I don’t venture this far into Mixed Media normally but I needed to break away from the madness of Christmas Card Making (yes, it has begun). There’s nothing like getting almost all your crafty stash out on your desk in order to choose bits and bobs to team together so you can make a bit of Mixed Art, to stop you from becoming stir crazy when trying to produce many greetings cards which are all different, but on the same ‘theme’.
I began with a plain tag. The tag itself is quite a large-sized plain Kraft tag, from a book of Tags made by Craftwork Cards – which I bought quite some time ago, and am just coming to the end of the book.
To begin with I applied Gesso all over the tag, followed by; crackle medium; paint; some gauze; and once dry, I added a variety of doodads, trinkets, baubles, etc, in wood, metal, plastic and added a variety of sizes, shapes, and colours of pearls and glass beads.
I then used Brusho’s Crystal Powders (which I’ve talked about before on the blog here so won’t bore you to death banging on about how brilliant they are) to add colour and give the tag added depth.
The ‘Live Your Dreams’ message looks like a printed bit of paper in the photos, but in fact it’s actually an acrylic cabochon, which has a ‘diamond cut’ effect. I managed to take a close up with the flash on and I think you can see it a little better here….
…. all those white diamond lines are the ‘cuts’ of the cabochon.
I know the finished tag looks like it would be really thick and very weighty, .. but it’s actually not. Take a look …
I don’t often wander into Mixed Media Art, simply because I have no idea what to do with the art after it’s all finished! Although I love to play and make it … it doesn’t really ‘suit’ my wee cottage . . . so I have no idea what I’m going to do with whatever I’ve made, and … there are only so many bits of stuff that I can pass onto family before they begin to groan at the words: “I’ve made this thing … and I wondered . . .”.
So … I have another bit of artwork to add to the box labelled: ‘Pop it in here for Now’.
Anyhoo . . . HAPPY MONDAY! Thank you so much for coming for a visit. 🤗 Monday hugs to you. …. and … a joke: What do you call a tick that lives on the moon? A lunatic. Think about it … think some more … THERE Y’ GO! (I heard the penny drop from here!!)
I hope you have a truly great start to your week. May the rain (if you get any) be soft on your skin. May the sun warm up your world in such a way that it makes your mood bright. And may you find plenty of places to discover joy, love, kindness and gentle words.
Be nice to each other. It makes the world a far happier place to live in.
Back in 2014 I began the Tag Art category here on the blog and although I did post Tag Art from time to time, I didn’t post in that category all that often except to add a bit of something or other, every now and again.
A couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a change around in my craft room and came across the box labelled ‘Tag Art’, and I realised that I hadn’t done any Tag Art in … well I couldn’t even remember when!
I thought I could perhaps wake it up and see if I can interest anyone in trying a little tag art too.
If you haven’t met Tag Art before then can I suggest that you read the opening post in the Tag Art category on this blog, which tells you everything you might need to know about Tag Art. (There aren’t any rules). You’ll hopefully find suggestions to get your mind working and your arty fingers itching.
The photo at the head of this post is of a Tag that I made ages ago for one of the first posts on Tag Art here on the blog, but felt that it would be nice to begin with an oldy but goody.
I’ve also taken some photo’s of Tags I still have in the box to share with you. Some are there because I kind of liked them. Some were ideas for a tag which I never got around to doing anything about. And some are there because I didn’t throw them away. . . … and there are a few photos. So in an effort to take away the mystery and show you that anything YOU make on a tag is great!
Ho Ho Ho.A card tag, grunged up a little, with a panel of fabric sewn to it. Halloween!Made using a blue card tag and two colours of a Kuretaki calligraphy pen to make the bamboo tree trunksPractise tags. I was trying to work out the best way to draw a sunflower using my Kuretake Calligraphy pens. I got there in the end, but sadly forgot to take a photo. (Margaret is my neighbour)Of course .. you just KNEW there HAD to be a fairy here somewhere or other. lol She was an idea I had for what a particular type of fairy might look like for another project I had in mind.A bit of ginger joy on a tag. I painted LOTS of these tags a while ago, and put them all on the front of some plain white cards, and sent them out for Christmas. I loved the fabulous little ginger faces SO much that I decorated some circles and stars shapes made from wood, with these wonderful happy faces and hung them on my christmas tree. I still have them today, and still hang them on the tree every year. Love them.If you make Tag Art, you must make sure that you sign the back (and date it) so that your tag can be seen to be made/painted by you.I bought the ‘Tag Art’ stamp as an unmounted red rubber stamp, and the moment it arrived I went routing around the scraps of wood in Mr.Cobs shed, found this piece, inked up the stamp and pressed it onto the back and then glued the stamp to the other side. I’ve had this stamp for about twelve years now.
Tag Art is anything you want it to be. It can be painted, drawn, stamped, coloured with pencils, felt tip pens, specialist colouring pens, or left with no colour at all. You can glue things, attach things – lace, ribbon, adornments, bits of wood, leaves, acorns, feathers, anything. Anything which you want to fix to your tag you can. (Obviously you can’t attach something which is too heavy – no sticking a car engine to a tag, because it’s just not going to work! lol). You can add paste – maybe through a stencil to give a texture. Glitter, small dolls, toy soldiers, plastic animals, flowers, (pretend and pressed) … anything. Do anything you like to get the result you have in your head. Make it complicated or make it simple – like the tag at the head of this post – the one with the blue flower on it. Just make some art, because it gives you a ‘high’ which you won’t get anywhere else.
