Rusty Steampunk Tag Tutorial – Mixed Media Tag

Today I had a lot of (messy) fun making a rusty steampunk tag featuring one of the Tin Teddy Steampunk Ladies, ink sprays and die cut cogs.

The Background Tag

First I die cut a tag from mountboard using my trusty Tim Holtz Tags and Labels die.  I have used this die for many other mixed media tag projects.

I took a page from an old dictionary (1970s Websters) and glued it over the tag using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  I rubbed it with my brayer to ensure it was nice and smooth then trimmed off the excess.

Next, I sprayed the tag with Mix Media Ink Spray from Imagination Crafts.  I sprayed it from about 12 inches up so as to get a speckly pattern.  Spraying from a closer distance would have given a more solid appearance. I used Dark Orange over the tag then added a couple of bursts of  Dark Brown at the corners.  I left this to dry.

My Lava Red Cosmic Shimmer spray no longer sprays (I assume there is mica clogging the tube somewhere).  I pulled the tube from the bottle and tapped it over the tag with a pencil.  This made some nice round splatters on the tag.  These splatters have a distinct shimmer in real life. Again I left this to dry.

I used the Bubbles Small stencil from Dylusions and laid it over the tag.  I rubbed some Gold Treasure Gilding Polish, by Cosmic Shimmer, through some areas of the stencil, aiming for a random “scattered around” effect. I used my finger to rub the polish on.  This is turning out to be a wonderfully messy project.

Then I did the same thing with Golden Crystal Nuvo Glitter Paste.  Although both are gold colours, they look very different.

I then rubbed more Gilding Polish around the edges of the tag.  I love these Gilding Polishes as they are very creamy and the end result is very shiny.

The Focal Point

I chose one of the ladies from the Tin Teddy Steampunk Ladies Clip Art set and resized her to 5 inches tall.  I printed her onto glossy photographic paper.

With sharp scissors, I fussy cut her out and used a knife to remove the background from within her bent arms.

I carefully rubbed the side of the nib of a light brown alcohol marker around the edges of the lady.  This gets rid of any stark white as well as making my cutting-out appear a whole lot neater!

The Little Details

I used the three smallest dies from the Xcuts die set, Chronology Cogs, to cut four different sets of cogs cards.  Three from gold Miri card, three from brown kraft card, three from orange Adorable Scorable card and three from plain white scrap card. I inked the white cogs up with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and then added some Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink to both them and the plain orange cogs.

Using Ranger Multi Medium Matte, I glued the steampunk lady and the cogs onto the tag.  It took me a while to decide what was going where!

Finally, I took two pieces of rusty-orange garden twine, and one piece of plain brown paper twine and used these to make the cord on the tag.

In real life this tag has lots of different blings going on and looks far more interesting and textured than it does in a scan (you will just have to believe me on that, won’t you!)

I have also made a steampunk themed shaker card using one of the images from the same Tin Teddy Clip Art set.  Here is the link:

Steampunk Card Shaker Tutorial

Other Tin Teddy Tutorials to make mixed media tags.

Supplies Used in the Steampunk Tag

Supplies from Amazon.co.uk

Supplies from Amazon.com

I am including this rusty steampunk tag in the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge for May.  The challenge this time is “Rust”.

And also in the Creative Artist Challenge Blog #38