Art on a budget - Tags

Following on the theme of making art from recycled 'material' that was featured in Craft Stamper - I thought I would show you some things I have been doing with 'stuff' from a charity shop. Once a week I spend a morning at college so go early to get a parking spot - which gives me just enough time to walk into the town centre to a charity shop.

This week I bought some children's dominoes - 50p for a box of 26. Really thick chipboard - what a bargain. So I decided to make a couple of tags - just experimenting with different things before trying them out on something 'precious'.


This is an 'image' on painted a tag painted black with some 'colouring' and then varnished. It has come up really well - I have not done the other side yet - apart from painting it - but I am really pleased with the result - and it was easy to punch a hole through too.




I wanted to make a large tag for the keys to my studio. Somehow they always manage to get 'lost' in out pot of keys - so this tag is now a key ring.

I painted both sides with Gesso to hide the pictures on it, added the black and white image of a Geisha and gave her a coat of Gesso so make her look misty and mysterious. I then highlighted some areas with a black pen, painted it with two coats of varnish (I want it to be strong and waterproof) then gave her a little tinge of pink here and there. The calligraphy are Spring, Summer, Autumn, (couldn't get one for winter) so the last is 'Art'.


I know this is bright and 'in your face' but that is how I wanted it to be so that it is easy to see, if I gets put down somewhere! Again - white Gesso, stamped image, varnished twice, then swiped over with alcohol ink which was an experiment- so I now know that I can varnish something and add colours to it afterwards. And it even coloured the metal eyelet.

This now has a keyring and a couple of very heavy keys attached and it works a treat.



Here is the before photo - they are quite large - 3" x 2" approx





I think 50 for 26 chipboard tags is a bargain - don't you?