Making Textured Tags

 

What is a textured tag, you might ask. Think layers. Layers of various types. Creative Crafty Friends on Facebook is hosting a swap this month where we make a textured tag to send to another member. In return someone else will send me a tag they made. I thought 'tags' - I have tags, I can totally do this swap! Hahaha! So I signed right up! 

I figured as long as I was making a tag I should make one for myself as well. I expect to use it in my daily journal one day. I used Tim Holtz' distress ink pads and a blending tool to rub all this beautiful color onto the tags. The underneath paper is my working trash page. Now you see how I get all the pretty color on my trash paper. Hahahaha! I don't know if it absolutely necessary but I heat set the color on both tags using my heat gun. 

And I started thinking about what layers I could use to add texture. My first layer of texture was the color. And I have a whole bag full of little bits and pieces of scraps from various colorful projects. That is where I turned to for my next layer.

And remember I was making a tag to swap and a tag to keep. I pulled out a nice selection for each tag, knowing I would only use a few pieces on each. A girl has to have some marvelous color to pick from! 

Here are the scraps I chose to use. I see a gelli print scrap, an alcohol ink scrap, some watercolored text from a book, a bit of rickrack someone sent me last week and a scrap from an old tangled piece of artwork. Mostly I used my little craft sewing machine to add the elements, and to add another layer of texture. I told someone in my group - my sewing machine has a mind of its own and sews where it wants to and what speed it wants to. Hahahaha! Glad I am not getting a grade on this project! And I used black Archival ink to go around the edges adding some grunge. And . . . another layer of stuff. 

I had this wonderful set from Stamperia of Alice in Wonderland chipboard elements I thought would go great on this tag. For the swap. People in Creative Crafty Friends seem to love Alice, so it was a stroke of genius! Hahahaha! Here I was looking at placement of elements and which pieces I wanted to use. This was a big set. 

I know you can't see a huge difference. Here is my completed tag for the swap. I used strips of double sided tape called Sticky Stuff to adhere the pieces in place. If you have ever used Scor Tape, sticky stuff is basically the same thing. Except you get twice as much on a roll for half the price. Barb sells it at Joggles.  I have this tag all ready to ship off as soon as they tell me who to mail it to. 

And this is the tag I made to keep. I love these Santoro girls. Joggles got a killer deal on them a few years back and I bought a load of Santoro. Been waiting for a time to use this girl and the little bird. I love how this tag looks finished. It has one of my very first alcohol ink pieces and I tried not to cover up all that beautiful background color. Textured tags are fun and easy to make. Just use your leftover bits and pieces. Now I need to make the perfect daily journal page and stick this on the page to last forever! 

Interested in Creative Crafty Friends? Just click the link and answer the questions. It is a great group and you are sure to make friends there. And if you make a textured tag I would love to see it!