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We have had a long and glorious summer here on the West Coast of BC. The sun has shone, the rains have stayed away, and the mercury has been in the upper 20’s to 30’s since about mid-May. Unheard of really! We are fondly called the Wet Coast after all!

But all that changed last week and now that the calendar has officially flipped to September, Mother Nature seems to be making up for it. Rain. Lots of rain! Wind storms that have left some communities without power for up to three days. And a dip in the temperature that is hard to adjust to after all that heat. Brr!! I actually switched out the girls clothes today. Good bye summer shorts. Hello fleecy pajamas!

So what better way to keep the sun shining (if only in my dreams) than to make some fun Summer Themed tags for a ScrapHappy Tag Swap.

Here’s a quick look at how they came together.

1. Cut your tag shapes.

Or use pre-cut tags if you have them. I just didn’t have any in the size I wanted so I made these from a piece of Kraft coloured card stock. I think they are 3.5″ x 5.5″.

2. Distress them.

I wanted them to have a distressed, sort of beach vibe so I grabbed my Picket Fence Distress stain from Ranger. This next picture is what NOT to do.

Slap it on.

Distress stain works best slightly wet so …

3. Spray your tag with water BEFORE applying the stain.

My spray bottle is from Stampin Up but any will do, as long as it delivers a fine mist. If you’re interested, check out this one from Ranger. I’ve used it too and it’s fantastic!

4. Apply Distress Stain to your work surface.

I use the Ranger Craft Mat as it is non-stick and super easy to wipe clean. Glue, stamping, stains, paint, everything just wipes away so easily!

After applying the stain I gave it a quick squirt with my spray bottle. The water helps the stain move around so it applies more easily and gives you a softer look which is what I was going for on these tags.

5. Swish your tag through the stain.

That is a highly technical term for applying paint to a surface! LOL!

Your tag should look like this when you’re done.

6. Create your embellishments while your tags dry.

Of course, I forgot to take photos of this process so here are the finished embellishments. I dug into my scrap drawer and found a sheet of My Mind’s Eye paper that had muted Polaroid prints on it. I cut out three and used them for the rest of my embellishments. The popsicles were on a piece of Echo Park (?) paper so I fussy cut them out. And the umbrellas were on a piece from Crate Paper.

Remember my Summertime themed cards? I used the ‘sunshine’ die cut from the August Simon Says Stamp kit as well as the October Afternoon stamp set from my August Gossamer Blue kit to create the rest of the scene.

And now those little pieces of summer sunshine are off to smile down on three of my ScrapHappy Sisters!

Hope the sun smiles on you today!