Elizabeth Craft Designs | Tags & More

Hi and welcome!!!

I’m excited to share my very first Elizabeth Craft Designs (ECD) project for my very first Elizabeth Craft Designs Designer Challenge!

The theme for this month is ‘Tags & More’. Tags & More is a series of eight Elizabeth Craft Designs steel cutting die sets that allow you to cut and embellish your own tags. Please visit the ECD blog to see all the amazing projects from my fellow Design Team members and to get an even better idea of what can be done with the cool Tags & More die sets!

The wonderful thing about these wafer-thin tag cutting dies is that only the width of the tag is fixed. The height of each tag is up to your own preferences: you can make them as tall or as short as you want. Each Tags & More set also comes with a custom die overlay and a couple of accessories like shaped hole reinforcers and corners.

Because this was the very first project I created with my brand spanking new ECD supplies, my idea was to just start with test driving all the different die sets I had received and go on from there!

I decided to die-cut all my shapes out of watercolour paper. There is ECD watercolour paper available, but the size isn’t large enough for the largest tag shape, so keep in mind that you will need another brand of watercolour paper for the largest dies!

Steps for my trio of tags:

• Die-cut a couple of different tags and accessories out of watercolour paper.
• Add spray ink to the tags.
• Leave all inked die-cuts to dry.
• Adhere (parts of) smaller tags onto the largest tags.
• Die-cut embellishments (butterflies, branches, heart) out of pre-inked or plain watercolour paper.
• Adhere the die-cut embellishments to the tags.
• Finish off with some die-cut words, peel-off stickers and twine.

There really is no rhyme or reason to how I added the spray ink to the tags… I was just playing ;-). But here are some spray ink tips:

• Spray the ink directly onto the paper (spray from a distance for a mist, close-up for puddles of ink)
• Drip the ink (open the bottle and use a medium to large round brush or pipette for large drops, flick a small round brush or the spray bottle nozzle thingie for small drops)
• Spray the ink and then add water to let the ink flow on the paper.
• Let the ink dry and then drip water onto the paper. Take a kitchen towel and pat the paper dry.
• Use dies to create a custom alphabet stencil and spray through.
• Spray your paper, let it dry. Cover the inside of an embossing folder with a mist of water and use the folder as a stamp. Pat the paper dry with a kitchen towel.
• And the last but most important tip of all: just have fun!

I hope you enjoyed my little show and tell and please don’t hesitate to share your artsy Tags & More creations. You can simply link up in the comments below. I would love to see!

Don’t forget to stop by the ECD blog to see the rest of the Designer Challenge projects!

Supplies | Elizabeth Craft Designs:
713 Small Butterfly
758 Berry Branch
794 Heart with Wings
803 CuttleBug and Big Shot Metal Adaptor Plate
951 Tags & More 1 – Lace
958 Tags & More 5 – Sunburst
961 Tags & More 8 – Lattice
962 Hardware 1 – Hinges
967 Alphabet 1 – Caps
968 Numbers & More 1
E108 Feathers Embossing Folder
2591 Star Buddies Peel-Off Sticker in black
506 Transparent Double Sided Tape – 6mm
WP903 4″ X 9″ Watercolour Paper (remember: you will also need a couple of sheets of a larger size for the largest tags!)

Supplies | Other:
Spray inks (Dylusions – Bubblegum Pink, Lemon Zest, Pure Sunshine, Vibrant Turquoise)
Twine (Karen Foster Design – Scrapper’s Spools – Carnation)
Foam tape
Liquid adhesive
Spray bottle of water