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Tutorial: Formica Tags (4/29/06)

These tags can be turned into magnets, name badges, pins, necklaces of a sort, rear-view mirror or wall hangings, tree ornaments. They can be placed in your altered books, or on a card as an embellishment

I find an assembly line process works great for me when I'm working on these tags. First, I cover them all, then while they're drying, I'll stamp images on paper. then I start assembling the tags. Sometimes I'll collage on the images to the entire set I'm working on and then embellish with words and rhinestones. Other times, i'll complete just one tag at a time.

Ingredients:

• formica tags
• decorative japanese, mulberry papers or similar...anything that's soft and easy to "mold" around the curved corners, but not tissue or napkins because they're so fragile and won't stand up to a lot of manipulation
• gel medium
• brush
• white tissue or mulberry paper or deli sheets...anything that will become translucent when it's collaged onto the tag with gel medium.
• black India Ink pad or other black permanent waterproof dye ink
• stamps (words and lovely images that fit the size of the tags are best, or use a portion of the stamp)
• pages of text you can cut up
• something to cut them with (I use detail scissors, but you could use any cutting implement of your choosing)
• rhinestones
• diamond glaze (optional)
• tweezers (not crucial, but VERY helpful)
• other embellishments (optional)
• gold krylon pen

Steps:

1. Cover the tag with your decorative paper, using gel medium as adhesive. I usually approach it like I'm wrapping a gift. I usually don't care what the back looks like if I'm making a pin or magnet.

Step 1 - The fronts.

2. If you do care what the back looks like, perhaps you're going to make a necklace, or if you have uncovered sections, cut a matching piece of decorative paper, slightly smaller than the tag, and adhere to the back to cover up anything you don't want to show.

Step 2 - The backs.

3. If you decide it's a hanging tag, you will want to poke and clear out the tag hole while the glue is still wet. I poke in a pencil or chopstick and move it around the sides of the tag hole until the paper is mooshed around enough. I usually press it down around the outside of the hole to make it all flat. It's not very technical. Just do what you need to to make a nice hole.

4. Stamp images and/or words onto white tissue with permanent black ink. Collage onto your tag.

Step 4 - Collage the image.

5. Trim a phrase or quote from a page of text and collage onto tag.

6. Embellish with rhinestones.

7. Edge the tag (or not) with a krylon pen, or ink color of your choosing.

The trick is to not spend too much time thinking about what text to cut out. It can be meaningful or not. I usually grab the first phrase that strikes me, as long as it will fit on the tag nicely around the image. If I find a long phrase that I simply must use, I'll start another tag with a smaller image or something to balance out the composition. Just go with your instinct and do what you like. If you don't like the way it looks, layer on another piece of decorative paper and start over!

Variations:

• Try stamping on colored tissue instead of white.
• Stamp with different colors of permanent ink.
• Try a two-sided tag.
• Add a domino or a paper-covered domino shape (like the ones from Sunday International) to add another dimension to your tag.
• Use diamond glaze to highlight a certain image or word on your tag.

Variation: Add domino shapes, covered with decorative paper, to tag.