My Other Creations: Tiny Tag Book using Sugarpea Designs' With Love Tag Die

You know I'm a book nerd and that I love tags, so it only seemed fitting to make a tag book for this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  The theme is "Tag It" and I've wanted to try this tag book structure ever since I saw Birgit Koopsen share it (and a great tutorial) on Instagram.  Here's my finished project:

I started by covering my Gelli plate with a bunch of Dina Wakley acrylic paint and spritzed it with a bit of water.  And for the record, I don't think there's any "wrong" way to use a Gelli plate.

Here's how my print turned out when I pressed some Strathmore Mixed Media Paper onto it:

Whenever I make a big piece like this that I'm going to cut into smaller pieces, I have to remind myself not to get scared when I look at the whole thing.  Cause this was looking scary.  I added white paint through a polka dot stencil and that only amped up the scary factor.  I had to keep reminding myself that I was going to cut it into smaller squares.

Ah!  Sigh of relief!  When I cut it up, it totally reduces the crazy look.

Next I cut each square into a tag shape using my Big Shot and a die from Sugarpea Designs called "With Love."  Some of the color combos were still a little loud for the look I wanted, so I added white paint to my tags to tone things down.

And even though my process seems redundant, I added color back in once I whited the tags out.

And here is where that fabulous Birgit Koopsen video I mentioned earlier comes in.  Birgit shows us exactly how to bind these tag books together.  Check it out--it's called, "Birgit Koopsen - How to Bind a Tag Book" and it's a snap to pull up if you Google her name and "tag book." It is so much easier to understand than from my photos below.

The binding technique involves gluing two tags side-by-side onto a rectangular piece of paper in the middle (like butterfly wings).  I used double-stick tape for this part.

  
Here are all of my tag pairs glued together:

You then glue the tag pairs back to back to back to back (really- just watch Birgit's video!!)  Here's my book all splayed out after I glued it.  I used Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue for this step, but any sort of adhesive or heavy-duty gel medium would work nicely.  I like how the pages turn out to be really thick and sturdy since each page is two-tags thick.

The last step is to cover the tag book's spine with a type of stretchy tape or sticky-back canvas.  I didn't have either one, so I just used regular fabric with a cool text pattern and slathered it with plenty of thick gel medium.  Here's a view from the back:

Last but not least was to decorate the front cover.  I used collage scraps from previous projects.  The "Pray" word is a piece of Washi tape.  I outlined the edge with a black Sharpie.

Nice and thick and SOLID in its structure!

I added a fabric A, J and E to the spine in honor of some family members' names.

Here are the supplies I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

SugarPea Designs With Love Tag dies	Sizzix Big Shot	Strathmore Mixed Media Paper	8x10 Gel Printing Plate	Dina Wakley Palette Knife
Dina Wakley Spaced Dots Stencil	Dina Wakley TURQUOISE Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley LEMON Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley Lime Acrylic Paint
Dina Wakley Marine Acrylic Paint	Dina Wakley Eggplant Acrylic Paint	Dina Wakley heavy body acrylic Cheddar	Ranger Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paint in Ruby	Dina Wakley Ranger Blushing acrylic paint
Dina Wakley BLACKBERRY VIOLET Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley SKY Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley Carnation Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley Ranger Night Acrylic Paint	Dylusions Paint Polished Jade
Black Sharpie Fine Point Pen

I'm always excited when I try a technique that works!  Good stuff!  I'm excited to see what YOU decide to do with your tag projects this week.  Upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store.