Forgeries on the Fourth

Welcome back for my Forgeries on the Fourth where we - the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Master Forgers - show you how we made elements in our kit to match items in the inspiration kit.

This month, we were all asked to select an additional embellishment for our November kits that would be brought together to make an add-on kit for yet more inspiration! You can see how our complete add-on turned out in this Counterfeit Kit Challenge post and I'm back today to show you how I created my very own embellished tag which I've included in my November kit, Remembrance.

As always, I kept it simple but let's start by looking at the original Amy Tangerine for American Crafts tags which I chose to add in to my kit. They have watercolour brush script and stitched words to made inspirational quotes in addition to two small white striped icon designs.

Amy Tangerine Stitched Tags

First off, I cut out some plain kraft tags with my Silhouette although I'm sure that most of you have a handful of shipping tags in your stash. I knew I would mess a few up and thought it would be just easier to start with a new set so I wouldn't have to worry about them matching.

Then I looked at some of the original Amy Tangerine designs and quotes and picked out a few phrases to use for myself. I used a pencil to write the part of the phrase I wanted to stitch, guessing how much space to leave for the brush script. Yes, it was all a bit hit and miss and I'm sure you will take a much more organised approach! I chose some words in block capitals, with some in small case and a little loopy.

Using an embroidery needle, I pierced holes at regular intervals in the words and then erased the pencil marks. And I've just realised that I didn't take any photos of the stitching process - whoops... Anyway, I took some different coloured embroidery threads and split them so that I had three strands and used a back stitch to go over the words I had prepared. Some of the stitching was neater than others but overall, I was happy with the result. I know that if I did this again, it would be better - proof that practice makes perfect! By the last one, I was on a roll.

I took the only decent brush I had - note to self to get a finer ended one if I want to do more brush work - and opened up my little watercolour palette. This was the first time I'd even taken it out of the drawer so I was a bit nervous. I'm not the neatest person and at this stage, the stitching had taken some time and I didn't want to ruin any of them. I practiced a little on a blank piece of paper to take away a bit of the fear factor and then went for it. Again, not perfect, but fun. Something that definitely would get better the more you do it. I love the look of the Amy Tangerine script but my tags have my own handwriting which is quite special after all!

And here is a bit more of a close up.

Next up were the icons and for the template, I once again turned to my trusty Silhouette and cut out a few designs that looked a little similar to the originals. A striped heart and an outlined camera. I made sure to measure them against my tags so that they were the right size.

After that, it was just a matter of painting over the "stencil" in white paint - being careful not to load too much paint on the die cut so that it didn't run over the edges. I think I went over that white paint at least another one time to make sure that the cover was thick enough.

Et voilà!
Not perfect but perfectly cute enough!

And here is the finished set. Cute, huh?!? :-)

Don't forget to head over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog today to check out all the forgeries for this month. I think you are up for a bumper set!

Thanks for stopping by today. Why not let me know you were here and share which forgery you are going to try out today.