Star of Thrift, Tag-A-Thon Part 3

Welcome to my second DT creation on the theme of Stars, chosen by Rachel for November, at Country View Challenges and the 3rd instalment on my Tag-A-Thon...

Stars and Christmas for some reason go hand in hand, so my tags today are for Christmas.

I did something similar in the past (see here) and not only enjoyed it but also relished the thought of using up supplies that would have finished in the bin. I made Christmas tags for the many (now I'm being hopeful) presents we will have to wrap in December.
And yes, I know the tags will end up in the bin soon enough but at least they will have been USED!

These are the supplies I had gathered at the start of my crafting session.

Transparent Texture medium (Ranger), Grungepaste (PaperArtsy) , glitter and Perfect Pearls to mix in with the pastes and a new star stencil from Creative Expression.

Smaller stencils are great if you want to use them in different areas on a project without disturbing your previous work (ask me how I know...). They are also cheaper and take less space... perfect excuse to buy more!

In the photo the offcut of watercolour has already been stencilled and you can see there was already some colour on it but I didn't mind.

I decided to use powders and selected green and red (for Christmas) Brushos and my favourite Infusions Stormy Violet and Golden Sands.
I use a small brush to pick up and distribute the powders. I changed the colours as went along so I would get different looks.

I adapted the shape and size of my tags according to the placement of stars and colours to minimize any waste. You can see top left the bits that didn't make the cut. Not much waste there...

If you have a tag die, by any means use it but I used the 45 degree angle markings on my paper trimmer.

Next I added some stamping and in keeping with the thrifty theme I only used "free" stamps. They are all from Craft Stamper. I do keep them all and although I don't use them often I do use them. For a start, their smaller size make them ideal for tags.
The more recent ones are acrylic and like all acrylic stamps, they need a light sanding before they'll accept dye ink [using pigment inks, chalk inks or Crafter's inks they work fine].

I took a lot of convincing before taking sandpaper to my stamps so I am including a demo below.
On a scrap piece of paper I stamped an acrylic stamp that I had never used before. Not very good! These stamps being so small I took the stamp to the sanding block and rubbed it a few times in all directions.

I stamped again with red ink on the scrap piece and black on the back of one of the tags and you can see the difference. (click on the photo to get a bigger image) The effect is more pronounced in solid images.


Here's my tip of the day... Now remember I'm talking acrylic stamps NOT high quality photo polymer stamps which take the ink fine either after a few uses or a rubbing with nothing harsher than an eraser.

So both kinds being clear how can you tell the difference? These are my clues:

- high quality polymer stamps stain easily with dye inks, whilst most inks wash off acrylic stamps easily with water and washing up liquid including Archival ink.
- polymer stamps tend to yellow quickly whilst the cheaper stamps keep their slightly blueish tinge.
- acrylic stamps are not as "clingy" as the polymer stamps after a few uses.

I guess  should show you the finished tags too, especially if you've made it this far!

All that remains is for me to encourage you to enter your starry creations, thrifty or not, in our Country View Challenge.
See you soon for the next instalment of my Tag-A-Thon...
Also linking to the Tagplorations hop, Stamplorations, Fashionable Stamping, Penny Black and more and Stamping Sensations challenges.