Book Page Tags

 

At Tag Tuesday, Sandie is hosting the current challenge and she wants us to create tags by using book pages or sections of them.

What a fun challenge! For my first tag (above) I took a page with a picture from a travel guide about Egypt and attached it to a tag cut from cardstock. I stencilled with gold acrylic on top of it and added a scripted tape vertically on the left side. The woman's head was cut from another book page, covered with oil pastels and attached to the tags. I stamped the three words and edged them with oil pastels (as well as the edge of the tag). They are glued to the tag with pop dots. (stencil by Stencil Girl, stamps by Technique Tuesday).

My second tag - which was actually made first - is this one:

The background comes from the German book on which I took the photo of the tag (above). I gave it an aged look with "vintage photo" distress ink (Ranger), then stamped the tree over it several times with two different colors. The lady and the branch are cut from an old Grimm's Fairy Tales book and colored with color pencils. I found the word "enchanted" in the same book. The tree (Hampton Art) was stamped and adhered with pop dots (I'm really trying to get rid of my old stuff).

On a side note, I have started to use handmade tags for my short personal notes that I include with every purchase from my Etsy shop. Since everything in my shop is handmade, it's only fitting that I include a handwritten note on something that has been handmade by me. Here are the first few tags I made:

I quickly ran out of eight tags. What was I thinking? So I got to work, creating several sets of tags. I spread out several of them next to each other on a big sheet of paper and sprayed them, always in groups of eight. After they were dry, I stamped and stencilled them. I have enough ribbon and leftover yarn to give them the final touch.

Yesterday I finished a set of 12 since I'm almost run out of tags. This time I skipped the stencilling and only stamped while the tags were still spread out next to each other. It was a lot of fun. When we get closer to Christmas shopping, I will enclose Christmas tags I already made.

T Stands for Tag

 

The lovely Valerie is hosting the current challenge over at Tag Tuesday, and her theme is recycle and re-use. It took me a while to get my creative juices flowing on this one which is not because of the theme but because I was pre-occupied with other things, mainly with the beginning of the school year at the German School. The last time I was standing in a classroom is 18 months ago and I was quite nervous before the first day (which was last Saturday). I really needn't be - it was wonderful to be teaching in the classroom again, to see my students and talk with them in person. There was a completely different energy in the classroom that simply beats online teaching. I have a big class this semester, all returning students, some of whom had been in my class several years ago and decided to come back.

But back to the tag - this is what I created:

I cut a tag shape from a Kleenex tissue box and tried to "distress" it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink, only to discover that the surface is too smooth for the ink to stick on it. So I covered the tag with clear gesso to give it more tooth and then roughly painted it with bright aqua green and light blue permanent acrylic paint (Liquitex). I stamped the cabins and the lovely bathing lady (Crafty Individuals) onto watercolor paper and filled them with color using my Winsor and Newton travel watercolor set. The net you can see in the lower part of the tag is from a bag that once held Dutch baby potatoes. After gluing down the cabins and the lady on top of it I attached the piece of driftwood and the shells I had found on the beach several years ago. Lastly, I took some leftover yarn from a couple knitting projects and tied them to the tag. Done.

Yes, I know, since this is Elizabeth's T for Tuesday you want to see a drink. After last week's pineapple-hibiscus cooler I thought I kind of stay with the theme, but add some alcohol to it - here is a hibiscus bellini, that I had in a seafood restaurant in Eureka on our way back from Oregon two months ago. It was delicious, albeit a little bit too sweet.

I love my Tuesdays with the T-gang! You can find them here.

T Tuesday with Tags

 

Through Valerie's beautiful blog I became aware of Tag Tuesday and decided on a whim to participate in the current challenge - the theme is "shells". I love shells, driftwood and all the other things you can find on a beach.

It's been a long time since I joined a tag challenge. I did it several times back in 2010, but since then, I have hardly made any tags at all. I felt a bit rusty, to be honest. Fortunately I found a few old tags where I had already created the background (probably years ago) and used them as a start.

This tag already had a painted background and the torn piece of a page from a French book. After that I had abandoned this tag, waiting patiently for this challenge, I assume. I used mainly stamps for this project - the water plant, the seastars and the big seashell. The sea horse epoxy sticker was hiding in my box of random supplies that I had bought over the years. (Water plant and shell stamps are by Stampington, seastar stamp is by denami design) 

The second tag had a sprayed blue background.

I had wanted to use the stamp of the little girl collecting sea shells for a long time and only used it once to make an ATC. This time I stamped it on watercolor paper and painted it with Derwent Inktense pens which I then washed out with water. I bought these pens seven years ago (!) at the National Gallery in London and have hardly used them. But now I totally fell in love with the rich and brilliant colors. Shells were stamped on a left-over piece of scrapbook paper and I stencilled the top. (Girl stamp by Stamps Happen, shells by PSX; stencil by Stencil Girl)

And since I was on a roll I made a third tag that already had a painted background. 

I just added a couple stamps, some Stickles (I had to get that flowing since it was kind of dried up in the bottle because I hadn't used it in years), a little shell and some final touches using a stencil. This is actually my favorite of the three tags. (Scripted shell stamp by Club Scrap; I don't know who made the swirly stamp, I found it at a Goodwill and it's just mounted on a blank wood block; stencil by The Crafters Workshop)

I drank coffee while I was working on these tags - I love to drink it out of this mug which is one of my favorites. This is for T day!

I'm sharing with Tag Tuesday and Altered Book Lover.