Here’s a tag I made especially so that I could include it here. It’s a simple tag … and to prove that it’s simple I’ve taken photographs of each step along the way which I did to make the tag. Here’s the finished tag . . . .
The finished tag measures 9.5inches or 24.5cm x 5.4″inches or 13.5cm.
I measured out the length of card I would need to put the image of the Angel onto the card, cut the card to size and then gave that card the pointy top you see in the photo.
I stamped the image and began to paint her colours . . .
I decided to keep her colours to greys and blues in order to give this a cold winter breeze feeling.I coloured up the background with a watery wash of pale grey. Then turned my attention to the edges and echoed the denim blue of her jacket and wings. I then added the snow at her feet which she was stood in, and added dots of snow as it fell from the heavens.image taken from a different angle so that you can see the ‘snow’Mounted the image onto black card to echo the black of the stamped image.Added lengths of lace at the bottom, and towards the top of the tag. I added charms to hang from that lace – these are made from Tibetan Silver, and the angel coin in the centre at the bottom has a more vintage look about it. It has an angel cut from the centre, and around that it says ‘You are My Special Angel’. I embossed all around the edges of the Tag in Silver Embossing Powder. There are little ‘feathers’ at each end of the lace, along the top of the tag. These are made of velum. The card then was mounted onto some royal purple coloured card. I punched a hole towards the top where the point is, using my Crop-a-dile, and added an eyelet, for the ribbon to hang by.The Tibetan Silver Feathers and the Angel coin hanging at the bottom of the Tag.
And of course .… don’t forget to sign your Tag Art on the back … and perhaps date it, even give it a name and any other details you feel you want to add to your art.
The end of a really simple bit of Tag Art.
What do people do with their tags once made? Well you can do pretty much anything you have a mind to do. I have a tendency to mount them on or in cards, or use them in scrapbooks. However, I also keep some of them because I fall so deeply in love with them that I simply can’t part with them. So I store them. I have a box, and some big clippy pegs which I use to hold bits of art. People also keep tags in Library Drawers. They make a particular sized tag so that they can be stored in that special draw which they have. I’ve also seen tags hung on a wire coat hanger, and they look spectacular like that. I can imagine them hung on a wall in the house, and one tag could be chosen to ‘speak’ for a few days, and then move it along the hanger and choose another tag to display.
A dandelion wish, and a wish-bone wish!A Tag, which has some surprise Tags!
Make your tag(s) about anything you want. Anything you have an interest in. Anything which would make you smile.
Just a crocheted flower on a plain tag … draw a plant pot and a stalk and you’re done! Maybe a picture of a bike in the newspaper? Or an advertisement for perfume, hair spray, cosmetics, fishing equipment? Anything. Anything at all. Then build your tag up a little – eg. if you chose the fishing equipment, you could perhaps add a bit of netting somewhere on the tag, or a plastic fish you’ve ‘tidied up’ from your children’s games, maybe a photo of a fish which you fix to card (for stability) and then fix in place using foam tape to give the tag a little depth. Add ribbon and anything else you’d like and VOILA! One Art Tag!
You can buy your tags … or you can simply use card and cut tags to the size you want them. Round Tags, square, triangular, kite shaped, banner shaped. Anything you like. Oh … and I almost forgot to say … once you’ve made it, you can also use it on a gift just like a normal gift tag, so when you hand your gift over, what you’ll be giving is actually two gifts.
Go on. Make some Art.You KNOW you want to. Do it. Go do it now! Have some fun!
If you’d like to have a go at Tag Art, do it today. Don’t put it off till a week next Tuesday, do it now while you have the inspiration bubbling inside you.
You can buy tags almost anywhere and for a small amount too. Add some PVA glue, an empty cereal box so that you can back some images and give them support (for things like pictures cut from magazines and newspapers), and you’re good to go.
We’re only given so many tomorrows and at some point those tomorrows run out. So do it now. Enjoy yourself now. Have a little fun. You never know, you might like it so much that you decide to buy some proper card to back your pictures/cut-outs and from there … the sky’s the limit!
Have a truly blessed rest of your day. May you end the day by looking in the mirror and smiling at yourself. And . . . . Let’s make a brand new rule for life; as from tonight, always be a little kinder than is necessary. That’s all the world needs to begin repairing itself. Us to be a little kinder than is necessary.
My last post told you about how a bad week was turned about by a token of incredible wonderfulness from an amazing fellow blogger, Mrs.Craft. (If you missed the post you can find itHERE – it will open in another window for you).
I wanted to make something to say ‘Thank You’ – but something a bit different from just a normal thank you card. I’d been working on an idea of making a post about Tag Art, and suddenly a little Fairy sparkle of an idea grabbed me and spurred me on to make a Tag Art card for Mrs.Craft. But I needed a theme. hmmmm
Something popped into my mind. Mrs.Craft is the maker of some extraordinary show stopping slippers…. knitted slippers. BUT STOP… don’t think of ‘knitted slippers’, instead think Fairy Boots.
