When a Wave Comes, Go Deep - Seahorse Tag

Hi everyone,

Hope you're having a great week.  Today I have this steampunk seahorse tag to share with you.

Here's how it came together:

I'm using this Steampunk Seahorse chipboard C15S and I found the perfect words to go with it in this sticker set.

I am also using one of the tags from the Super XL Tag set D92C.  This is a set of really big tags, each one has a slightly different top.  I tried my seahorse on all three before deciding on the middle one.

Since I was going to use collage on the background of my tag, I pulled out some possibilities from my stash.  I found a few different blue tissue papers, some other bits and pieces, and even some gift wrap that had shells and seahorses on it (the green one on the left) but I really wanted to stick to blues if possible.

While I was still deciding on and sorting through papers, I also gave all the pieces a coat of gesso.  I also found this poor broken seahorse which I managed to snap in half last week, so I wondered if I could add it to the tag and give it a home.

Now it was time for the fun part - covering the tag with all the lovely papers!

I also found one of those plastic fruit nets that lemons often come in, so I thought it could make a good fishing net for my tag, and glued it down on top of the papers.

While everything on the tag was left to dry, I got to painting the seahorses.  I glued the plaster seahorse back together and then painted it with a metallic paint I made from a few colours mixed together.  The chipboard seahorse has two parts - the base and the filigree top part, so I painted the base in a nice deep turquoise and then painted the top part with the same paint mixture as the other seahorse.

When the paint was dry, I started to add wax to both seahorses - turquoise for the plaster seahorse and a deep gold for the chipboard seahorse, so they have similar colours just tweaked a little.

Here's a closer look at the finished Steampunk Seahorse.

Using the same wax, I rubbed some all over the yellow plastic net.

I wanted to add more collage to the background and found these small pieces to add beneath the plaster seahorse.

I also had all of these thin strips of book paper leftover from another project so as a finishing touch, I added a few of them too.

I darkened the edges of the tag with some dark brown acrylic paint, and then the final step was to add the word stickers and call it done.

Here's a closer look at the seahorse and the "copper" net.

The Finished Tag:

Hope you enjoyed this little tag project.  Please let me know in the comments.

Till next time,

Elle
Empire of the Cat

Supplies:

Steampunk Seahorse C15S
Super X Tag set D92C
Collage materials from stash
Plaster seahorse mould
Acrylic paint and waxes
Word stickers