Art Tags from Scraps

Hello, Friends!  I don’t know about you, but I have piles and piles of pretty little scrap bits that I can’t bear to throw away.  I keep them all in ziploc bags that I’ve tucked into a plastic bin.  They are all organized by theme: beach, animals, food, etc.  I also have a tea bag tin full of manila tags that I keep handy to mop up extra ink when I’m working on a project.  It’s my mom’s fault.  She drilled that “waste not, want not” mentality into me when I was young, and it’s never left me. Sometimes when I’m really stressed out and need to truly “play” I break out my scrap bits and my inky tags and I make art tags from scraps.  It relaxes me, reduces clutter, and sometimes you end up with a tag that’s so pretty or fun that it just washes all the anxiety away. That’s what I did today, and I thought I’d share the finished product with you in case you also have piles of scrap bits, inky tags and stress.

This first tag has layers and layers of ink on it.  Anytime I worked with any shade of blue or aqua, I mopped up the extra ink with this tag, then put it back in my tin.  I embossed it with a flourish texture fade on the top and bottom, stamped on those pretty clocks and heat embossed them,then sprinkled it with Antique Silver Embossing powder just for fun.  I layered on a bunch of bits and pieces that I had in my scrap bin along with some pretty Petaloo flowers that were left over from an earlier project.  Even the ribbon was in my ribbon scraps.  (I put leftover ribbon bits into ziploc bags, sorted by color. Yeah, I know…I should have bought stock in Ziploc years ago.  I singlehandedly keep them in business as I use their bags for all sorts of storage solutions.)

On this tag, I found a piece of scrap watercolor paper that had been sponged with Distress Inks.   I must have been playing with blending ink colors or cleaning off my ink applicators or something like that..  I  trimmed it up and stitched it onto a mop up tag that was too dark for my taste, and I like the way it turned out.  I confess to using fresh ribbon for the bow, but everything else came from my scrap bin or a little dish that I keep on my desk to toss odd bits and pieces into at the end of the day.  It’s full of random clips, frames, flowers and such.

Even though this bird image is super small (postage stamp sized) it holds its own thanks to the addition of the frame.  That’s a handy tip to remember when you are looking for a way to make a focal with a tiny scrap of art.

So I cleaned up some “stuff” burned off some stress, and made a couple of art tags from scraps that I actually like quite a lot. They’ll pretty up a gift package or get tucked into an ETSY order just for fun.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy