WILD WEST TAG SWAP NEARS ITS END...

Howdy ya'll! I'm back from a restful weekend of camping and excited to see what might be waiting for me in the mail today and tomorrow! I've had a few gals ask for a bit of an extension...just a day or two. Apparently I'm not the only one who's summer has gotten away from them! So if it's alright with all of ya'll...I'll be mailing your tags to you around Labor Day weekend!

While I was away, I was working on your "thank you" tags for the swap:

This was a "multi-step" process, in order to make them appear old n ratty. Here's how I did it...



1. I bought a stack of regular manila office tags, and then made a mixture of strong coffee and vanilla extract. I soak the tags in the mixture (smells heavenly!) and then crumpled up some of them once they were good and soggy.

2. I laid the tags on cookie sheets in a single layer, and baked at 275 for about 15 or 20 minutes (til dry)

3. The reinforced hole dots came off, but I didn't care. Soaking and crumpling the tags restructures the paper fibers, and makes them appear and feel more like leather.

4. After this initial "treatment", I gathered my Route 66 stamps, chestnut roan ink and stamped each tag with a vintage image...


5. The next step is to add more images, ink and assorted ephemera.

6. And what would wild west tags be without denim and bandanas? I ripped some fabric into strips for the tag toppers...


Pictures of the finished product soon...meanwhile, I've got an armload of mail to go through! YEEEHAW! Back with pics right away!

Hugs,
Paula clare