Recycled Tag Tutorial

Hello friends! I hope you had a good weekend! We were out playing in the snow, with a new red plastic sledge. When Leo and I walked out the door, we realised that both the sledge, his overall, my jacket, my hat, and his stroller were red, with bits of blue here and there, so he concluded that red and blue are his favorite colors. I like bright colored winter clothes, since so many winter jackets are black or dark blue, winter is dark enough, a bit of color is fun. And that red stroller, always made for an interesting spot of color in nature photos.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Recycle Something theme. Don't miss the project by our January guest designer Wendy Baysa. 

Today's project is also pretty colorful and was put together using almost only recycled items, with the addition of a couple of odds and ends that I found on my desk. The base of the tag is cardboard, which makes it very sturdy and gives it a nice feel. I also used a brown paper bag, old book paper, old buttons, netting from fruit packaging, and plastic packaging from a die. 

Starting out, I die cut a tag from Sizzix plastic packaging, embossed it in a swirls folder and and then colored it with alcohol ink, aiming for a splotchy appearance. I used: Turquoise, Indigo and Limeade, coloring on the embossed side of the plastic. You can also use Clearly For Art Modeling Film, if you don't have plastic packaging.

Apply Crystal Stickers in the recessed areas. Let dry.

A second tag was die cut from cardboard and I tore off some of the top layer. It was coated with gesso. This step brightens the colors of the alcohol ink, since the background becomes lighter.

Then I glued old book paper on the background, all of these papers were already torn up, and had been used in other projects.

Die cut hearts from a brown paper bag and an old book page, using the SSS Windows to my Heart die, from the new You Are Loved collection.

I also had leftover watercolor hearts from my SSS You Are Loved blog hop project from last week. Staple the hearts together and scrunch them up to give them dimension. Ink the edges. Here you can also see the yellow/orange plastic netting.

The glitter adds a nice touch to the background. Staple the plastic tag to the cardboard one. I only stapled it at the top, which makes it look more dimensional, since the plastic doesn't lie flush against the cardboard and text.

On my desk, I also found a piece of torn vellum, a ribbon that was gifted to me by a stamping friend many years ago, and a strip of book paper, which turned out to be almost like found poetry. The title was die cut with the Big Happy die, from a brown paper bag and from black cardstock.

And another sentiment from a book. The buttons are all recycled from old clothing.

Here's another look at the layers of alcohol ink, glitter, and text.

The hearts are dimensional and are a great way to use up little scraps. You can die cut a whole bunch and keep them ready for a project.

I hope you will join us this week in our Recycle Something challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

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