Tags.....You see them everywhere. They are hanging on garments in the store and are the little stickers at a garage sale. Tags communicate a message, and we read them everyday. Tags are also a great way to embellish your scrapbooking pages! There are so many possibilities for sizes, shapes, and colors, that you can create a limitless variety. You can purchase ready-made tags to embellish or cut them out yourself. Let's take a closer look at tags and create some custom-made tag embellishments for your scrapbook.

You may purchase tags at the office store or from various scrapbooking companies. You may purchase them as die-cuts from Accu-cut, Ellison, Sizzix and others. There are many companies, such as Deluxe Designs, Coluzzle, and EK Success that manufacture templates. You can even download them from the internet. However you get your tags, these simple little pieces of paper can become WOW! embellishments with just a little imagination. There are endless variations on tags. You can add stickers, punchies, chalk, metal, brads, and many items found in your scrapping supplies and around the house. The two things that are commonly called for in all of them is an eyelet and fibers or ribbon.

Tags can be an embellishment all of their own or you can use them within your layout to "house" other elements such as a photo, journaling or letters for a title. Tags are easy, inexpensive, and can be customized to our particular photos and layouts.

I found an online source for printing tags. It is Scrapbook Scrapbook.com While this used to be a pay site, I"m really happy to say it is now FREE for downloads of various embellishments. Check them out!

How this works: You download the tags from their website and you then have fifteen pages of tag templates stored on your computer. Simply choose the page you want to print, print directly onto your own cardstock, then cut out the tags you want to customize. I highly recommend this resource. The download is found here. Here is an example of how to embellish one of these downloaded tags.

• Print page #7 of the downloadable tags.
  
• Trace the tag shape onto some of the 12 x 12 Magic Mesh Sheet and cut it out.
  
• Remove the backing and adhere the Magic Mesh to the tag.
  
• Using tiger stiped paper, trace the tag shape.
  
• Tear the tiger paper in half then attach it to the tag.
  
• Wind fibers around the tag and attach on the back with glue dots.
  
• Attach the tiger charm to the fiber with jump ring and wire then secure with a glue dot
  
• Place some Craft Tinsel at the bottom of the tag.
  
• Attach the bottle cap with glue dots (it also secures the tinsel)
  
• Attach the letters to say "at the zoo"
  
• Punch hole at the top of tag and thread fibers through it

Supplies used:
Tiger Wild Animal Collection Paper (Making Memories)
Orange Cardstock (DMD)
Black Magic Mesh 12 x 12 Sheet
Tiger Charm (Watch Us)
Bottle Cap (123 Crop)
Alphadotz (Scrapworks)
Silver Craft Tinsel (Magic Scraps)

I found that there were instances that I didn't want the entire page of tags to print, especially when working with the more expensive patterned paper. You can use up the smaller scraps of paper in your stash by using the downloaded tags as a template.

With this example, I had only a 6" x 6" piece of the patterned paper that I wanted to use. Here is how I used this small piece of leftover paper to create a tag.

Cut the tag of choice from the sheet printed from ScrapbookScrapbook
Put a small amount of adhesive on the tag and attach it to the paper you have chosen.
Cut around the tag shape much as you would any template.
Tear a small piece of paper at an angle and attach at the bottom of your new tag shape.
Put jump rings on your charms and thread them through 1/4" ribbon. You will still be able to move them as you wind the ribbon around the tag.
Wind your 1/4" ribbon around the tag, using a glue dot to anchor both of the ends on the back side of the tag.
Using a rub on word or sticker, attach the word at the bottom of your tag.
Slide your charms around on the ribbon until they are where you would like to place them
Using a small glue dot, stick down your charms.
Put a heart-shaped brad through your tag. This is easier if you first put a straight pin through where you want to put your brad.
Tuck some Pink Tinsel from Magic Scraps into the tag if you desire.
Finally, add a bow at the top of the tag.



Patterned Paper: Timeless Elements Line by Westrim Crafts
Reverse side of paper provided the solid pink
Pink Ribbon by Making Memories
Heart Brad by JoAnn Scrap Essentials
Tinsel by Magic Scraps

This is another example uses a tag template and a stipple brush. I created this sparkly tag for a New Year's Eve page.



This tag began as plain, white cardstock.

• Stipple brush black ink all over a white cardstock tag.
  
• While the ink is still wet, sprinkle on glittery embossing powder to make the cardstock background elegant.
• Let it dry for a few minutes then shake your excess embossing off the tag and onto a sheet of paper. From there it is easy to pour it back into the container. Set the embossing powder with heat. Embossing guns are available in any craft department.
  
• On this tag you will be using a Silver Krylon Metallic Leafing Pen. Simply outline the tag with the Silver using a ruler as your guide as before.
  
• Attach your tag to a piece of black cardstock, slightly larger, for a mat. Cut evenly around the excess.
  
• Finally add metal elements, such as clips, brads, wire spiraled around a pin, silver micro stickers, beads, and you have a sparkly affect for a special occasion.. You can attach these metal elements with any adhesive, but I recommend Glue Dots. They require no drying time and hold securely.
  
  

  

  Supplies used: White and Black cardstock
  Punches: Circle, numbers, Marvy
  Stars, micro Mrs. Grossman's
  Black, Crafter's Ink
  Sparkle Rainbow Embossing Powder, Stamp Affair
  S Clips, Making Memories
  Black Irridescent Beads
  Black Magic Mesh
  Wire
  Silver ball beads
  Silver Metallic Leafing Pen, Krylon
  Black Eyelash fibers
  Black irredescent fibers
  White oval eyelet
  Arrow eyelet

  Now that you've embellished with stipple brush and ink, here is a simple project to try using similar techniques. This one is very quick and easy. You will need some Craf-T Metallic Rub-Ons for your background.
  
  These tags were just plain beige cardstock. I wanted them to overlap, so I adhered them together before beginning the rest of the project. Here are the easy instructions:

  • Stipple brush orange ink all over the tags.
    
  • To get the rustic look on these tags, mat them in brown cardstock. This is easily done by simply adhering them to a larger piece of cardstock then evenly cutting around the tag.
    
  • Rub Gold Craf-T Metallic Rub-Ons all over the tags. It gives them a weathered but shimmery look. Rub-Ons require no drying time so you can move right on to the next step!
    
  • Sticky Sentiment Stickers (It Takes Two) provided the fall expressions on the tags. You may use any type of stickers or rub-on words you have on hand to dress up your tags.
    
  • To finish your tag, all you do is to add your eyelets and fibers to them.
  Embellishing tags is easy and fun! I hope you've been inspired to make some tags today!

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