Project of the Day: Vintage Red, White, & Blue Tag

Today's project is a tag featuring a distressed map of the British Isles. The assignment was to make a vintage tag in red, white, and blue, presumably to celebrate American Independence Day, but I guess I had Brexit on my mind, so this is what we got!

I printed out  the map image and lightly distressed it using the technique I showed in this post here. (This is a fun one, and a great basic technique that should be in everyone's repertoire!)

With a mini ink tool and Distress Inks, I added reds at the top and blues at the bottom, leaving the middle white. I went around the edges of the tag with Vintage Photo, then spritzed the whole thing with Antique Linen, Old Paper, and Picket Fence Distress Spray Stains.

When it was dry, I embossed the top of the tag with a mixture of the following, sprinkling these on randomly and allowing them to melt together: white embossing powder to which I had added some pearlescent pigment powder; antique ivory embossing powder; and clear glitter embossing powder. While the powder was still hot and melty, I stamped into it with a not-very-clean rubber stamp--I liked the serendipitous "aged" darkness it gave, besides lending dimension and texture to the whole piece.

Here are some closeups, trying to capture the shimmer and glitter in the resins (you can click on them to get an even better look):

With the same combination of powders, I embossed some chipboard stars and affixed them to the bottom of the tag, then dirtied them up with a bit of Vintage Photo stain.

I edged the whole thing in black chalk ink, and tied it with a bit of ribbon that I aged with Old Paper, Vintage Photo, and Picket Fence stains, and--what ho!--a vintage red, white, and blue tag ready to send to my swap partner.  :D

Please leave comments or questions below! I'd love to chat and hear your thoughts.