Damaged By Salt Water

When I got started on my travel tags I posted to my blog about my art process, with the full intent of coming back and sharing how the rest of the creating went.  Unfortunately I procrastinated until the last minute and totally forgot about that promise until just now!  But that’s okay, I didn’t do too much more and it’s easy to share what/how I did it.

The original post can be found here:

http://pennywisearts.blogspot.com/2010/08/art-is-process.html

And this is where we left off:

In fact, my table still looks very much the same!  M.E.S.S.Y. Ü

Here is the seashell wave I made using Sure Tac glue, shells and clear micro beads:

When it was dry I took a bottle of alcohol ink and just squeezed drops over it all, letting the ink run wherever and however it wanted to.  Deciding that it needed more interest and dimension, I went back over it again just touching some of the shells with a drop of a darker ink color as well as some with a pearl color.

The acetate waves were applied to the tag with huge dimensional glue dots to raise them up off the page and make it “fat”.  I love that they are clear as well, so hardly show at all.

Once they were on the page I hit the edges of the acetate with a heat tool causing them to buckle and curl just a little.  I really liked the effect!  It really made the waves look more realistic!

Next I glued a fancy bead trim across the bottom of each tag:

Baby tags were cut with my Cricut to mimic the same shape as the big tag and embossed with one of my favorite verses in a sparkly glitter embossing powder:

The backs papers were also cut with my Cricut and I spritzed with water to nearly soaking.  Then I sprinkled table salt all over them and let them dry completely.  Then I took my finger and rubbed at the paper until some of the fibers rubbed away and tore. To pull some of the purples in I spritzed some eggplant color wash randomly and stamped “Damaged by Salt Water” across the back. 

Stamp Credit:  Nick Bantock

Here’s the final product of my travel tags for the fat book:

It was a fun process that spanned a couple of months.  Being a social crafter I always found it easier to create when I had company over.  I am grateful to all of the gals who helped contribute thoughts, ideas and opinions and to Leola for helping me redo the little tags three times to get them perfect!  Ü