Busy Mom VS Daily Grind – Day 3 + Scrappy Tags Tutorial

New here and wondering what’s going on? Busy Mom VS Daily Grind is all about making the dedication to do something every day that will help you live a happier, more fulfilling life. I have committed to document my journey of developing the habits of living moment by moment, being grateful, and bringing self expression + creativity into every day. Read more about the challenge HERE.

Perhaps I spoke too soon yesterday. No nap for baby today. :( I tried to put her down, and was able to start my creative project, but didn’t get very far. Luckily it was a simple project, and I was able to finish up after bedtime. I do love how these came out, but they aren’t as wondrous as in my imagination. I am so out of practice! 

I know a lot of you could easily see how these are made, but I thought perhaps you’d enjoy a step by step anyway!

Step 1: Gather a bunch of manilla shipping tags and crumple them up. Wrinkles are fun! :)

Even kids love crumpling the tags! See how hard she’s concentrating? he he

Step 2: Mix up a batch of walnut ink. I don’t usually measure, but you mix about 1/2tsp walnut crystals with 1/2 cup warm water. I like to store mine in a baby food jar. Then paint it onto your tags! Don’t forget the back. ;0)

I like to paint the strings too. Although, I think they changed the type of string they use… these ones don’t seem to be accepting the ink very well. (I totally propped  up the brush with my knee to take this photo! lol)

I know some gals like to bake them in the oven, or put them in the sun, or even microwave them to dry. But I let mine just air dry. 

Step 3: Cut up or tear some lace and other fabrics, then layer and arrange them how you like on the tags.

Step 4: The silky fabric was too wrinkly and didn’t want to stay down, so I sprayed it with a little spray adhesive to glue it down. There may be a better glue to use, but this is what I had on hand. But you definitely don’t want to use anything that dries hard, because you’ll be putting it through your sewing machine. 

Step 5: Stitch away with your sewing machine! I SOOOO wish my machine did free motion sewing, but (sigh) it doesn’t. So I tried to make it look a little like free motion by going back and forth a bunch of times, being really sloppy. Love the messy look! I even left some strings dangling. 

Some of the little loose pieces of fabric prevented me from using the back-stitch, so I had to keep turning the tag around in order to hold the fabrics in place with my fingers while I sewed. 

TaDah! Now you can use them in your art journal, or display them in a frame, or I dunno… what the heck to you use tags for anyway? I just love making them and looking at them! lol

 As for my gratitude for the day… not much to report. Everyone was cranky today and we had a lot of running around to do. But I did enjoy some BIG, SLOBBERY kisses from the mini one! he he And it was super cute that Josephine wanted to help crumple the tags. 

I had a real tough time trying not to multi task though, since the baby didn’t nap. I wanted to get back to my project so bad! But I was good and resisted the urge. You don’t realize how how often your mind is wandering around, until you try and spend the whole day living in the moment! It’s hard!

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. See you tomorrow! :)