FEBRUARY TAG; The 12 Tags of 2015

February is usually thought of as the "Love" month, and I admit to such thinking myself. But I also see February as a c-c-c-cooooold, snowy, wind-blown month also. Living here in Indiana, I can't help but feel the pain of Old Man Winter making his last greatest, chilliest strikes of the year. I also am pretty strict about Valentine's Day being an important celebration of a chance to do something small to say "I love you" to your Sweetheart. AND....it's also the last day I give for having the snowmen, or any other winter decor or lights. I've always put those away no later than Feb. 14th. Or risk more freezing snow?? lol

Tim played his February Tag very well, and I really LOVED the idea of cutting, pasting, pasting, and pasting again. :D  Those are the very basics of crafting! And the thing about ephemera is that you can use store-bought (I absolutely LOVE Tim's choices he has out on the racks), cut some from stash paper (Tim also has already done the work for you in his paper stacks into smaller or larger cuts- which I have almost all the stacks), or even make your own (my fave choice of all). I love using my printer and usually am printing something just about every single day, and so does my ChiefHubby. For this reason, I have two setups going for us. Now that he is retired from GVFD, his actual printing is going to be cut in half; much like mine was when our kids both were graduated from high school. So I actually have much less wear/tear on both setups and they will likely last more than the 1 year each they used to do! So saving more of my own finds online, or scanned, is really nice!

Saving my own files of finds for ephemera allows me to change them into personalized items. It helps cut down on the work if you find something that closely resembles what you're looking for. For instance, I wanted to add photos to the backsides of my tag, but I also wanted to make it look older. So I googled through 'vintage cabinet cards, Indiana' and up came hundreds of images to choose from that people share for free to download. I always keep an original and work from a copy. Then change the copy as I would like it to look, and save it to my files.

 

           Then, when it comes to IdeaOlogy, I try to always have enough to use for each copy of Tag I am making, and in this case, I was wanting to make three tags total, so I would have one for each couple in our family- my ChiefHubby and I, our older son, Brian, & his girl, Ashley and younger son, Brett, & his wife, Holli. But I didn't have any of the Industrial Stickers for the intended Valentine tags. So I turned to my drawers of stashed items and found two 'photo' bottle caps in bronz, a gold laurel wreath with a heart and bow, and some Word Sticks, an 'Observations' Word Band, plus the Arrows Adornments. To make the bottle caps work, I pounded them down with my hammer, then used a few drops of Silver Mix Alcohol Ink onto the caps and also the gold laurel wreath...and presto: perfect items to use in place of the small oval Industrial Stickers!

 

 

    I had to take a little more care during sewing because I couldn't sew right through the metal objects like you can with the Industrial Stickers (made of firmer cardstock items), but it worked quite well. And I was also able to add some of the same edging from Grandma's sheet set to not only give the 'soft' look, but another vivid memory as well handed down to our kids. I chose not to sew any of it onto the front side, but I chose to sew some along the bottom of the photos onto the 'cabinet card' for the backsides of the tags.  I may not be crafty when it comes to making clothing items, (I can do doll clothes, though,) but I really LOVE getting that machine out for PAPER crafting !! ;)



Frontsides: (LtoR) Brett & Holli, Me-n-theChiefHubby, Brian & Ashley

 



Backsides of each: (LtoR) Brett & Holli, all of us for Me-n-theChiefHubby, Brian & Ashley.



         Thanks for all the sweet comments and encouragement from lots of mega-talented folks out there!
I want to wish everyone a wonderfully Happy Valentine's Day! And know that you are LOVED not only by others in this world, but by our Lord and Saviour, JESUS CHRIST ! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll take a look at the next post, made for the COC3 Challenge #21.
                                          Be safe and, as always; Happy Blogging !!