Another art tag today, this one with a vintage botanical theme. I truly love making art tags, and the sentiment is a reminder to give myself permission to explore art in my own way. In this case it starts with a tag cut from a piece of advertising junk mail covered with a piece of paper from a Recollections 6×6 paper pad.

I accented the background with some torn copier paper that I aged with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen. This photo (kind of) demonstrates how I store the foam sponges for my blending tool. I keep them in the bottom of my mini ink pad with the color side down and the velcro side showing. That way I can just press the blending tool onto the velcro and pick up the foam without getting ink on my fingers. Now if I could just figure out how to take the foam off the blending tool without getting ink on my fingers….!

This French Script Stamp is another incredible bargain with slow shipping, but it was definitely worth the wait. It’s so versatile for stamping backgrounds, but it can also make some lovely focal points as well. It may appear to be several stamps on the same backing, but it’s actually one large stamp. I considered cutting it apart because I don’t have a stamping block large enough to accommodate it, but I think I prefer just inking the portion I want to use instead of separating it. I did not even peel the stamp off of its plastic backing; I left it on to give the stamp a little more stability since I’m using it without a block.

I just got this set of botanical stamps and I couldn’t wait to start using it. The price is fantastic but the shipping takes awhile, so I was more than ready to try it out once it arrived! I picked out an assortment of ink: Distress Ink in Scattered Straw, Brushed Corduroy, and Bundled Sage; and Memento Dye Ink in Rich Cocoa and Bamboo Leaves. Also used but not pictured: Distress Ink in Milled Lavender and Memento Ink in Elderberry.

I also used a grungy grid stamp to give some additional depth to the tag, but I used Distress Ink in Antique Linen to keep it lightly in the background so it wouldn’t overwhelm the other elements.

Next I stamped an assortment of botanical stamps around the edges of the tag using the inks mentioned above. I found this bicycle image online as a free download. I inserted it into a Microsoft Word document and used the image editing tools to change the color from black to green. I typed the sentiment, printed it on regular copy paper, then tore around the words and the bike to give them a ragged look.

I inked the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink, and glued them onto the tag with my Avery permanent glue stick.

My plan was to stamp some butterflies onto the tag, but I didn’t have any that were the right size and look, so I pulled out this roll of washi tape instead. To make it easier to cut around the butterflies, I taped each one to the backing from some circle stickers. Once the butterflies are cut out, it’s easy to peel the backing off and attach them to the tag.

As you can see from the photo, I inked the edges of this tag twice. I went around it Antique Linen Distress Ink first, but I thought it needed a more defined frame so I went back over it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I had a scrap of wide green ribbon that I thought would make a great accent for this tag, so I used a slot punch instead of a hole punch, and I punched it twice to get it long enough for the ribbon to fit through. I used a small bit of the ribbon rolled up narrowly to wrap around and secure the bottom of the ribbon to keep it from flopping over. (Sorry about using the word “ribbon” so many times! And sorry I didn’t take pictures of this step.)

This photo of the back of the tag shows how the ribbon topper was secured. Because this was an advertising postcard cut into a tag, I had to add some decorative paper from a 6×6 scrapbook pad. I chose the grid design to complement the grid stamping on the front. I wanted to use plain paper stamped with the grid stamp as the backing, but the only paper I had at hand was too thin (the advertising card showed through) and I was too impatient to finish the tag to hunt for thicker paper!

This tag is meant to be a “farewell to summer” project, but the days are still hot and sunny here. Are you getting fall weather yet where you live?

Blessings,
~Happy Heart Art Girl