Vintage inspired

I have been eyeing vintage inspired items....cards, tags, anything paper that looks vintage.  I am drawn to that look so of course I had to figure out how to do it (as is my M-O with anything new that I like).  Last weekend Joann's was having a Memorial Day sale with scrapbooking items 40% off and active military or veterans could get an additional 20% off.  That equals a whopping 60% off all items for me!  Oh, if you didn't read the *about me* blurb I'll quickly explain.  I was in the military way back.  It really wasn't that long ago but it feels like it sometimes.  Actually it feels like a whole other life that was never even mine.  Does that happen as you get older?  Hmmm. 

Back to the story.  I went to Joann's to take advantage of the great sale.  Now, I thought I pretty much had everything I could possibly already want at Joann's but that wasn't true and of course I found something I *had* to have.  I decided that it would be a good time (and a cheap time) to try out something new.  And of course as the title mentions, vintage inspired. 

I already had some of Tim Holtz' distressing ink pads, which I really love but I knew that just wouldn't do the job by itself for the look I was trying to achieve so I purchased a large bottle of Walnut Ink, a few packs of vintage inspired cling stamps (I love those!), and a few more colors of Tim Holtz' ink pads (just because it was all 60% off for me).  My total purchase between paper, five ink pads, two packs of cling stamps, and the large bottle of walnut ink came out to $21!  SCORE!!  With this purchase I was well on my way to making my first vintage inspired item. 

I decided to go small.  Nothing too elaborate for my first time and since I was into tags this weekend I went with that.  Here are my vintage inspired tags.

This one looks a little leathery because I took the picture at night

Six pretty birdcages

Walnut Ink and Tim Holtz' distress ink was used to create the vintage look

The birdcage is stamped using Momento's rich cocoa ink

To complete the tag is a pretty brown ribbon

I made these tags from scratch.  I cut the tags out of two 8 1/2 x 11" stark white pieces of cardstock.  I then spritzed the Walnut Ink on both sides of the tag and blotted it to make the ink spread and to reduce the amount of liquid pooling in one area.  I then let the paper dry completely (which takes some time if you don't use a heat tool).  Once the paper was completely dry I used Tim Holtz' Distress Tea Dye (color) Distress Ink to dob around the edges and on the entire tag, back and front, to give it a two-tone effect.  Once that was finished I used Momento's ink in Rich Cocoa to stamp the birdcage.  I then used a whole punch to create a hole for ribbon, twine, etc. to go through.  In this case, I used a deep brown ribbon as the finishing touch to my vintage inspired tags.