Mrs. Craft calls her creationsCrocodile stitch slippers. What kind of name is that for something which belongs in the land of the Fairies?? It says nothing about the absolute fabulousness of those magical slippers. I mean to say … look at these Boots …
CreditL Mrs.Craft.
Credit: Mrs.Craft
All photographs of the boots belong to Mrs.Craft.
Every time Mrs.Craft posted about her ‘Crocodile stitch Boots’, I told her in a comment that she really should consider calling them something more wonderful. Fairy Boots. Unicorn Rider Boots. Elfin Creepers. That sort of thing. Of course … Green creations could be called Crocodile Creepers. But not these fantastical wonders!
When I was a child I can remember not wanting to wear my slippers which my mom had bought me. But had they been given a magical name such as ‘Samantha’s Slippers’ or ‘Bewitched bootees’ (both after the TV series Bewitched – which I adored to as a child), then I doubt very much that you’d have ever got them off my feet!
So with a nod to the Fairy vibe I decided to theme the Thank You Tag card around Fairy Land, and I share the resulting card with you here…
(. . . and to borrow the words of Willy Wonka himself . . .)
“Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination . . .”
A Card for Mrs. Craft
The large red balloon was made by cutting out the same shape over and over, and then glueing them to each other so that the ‘half round’ shape for the balloon was achieved.
Oooo, yes please … ‘Admit One to Wonderland’ I’m all for that!
….and … of course,there had to be Fairy Dust, after all … we were in Wonderland!
What better place to allow your thoughts to take flight than when you’re DREAMING!
The Scroll on the front, to the right of the balloon reads: “How does one become a butterfly?” she asked. “You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a CATERPILLAR”.
All the butterflies you see on the front are hand-made from card, but with a mix of embossing powders on them, and heated over and over, in order to make them look enamelled. There are a couple of hidden ‘smiles’ on the front of the card, but I couldn’t photograph those as they were tucked away and pretty impossible to try to get a photo of.
Shall we go inside?…
A peep into the middle…
The centre is a tad less decorated … because well… one has to have a place to write!But it still has charm …
The ‘DREAM’ which you saw peeping over the top of the front of the card is actually a Bookmark which I made specially for Mrs.Craft, for this card. It simply slides off the top of the card, and can be used as a regular bookmark.
On one side of the inner card there is a ‘scroll’ which reads…
… and it continues on the other page of the card, and tells you exactly what you need to enter the Land of the Fae…
OF COURSE!! “… one must come with the right KEY“ … now why didn’t I think of that?! So … where do we get the right key from???
… look closely. ‘The Right Key’ is there … suspended on a cobweb thread, inside a tiny glass bottle, which has been sealed closed and dusted with Fairy Dust. The glass bottle is hung inside the card, on a length of woven Unicorn Mane Hair. (or something like that).
… And of course … no one would expect that a Tag Art card, made with the help of a Fairy who was sat on my shoulder, would have a plain ol’ boring back. Nooooo. Mrs. Craft deserved the full works … and the Fairy whispered into my ear and told me I was to tell her this …
“Your Wings exist . . . FLY!” …. so, Mrs.Craft, I know you’re reading this, and I wanted to tell you that the Fairy who was sat on my shoulder told me to tell you that your wings really do exist. Don’t be afraid to fly. (But I don’t think she meant jump off a ledge and fly… not that sort of flying. I think she meant that you can do anything you put your mind to. And … I agree with her. I think you can too. So then…. ETSY shop here you come!). 😜
Thank you again Mrs.C for the wonderful gifts. You won’t ever know how much your kindness meant means to me. Bless your beautiful heart.
Edit to add: Mrs.Craft has (a few hours before I did) made a blog post about this card and the fabulous Chutney which she had made and sent me a jar of. If you’d like to read her post too, you can doHERE<— click to be taken to Mrs.Crafts blog post.
And now you …. no, not Mrs. Craft, but you... you reading right now … I want to do a post about Tag Art. So … we’ll do that in a few days. You see a little while back … I introduced some folks to working in ATC size – which I was thrilled to pieces about. Seriously so. But … I kind of would love to also introduce those folks to TAG ART too. It’s another fabulous way to craft, and really very easy. So … that post will come in a few days. I promise. [holds pinky finger up]
Thank you so much for coming. I love seeing you here and love even more when I get to chat with you, so please say hello in a comment. Tell me what’s going on. How you are. How your cat/dog/bird/children/boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/parent(s) are. Failing that … tell me your current guilty secret. Have you bought something you shouldn’t? Or planning to? Do tell. I love the juicy bits! 😎
I hope your Thursday is a truly lovely day. Please … Do something which makes someone else smile. Pull a face. Cross your eyes and pull your tongue out. Just make someone smile. It might just make their whole day into something worth being alive for.
A smile is a magical gift. Use it. LOTS. It never runs out.
I dedicate this tag to my wonderful husband – because I’d swim oceans for him.
As some of you know(from my last blog post) I had a divil of a job photographing this tag. (Many thanks go to Kim Styles for her helpful suggestions!). I’ve chosen a selection of photos from the two and a half million that I took, and hope that they give you even a little ‘feel’ of this tag, which has an under the sea theme to it. (how strange is it Kim that you and I both chose an under the sea theme for our latest projects?!)
There are various bits and pieces on this tag …
the fishing net – I made myself out of white string, because I didn’t have any proper net.
