September's Tag of the Month...

was a tough one for me.  It was Roxanne's turn to choose our challenge in our little "tag exchange" group which was, use a recycled item.  I thought it was going to be easy, I came up with a great idea.  But, it was one of those ideas that sound cool, but once I started making them nothing worked out the way I thought it would.  I should have quit when the lid from my bottle of diamond glaze split open when I was squeezing it and I had the stuff everywhere!  So I trashed that batch, and ended up with this:

I used an old book and cut out a lot of tags with Tim Holtz's tag die.  I put his mini butterflies mover and shapers die inside the tag.  I stamped on the top tag with Pink Paislee and Tim Holtz stamps. Using acrylic from packaging, I cut out a tag and then used rub-ons on the area where the butterflies were cut out. After stacking all the layers of tags with the acrylic one in the middle, I drilled holes in the four corners.  I then used nylon screws (colored with alcohol ink) to secure them together. Taking a bunch of the butterflies that were left from the tag cutouts, I stamped the top one with versamark ink, embossed it with clear powder, inked with Forest Moss distress ink and stapled them together.  I glued it on the tag, and finished it off with Forest Moss Distress stain, seam binding and tulle.  In this next photo you can see how many layers of paper I used (about 1/4 thick).

I haven't been working on any layouts lately, I've been having fun playing with stamps!  I signed up for Jennifer Mcguire's online class "Inspiration Showcase".  I'm lovin' this class! Lots of inspiration, tips and techniques, great videos and Jennifer is a great instructor.  If she offers this class again, I would highly recommend it.  This is what I've done so far:























Each tag is a different technique, and there will be five rows when I'm done.  Her samples are heart shaped but I decided to do tag shapes and I had this wood "canvas" so I decided to use it instead of a white canvas.  I put a light white wash over it, but I think I might put another one on before I adhere all the tags.  I haven't decided if I'm going to put a hole and ribbon in the tops of the tags.  What do you think?  I think it's a great idea to put all these techniques on a canvas, so I can just look at it on the wall for inspiration and so I can remember what the heck I did!  Well, I'm off to finish another row...
Have a great week!

3 comments

Courtney said...

I love that you chose to make a tag shape rather than a heart. Much more applicable. You can really see the technique this way.

Jody said...

Jan! Your tag is beautiful! You put some much effort, time, planning and thinking into all that you do crafty! How do you do it every single time! It is gorgeous...makes me want to stamp and create with all the Tim Holtz stuff sitting around my scrap room! Hope all is well at your end! Miss you guys!

Petra said...

Such a beautiful project and thanks for all the information. Have to try this myself soon!

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