Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Sandpaper Challenge


It's Wednesday, and time for another challenge over at Gingersnap CreationsThis week's challenge is to use Sandpaper in some way.  I love the vintage distressed look, so this challenge was super fun for me.  For my tag, I first ran a plain manila tag through my Xyron sticker maker machine to be sure the entire tag was coated with adhesive.  I then placed the tag on a page from a very vintage book, and trimmed around the edges.  Vintage text is often rather brittle (mine was), and so it's very important that the adhesive cover the tag entirely, and that it's not too wet of a medium.  Then I pulled out my sandpaper and sanded over the text to get a really worn look.  It starts to look really muddy, since you are getting dust from sanding off the black text - just close your eyes and blow on it really hard, and it will look pretty again!  I distressed the edges with Ranger Distress Inks in antique linen and vintage photo.  I colored a Santa image from Hearts in Touch using Copics, then trimmed him in some vintage rick rack and adhered him to the top of the tag.  I stamped a sentiment, and glued on some holly leaves (from a "big box store" sprig) and some glitter domes for the berries.  I think it has a retro kind of feel to it.

So... if you like to get dusty and have some sandpaper lying around, you might want to check out the challenge.  There's blog candy for one lucky participant! :)

6 comments:

Lynn Stevens said...

Great tip on applying the text to a manila tag before sanding!! It came out so cool, very vintage!

Hearts Turned said...

Gorgeous tag, Jean! Sandpaper, huh?! Very creative! I need to make some tags...thanks for the inspiration!

Anonymous said...

I love the vintage look that you achieved! Your whole tag is just brilliant!

Anne (cornucopia) said...

This tag is fantastic Jean! I like the combination of elements you used for this.

Angelnorth said...

This looks great Jean! Love the sanded text effect and that ric rac made a great frame for Santa!

Ali Manning said...

this is lovely, Jean - the sprig of holly is a really nice touch!