When I am at a loss for what to create for someone, a “go-to” for me is a tag. I feel like they are a little more elaborate than a card, but less detailed than a canvas. \u00a0Depending on my mood, the style may be totally different, but usually when I am just plain happy, I will do a cutsie tag. There is often a colored image as the focal point, surrounded by a bed of flowers and bling, lace and pearls. \u00a0Who wouldn’t like to receive something like that?<\/p>\n

<\/a>Tags can come in any size. The one on the left, which was a gift for a YT friend, Nae Nae, who loves all things Marilyn (YT: Renea Villanueva), was just the size of the die cut frame I used to frame the animated picture of Marilyn Monroe and her dog, Maf.<\/p>\n

<\/a>They can be tiny gift tags that you might put on a wine bottle to as a hostess gift or medium size tags like the ones I cut out of burlap paper using a Sizzix die to make a Christmas ornament featuring my dogs, Biscuit and Bandito (see top photo and photo at left). However, the typical tag in crafting circles is an 8.5″ x 3.5″, which can be cut from any sturdy paper (e.g., cereal boxes, packaging from craft embellishment packages, heavy weight card stock, manila file folders or chipboard).<\/p>\n

I have recently made two tags for YT friends Yurlady (YT: Yorlis07) and Anna (YT: Anna Vlasova). The first one was in blues using a Greeting Farm “Miss Anya Loves” stamp sitting on a die cut bench and the second one was in brown and pink using “Java Queen” from WickedDesignsbyBrenda. Once I colored the images with my Copic and Chromatix markers, the rest of the tags just seemed to come together. \u00a0I pulled out embellishments, bling and flowers in the colors I had used on the images and everything just flowed. The extra “jazziness” comes from the lush tassles at the top of the tag (something cards generally just don’t have).<\/p>\n

The only tricky part with some images is that they appear to be sitting so if you don’t have a bench or chair, you may have to stamp in a tree trunk, bench, or something else on which the image can “rest”. \u00a0In my second tag, I combined two chairs to create a kind of settee so that the pretty details of the chair backs would not get completely obscured by the cute image.<\/p>\n

The following are links to my videos in which I share the details of the last two tags. \u00a0Thanks for watching.<\/p>\n