A Winter Tag

The theme of Tag Tuesday at Louise's Kard Krazy is "winter" this week.

I sprayed the tag with Glimmer Mist in patina, them stamped the snowman head (Inkadinkado) using Stazon timer brown. Laying a mask of the snowman on the tag I stamped the top of the trees (Northwood Rubber Stamps) with Distress Ink in peeled paint. Using Distress Inks wild honey and shabby shutters I added more color to the tag. Finally I stenciled snowflakes with Distress Ink faded jeans randomly over the tag. Removed the mask, added some ribbon - done. Fast and easy.

Two Tuesday Challenges

Over at Kard Krazy the challenge for this week is to create just the background of a tag because often a background is beautiful in itself. So true. I've chosen a snowy background - I'm really getting in the Christmas groove. I guess it's about time.

I put snowflake templates on the tag and then sprayed it with Glimmer Mist in frost, then stamped a snowflake (Paper Candy) in silver metallic randomly all over. As a finish I added a white snowflake embellishment that I tied to the ribbon.

Tuesday Taggers wanted to see the word Love, Peace or Joy on our creation. Here is my little ornament - gessoed first, than painted with garnet metallic acrylic paint. The angel (Tin Can Mail) is stamped on a piece of cardstock that I distressed (mustard seed, tattered rose) and colored a little bit. Some patterned paper glued to the star, topped with the angel panel, the letters for the word "joy" and a poinsettia.

This is my 100th post!

Two Challenges

It seems I'm back to some of the blog challenges!

First, Kard Krazy's Tag Tuesday - this week's theme is "Front and Back". 

Here's the front of my tag:

All the stamps used on this tag are by Artistic Outpost, "The Outpost" and "A lovely day".

Tag was sprayed with Glimmer Mist (sunflower and oriental poppy) and stamped with Distress inks (spiced marmalade, barn door, mustard seed, fired brick) and Stazon (timber brown). The punched out maple leaves were stamped with the tree, using Distress inks.

This is the back:

It was fun to work on both sides of the tag, and I still am not sure which side I like better.

I think that tree looks really good.

On to Tuesday Taggers, theme "Taste of the Orient". I decided to make a Chinese card:

If you go to Kard Krazy and Tuesday Taggers you can see way more fantastic pieces of art.

Coffin Tag

It's been some time since I participated in any challenges. But when Louise at Kard Krazy's newest Tag Tuesday challenge was "black and orange" I knew that I had to make a tag. I got the idea for the shape from Lou and Mel at Scrap-ology.

I had so much fun with this tag that I decided to make more and give them to my guests at our upcoming Halloween party. Here's an entire coffin full of bats and skulls.

Stamps are by Inkadinkado  (skull) and Zimprints (bat).

Pumpkins on a Tag

Louise's Tag Tuesday challenge on her blog Kard Krazy asked for pumpkins this week. How appropriate for this time of year. Here's  my tag:

Stamps used are by Inkadinkado, PSX and Hero Arts

Quite simple... and if you count, you find eight pumpkins on that tag!

First Day of my Favorite Month

As I mentioned yesterday, October is my favorite month. Temperatures are cooler, but still very comfortable during the day. The nights are crisp, the mornings often quite cool. The light gets softer and the colors bolder. Warm, earthy colors - my favorite colors that I love to work with and also love to wear.

That's probably why my tag for Kard Krazy's Tag Tuesday challenge is all in these fall colors. The challenge was to include some kind of calendar or at least something with a date. I included one of those little calendars in credit card size , used different papers and some stamps with lots of Distress Inks - and I was done. When the tag was finished I thought that it is also perfect for the Geek's birthday, which is today!

Stamps by Hampton Art and Kelly Panacci/Sandylion

Today is also the first day of the month-long online photography class by Tracey Clark and Big Picture Classes, Picture Fall. It looks like it's going to be a great class and I'm really excited about it. October is such a wonderful month for taking pictures!

Tuesday Challenges on Friday

The Tuesday challenges are still pretty new to me. They tend to turn into end-of-the-week challenges because I never succeed in finishing anything before Thursday. I have no clue how the other artists create all these wonderful tags and cards in such little time. I am a little bit envious... but I also like the process, and that just takes time.

So, the first challenge is for Tuesday Taggers. This week's theme is "It takes all sorts".

This project shows what I really like to do - use my photos to create cards. It is so much fun, the possibilities are endless and I just love to play around and see what I can create. I love to surround my photos with some artsy stuff.

The second challenge is for Tag Tuesday at Kard Krazy. The theme is "Banners". This is what I came up with:

Funny that both challenges resulted in an ocean theme for me. I do love the ocean, so it seems only right.

If you want to see the fantastic projects of the other wonderful artists, just stop by Tuesday Taggers and Kard Krazy.

Another Tag Challenge

I do love tag challenges - tags are so much fun to experiment and play around with. Louise's Tag Tuesday Weekly Challenge on her blog Kard Krazy features a different theme every week. This week's challenge is "school days". You can hop over to her blog to see more beautiful tags.

Tag Tuesday - Butterflies

I was looking for a new crafty challenge in blogworld, and finally found Louise's Tag Tuesday Weekly Challenges on her blog Kard Krazy. I've been rather late, but it seems to fit.

This week's theme is "butterflies". I sprayed a tag with Glimmer Mist while masking some butterflies that I had punched out. Three of those butterflies I also sprayed with Glimmer Mist, adhered them to the tag when they had dried and bend their wings to give them a 3-D look.