I was surfing the net looking at other people's tags – really talented people – and some of their tags were truly spectacular!  There was soooo much "stuff" on them but they didn't look cluttered at all!  I was so inspired that I had to run and make one!  Of course, mine doesn't look like theirs – but maybe someday!!  So, I used my second-to-last pre-made flower.  I have been saving these forever because they're too beautiful to use!  I think I'm a little bit of a hoarder!  Some days, my challenge is to use "stuff" I have in my Craft Room.  Again, I forgot to take a photo of the background before I started!   (I made a few backgrounds yesterday and photographed them for next time!) I started with a basic manila tag (again!) and embossed it with "my boyfriend," T!m's Eiffel Tower Embossing Folder.  I applied several different color Distress Inks – Weathered Wood, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo and Old Paper.  I spritz and reapplied and then spritzed again.  Put a few water droplets on and heat set.  Then, I stamped the greeting on Very Vanilla Cardstock.  I really like this greeting.  I had a friend who was asked if she could be anyone in the world, who would she choose.  Her answer was: "A better version of myself."  I thought that was such a great response!  I look at young women today and they just have no idea how fabulous they are until they're 40!  As I get older, I realize we need to be kinder to ourselves.  I recently started doing Yoga.  (Like REMEDIAL Yoga!) They're all about you being positive in your own mind.  My "Yogi" says I should talk to myself as if I were speaking to one of my children.  I am so crazy about those kids that that suggestion seems funny to me because I am WAY nicer to everyone than I am to myself!  So – I'm trying to stop "negative self talk" and I hope you will too!  So – I chose this sentiment because it's a positive one and I wanted to share it!

Okay – enough of the therapy session and on to the tag!  I stamped the greeting in Vintage Paper Ink and then sponged some of the same colors onto the piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock. I applied a couple of rub ons and the little mini photo which a bubble over it. (Love that!)  The tulle peeking out from behind it is a scrap from forever ago!  It's difficult to make something look as if it is randomly placed! LOL!

I think the flower is a Prima but I'm not sure becaue the package is long gone!  I just LOVE it!  I cut some leaves from Old Olive Cardstock and sponged them with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink.

The "medallion" was aged using Distress Paints – Broken China – Shabby Shutters – Rusty Hinge. It was backed with a little scallop of Gold Glimmer Paper.
Enough just didn't seem to be enough and the bottom corner was looking a little lonely so I tied a double bow using Very Vanilla Seam Binding and an Antique Brad.  I still don't know if I should have dyed this ribbon. Believe it or not,  I didn't want to go WAY over the top.  What do you think????  The metal corners are favorites so I add them to most of my bookmarks!

Look at the crazy dimension on this baby!  I love it but I'm not sure where the heck I'm gonna put it! LOL! I'm not sure what categories this fits in – Shabby Chic, Vintage, Steam Punk – Lots of neat Paper Crafting Labels.  ;-)

By the way….you still have time to sign up for my Mailing List and receive the 12 Weeks of Christmas/Hanukkah!  It begins at 1:00 today!  Enjoy and thanks for stopping by! 😀

I am the Swap Hostess for this round of YCDI and I choose…wait for it…YES! Tags!  I am LOVING doing different techniques on tags! I've had such a great time this month creating all of these babies!  Leave me a comment telling me which was your favorite for a chance to win some BLOG CANDY! Today, I did two tags for two of my friends, Daryl and Gussie.  They're both amazing women and I thought they'd enjoy a Tag bookmark.  One of the things I enjoy most about Paper Crafting is the thought that I can make other people happy with my creations!  Daryl is going to Italy so I used the Mona Lisa stamp.  She lost over 90 pounds and is a huge inspiration to others as a Health Coach so I used the "inspire" tag on the ribbon.  Gussie's husband underwent a heart transplant in May and is FINALLY coming home from the hospital! Yay!  So I used the "Believe" tag on hers.  She's Italian so I thought the Mona Lisa would work for her as well.  After all, who doesn't love the Mona Lisa!  

The base of both tags was a swipe of Bronze Metallic Crackle Paint.

