Tim Holtz

How to: Make Vintage Tags

With only three weeks left until our wedding, my fiance and I have been trying to finish up all of our last-minute, DIY projects.  Both of us love worn, aged and vintage-esque décor, but we don't  have enough cash to drop on real antiques.  By making new items looked distressed we can save money, achieve the look we want and have fun in the process!

Both of us are new to distressing techniques, but we're happy with what we've done so far.  For all you people who are new to distressing techniques like we were, here's our easy DIY project for making vintage name tags.  We're using these tags  for wedding favors, but they also make great gift tags for Christmas, birthdays or other special occasions.

Make your own:

Materials

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads in Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Fired Brick (above)
• Ink blending tool (above)
• White shipping tags
• Non-stick craft mat
• Wooden stamp of choice
• Dymo Plastic Label Maker with black tape
• Burlap twine

Instructions

1. Set up your craft mat and set out your plain white tags.  I got mine from Hobby Lobby, but shipping tags also work depending on how big you want your tags to be.

2. Take your tag and crumple it using your hands.  Bend and fold the tag until crease marks appear.  Any creases you make will be picked up by the distress ink later on.

3.  Once you have your tag crumpled to your liking, gently pull the tag straight so it lays nearly flat.  It's okay if it's not completely straight, this will help it look aged.

4. Open the Antique Linen Distress Ink and use your blending tool to smudge the crumpled tag with ink, blending in a circular motion.  Re-ink the blending tool as needed.  Repeat until the tag is completely covered and the creases darken.

5.  Once the tag is completely dry, use the blending tool to smudge the Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges of the tag.  This will achieve a nice burned effect.  Repeat and blend out until desired effect is reached.

6. Wait for the tag to dry.  Take the Red Brick Distress Ink and ink up your favorite vintage-inspired stamp.  Since you don't want to red stamp to be too overpowering, select the part of the stamp you want to use and place it in the corner of the tag.  We used a clock stamp.

7.  After that ink dries, use a plastic label maker to punch out the appropriate name and affix it to the tag.

8.  Thread burlap twine through the tag.

9.  Enjoy your vintage gift tag!  Now you can tie them to whatever you wish.

They could also be used as decorations, just use your imagination!   I love how they look inside this old wooden box.

Have you ever made any DIY projects that were vintage inspired?

About the Author

Caitlin Kavanaugh is an Editor for FaveCrafts.com

Has anyone used Tim Holtz Distress ink pads?

Are they any good? What colours have you tried and what is the differance between them and a normal ink pad (when crafting)

Yes they are made by Ranger a good brand. You can get bottles of re-inkers too but we rarely sell them as the pads last a long time. There are also matching embossing powders.

The difference is that the colour range is intended for the altered image, vintage, aged, stained look that Tim does so well. We stock two DVD's with Tim demonstrating ideas and techniques. They are called 'An Altered Journey' and 'The Journey Continues'.

You can have a go at the look by staining paper with tea. Either rub a used tea bag over, spatter, dab on with a sponge, or just spill some over the paper. If you have brown or sepia pads, pens or chalks use these with black ink & vintage look stamps or clip art to make a collage.

One technique is to crumple up paper, spread it out and rub the ink pad lightly over the surface. this leaves patches uninked and lightly inked and the creases more heavily inked.

I have watched Tim demonstrate at craft shows and he makes it look very quick and easy. Trying to catch that altered look yourself takes practice I often end up with grunge.

tim holtz - perfect distress

Tags: art, crafts, holtz, scrapbooking, tim, tim holtz, tim holtz blog, tim holtz christmas tags, tim holtz stamps, tim holtz vagabond

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 12:14 am and is filed under scrapbooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.