Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Acrylic Tag Tutorial

For this project, we will be working with the Coffee Break Design Acrylic Tags! They are available in 16 different styles.

.................................................................................................... First, peel off the protective paper from your tag.

.................................................................................................... Because they are clear, you can pick exactly were you want them on your image! Take a fine sharpie marker, and mark your hole.

.................................................................................................... Punch your hole with a 1/16" hole punch. If you don't have one, you can also poke your hole through with a pin, exacto knife, or awl later after attaching your image.

.................................................................................................... While you can attach your charm to your paper using Diamond Glaze or a similar product, our Incredi-sheets or our 2 inch Incredi-tape roll is my product of choice for attaching the charms and is what I used in this tutorial. The tape is permanent, heat resistant, SUPER strong, and clear, so you can see your image through the tape! And MUCH less messy!

.................................................................................................... Cut a piece of Incredi-sheet slightly larger than your charm/image. Peel off one side of the paper from the tape and stick to your image (at this point I punched a hole in the tape over the hole in my image). Then peel off the second piece of paper and stick your acrylic tag directly on the tape

.................................................................................................... Now you can cut around your tag with scissors.

.................................................................................................... File the paper/back of your tag for a nice clean edge using sandpaper or a nail file. I used a nail file.

................................................................................................ To ensure that the tape is nice and smooth on your tag, burnish the back with a bone folder or the end of the nail file.

.................................................................................................... And here is the finished charm!

.................................................................................................... I decided to paint the backs of my charms with acrylic paint.

.................................................................................................... And then sealed them with an acrylic spray to make them weather proof. The last two steps are optional of course.

.................................................................................................... All finished! When using the Incredi-sheets it doesn't take long to make a ton of charms since there is no dry time! As for the images, I used some ephemera and Digital Collage Sheets from Retro Cafe Art Gallery. The Bottle Cap Fairies worked especially well for this project!

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OPTIONAL: Adding Eyelets Another great feature of the Acrylic Tags is that they are sized correctly for our E-Z Set Eyelets! Most of the tags will take the 1/16" short eyelets. We also sell a 1/16" Eyelet Setter and I'm told many of the commercial eyelet setters do not set eyelets this small. A few of the tags take the 1/8" eyelets. If you are setting one layer of acrylic with your image a SHORT eyelet will work great. You can also "sandwich" your images between two tags and set with one of our LONG eyelets!

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(Click to ENLARGE photos if needed) For these charms, I used the 1/16" short silver eyelets and the setter.


Simply place the eyelets through the front of your charm. This is how they will look UNSET. As you can see they just barely stick out the back. This is what you want.

.................................................................................................... It's very important that you set your eyelets on a HARD surface. This goes for any eyelet setting project. I use a metal block. Insert your setter into the back of the eyelet and tap lightly a few times with a hammer. Check your eyelet. If needed you can reinsert your setter and tap more. Again, be very gentle so that you don't crack your acrylic. It will only need to flare out a tiny bit to hold it in place.

.................................................................................................... Here you can see an unset and set eyelet. It only needs to flare out a tiny bit and it's set in place.

.................................................................................................... Two set eyelets.

.................................................................................................... For this tag I did not pre-punch a hole before attaching my tag like I did earlier. I used an exacto knife in the back to make the hole. I just stuck the tip in and turned it like I was taking the core out of an apple.

.................................................................................................... The Dog Tags and Tags take a 1/8" eyelet. SHORT for one layer or make a "sandwich" with a LONG eyelet. The first two pieces show how the back will look and the third, the front.

.................................................................................................... And here they all are with eyelets.

....................................................................................................I decided to make a charm bracelet with a length of chain and regular 6mm jump rings. Most jump rings will fit easily through the tiny 1/16" eyelets.

.................................................................................................... Finished! You could also turn this into a fun necklace!

.................................................................................................... The charms are very light-weight and comfortable to wear.

....................................................................................................For this charm, I attached the acrylic tag with Diamond Glaze. They also come out very nice, just a bit more messy than the Incredi-sheets.

.................................................................................................... For these tags I simply colored them with alcohol inks, except for the woman in the center which was colored with Copic Markers.
For the Dog Tag, I colored the tag with alcohol inks first and then attached the vintage book page with Incredi-sheet and added an eyelet as done above.


So are you ready to play with some Acrylic Tags yet?

5 comments:

  1. Great lesson and such a beautiful Bog! Thanks for sharing. Kate CollageSheeetGirl

    ReplyDelete
  2. how fun! love all your sweet charms.
    hugs Lynn

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  3. Great Tutorial! Love those tiny eyelets, they really give the tags a professional finish. Thanks!

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  4. Well this is new to me and YES, I'm ready to make some tags❤️

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