A fun art tag tutorial!

I have had a lot of fun creating art tags from shipping tags lately and have actually made quite a few of them already 🙂
I love sharing my process with you and I hope you will enjoy this art tag tutorial…
Let me know with a comment at the bottom of this page!

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Art tag tutorial steps

Part 1:

1. I started with a tag already primed with gesso and a little leftover purple paint.
2. Let’s create a fun and interesting background! First, I’m mixing a little turquoise and lime green over a wave stencil…. And then, once they are dry, I’m adding a little yellow, pink and mauve (be careful when adding the mauve near the yellow as they don’t make the nicest colour when blended together!).
3. To add some interest, I am tearing a few pieces of printed tissue paper that I am gluing with gel medium in random places on the tag. Cut off any bits that are sticking out from the back with scissors.
4. In my stash of papers, I find some pretty elements from a napkin that will add some interest but first, I want to make the tissue paper blend in with my background a bit more so I’m adding a little green paint over the pieces. Better! Now I can glue my bits of napkin, more around the edges so they won’t get too lost in the background later on 🙂
   Again, cut out any bit sticking out from the back.

Part 2:

1. Going back to my stash of papers, I’m looking for something to add to the foreground of my little painting and I find a cool bird from a previous mixed media painting (I had it printed here but you can see the original painting called ‘Soar’ here). Let’s cut it out and glue down with gel medium as well! What would we do without gel medium, I ask??
2. To create a slight shadow around my bird I’m using a black Inktense pencil (although you could also use a Neocolor II crayon) and a little water to dilute the ink…
3. After drying everything thoroughly, I want to add more colour to my art tag so I’m reusing the background paper I used earlier to keep things cohesive. Using a hole punch (that is not behaving well, maybe because the blade is blunt), I’m cutting out some circles that I will then glue with, you know it!, gel medium 😉 Don’t forget to tidy up your tag by cutting out anything that sticks out from the back!

Part 3:

1. To bring everything together, I’m rubbing in a little paint, using the same colours I used previously, as my tag is already quite colourful!
2. Let’s add some subtle texture by using a reversed chicken wire stencil, black ink and a little finger dauber that allows you to add ink neatly…
3. To frame my tag nicely I then rub my black ink pad on all the edges of the tag.
4. And now, for my final touches, I rubbing on a little copper acrylic paint for a little shine… A nice change from the gold I use all the time, right? 🙂
5. And we’re done! I sincerely hope you enjoyed this art tag tutorial… Let me know below, ok??

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With love and sunshine,
Mimi Bondi

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Art supplies used:
(click on blue links if you want to buy the same ones)

Paint and ink:

• Dylusions paint Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime
• Makeup sponges
• Liquitex Basics Acrylic Paint: Cadmium Yellow Ligth Hue, Medium Magenta, Light Blue Violet, Brilliant Yellow Green, Light Blue Permanent
• Gel medium
• Stazon inkpad Jet Black
• Liquitex Basics Acrylic Paint Copper

Other:

• Shipping tag
• Makeup sponges
• MMS Wave Stencil
• Crafter’s Workshop Reversed Chicken Wire stencil
• Black Derwent Inktense pencil (or Neocolor II crayon)
• Tim Holtz tissue paper (sorry I can’t find what it’s called!)
• Martha Stewart hole punch (I don’t know the name)