Two metal charms – the smaller of the two star fish (caught in the fishing net), and the little silver sea-horse.
The two-tone shell,purple and silver, is actually a real shell which I coloured up using Sharpies.
Sequins – in four colours
A tiny plastic shell
The pearl (in the clam shell – bottom left of the tag) – is from a broken necklace.
The Ammonite, the Anchor, Conch Shell, large silvery Star Fish and the Clam Shell – are all made from die cuts.
I’ve taken photographs using different lighting, or without lighting at all, in order to try to give you a hint of what this tag looks like when seen with the naked eye.
The ammonite(close up in the above photo) was stamped with embossing ink, then embossed with silver powder from Tonic and finally coloured using Spectrum Aqua Artist’s Markers. It looks gold in this photograph above – but that’s because (I think) it’s picking up those peach, warm yellow and soft brown colours I used to colour up the ammonite.
The greeny brown looking smudges in the background are actually gold. I coloured up the tag with the teal you see, then sprayed a little misting spray in gold, to just add a kind of warm twinkle to the look of the ‘sea’.
The Clam Shell was cut from a die (top photo, above), backed with some card and then manipulated into the shape I wanted it to be. I used a variety of different coloured embossing powders then, sprinkled into different places, to give it that wonderful, ‘mother of pearl’ look to the inside of the shell.
This (in the above photo) shows the original die cut next to the end result – so that you can see how it’s been shaped to look like a ‘real’ clam.
The photo above shows the two different colours of card I used to actually make the base of the shell, along with the finished shell. The pearl I fixed in place using Glue Gel.
I’ve included this– ↑ –out of focus photo in the hope that you might get a rough idea of what this looks like in ‘real life’. If you squint at the picture and wait a second until your focus corrects itself through your squinted eyes, you might get a different ‘look’ and show you what I was aiming for. (if you right-click on the photo, then chose ‘open in new tab’ – you should get a slightly bigger picture to make things easier for you).
You know when you’re stood on a beach and the waves come in and lap round your feet … then just as the water slips back again, there is that magical moment when the wet sand twinkles magically in the sunlight? Well I was after getting that magical twinkle … and at the same time I wanted things to look like they were floating beneath the sea, being pulled gently by that fishing net. When you’re holding the tag in your hand you get this sort of fuzziness around the net and because it’s all higgeldy piggeldy, it kinda looks like it’s floating beneath the sea.
The ‘Recipe’:
Stamps and Dies used on this tag are all by Couture Creations, from their Sea Breeze collection.
Various colours of Tonic Embossing Powders
Twinkle Embossing Powder by Personal Impressions, in Turquoise Sparkle
Colouring Pens used are Spectrum Aqua Artist’s Markers.
Card stock used for die cuts was all from off-cuts.
All the rest of the ‘stuff’, is all from stash.
Thank you so much for coming and sharing this tag with me. I cannot explain how much it means to have you here. If you’d like to leave a comment, about this tag or anything else: asking a question, to introduce yourself, or even just to say hello – I’d be thrilled to pieces to hear from you. Comments are such a genuine pleasure to me as I look on them as your way of leaving a footprint behind so that I know who you are, can say hello to you, and it’s just such a lovely way to get us all talking to each other. So please feel very welcome to say hello.
Well, that’s me done and dusted for another day. All that’s left for me to say is … Have a wonderful Monday. May it be the beginning of a lovely week for you. Be safe out there and … if you’re old enough to remember Sgt Stan Jablonski: “Let’s do it to them before they do it to us!”. (I know Sgt Jablonski meant something else, but by thatImean … let’s be nice to other people before they get the chance to be nice to us. Somehow, I’ve found, it makes me feel like I’m walking on air when I’ve made someone else smile. Try it. It’s a wonderful feeling).
The finished Tag. This one is so easy that the steps to make it are all done in photographs. (yes – it’s THAT easy!)
Another tag art tutorial, – and this one is so easy that I’ve done all the ‘instructions’ by photographs, and just adding a note or two if I felt I needed to.
Remember … your own finished tag might look totally different to mine: you might not have butterflies in mind, but baking or tool sheds. You might want to do a tag about caravans or sewing, or fishing or cooking … or just about anything. It’s not the things I’m using or the colours or even the tag shape or size. This is more about how to pull a tag together. The steps. The ideas. Sort of like a flow chart.
If, after seeing the picture tutorial you feel that you want to make a tag with the same ‘feel’ or similar colours etc etc – then you can get your own stuff together and come back and look at the pictures again as you make your own tag if it helps you to put things in order. However – I’ll tell you the things I’ve used to make this tag, as we go along, so that if you want to make one like it, or like a particular colour or ‘thing’, then you’ll have the information to get that ‘thing’.
Shall we start? OH... and remember … it’s Tag Art – it’s not brain surgery. No one is going to test you on it, or even mark your results to see if you’ve passed the test. It’s just a bit of fun, . . . and you might make something you love so much that you’ll want to frame it and put it on your wall. Or make it the main attraction on the front of your next handmade card! (Who knows … you might end up being the next big mixed media artist of the art world!)
A NOTE ABOUT PINFLAIR GENTLE BLENDS: If you haven’t used Gentle Blends before – I can highly recommend them. But .. don’t ‘dab’ up too much paint as it goes a long way with just a little medium. The open pots (see the top right for an open one) have the medium in the base and a sponge on the top which soaks up the medium and that’s where you gently and sparinglydab your sponge to pick up the medium and put it on your project.