After it dried, I began applying the inks.  I always get so involved with creating that I forget to take pictures of each step!  (I'll try to do that next time.)  I applied a few different color inks – Blue, Purple, Yellow – and then spritzed the tag with water so they'd blend.  I heat set that using a Heat Tool and added more of the same colors and heat set that. Then, I dropped  some water droplets on top and heat set that.  I "mopped up" some of the excess ink that was on my mat by touching the tag to the color droplets in different places. I put some Metallic stain on my craft mat and touched the tag to it in different places.  When the ink is applied over and over, it gives the tag better depth and texture and almost makes the ink look like it's moving.

Once the tag dried, I began stamping on it.  Instead of inking a stamp and stamping directly onto the tag, I wanted to create faded spots of ink in the background.  I did that by rubbing the black ink onto spots of the background stamps and then touching the tag to them.  When you do that, you get the faded image instead of stamping directly onto the tag.  You can see the difference in the clock and postmark as opposed to the numbers which were stamped directly.  (I learned that from my "boyfriend," T!m.) On the tag below, I added some Whisper White Craft Ink to my stamp and quickly touched a cloth to it to remove some of the ink and then heat set it.

I stamped the Mona Lisa directly onto the tag in Stazon Jet Black Ink.  The Crackle Paint takes the ink really well.  I distressed the edges with my Distress Tool (Love it!) and Black Ink.  Don't you love how that makes the center pop! 

The words were added and then outlined with a Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker and then smudged a little to make them look distressed.  The ribbons were dyed with the same color inks.  Put a few drops of ink onto your craft mat, spritz your ribbon with water and dip it into the inks.  Heat set a little so the colors don't mix too much, crinkle, and heat set again. I touched the ribbon to a script background stamp that had some ink left over.   I backed each tag with a Black Tag and added the Vintage trinkets.
One of the things I love is how no tag looks exactly like the other.  Now…this works sometimes better than others! The two tags below are examples of when this fails!  They're still ugly – even after I tried and tried to "fix" them.  But then I remided myself that it's only a tag and started over! LOL

Here's the line-up of my September Tags minus any that I already gave away!  I hope you've enjoyed them! Which one was your favorite??? (Links are left to right) Tag I'm It!, Land of The Free, Gussie's Tag, Believe in Yourself Fall Tag  Live The Life You've Imagined, Gussie's Tag,  Crackle-Paint-Distressed-Background, Not Shown: Tim's Tag, Vintage Tag, 

Visit my ONLINE STORE!

SUPPLIES:

• Manila Tag
• Black Tag
• Various Inks
• Metallic Distress Stain 
• Basic Black Ink #126980
• Whiser White Craft Ink #101731
• Jet Black Stazon Ink #101406
• Basic Black Stampn' Distress Marker #100082
• Heat Tool #129053
• Distress Tool #127562
• Stampin' Sponges #101610
• Crinkle Ribbon or 7/8" Cotton Ribbon #127844
• Vintage Trinkets
• Various Stamps
• Sticky Strip #104294
• Glue Dots #103683

"Live The Life You've Imagined" – I love that!  I had a fun day yesterday because I finally took a break from filming the new Holiday Videos for StampAcademy.  When I came upstairs, I realized that My Embosing Paste had FINALLY arrived!  (It was lost in Ohio for days and days!  Not sure what's going on with Priority Mail – but that's a story for another day!)  So…you know I've been aching to try Embossing Paste! Well, when it finally made its much anticipated arrival, I realized that I had no stencils!  (They're not due in 'till next month!) SO, I did what any crazy Paper Crafter would do, I immediately went on a quest to find one!  

I ran to our local big box Craft Store – which I almost never do – and I looked in the stencil aisle and was surprised to see the stencils from an old friend – Jamie from The Crafter's Workshop!  Wow! I was so thrilled for her!  I had been meaning to tell her how excited I was a few weeks ago when my (imaginary) boyfriend, T!m, used one of her stencils in a video and then mentioned it.  Wow!  I was VERY impressed!  I did not realize she'd become such a star in the world of Paper Crafts!  Back in the day, many years ago, Jamie had an amazing Craft Store in New York called The Crafter's Workshop.  We would go there several times A WEEK!  It was SO fun!  She had EVERYTHING you could imagine in there and, if you asked her how something was done, she would just whip out the products and show you right then and there!  She had amazing Guest Stampers from all over the country that would do classes for her.  It was a sad day when that place closed! But, Jamie just moved over to the Wholesale World and continued to make beautiful things! Her stencils are now "famous!"   It's so rewarding when you see a nice person achieve the success they deserve!  So, I happily brought a couple of them home with me and used them on my September Tag - which is for my now famous friend, Jamie!

