Summer Vintage Tags by Emilia Tapiola

Somehow, we have made it to the summer, again. Celebrating life seems like a proper theme. I seriously think we all need a trophy or two, getting through all kinds of unexpected things life has thrown at us lately, don’t you think? Even if the trophy would be a tiny one, in form of a tag, we definitely deserve one!

Summer is this mysterious time capsule where between spring and autumn, time flies, whirling and whistling, and it seems that in one single breath, it’s gone. For me, summer is marveling the blooming peonies, collecting falling rose petals, pressing lavenders, devouring Scandinavian strawberry and whipped cream sponge cake with kids under the huge maple tree in our garden, listening to birdsong while reading on our glass veranda… Time both stops and vanishes and although crafting is always there, somehow there isn’t time to do all the crafting I’d love to. And I thought this might be the case for a lot of craft lovers; there simply isn’t time for it all. Hence, I want to share with you this simple and easy, quick, and light happy tag project. You don’t need much time, energy, or materials for it – and basically, if you want to be in super lazy summer crafter mode, you can skip all the (two) mixed media steps, in which case the tag would take about 1,5 minutes to make, instead of five.

Here’s the how.

I cut a 6x6” scrapbook paper and cut it into half and into a tag shape. (Actually, I made two tags and used two different papers, but you know. Then I ripped a vintage book page into a suitable sized piece and using Soft Matte Gel, glued it to the tag. I covered the whole tag with a layer of Soft Matte Gel, too, as I wanted to be sure the papers won’t absorb paints unevenly. 

Then, I added a nice dimensional layer, using Modeling paste and a Passiflora stencil. As I am such a vintage girl, I wanted to do my usual routine and painted the whole tag with a mix of Impasto paints Pitch Black and Dark Chocolate and wiped most off with a baby wipe.

Next step was to choose images for my two tags. For one, I used a print I had scanned from a vintage photo, and for another I used an image sticker from the Finnabair Words You Need Sticker Book. I glued the images in place and applied a coat of Soft Matte Gel on top, to protect the surface.

The basic tag was now ready, but a bit of decorating was still needed, so I took a piece of tea dyed cheese cloth and glued it underneath the image and stapled a paper flower (also tea dyed) and a very messy bunch of linen cord on top. Then I glued a heavy paper piece I had printed, with text (also tea dyed), underneath the image, too, and with a palette knife applied just a hint of Golden Dragon Effect Paste around the tag, to give it a sunshine effect. As the final touch, I dotted a couple of Diamond Art Pebbles here and there. 

And that was it. It took longer for you read this than it would actually take to create a tag, so have a nice, cool glass of your favourite summer drink (mine is homemade strawberry and rhubarb juice), wear your comfiest summer dress, and have a relaxing creative moment, celebrating life, summer, and all things magical.

Thank you so much for popping by!

Emilia

Products I have used - all the images linked to Mixed Media Place online store: