VINTAGE CAMPER TAG TUTORIAL

Hello all you night owls! Welcome to the New Year's Eve All Night Craft Along!

It is I, your hostess, Paula Clare. Please come in, grab a cuppa Joe, and join us as we craft into the wee hours of the New Year!


First, you must find a camper image that you love. Not one you LIKE, but one that you LOVE. For example, I found lots of these kinds of pictures online:

THIS is a photo of my real canned ham, the joy of my camping life! Hubby dear and I worked together to fix it up...and now we've taken it all over the U.S...taking particular time to explore Route 66. (Lots of blogging about it...just type Route 66 into the blogger search bar!)

 

You can get the image for your camper tag anywhere...photos and drawings, scrapbook kits:

 

 

embroidery patterns!

Even rubber stamps! After scouring the internet, and usual rubber stamp companies, I found this little handmade rubber stamp that I think most resembles my canned ham. Found it on Etsy...of course! 

The process of making the little vintage camper tag is a bit tedious...and there are certainly EASIER ways to do it, but this is the way *I* chose to create my little bit of camper heaven.

First, we must make a "hard copy" image of our camper...This will help us to manipulate the size.  This is done simply by making a photo copy of the image (with a black and white copier) or scanning the image to make a digital copy.

First, stamp the image clearly on a piece of white card stock, using whatever color ink will leave a crisp, clear image: 

 Next, consider what size you want your tag to be. For my happy camper tag swap I left the size of the tags open ended...so it's up to you! Because this stamp is TINY (1.5" x 1.25) I needed to enlarge the stamped image several times until it was the size I wanted. (My scanner/copier will only enlarge up to 200%, so I enlarged my stamped image at 200% twice...increasing the size by 400%). I then used this larger stamped image to cut out the template from my chipboard.

Everybody still with me so far? Any questions? Feel free to jump in on the chat in the box at the top right in my sidebar! 

Okay, after increasing the size of the stamped image, and using the final enlarged copy to make our chipboard template, we use the template to cut out our chipboard camper tag. (however many of them you need to make!)

A cute idea is to make several out of the same shape, then create a book...here's one I created earlier in the year:

Now, this is the fun part...pick out papers, embellies, fabric, whatever you are going to use to make your camper "you". Here are a few examples made by the gals in the tag swap...

Here's a fabric camper I created:

Each lady's camper has elements that reflect who they are...or colors they love, or...even the interior decor (the inside "theme" of my canned ham is cowgirl!) as mine did:

And the daisy wheel covers indicate my favorite flower! (You'll note I streamlined the hitch shape a bit...sometimes for practical reasons this is necessary) Very often my first tag is a prototype...a "working model" I use to perfect before I begin the "mass production" process. This saves lots of time and mental anguish in the long run!

SO, the process of applying paper, windows, etc. is fairly straightforward...you just determine where the door will be, glue a "mini 'you'" inside the door (I've chosen to use my avatar face and glued it to a cowboy on a horse! Cath Kidston stationary!) The rest of the papers were glued and chosen to "mock" my real canned ham...down to the red and white striped awning! (I used pop dots to "poof" the awning out a bit and give it dimension!)

What do you think? See the resemblance?

 

We had a BLAST making these camper tags! I hope you have too! I'd LOVE to see pictures of your finished campers...DO leave a comment and a link, won't you? Happy Camping!

Hugs,

Paula Clare