I coloured the whole of the tag in Teal. The little off white patches that you see on the tag are where the tag picked up some glue off my glass mat. Don’t worry about things like that – they kind of add to the charm of a tag.But .. if you hate it, then you could gently rub the area where the glue is with an emery board to remove the glue. Failing that .. stick something on top of the glue and hide it. No one will ever know it was there!
Another colour … blended in a sort of oval around but leaving the central part of the tag still teal.
More Gentle Blends: this time in ‘Denim’. It’s a lovely colour, and a little darker, and slightly warmer than the two other colours. The idea here (all the different colours) is that you’re drawing the eye into the centre. You’re giving the ‘view’ of looking into somewhere lovely … somewhere like … a woodland fairy glade.
Now remember … although I’ve embossed using a Sheena Douglass embossing folder (shown here with a bit of dark card inside it so that you can see the whole of the embossing ‘picture’ that’s available on this folder) – you might not have that particular folder, so use something which will ‘go’ with your own project. A tree. A fish. A window. Some flowers. Whatever you have, use that.
BUT.. if you don’t have an embossing machine then that’s fine too! You could use stickers. Add some stickers in the right places – but don’t go crazy with them. You don’t want to over-crowd your tag. Three/four/five stickers would probably be fine.
OR… if you don’t have stickers – then use pencil/pens/markers – and draw something which ‘goes’ with the theme of your tag.
Not too much warm brown … just enough. Don’t muddy the colours you’ve already got there.
Beverysparing with black on your tag (Unless your tag is a dark, deep looking tag which you’re going to put brighter colours on top of).
Black can turn a card into something way different from you started out making. So keep stopping and checking. Pick up your tag and hold it at arm’s length. Squint at it (half close your eyes) if it helps you to see it in a sort of ‘detached’ view.
A photo looking ‘across’ the tag so that you can see a little of the depth to the embossing.
But, I hear you ask… “What if I don’t have any gilding wax?” …
No problem. Find some paints or ink pads or even water-colour pencils – anything which will allow you to pick up colour on your finger – and put a tiny bit of either paint, or chosen colour of ink pad, or water-colour pencil (which you’ve added the water from a barely damp brush to), on a glass mat, or blending mat, or heat/glue resistant mat – … – and then using your ring finger (ring finger because it gives the lightest ‘tap’), tap a little of your coloured medium onto your finger and gently either dab or stroke it onto the tag where you want the colour to be.
‘Metal’ – I missed the word ‘metal’ from the above – it should have read ‘with a larger, vintage looking, metal butterfly’.
Another reminder: If you’re doing a tag about golf or fishing or baking or sewing or … well whatever your tag is themed around – then use the eyelet hole to attach a fishing rod; golf club (mini one not a big one silly! lol); rolling-pin or something bakery themed; sewing machine embellishment etc etc etc.
A close up of the key and the brad holding the key in place.
The two extra tags … I’d printed out some words which I die cut with a free set of three dies which I’d got with a magazine about a year or so ago. I die cut the words on the white paper, using the medium sized die; and then cut a tag in brown card using the largest die.
I blended some of the teal Pinflair Gentle Blends – this was from the teal remaining on the sponge (I didn’t add any extra), around the outside of the white tag and then glued the white tag to the larger brown.
I worked out where the hole for the brad and key had to go and once I’d ‘threaded’ the key onto the brad and pushed it through the star eyelet hole, I then popped the glued together tags onto the back and opened the ‘wings’ of the brad behind them so that everything was held together, but the tags were able to move freely and so could be opened and closed behind the big tag.
close up of the tags, so that you can read the words.
Almost finished! . . .
twit twoo!Finished!
I’ve taken this last photograph without the flash so that you could see the details all together ‘as one’.
If you saw it with the naked eye, it glints and twinkles and actually does have something magical about it, which kind of makes your eye dance across the tag from one place to another.
I so hope that these ‘pointers’ are helping anyone who has some doubts about making tag art. There really isn’t anything to it. You just have to remind yourself that it’s only a tag and if you make a mistake … it’s not a mistake. It’s a happy accident which happened because something is trying to tell you to use that ‘happy accident’ as a kind of road sign and telling you to go ‘this’ way.
Thank you so much for coming and for having a read. Take a look around while you’re here!
Have a truly fabulous rest of your day. Happy Crafting all!
In part three of this ongoing ‘explanation’ of Tag Art, I’m hoping to show you not to be discouraged by some of the fabulous pictures of Tag Art which you’ll find on the internet, particularly on Pinterest. The Tags I showed you last time (in part two) were simple enough to bring together without breaking out in a sweat or giving you the feeling that you could never achieve anything like the little flower tags which I produced last time. This tag, which you’ve had a glimpse of (above) is just as simple as the flower tags! There are just a few extra bits and pieces on it and a couple of ‘techniques’ which are so easy that I know a child could cope with them. Aw, enough talk, let’s get going shall we? ….