So…I started with a plain manila tag and put some embossing paste over a stencil and then let that dry for a few hours.  (This is a different part of the stencil than the one that was used on this finished tag.)

Then, I put another stencil on the lower left and pounced some Whisper White Craft Ink through it and heat set it.  Next, I moved the stencil and pounced some Basic Black Ink through it and embossed it using Clear Embossing Powder and a Heat Tool.  I spritzed the tag with water and ran Distress Stains over it and then spritzed it with more water and heat set it. I added another layer of the same colors and heat set that. I dropped a couple of water droplets over the tag and heat set them.

You can see the layers of colors and the water droplets in this photo. I love how the embossing paste takes the color!  Great texture too!  To add a little more interest, I inked up a French Script Stamp randomly with Jet Black Stazon Ink and touched the tag to the stamp in different places to pick up some of the writing.

I added a rub on (the numbers down the side) and adhered the key to the tag using Glue Dots and then Crystal Effects to make sure it STAYS on there!.I stamped the sentiment "Live The Life You've Imagined" onto the tag but it just did NOT look good.  So, I stamped it onto a scrap of Very Vanilla Cardstock, embossed it with Black Soot Distress Embossing Powder, inked the background in the same way as the rest of the tag, tore it, sponged over it and then ran Vintage Photo and Black Soot Distress Stain over the edges and adhered it to the front of the tag.

The Crinkle Ribbon was spritzed with water and then the same color Distress Stains were inked over it.  I crinkled it, dried it with my Heat Tool and then touched it to the same script stamp in different places.  I heat set it again and then attached a black tag to the back of this tag to give it a finished look.  Of course, my trusty Distress Tool was used on all edges.  I pulled the ribbon through and embellished it using a pin and a token attached with a jump ring.

I like to finish off one of the corners of my tags with a metal corner trinket because I think, if they're used as bookmarks, they'll hold up better.  Not sure if that's true but it looks good anyway! LOL!

I sure do hope Jamie likes it!  It's a long way from the stamping I did 15 years ago but I still love it just as much, if not more!  Tomorrow is the last of my September Tags so definitely come back to visit!  If you haven't signed up for my mailing list yet, you can just leave your info in the box in the upper left corner. Oh and, by the way, here's a picture of Jamie and me! 😀

Thanks so much for stopping by! 😀

SUPPLIES: (Visit my ONLINE STORE for the products with Item #s)

• Manila Tag
• Very Vanilla Cardstock #101650
• Black Tag
• Mini Time Travel Stencil
• Embossing Paste
• Mini Ledger Stencil
• Life's Possibilities Stamp
• French Script Stamp
• Whisper White Craft Ink #101731
• Basic Black Classic Ink #126980
• Jet Black Stazon Ink #101406
• Distress Stains: Fired Brick, Wild Honey, Broken China, Vintage Photo
• Clear Embossing Powder #109130
• Black Soot Distress Embossing Powder
• Heat Tool #129053
• Rub Ons
• Distress Tool #127562
• Crystal Effects #101055
• Crinkle Ribbon
• Spritz Bottle #126185
• Stampin' Sponges #101610
• Rub On
• Assorted Trinkets:  Corner, Key, Pin, Jump Ring & Token
• Sticky Strip #104294
• Glue Dots #103683

