MarteLAB: Free to Fly! Summer Time Tag by Claudia

Hi, servus and ciao á tutti!

Summer is in full swing and hot as always and I am finally enjoying our summer holidays at the lake! Each day I ride my kayak and pass by a lot of bays with small wooden docks with ducks taking a nap on these. Sometimes I find some of their beautiful feathers and collect them for later use - as for this summer-y tag:

(click on images for larger view)

I have used Aall & Create stamps #58 and 60 and stencil #9 again to create my tag.

Here's how I did it:

I started by stamping part of the large A4 #58 stamp onto pieces of Deli paper (you can also use tissue paper of course) for later use. As the stamp is a bit sticky make sure to use a well inked ink pad with black archival stamping ink.

I made four sheets of stamped on Deli paper. Some of these go to my stash for later projects. For best results with the huge stamps I lay these flat on my desk, ink part of the stamp, then put the paper on top and rub across that with my hand. So I am rather pulling prints instead of stamping the paper.

Next I stamped the lovely Mandala image from stamp #60 onto a piece of Deli paper as well and some of the stars from this stamp set onto white cardstock.

Time to prepare my tag!

I have used an MDF tag but you can also (die) cut a tag from heavy cardboard and use that instead. It will work just as well. I added several layers of heavy body white Gesso to the tag with a palette knife. While scraping on the Gesso I made sure I created overlaps and a lot of texture.

Next I took a sculpting tool (you can also use the other end of a brush) and scribbled into the still wet Gesso. I left the tag to dry naturally.

Once the Gesso had dried, I sprayed on some rusty hinge and broken china Distress Spray Stains and diluted these with water to create drip lines. Then I used my heat tool to dry the tag.

I played around with various designs and then cut out the pieces from the stamped Deli paper I wanted to use on my tag. As you can see I have put the focal element in place already, but haven't glued it in place yet as it first needed some priming on the back!

To have the detail from the lovely Mandala design stand out from the background I simply painted the back of the fussy cut stamped image with a layer of Titanium White DecoArt media fluid acrylic paint using a soft brush. I didn't paint the other Deli paper pieces though as I wanted these to stay transparent.

Time to glue the Deli paper pieces in place. I used a soft brush and thin decoupage glue and sealant to not tear the Deli paper while gluing it to the tag. You can find some (from a different brand than shown in my picture) in the Marte Savona online store of course - as all the other media and products I have used to create this tag.

Using a detail brush I painted part of the Mandala design with Titanium White.

Next I added some Modelling Paste through Aall & Create stencil #9. As I only wanted to use the thin strip design in the middle of the stencil, I masked the other designs on the stencil with some painters tape.

I let the Modelling Paste dry naturally before I sprayed on additional rusty hinge Distress Spray Stain and water to highlight the texture of the stencilled pattern.

I also used the rusty hinge Spray Stain to colour my fussy cut stars.

Next I hand cut part of a circle shape from heavy cardstock, painted that in Titanium White too and glued some stamped Deli paper on top. After I had inked the edges of my circle segment with black archival stamping ink I glued my feather to it and wrapped some soft black wire around it.

Time to glue everything in place and put together my design!
The focal piece with the glued on feather got fixed to the tag using black sticky foam pads. I cut one of these into smaller pieces to fix the stars to the tag too.

I blended the tag's edges with black stamping ink using a foam pad.

Then I finished off my tag by adding a word sticker and wrapping more black wire around it.

To secure the wire on the back of a tag I simply twist the ends together and bend them flat. Then I cover the wire on the back with large piece of Gaffer tape. If you want your tag to look good on the back too you can also use some heavy designer paper to cover everything up.

Voilá - the finished tag!