Tags for a friend

I've made some tags this week. I laid out my 'place mat' on a corner of the kitchen table and went gung ho making the background and then over the next few days I added pieces until I felt they were complete. 

A Sizzix Tag die.
A collection of cereal boxes. 

Three coats of gesso painted across and allowed to dry. 

More gesso applied vertically and horizontally again. 

This gave the card a lovely texture like Bazzil linen look cardstock. 

It also made the card stronger and flexible. 

Scribble the main colour in awesome Gelatos and apply a wet wipe to create your background colour. 

Add various colours of Gelatos and blend in with a damp finger until you're happy with the finish. 

I've used a combination of red, pink, yellow and green. 

Using various stencils add textured paint or similar. 

 Add ink! The black was a little bold in some places 

so I quickly dabbed off some before it dried. 

The Stamp set used is from Close to My Heart
I will edit this when I find the set for details!!

The yellow tag has a brown powder added to the bricks and the pink tag has metallic gilding wax from Creative Expressions which, I found difficult to use. I had to use a stiff piece of plastic to 'dig' it out of the tiny pot and then used my finger to smudge it over the bricks. It didn't want to stay in place in the beginning but after it softened up a bit...!  It was bought from a destash Facebook group. Maybe it was a little old but I will keep using it because I enjoy the effect it adds. 

As said earlier, over the next few days I embellished the tags until I felt they were done. 

I enjoy this process but it also gets frustrating finding the perfect pieces to make it just so! 

Constantly visiting Pinterest too for inspiration. 

I completed the yellow envelope and the pink lace tag first. Using bits left over including the packaging of some of those pieces I made the house tag. Under the house is a transparency from a Basic Grey collection that goes back a few years. The yellow of the house is a piece of cardboard cut from a scrap, leftover from cutting the tags. I grabbed a yellow gelato and swiped it with a wet wipe. 

The windows. 
The Halloween tag is embellished with two pins. They're part of a swap I was in 6 years ago! The pins arrived in cute homemade packaging and the windows are cut from that - already coloured and they've been edged in gold. 

The letter f is an ancient rub on from a fabulous packet of mixed rub-ons I received a long time ago. It was actually in my box of things to give away! It was pretty cool to discover they're still in good nick!

There was no planning for these tag fronts, just looking through containers packed away,  picking up bits and pieces off the kitchen table and looking at them differently from their original purpose.
Its a great way to use up items/embellishments you've had for a while but don't want to get rid of them because there is still life in them.