Grungy Tags Recipe Without Tea or Coffee

I've been making my own old grungy tags for a while now. And I've seen many posts on ways to get the grungy look. Some of them involve coffee, some involve tea or such. Well, my recipe doesn't use either. It may be since I don't drink either. lol. And I've just learned to try to use what's close at hand. Oh, in the past, I did however borrow some coffee from my aunt and tried that, but I didn't like the smell.

Anyways, here's how I make my new white string tags look old and grungy.

I start out with these stark, white tags found in the office section at WalMart:

Then I mix up a bowl of "grungy stuff." It consists of approximately 75% water and 25% Apple Barrel acrylic paint, in the color of Nutmeg Brown. The water is a little thick, when I get it just right.

Then I dip each one in the mix and lay them out on an old cookie sheet. Then I even take my paintbrush and dab on extra "grungy stuff," to make sure they are grungy enough for my liking. Don't worry about the other side, they will also get good color from the baking in the next step.

Then I set the oven to 400* and stick them in.

And then I wait. Keeping a good eye on them, since I have the oven at 400*. Usually it only takes about 8-10 minutes until they start to crisp up and appear totally dry. Mine usually look like this below:

And then after I let them cool for a minute or two, I get out my stamps and ink. I like to use the "Old Crow," bird stamp and the "Weeping Willow Tree," stamp most of the time.

I ordered my stamps from eBay and got my ink at the local Dollar Mart. I only stamp one side so that I can put my booth # and price on the other. And to keep a clean work area, I lay out some strips of wax paper.

 
A little thing I do time to time, mostly around spring, is to add some candle "oil flavorings" (found at Walmart in the candle section) to the tags after they dry and before the stamps go on. I just brush it on with a regular paint brush. And boy, does it make my tags smell good. As soon as you walk in my Booth #555 the aroma hits you. I usually use food flavorings such as butterscotch rum to do this. I read somewhere that alot of people have allergies (including me) and yet the food smells tend to bother them way less than any flower smell. And when a shopper is smelling a great food smell, they may linger longer in your booth! lol. Here's to hopeing!

Happy Crafting ya'll.