Eventually though, fate cut me a break. Scrapworx in Richards Bay got a horde of cool new dies, and I bought the mini filmstrip and ticket die. I was really keen on trying that out. I cut the tickets out and loved them, I mean – who doesn’t right? Well now that I have them blank tickets – what should I do with them….hmmmm they look about the same size as the mini-tickets from the stampology Visual artistry sets. Well what do you know – they are! I played around with that for a while meaning that I stamped the ticket stamp in every Archival colour that I own, and then I got bored. So then I thought – let me stamp some images on them and see how that works out. I liked it but it was too 1820’s schoolbook looking, so I decided to liven up the monochrome with Distress Markers. TIGERBLOOD WIN!!!! I had so much fun, I distress markered like Charlie Sheen’s sobriety depended on it.
In the middle of that particular brand of mayhem I had a moment of epiphanic genius. All the June Challenge calls for is distress markering a stamped image and then layering that on a distress painted tag. TIGERBLOOD WIN #2 – I could totally stick all my coloured tickets on a tag – and solve the stamper’s block dilemma! And that folks, is the way the cookie crumbled.
Now, if you are familiar with my style at all, you know that I cant handle non-texture. I didn’t love just the pasted tickets even though they were pretty cool to do and they had a little something-something going on texture wise.
But it really wasn’t hitting the spot for me so then I wrapped hessian/burlap string all around the tag.
I still thought that it needed something else. I used some Barn door and Wild honey distress paint and added a few here-and-there swipes of rusty hinge ink with and an over-wash of the coppery distress stain to a bunch of tickets. Then I dipped my brush in some Perfect Pearls to nail that rusty look down.
Oh yeah – I also painted on some Fired Earth Rust Medium for the gritty rust- but apart from providing the grit – it didn't really work out so well. So my recommendation is to forego the Fried Earth brand of Rust agent if you are hoping that it will give you a rust effect. You could just as easily buy sand and add it to paint and get the same effect. I am nursing serious buyers remorse abut that (particularly since it was about R200-00 ($20).I stuck on a word band on that and threaded some hessian string through that. Still not feeling the love though.
The other day I salvaged a bunch of bottle caps that would’ve ended up as garbage
otherwise. 
The rescued the bottle caps got flattened with my pliers. I stamped one of the ADMIT ONE ticket stamps as the focal image and glossy accented over it.
(EEKS about the reflection of the lamp there)
At this point, I was almost happy and Charlie Sheen was a few steps away from being okay.
Next I stamped on the wrong side of Calico Fabric that I pre-starched – LOOOOVVVVVVEDD how this turned out and I think I am going to love the Eclectic Elements Fabric when it arrives in South Africa. I also stamped the teeny collection of mini- tickets from one of the acrylic clear Visual Artistry Stamp sets. 
I distress markered those as well and glossy accented (as if you didn’t know that I was going to that). I cut that in half abouts – and alternated the fabric tags with the paper ones and stuck them on a popsicle stick painted with Brushed pewter Distress Paint.
I am now happy with what I am going to enter – and Charlie is on his way to being relatively sober!!!