Inky Messy Tags

Hello there!

Blimey, where has this last week gone? I can't believe it has whizzed past so quickly! I have had a really busy week - working on late shift and on Tuesday we went to Anfield to watch Luton getting thrashed by the likes of Steven Gerrard :Oo Then yesterday I was at the Make It show at Farnborough all day. I had the best time! I did a few demo's for The Artistic Stamper and really loved every minute...what a fab excuse to play with loads of heavenly stash and get really inky in the process! I also met up with some friends, old and new, which was great too :O))

So, today, I have had a little bit of time to myself so have made the three tags for the swap I host each month. This month the theme is "Tim Holtz". Well, I thought we could kick the new year properly and include our hero! The basis of the swap is to make some tags that are all 3x6" in size. They have to be inky and messy and this month had to show some of the stamps from the Tim Holtz Range.

Well, what a wonderful way to spend the day :O)) I have really gone to town with these tags and I really hope that the swappee's who receive one will be happy with what I have done.

I started off by making some tags to the right size and then using my QK Revolution to die cut some little circles which once stuck to the tag offer a "ring support"...IYKWIM!!

TAG #1
FRONT



This tag is coloured using Re-Inkers which I have spotted onto a craft mat. I used Antique Linen, Fired Brick, Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo colours. Once I had dabbed them onto the mat, I spritzed with Glimmer Mists Gold and a little water to help them run. I then patted the tag into the inky mixture and dried it with a heat gun, I repeated this process until I was happy with the look of the inkyness.
As I decided to use Stampbord Domino shapes on the tags, I used the rest of the inky mixture and splodged the stampbord into it, drying with my heat gun again.
I then painted some Cracklepaint in Walnut Stain onto the tag and the stampbord piece and set them aside to dry.
Whilst the paint was drying I used the punched out frames of Grungeboard I have already used up and made the "frame" as a template onto some un-cut Grungeboard. I simply drew inside the shape and then cut it with scissors. I have used up all my favourite shapes so the un-cut is ideal for me as I can just keep cutting the favourites out :O)) For this tag I cut out a small folk heart, a little crown and a small skull. I painted all of these with either Cracklepaint of Acrylic Dabbers and set these aside to dry too.
Once it was all dry, I used some Tim stamps onto the tag and then distressed the edges with a paper distresser. I lightly painted some colourwash Gold paint onto the crackles just to add a little definition. I edged the tag using Gold Krylon pen and found some old plastic buttons which were going to make "eyes" and coloured with the Krylon too. I used a Jnr Dymo to make the words and cut them with a fishtail and added a gold brad for embellishment.

Tag #1
Back

Finally, I was ready to assemble to skull shape, so I roughed up the edge with sandpaper and then stuck the eyes on. I used some really tiny metal bead chain and wrapped this around the skull, securing with silicone glue on the back.
The stampbord piece has been used on the back of the tag, stamping most of the "sentiment" onto it and then layering it over the same sentiment stamped directly onto the tag.

Time is not on my side again at the moment, so I will leave this as it is and then hopefully tomorrow I will be able to add the next tags!

Thanks for looking....

Hugs Hels x