Valentines Tag

Hi,

My partner and I don't buy Valentines cards for each other but we do make tags each year, so here's the Valentines tag that I made this year .....

Running quickly through the process... ....

Using a size 8 manilla tag (Ranger) for my base, I gave it a light coating of gesso (Claudine Hellmuth) to knock back the manilla colour and then randomly stamped all over with a script stamp (Stampers Anonymous CMS064) in black archival ink.

For my next layer I cut down some paper from the Vintage Artistry collection (absolutely gorgeous papers). More random stamping (Stampers Anonymous Urban Chic, CMS086) in black archival ink.

Then I added pearlescent white dimensional paste (Sweet Poppy) through a mini tile stencil (Crafters Workshop) and dried with my heat gun. 

Next I played with Victorian Velvet DS, gently spraying with water until I got the depth of colour and splay I wanted. Using watered down gesso and some of the same DS I added some random splatters.

Before adding this layer to the main tag, I cut a slightly large piece of hammered card and sewed the two together with a couple of lines of white stitching. I think you can just about pick out the stitching around the edge in the photo above.

Using seam binding, dyed with the residue of  the Victorian Velvet DS left on my craft mat, I wrapped the two top layers with ribbon and tied a Tammy Tutterow fluffy bow to one side.

Then using double-sided red tape the top two layers were adhered to the base tag.  Now for my heart embellishment........

I drew an elongated heart onto white card and shaded it using predominantly Spun Sugar DI, with Milled Lavender DI around the edge for depth and finally edged again with Hickory Smoke DI. I wanted the heart to stand away from the tag so the centre was gently creased.

The heart was edged yet again with  clear embossing powder (SU)  before a Small Talk Sticker (Ranger Idea-ology) was added. The sticker was edged with Spun Sugar and Hickory Smoke DI.... a lot of edging going on around here... then glued into place and coated with Glossy Accents.   Finally the heart was coated with crackle paint (Ranger clear rock candy)  but the sentiment was left as I wanted this clear and untextured.

As the heart dried I gently worked the central crease and the edges from time to time so that it wouldn't dry flat. Finally, when it was totally dry to the touch, I worked Spun Sugar and Milled Lavender DI into the cracks to accentuate the lovely crackle texture. 

I used a thin strip of double-sided red tape down the centre crease, on the reverse side of the heart, to adhere it to the tag.

A couple of white flowers from my stash were edged with DS and, together with three tiny pink rose buds, hot glued amongst the folds of the bow.  Still needing an extra touch, I added a small, shiny black heart charm from my stash. ... I liked the way this heart complimented the black stamping on the tag.

The seam binding at the top of my tag was dyed with Spun Sugar and Milled Lavender DS. Another tiny, shiny black heart charm and a white photo anchor was looped through the seam binding using a white garment pin. I'm adding the date onto the back of the photo anchors I'm putting on my tags this year.

As always, because I like a neat back to my tags and because I think it frames the tag nicely, I backed my tag with black card.

Thanks for stopping by and taking time to read my post. If you'd like to leave a comment please do, as I love to read them.

Happy crafting....

Carol. xx