I swear sometimes my projects seem to take on a life of their own. I start out with one idea in mind and before I know it, I've taken a sharp turn and ended up somewhere totally unexpected. So was the case with this little project. I thought I'd make stuffed hearts using some really cool ribbon that I'd saved and somewhere along the way got an idea for fabric tags instead.
I love tags. You know those paper ones with the brown reinforcements and string ties that you get in the stationary stores? Love those. So I thought it would be fun to make some out of fabric but make them big enough that they could double as little Valentine cards. Just something that a friend could hang in her sewing room or over her desk. A lasting momento of friendship.
I must say here that this is a pretty lame tutorial. Just really a bunch of photos for hopefully some inspiration. What you decorate your tags with will totally depend on what's in your stash boxes, bags and bins.
Here's what I did:
I started with Peltex Double Sided Fusible Stabilizer and ironed fabric to each side. Peltex was the perfect choice for this project because it's thick and firm enough to support my embellishments. You can even sew through it if you want. It was the first time I'd ever worked with Peltex and loved how easy it was.
I traced my tag shapes onto the fused fabric and cut them out.
Because some of the fabric I used was a loose weave I thought I would seal the edges so they wouldn't ravel so I painted on Mod Podge Matt around the cut edges.
Then I just rubber stamped a message or design on the front of my little tags and decorated them with some flowers and odds and ends I had laying around. I mostly just hot glued everything down. Each tag took just a few minutes to make although deciding what to do took awhile, but that's the part I love the most - getting out all my treasures, sifting through boxes of buttons and ribbon, trying to find that perfect thing.
I've had these little decorative drawer pulls forever and never knew what to do with them. What I thought I wanted was a big eyelet but didn't have any so the drawer pulls seemed perfect.
I just poked a little hole through the Peltex and screwed the knob onto the tag.
Here's one with an eyelet after a quick trip to Michaels. Bill helped me drill a hole through the Peltex big enough for the large eyelet.
I antiqued the edges by blotting the edges with a rubber stamp ink pad.
If you'd like to make your own you can go here for the tag pattern.
Encourage one another,
