Spring Tag

It is Cec here and today I am bringing you a spring tag that I created.

I am very, very fortunate that my husband has a laser cutter in the basement (it was his retirement present to himself) so he can cut me pretty well anything I want.  I don't like that normal manilla tags warp when you add lots of wet media so I got him to cut me a 4" x 8" tag from mat board.  The first thing I did to it was give it a border with Hot Cocoa Acrylic Paint because I intended to add a second layer.

I also had my husband cut a second tag from heavy card stock that was 1/4" smaller all the way around to use as a second layer.  I used some texture paste and the IndigoBlu Texture stencil to add some dimension.

Next I used some Slap it On Matte to add a few clusters of seed beads that I picked up from the dollar store.

I used some Martha Stewart Crafter's Clay and a Prima Mold to make a florish.  When it was dry I cut it in half and added it to my top layer using Super Thick Slap it On to ensure that it would not fall off.

I added a coat of Gee-Sso Good White gesso over the top of this layer and then sponged on Townhouse Teal, Coastal Walk and Hot Cocoa Acrylic Paint.  it was brighter than I wanted so I sponged a bit of the gesso on over the paint to knock it back a bit.

Then I decided to add a few spray inks - Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs and Lindy's Frozen Jack Frost but it didn't turn out as I expected.  I have a love/hate relationship with spray bottles and usually they won't spray when I want them to but this time the Tim Holtz bottle sprayed way too much.  I grumbled a bit and then started sponging the paint colours back over all the brown.  I also stamped some script from the IndigoBlu Tasty Textures set with some Coffee Archival Ink.

Next I used the Coffee Archival Ink to stamp a couple of flowers from the Live, Laugh, Love set on pale yellow card stock, fussy cut them and shaped them with a large embossing tool.  I used a sponge to add some gesso to the edges of the flowers and then mounted one on top of the other.

I also used a punch from EK Success to punch a bunch of little flowers from some of the 12" x 12" Damaged Dots paper.  I went back and cut a batch of even smaller flowers just to mix things up a bit.  Then I shaped them and added a bit of gesso to the edges.  When you see these little flowers on the finished tag take note of how well the blue and teal paints match the Damaged Dots paper.

To finish the tag, I added some twine at the top and pearl stickers to the centre of all the smaller flowers.  I watered down some of the gesso and flicked it on with an old brush.  Then I thought it needed something else and my husband actually suggested the feathers.  Usually he just rolls his eyes and shrugs his shoulders when I ask for his opinion so needless to say, I was happy that he had something to say this time.

I love this tag and hope I have inspired you to dig out your papers and paints and create.  Happy Spring!