TFJB Inspiration Ave: Tag Team Techniques

Friday, April 7, 2023

Tag Team Techniques

Hello, and welcome to this week's TFJB Inspiration Ave blog post. Today we are creating to the theme of Tag Team Time. I’m going to talk to you about all of the different ways that we can use tags and what tags are available out there in the Tim Holtz world.

I've broken down the steam into a two-part video along with our traditional written blog post. In this first section, we are going to be talking about tag types, sizes, materials, and what we do with tags. Later, in part two we are going to take our tags and create a couple of projects from them.

Video 1 Tag Time Techniques: click here

Video 2 Tag Team Projects: click here

Tag Time Techniques and uses

For video click here

For tag techniques the following materials are used: mixed media and craft stock tags, collage medium, collage, paper pallet, Distress Glaze Lumberjack Plaid and Lost Shadow, Distress Colored Pencils sets 1,2 and 3, Idea-ology rub ons, Distress Archival Ink Villainous Potion, Distress Embossing Ink, Distress Crayons Black Soot, Evergreen Bough, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Wilted Violet, Villainous Potion, Salty Ocean and Prize Ribbon.

This week’s tutorial is all about tags for our theme of Tag Team Time. Take a look at tags. I am using three different types of tags from Ranger Inc. We have the Tim Holtz mixed media tags and the craft stock tag. I will also be using other tags I have die cut from Distress Stock Heavy White and some mini tags from some other die sets. The standard size of tags that Ranger offers are size 8 and size 5.

One die that offers some unique and different size tags is the Collector Thinlits die set by Sizzix. There are some nice little jewelry size tags included in the set.

I also pulled a couple of tag sizes from the old Sizzix set Tags. This is a retired set but if you have it in your stash, there are three different sizes of tags and a couple of little banners that are included in the set.

Now the big question... what are tags used for, why use them and what do you do with them after you have made them? I love using tags for three purposes. First, I like to use tags as mini swatch cards. Secondly, tags can be a useful and convenience source to place technique ideas on. I love to try a different techniques, but sometimes techniques take many steps so I will write the directions for a technique on the back of a tag to help me remember. Third, tags can be a place to play and to put down creative ideas. Sometimes ideas work out and sometimes they don’t. Tags also don’t take a lot of space and if an idea doesn’t work out, you can always die cut your tag and make something new out of it or if you really love how you can save it and place it onto a card.

Below, I have a set of swatch cards that I have created on tags for distress glazes.

I also love using tags for swatch cards. Here I decided to swatch out 16 different Distress Colored Pencils to create myself a little chart.

Another set of tags that are absolutely worth mentioning are the Frames Tags by Sizzix and Tim Holtz. This set is very unique, and it includes three different sizes of tags.

To create the debossed border on the tag you ink a brayer with Distress archival ink and gently brayer the ink directly onto the metal die before running it through your die cutting machine. The ink sits on top of the die and is transferred to your tag from the pressure of the die cut machine, giving you a beautiful debossed frame. For the tag below I used Distress Archival Ink.

Now let’s get into a couple of technique tags. For the first technique that we were going to be creating with Idea-ology rub-ons. Now the most important thing to know about the rub-ons is to use the Idea-ology Rub-on tool. I find this tool to be very useful. Its two different ends allowsfor easy application of rub-ons to various substrates.

First, I’m going to alter one of the small size 5 mixed media tags with Distress Spray Stain Shaded Lilac, and Salvaged Patina. Then, after a quick dry, we will apply the rub-ons.

To apply these all you need to do is apply the plastic piece over your substrate, and then rub firmly with the metal tool. Then carefully peel away the film to reveal the transfer.

Below are the results from the added rub-ons.

After I added a second layer of Distress Spray Stain with a dash of Villainous Potion and Mermaid Lagoon.

Another technique that I absolutely love is creating a background with a Distress Crayons and Collage Medium. First, I applied a layer of Collage Medium over the tag and smooshed it around with my fingers for a good coverage.

It took approximately 15 minutes for the Collage Medium to dry. After the Collage Medium was dry, I then added on bits and pieces of colour with a Distress Crayons.

Then, with a little bit of water spritzed off to the side, I dipped my fingers in the water, and then smudged out the Distress Crayon. This creates a fun, colourful background that can then be used as a base to collage over.

The last basic technique I’m going to describe is starting a collage. Here using a craft Mixed Media Tag I added a layer of Collage Medium over the base and then apply to different Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collage Papers over the top. For the Collage Papers, I used Typeset and Palette

Below are a few examples of what we can do with tags. In the next phase of this blog post, I am going to be taking these tags and creating two different projects with them.

Tag Team Projects

For video click here

For the two tag projects I use the following materials: Idea-ology Label Stickers, Paper Dolls, Ephemera, Crinkle Ribbon, metal element, and Field Notes Ephemera.

For this tag, we are starting with the Distress Crayon tag that we made earlier and we are going to be using that as foundation for a collage.

For the collage I decided that I wanted to colour coordinate my pieces and I went with blue and purple colours. For these collage elements I pulled from the years of Tim Holtz Idea-ology in my stash. All of these pieces were applied with a layer of Collage Medium.

One of the most commonly asked questions is what can I put on a tag? The short answer is pretty much anything. On this tag I am including paper elements and a metal element. You could also include heavyweight chipboard or thick board as well. To add the metal element I used Collage Medium and highlighted the numbers with a bit of Picket Fence Distress Crayon.

The last few things that I am adding to the tag include a mushroom from Field Notes and an altered Paper Doll with stamped butterfly wings.

For the second project we will be creating a card and using a tag as part of the foundation. Used: Tim Holtz Stamp Set CMS446 Noteworthy, Sizzix die Blossom, Botanical Layers, Backgrounds Volume II, and velvet trim.

Another thing that we can do with tags is cut them up for die cutting or we can trim them down and use them as part of a background on a card. Here we are going to take our collaged kraft tag and turn this into a card.

I cut the tag down to fit on an average 4 1/4 x 5 1/2” card. For the base background, I cut up a piece of paper from the new Tim Holtz Idea-ology vVolume Five backgrounds pack.

For the focal point on this card I am going to be using the Tim Holtz Sizzix die set Blossom. I cut down some scraps that I had in order to create this layered flower.

For some more added visual interest in layers I also pulled in a few botanical greens from this year’s Layers packet.

For finishing touches on the tag in for a sentiment, I used one of the mini tags for the sentiment. I stamped with a Villainous Potion Distress archival ink from the stamp set CMS446 Noteworthy. I then attached the tag with a hardware brad to the card.