If you decide to create along with these photo’s then remember that the theme of your tag doesn’t have to be ‘Alice in Wonderland’, it could be any thing you want. Rabbits … Cats… Dogs… Travel … Balloons … even colours! But to start with you might find it easier to get the results you’re after if you start off with an idea or subject in mind where you can find up to roughly five or six different things about it which will pull the whole thing together and make the tag have some sort of ‘dialogue’. A kind of ‘story’. Things which relate to each other in some way.
I started with … a few tiny cards and some tags …
I’d had these little cards for a while, given to me by another crafter, but I’d never had a chance to use them. The Tag itself was from a pack of cheap tags which I’d bought on impulse for about 60p from The Works (UK cheapy book & stationery store). The tags were a little too thin individually, so in order to ensure that they would take the weight of some embellishments I glued three tags together with Collall glue – which I love for crafting as it dries quickly.
Three tags glued and ready … time to dress this tag up!
Let’s get our finger tips mucky!
Because I knew I wanted to have a gentle Steampunk look to the tag I ‘distressed’ the edges of the tag with some die from my quick drying ink pads. I started off with a warm, rich brown (which you can see in the photo above), and using a make up sponge (yes – just cheap make up sponges that you can buy in the £ shops – I just use them and throw them away), I fold over the sponge and dabbing it onto the ink pad to pick up some ink, then gently blend it around the edges of the Tag. At this point I should advise that the best place to do this blending is either on a blending mat (see mine in the photograph above) OR on a glass mat.
I know you can buy expensive glass mats for crafting (I even have one) but you don’t need to pay the prices that they charge for those. One of those glass kitchen chopping boards that they sell for just a few pounds work in exactly the same way.
After blending the brown, I then changed to a black ink pad and very lightly blended a narrow pale smudge of the black ink around the edges. It just gives it a depth.
Shall we stamp?
I’ve got an assortment of different stamps and chose one which said ‘Believe’, mounted it onto a rocker block (but a mount of your choice is fine) and using a cheap ‘Ink it Up’ embossing pad, I stamped the word out onto the Tag – but because I wanted a distressed look to the stamping I didn’t press too hard, so that the eventually embossed image would be a little bit patchy. I then chose a teal/navy type colour to emboss the word with, went to work with the heat gun!
Well would you Believe it!
… and this was the result. Because the word was a tiny bit patchy, I made sure that you could read what the word was by inking around the word using a very fine tipped Staedtler pen.
A close up so that you can see the pen lines.
Now at this point I’ll just interrupt proceedings to say … you should ‘tag’ your Tag Art just as a fine painter would sign his signature on an oil painting. You don’t want someone else telling folks that they’ve made that incredible tag when it was really your sweat and tears which made it, do you!
Here’s what I use to ‘tag’ my Tag Art:
Tag the Tag Art!
I bought this as an unmounted rubber stamp about six years ago – I think through Ebay. But you really don’t need a specialised stamp. You could either just sign your name on the reverse of your tag – or if you want a stamped image, there’s a plethora of general stamps which have a variety of different tag shapes – and you could choose one of those, which would give you the opportunity of naming your tag and signing it inside the frame of the stamped image, which would give it the importance it deserves!
You could, if you wanted, get a stamp made for yourself with your own design. (But check Ebay for cheaper alternatives!)
Right, we’ve glued, blended and generally got the tag all ready for some decorations. Let’s get going on those shall we?
My ‘theme’ for this tag was to be decided by those little playing cards.
I could have done a tag about magic tricks … perhaps some white gloves to go with the cards? … or hmm.. what ‘thing’ has playing cards featured in it? I wondered…. ahh… Alice in Wonderland! Ok.. I found my theme. What did Alice in W. have in the film? A mirror(both in AiW and in Alice through the Looking Glass) … Roses! – the song: “we’re painting the roses red …” … A bottle with a tag saying ‘Drink Me’! Ohhh… now we’re getting somewhere!
The Mad Hatter! The White Rabbit!
The ideas came thick and fast… I had to write them down because my memory is shot to pieces!
Ok … got the ideas.. now I had to come up with the goods from the stock I had in my craft room:
I’ll make the mirror … and the little bottle which Alice drinks from!
Initially I thought I would use a little glass bottle on the tag, to represent the bottle Alice drinks from, but I didn’t have a bottle small enough .. (well no, actually that’s not true. I do have some, I just couldn’t find the darn things!). I got out my cauldron melt-pot and some supplies:-Silicon moulds – one in the shape of a little bottle, and the other in the shape of a mirror. Pearl Ex Powders to give some gentle, shimmering colour to the mirror and bottle, (you can use general Mica powders if that’s what you personally use). Cosmic Shimmers Clear Ultra Thick embossing powder. Cosmic Shimmer Melt Pot Ink in red. And some Pearl Ultra Thick embossing powder. I set to work:
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Fillet of a Fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog . . . . “ etc etc etc (words courtesy of Shakespeare)
A peep into the Cauldron – I mean – the Melt Pot!
You know what the best thing is about the Melt Pot? If you ever don’t like what you’ve made you simply throw it back into the pot, melt it and start again!
See that little pink blob in the well at the wide end of the melt pot? It was a bottle which over-flowed the mould, so when it had cooled – just a minute or two – I put it back and did it again!
The cauldron has done its work. Aw, don’t you just love magic spells? (lol)
The little rose that you see in the photograph above was one which I made when I last had my melt pot out. I’d got some extra cream/white coloured liquid left so I used it up making a few flowers. Originally the Rose was actually this creamy white colour:
I should have taken a photograph of the rose(s) before I coloured them but got craft happy and totally forgot! tsk tsk! I used some Creative Expressions gilding wax on the roses and then brushed some lovely rose-red and warm rose-pink mica powders onto them to change them from their original creamy colour to the red. (sings:)“Painting the roses red, yes painting the roses red. Not pink Not green. Not aquamarine . . . ” etc etc etc
The Mad Hatter has visited and loaned me his hat!
Next was the Mad Hatters hat. Quite a distinctive hat. Now I’ve recently been bought a gift of a Tonic Die which cuts a Top Hat … so I was lucky with this. BUT … you don’t need to have a die which will cut a hat. The hat is a simple enough shape but if you’re not confident with drawing one then just find an image on the internet and print it out onto cheap printer paper and you can then just draw around it onto your black card stock and cut it out. Simples. I cut the matte black part of the hat above on my die cutting machine, and then I drew around the actual hat die itself onto some dark mirror board, (which I then cut out with scissors) so that I could sit (glue) the matte black top hat on top of it and give the top hat a bit of ‘life’, where the light caught on the edges of the mirror card.
10/6 ? – cheap at half the price!
I added a little dark ruby-red rayon seam binding (regular ribbon would work just as well), made the 10/6 price tag & added it to the hat band with a dab of glue.
The hat pin is made from the cut off end of a cocktail stick, which I coloured in silver paint, added a black round bead to the end and then tucked it behind the ribbon with a little glue to keep it in place. For a bit of twinkly sparkle, I added the ultra twinkling flat backed embellishment. But … although the hat looked the part, I felt it looked too ‘new’. It needed to look dusty or a bit old and shambles sort of thing … so in order to get a look of ‘dusty’ – I dribbled a very light line of white pva glue and sprinkled a little Flower Soft onto the glue and left it to dry. It was the nearest thing to dust that I could manage in a crafty way.
So .. We’ve now got the Mad Hatters Hat … but where should we put this? It’s big, so I want it to go in the right place – but I don’t want it to shout louder than the other things on the tag … so where shall I put it? How about here? … or Here? …
… or should I put it here? …
… or do I think this way looks right? Yup … The Mad Hatters Hat should be at the top there. (oh.. see what I mean about it looking too ‘new’ without the ‘dust’? This photo was taken before I’d added the The Flower Soft, which gave it that certain ‘thing’ which it was missing)
Yes … right there. That’s exactly where it should be!
SO: –– We’ve got the mini playing cards …. for the Queen of Hearts playing card soldiers …
mini playing cards
The Red Roses from the song: Painting the Roses Red …
“painting the roses red, we’re painting the roses red!”
… The little bottle with the tag on it saying: Drink Me! Which I made in the Melting Pot …
Drink Me … oh do Drink Me!
And … hmm… well I made a little hand mirror but somehow it doesn’t look right. It’s too showy. Too (almost) bossy. It’s trying to be the star of the show and that just isn’t right.No.I decided that the mirror just wasn’t right … so I had a bit of a search round the craft room and came up with the very thing which was missing ….
The White Rabbits Watch! I’m late, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late, I’m …. over-due, I’m in a rabbit stew ….” eeek!
Aw, of course! It was the White Rabbits fob watch which was missing!
I played around with things until I felt they were in their rightful places and then one at a time I fixed them into place. Some with good old PVA glue, others with foam pads, and the rest with my faithful friend: hot glue from my trusty glue gun.
The Alice Tag – May 2014
I added a aubergine coloured ribbon and VOILA! One almost Steampunk (but not quite), Alice in Wonderland Tag.
The Tag could now be used as a fancy gift tag on a gift to someone special. It could be framed in one of those box frames. Mounted to the front of a card and given for someone’s birthday. Put into a box just for you to look at. Put into an album or folder which you keep all your tags in. Or anything that your imagination can come up with. You could even sell it on Etsy; Ebay; Facebook; Craft Fair… or any other place which you might sell your art work.
Or you could do what I do … I have a huge clothes peg (the type you use to pin your clothes to the washing line, but huge) – which is meant as a memo holder or photograph holder. I use two of them in my craft room and pin bits of artwork to them. I use one of them to pin the latest bit of something which I’ve just made, and that way I get a moving bit of artwork which never stands still!
This is it, pinched in the pincers of the peg … on my craft desk. (yes that’s all my junk specialist, important equipment behind it which I’ve blurred out so that you can see the tag rather than the junk gorgeous, crafting stash stuff.)
Alice in a Tag made by Cobwebs
And ..shall I tell you a secret? … This tag was made totally from stash in my craft room that I already had. Most of it I’d had for ages. The newest thing (apart from the Tonic Die I used – which was a gift) has to be that little fob watch. I’ve had that about nine months (roughly). It was a cheap and cheerful pack of four different watches for 99p. See … you really don’t have to go to any big expense to make Tag Art. They pretty much make themselves!
Well, there endeth Part 3 of‘Tag Art – right from the beginning’. I hope you’re not asleep across your keyboard! But if you are ….
WAKE UP AND GO AND CRAFT SOMETHING!
Tsk tsk … can’t have you sleeping when you could be crafting, now, can we?
