Carol Quance Tag Book Part 2 ....

"Welcome back to part two of my Tag book, tonight we are going to explore the tags inside".

The Tags

I calculated the size of the book’s spine to take size 10 tags as well as the Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplate Die where I used patterned paper. The papers I’ve used throughout are PaperArtsyThorndon Hall Papers.  They are a lovely weight, double sided and all match beautifully.

Tag 1 – Take Another Look

I cut a piece of Thorndon Hall, and some matching strips from the TH Vintage Lace decorative strip die. 

The stamp I used is from ID08EZ, Vintage Ink and the Dog.  To embellished the tag, I used some plain wooden Artemio buttons which I painted them with Fresco Pansy and Very Berry added.  

I embossed with gold UTEE and tied some told thread through the middle.  The whole tag was edged with UTEE and finally I used some matching fibres from my stash. Just by chance the tag fell on one of the Tim Holtz Pediments that I had cut out for another project.  I liked the effect so added it to the tag!  

Tag 2 -  Life is Beautiful

For this one I used a plain size 10 tag and coloured it with Fresco VeryBerry and Pansy. I then stamped it with Mini No 4 in  Adirondack Egg Plant .

I made a rosette from a Tim Holtz die and swiped the edges with Distress Ink Vintage Photo. I painted a wooden Artemio button again as previously and embossed with gold UTEE.  The stamp is from ID07EZ Vintage Ink and the Dog. 

I completely forgot to take any more pics after this point – sorry! I used some markers to colour her face to create some shading. The image was mounted on black card to frame it.  I  used an Artemio Wooden Frame, painted it with Stone and stamped it with Mini62 in black. 

The word tag is an ancient piece from my stash and was edged with gold leaf paint. The whole tag was edged with UTEE and a added a piece of matching velvet ribbon round the bottom. 

Tag 3 – Hope

Another plain size 10 tag and I used these colours. 

I wanted to use one of the stamps from LPCO12. I cut a mask of the outline of the stamp and placed it on the tag where I thought it should be.

I then laid the Mini Ledger Stencil over the mask, put Grunge Paste through and let it dry. For me, I have found that the best way to apply Grunge Paste is to load the underside of my little trowel rather than putting it on the top.  See what you think….. 

  

Next apply the paint.  Sometimes I use a brush, sometimes a piece of cut and dry foam.  I just keep dabbing around until I see a finished effect that I can work with.  Definitely no special techniques involved.

  I also added some Onyxite Treasure Gold to highlight in places. 

I stamped and coloured the image and added some bling at the bottom of the fringe.  It suddenly occurred to me that the stamped image would look good with some ruffled ribbon added. 

I did this by adding a piece of double sided sticky tape and then carefully creating folds (I used a pair of tweezers to help me). I was pleased with the dimensional  effect. 

At the top of the image I added a Translucent Shrink Plastic Tim Holtz Pediments Die. Once the shrink plastic was cut, I painted it with Very Berry. I actually dried the paint with a heat gun without managing to shrink the plastic! It was then stamped with Mini 62 and then I shrank it.  It was edged with gold leaf paint.

As you can see I added more decorated buttons to continue the theme and I stuck these to some lace from the stash.  The sentiment was rubbed onto a piece of plain card painted with Fresco Stone.  

Tag 4 – Dream

Thorndon Hall paper used again for this tag. 

I used an image from LPC010 and coloured it carefully with my pens as previously. 

I did use a light wash of Fresco Very Berry round the frame of the pic.  Although it’s opaque, if you really water it down, you can get away with not losing your image. 

Because the image was a “fussy” edged one, as well as stamping a separate image to colour, I also stamped it on the tag itself so that any parts of the image that were lost when I cut out the separate image would show again once added to the tag. 

I wanted to use “Dream” but stamping it on card lost too much of the main image so I stamped it on a piece of plasma left over from some packaging.  I sandwiched it between 2 Artemio Wood Frames to raise it from the tag slightly as it made it more visible to the eye.

 

{A tip:  this might sound obvious but when trying to layer up something that has a clear or white edge, put it against a black background and it’s much easier to eye ball an accurate placement.  When glueing the word Dream to the frame it was also more accurate to take the frame to the word rather than try to glue the word to the back of the  frame}. 

 

Finally, I added some dew drops round the frame to embellish, added some Tim Holtz Vintage Lace decorative strip and a painted Tim Holtz Pediments Die painted in Fresco Pansy and stamped with the script stamp from ID08EZ. 

Tag 5 – Experimental Texture Tags

I used size 2,3 and 10 tags here. The size 10 tag was embossed and painted with Very Berry and London Night 

The size 3 tag was embossed and painted with Pansy.

The size 2 was painted with FrescoEggplant, a layer of Fresco Crackle Glaze added and then finally a layer of Fresco Nougat (Leandra has a great video on YouTube with the Crackle Glaze). 

The next stage was just pure experimentation with Treasure Gold.  I’ve only just recently had a chance to use this and it’s definitely a case of less is more (yet again another good You Tube video).  I did find the once I’d tapped the brush on the Treasure Gold, it was a good idea to brush any excess off on a paper towel before applying to the tags. You can see the sheen here.

The final stage was to apply EggPlant Distress Ink round the edges of all 3 and add an edging of UTEE as well as gently swiping across all 3 tags with Versamark to which I added some highlights of gold UTEE again.

Although you might think the tags are quite heavy with embellishments at the bottom, the apertures on the spine of the book are wide enough to accommodate them.

Hope you’ve been inspired by my tag book.  It evolved into something completely different from the original idea. I would love to see what you come up with, to join in simply click HERE to share your artwork with us.


Leandra Says: Fantastic idea Carol, these flag-style books are a great reference tool for techniques, and you have provided loads of inspiration with all those brilliant tags!! Oh I don't know what i want to try first!!

Gillian Says: Ooo this was fab seeing all the step by step pics, loving all the tags, so hard to choose a fav. The finished book is beautiful Carol.