You know I love my Distress!  Shabby Chic should be my middle name! Today, I wanted to make a card for my son.  He is home from college and finishing up Grad School.  It's been such a treat to have him home!  He's starting to look for a job and we all know how disheartening THAT can be!  (If you know of any Supply Chain jobs, send them his way!) 😉  So, I stamped this baby up for him today.  That's one of the things I love about being a Paper Crafter!  I have everything I need to whip a card up in a few minutes for about a quarter!  I just used Distress/Core'dinations Cardstock and an Embossing Folder for the background.  Just run it through the Big Shot and then sand off the top of the embossed image to reveal the distressed look underneath!  I love the Vintage look of Core'dinations Cardstock!  You decide how distressed you want your piece to be by sanding more or less of the embossed image.  This is especially nice for masculine cards!  I then layered that onto a base card of Basic Black Cardstock and ran my Distress Tool around the entire edge of the card.  The greeting was stamped in Early Espresso Ink onto Very Vanilla Cardstock and embossed with Clear Embossing Powder and a Heat Tool.  The edges were torn and sponged and then it was layered onto a piece of Basic Black Cardstock that was torn as well.  It was popped up using Stampin' Dimensionals and layered onto a strip of Burlap Ribbon which was attached using Sticky Strip.  I tied some Linen Thread through a Natural Designer Button on top of another Natural Designer Button and then attached it to the card using Glue Dots.  The inside of the card is a piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock that was torn and sponged.  Enjoy! 😀

Supplies are available in my ONLINE STORE.

• Basic Black Cardstock #121045
• Core'dinations Cardstock #129956
• Very Vanilla Cardstock #101650
• Big Shot Die Cutting Machine #113439
• Embossing Folder
• Sanding Tool #129367
• Distress Tool #127562
• Early Espresso Ink #126974
• Clear Embossing Powder #109130
• Heat Tool #129053
• Burlap Ribbon #132140
• Craft Scissors #108360
• SNAIL Adhesive Refill #104331
• Stampin Dimensionals #104430
• Glue Dots #103683
• Sticky Strip #104294
• Natural Designer Buttons #127554
• Linen Thread #104199
• Vintage Photo Distress Ink 
• Stampin' Paper Trimmer #126889
• Bone Folder #102300
• Very Vanilla Medium Envelopes #107300

My Challenge for this week was to come up with something related to a hobby of mine.  I have to say, I had a difficult time with this one because I don't really have any other hobbies besides Paper Crafting!  My favorite thing to do lately is hang out with my boyfriend, Tim (Holtz).  Of course, he is only my boyfriend in my head – and my husband doesn't mind at all! LOL!

My hobby within my hobby this week is Vintage and Distress so I thought I'd make a tag using Crackle Paint and Inks.  The Tag was just a basic Manila Tag.  I painted a strip of Antique Bronze Metallic Crackle Paint down the side and let it dry overnight. Then, I swiped Wild Honey, Broken China and Fired Brick Distress Stains over the top and spritzed with water.  I heat set that and then continued adding color until I was happy with the background.  I used Jet Black Stazon Ink to stamp   The edges of the tag were sponged with Black Soot Distress Stain and then distressed the edges using my Distress Tool.  I am meeting a friend from High School (which was a looooong time ago).  She is an photographer and an artist who does collaging and other interesting pieces.  I wanted to bring her something so I thought the tag would be a nice treat that she can use as a bookmark.  So…when I was choosing the sayings and the embellishments, I had her in mind which makes it so much easier to create!   

This is a close-up of the crackle paint. Sooo cool and shimmery and you can stamp right over it!

I stamped parts of a Map and half of the clock on the background.  Embellishments:  I attached Film Strip to the tag using a tiny embellishment attacher (stapler).  The "A" is a brad, and the "Artful" disk is attached using a jump ring and trinket pin.  The words are self-adhesive and I drew arround them using a Black Marker.

The tore some tissue tape and sponged over it and then finished off the corner with a Brass Corner Trinket.

The sentiment was stamped in Jet Black Stazon Ink (but I probably should have embossed it!).  The swirl that you see is a rub-on also.

To finish off the project, I dyed the crinkle ribbon using the same Distress Stains and then stamped on it in Early Espresso Ink using parts of the Map Stamp.  I crinkled it, dried it, and then frayed the top a little before adhereing to the tag.

Note – I always back my tags with another, darker tag so that it will have a neat, finished look.

I hope you enjoyed your "visit!" 😀