Thanks for taking the time to come, visit and have a read. Have a really great rest of your day. ~
P.S.Don’t forget to leave me a comment. Let me know if you have a go at making a tag, or, if you have any questions at all, please ask away! I’m not one of those crafters who won’t share information. I’m more than happy to help other folks with their craft projects.
Let’s pretendthat you’ve never done anything other than written on a tag and added it to the gift you’re giving to someone. If you’ve read the post about ‘Rules of Tag Art’ and ‘Starting at the very Beginning’ (below) then you’ll know that there are actually no rules to Tag Art. But, that being said, it can be a bit daunting if you’ve seen some of the fabulous bits of Tag Art that are knocking around the internet – or on Pinterest! Now I’m not here to daunt anyone, I’m hoping to perhaps get one or two folks making their own types of Tag Art, so I thought I’d start with something which isn’t at all daunting.
A small tag, on which I used some coloured pens and a crocheted flower! The plant pot with the stalk and leaves growing out of it are drawn onto a small flower shaped (or scalloped) tag with coloured pens, using my left hand, (I’m right-handed but my right wrist and hand is out of [proper] action at the moment as I have tendonitis and can’t hold a pen properly) and I simply added that crocheted flower by gluing it onto the tag at the end of the stalk.
Ok … I can see you aren’t daunted– so let’s take it a bit further …
A new tag, this time with a blue flower, but I’ve added a bumble bee bzzzzzzing his way to his date with some pollen! We could leave it right there and simply add the tag to a scrapbook or maybe to the front of a handmade card. Or … we could do something on that other little tag that you can see peeping out at the top of the photo …
Awww … he’s brought a couple of friends to join him for a spot of pollen collection! … they’re a little late and they’re on another tag, …. but hey, that’s Sat Nav’s for you, and … besides, better late than never, eh?!
These two tags, teamed together, ‘speak’ to each other,and to the person looking at them. They kind of make you smile a little, don’t they.
You could use these in a scrapbookas part of the page – maybe a photograph of a picnic and these would fit the story being told in the photo. Or you could use these on the front of a card – or even inside a card as a surprise. You could pop these into your childs lunchbox so that they get a surprise at lunchtime when they’re at school, and get a little love with a message written on the back of them. There are a million and one things you can do with Tag Art. You’re only limited by your imagination.
This tag … is destined for a gift. It’s going to a young lady who lives in Birmingham (England), and I’m pretty sure that when she receives it, it won’t be thrown away like the normal gift tags, but it will be removed from her package and put to use in some other way. Maybe in one of her scrapbooks. Maybe even popped into a box frame and used as a bit of wall art. See .. that’s the thing with Tag Art; It’s so fabulously versatile. And so fabulously fantastic too – both to make and to receive!
So … how about you make yourself a little Tag Art. I dares ya!
p.s. … I’m right handed, but both these tags were drawn/made with my left hand because of Tendonitis in my right hand and fingers, so please forgive any ‘artistic license’ x
… uhmm . . . wasn’t there a song that started like that?
Ohhh, yes I remember it . . . from the Sound of Music: [sings] … “Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. When you read you begin with ABC . . .” … . . . and when you want to know about Tag Art – then here’s as good a place as any to start! 🙂
Originally, when I added this category to my blog I did so with the idea of just posting various bits of Tag Art that I’d done myself … that was until someone asked me ‘What actually is Tag Art?’. Until that moment I’d not given Tag Art that kind of thought. I just took it for granted that Tag Art was, well, .. ‘Tag Art’. But, after asking around a few folks, I soon realised that my friend wasn’t the only person who didn’t know what Tag Art was. So with that in mind I thought I’d start right at the very beginning and open this category with an explanation about art which is all done on a Tag!
♥ Tag Art♥
Size… doesn’t matter diddly squat. You can make a tag as small as you like or as big as you can handle.
Shape… can be anything from a triangle ∇ to a flower ∗. You could have a tag in the shape of a heart ♥ or an arrow ⇒, or maybe a diamond ♦. Basically you can have any shape of tag that you want.
Decoration … can be anything you want. You can draw, paint, glue, stamp, print, die cut, or emboss, and your embellishments can be made from tissue paper through to metal or even pasta! (but dried pasta would be better than cooked or fresh. lol)
What’s it for? … ah … well you can make Tag Art and keep it in a box just for you to look at. Or you can put it in a scrapbook as an embellishment on a page. Or perhaps even make several Tags with art on them which kind of speak to each other, maybe a theme or particular colour – and then make a (scrap)book out of them themselves. Or you can use them on presents and gifts to others, by adding their name to the tag either in the design, or on the back, or even on another tag. The choice of what you ‘use’ it for is totally up to you! You’re the artist so the art is yours … unless you sell it or give it away obviously!
Summing up … there are no rules. Tag Art is something which you find pleasing and pleasurable to make or do. It’s art on a small scale, so it doesn’t feel quite so daunting, and because it’s ‘only a tag’ if you make a mistake or mess up, or even knock your cup of coffee over it, then you aren’t going to be totally devastated.
Right … now you know that there are no rules and that you can do anything you want to a tag without the Art Police coming round and removing your crayons .. . let’s start making art, shall we?
![A special Thank You [Tag] Card](https://thecobweboriumemporium.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/1-admit-one-to-wonderland.jpg?w=370)
The Art of Cobwebs 