

So without further adieu, here's my finished project -

I took a page from this mini album I've had for ages and alcohol inked it with the colors of an old map.  I used a Sharpie to add a few dots and an x (to mark the spot!).  I stamped the "to" and "from" from Word Salad and a parrot from My Peeps.  I didn't have any ribbon that matched the colorings so I used the same alcohol inks to dye a piece of white ribbbon.

As for my complicated layering of the little guy.... it wasn't so much complicated as tedious, but I love how it turned out!  I stamped him on a piece of scrap paper and used random colors to figure out my layers (that's the blue/green/purple guy in the pic below).  I figured I needed 7 layers so I stamped him 14 times so I'd have duplicates if I messed one up.  I colored the images based on the crazy colored image.  For my own reference, I grayed in the pieces of the gnome that needed to be cut on that particular image so he'd layer nicely.  With all of the coloring done, I cut them all out.

Once all of the pieces were cut, I glued them all together.  I didn't use any dimensionals since I wanted him to stay flat but still have some depth.  I think this picture shows the it really well -

He's actually quite sturdy, I'm thinking he might make a great Christmas ornament - a happy little elf or Santa!  (Hmmm... must try that out ASAP!)

Here he is attached to the tag with his little parrot friend -

As I mentioned, I cut out 14 of these little guys in case I messed it up somewhere along the way.  Luckily, there were no mess ups, so I ended up making two tags -

So that's my submission for the Sparks Challenge DT Call... wish me luck.

--Angie

SUPPLIES - 
PAPER: Neenah Solar White
STAMPS: Paper Smooches Forrest Whimsy, My Peeps and Word Salad
INK: Memento Rich Cocoa; Ranger Alcohol Inks in Latte, Caramel and Ginger
OTHER: Ribbon from stash, Clear Mini Album from Scrapinators
COPIC: 
Skin E02, E11, W1, W3, R00, R01
Hat R37, R39, R59
Pants E29, E35, E37
Shirt/Boots C3, C5, C7, C9
Beard C1, C3, C5, W1
Bird R20, R32, R35, YR21, Y38, YR15