A Special Tag Project

Hi Everyone
Yet another lovely morning, the clouds are a bit dull but generally the day feels OK. No frost at all this morning ! The sun is just breaking through as I write.

It's Die Cut Friday again, a whole week gone by since our holiday. I'm struggling to think about what we did last week !! Such as life !

Today, I'm looking at a customised TAG idea.



I've mentioned this project a few times earlier this week - 100 tags for a special charity Mother Day Event.
The tags were specifically designed to hold a little packet (of lavender seeds) with the finished tag attached to a gift bag ( to be full of 'pamper' goodies). The idea of the seeds is to sprinkle under a running bath tap (to add a relaxing and lovely smell to a deep soak !) I did have a broad design brief and my aim was to produce some pretty tags for very little money, so recycle and limited materials etc was a major consideration. The little packets holding lavender seeds is to be the focus of our die discussion today.

I do have a relatively large bank of dies, so I did have a number to choose from. In the end Ive used a die called 'Journal,Round Pocket & Ties' by Sizzix to form the little packets. For the actual tag I used the Sizzix 'Artist Trading Card' die.





I used the Big Shot machine throughout as well as the minimal tools in the photo to complete todays job. The little packet die is a long thin die so I needed the extended base.


I also used a variety of simple flower dies to decorate the tags, each one is slightly different which ( for me) is the whole point of hand crafted items.I will focus on decoration in another session but for today, I'm looking specifically at the construction of the little packet and the use of a die to make the folded tag.

I wanted to look at the pocket die (in detail) as Ive had mixed results for a long time with such dies. I am constantly aware of the 'fragility' of the outcome with this die. That sounds a bit extreme but when I make a gift or an item for sale I want to know it will stand up to the 'job'. I will make this point clear as we go through the project.

My first job was to cut two pieces from the die which form the packet. The die itself has another pocket but for the purposes of this session Im ignoring the other packet.
I used a very thin square paper here. In my original tag project, I used standard tracing paper to allow the lavender seeds to be visible through the pocket. The square paper has similar qualities and is quite fragile. It's almost impossible to make a bag of this size (for my purpose) with very thick card/paper because the fold lines are bulky and tend to distort the final shape of the pocket. I guess, lots of experiments with different papers/other materials would produce some varied pockets and it depends very much on what the point of the pocket is. My packet needed to sit inside my tag so I needed a thin finished item. I like the idea of trying to find lots of different outcomes for different purposes and will pursue this idea for another session.


However, getting back to our project, Ive experimented with a single cut as well as cutting 5 papers at once. An important consideration if you have a bulk order of packets.
My experience is of the perforated fold lines breaking through which then makes the pocket useless for holding things such as my lavender seeds - they simply fall out of the pocket !



You can see the perforations in the photo showing an actual cut rather than perforation. This happens more with the multi cut. The single cut tends not to do this. I did think that the paper was the issue but trying this with much thicker card and other papers gave the same result. I'm concluding that its to do with the multi cut. I do have other dies with this perforation issue and all seem to be rather unreliable in the same way. Unfortunately, it makes me avoid using the dies. Such a shame as I really like the packets. However, all is not lost. I've successfully made my 100 pockets and some did cut through when filled with my seeds. I used a very fine tipped glue bottle and simply stuck the cut part together which made a good repair job but very time consuming ! - not a good idea for a bulk job.



Back to the construction job. The two pieces of the pocket need their folds to be prepared and glued.



I've glued the bottom fold first followed by two sides as in the photos. You can see the imprint of my 'over used' cutting plates. I need to buy some new ones to stop the scratched finish on my packet envelope.












The final pockets are very cute and would work great with scrapbooking and journalling. I often use the idea for a birthday card too. Again, I will use a DCF (Die Cut Friday) to explore more options.
The second element of the project for today is the actual tag. For the tag, Ive used the Artist Trading Card die in a particular way. This technique can be applied to lots of dies.



In the photo you can see the punched attachment holes (in the top corner)but you can also see the tag is wider than the die lines. The technique to get the folded shape involves pre folding the card and placing the fold to just inside the left hand cutting line. The result is to cut the folded shape which is very slightly narrower than the die cut shape. As Ive mentioned , this can be done with lots of dies, again it's another 'DCF session to be'.

Hope you gained something from today's project. For me, I need a rest from tags. My 100 finished tags are packed in the two little baskets and look very simply formed and made in no time at all !!!!
PS - please see 'packet' and 'pocket' as the same thing - I did try and keep to one word but they have both crept in !


Bye for today. Have a great weekend.