Hostess Gift Tag

I created this tag for my Design Team Saturday post on the official QKD blog. I used the two stamp sets that I was given to work with for the month of September. Keep reading if you're interested in my design process for this tag.
I started with a manila tag and a craft sheet. I swiped onto the craft sheet several colors of Tim Holtz for Ranger Distress Inks. You can see how I swiped them separately as if making a rainbow. Then I used a water mister to get the colors wet and blending together. I placed the tag on top of the wet ink and pressed down to blot and have the tag absorb the color. After the tag dried, I sprayed it with gold Adirondak Perfect Pearls mixed with water. Then after it dried again, I offset the tree from the QKD Apple Days set and stamped it onto the tag with black tuxedo Memento ink. I like the idea of the ink showing through the stamp, but I wanted the apples to "pop" so I first colored them with my gold glitter gel pen (which is a dark color) and then topped them with Scattered Straw Distress Stickles. I edged the tag with Adirondak Metallic Gold Acrylic Paint Dabber. (This is sooo much easier to use than a gold leaf pen.) I got out my QKD Give Thanks stamp set and used three of the stamps. I stamped the bird on the tag so that it looks like it's perched on the sentiment banner. Using another manila tag, I stamped the background banner with Antique Linen Ranger Distress Ink. I over stamped the Happy Thanksgiving sentiment in black. (Make sure your background ink is dry before overstamping to avoid bleeding.) Please note that this QKD stamp is solid and looks like torn paper. That's why I used the light ink for the background. After cutting it out, I distressed the banner with a shade darker Tea Dye Ranger Distress Ink. To add to the torn look, I further distressed the banner with my scissors. Instead of eyelets or brads, I used Tim Holtz Idea-ology Snaps along with some twine. (I placed two long, narrow strips of foam adhesive on the back of the banner in RR track fashion and laid the twine in-between them. That helped to balance everything so that the sentiment banner would lay flat on the tag.) Another pointer: color the top of your white foam adhesive so that it blends better with your project. Since the back of the tag has blotches of ink from my hands when I was sprtizing and working with the ink on the craft sheet, I matted it with black cardstock for a more finished look. Fibers, ribbons and leaves (with some Ranger Peeled Paint Distress Crackle Paint, Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and Lettuce Acrylic Paint Dabber--I was going for a crackled autumn leaf look) complete the tag.