Big Bling Luggage Tag by Emily M. Miller

My sister-in-law asked me to make a cool luggage tag for her and I said how big? She said “you know me, make it BIG”! So here’s what I came up with…

This is an altered photo of her and her baby beagle. I scraped off the background and painted it too. I decided to use this laminate from 3M because it is really thick, double sided, and just the right size for a 4x6 print. I also printed out her address info on copy paper. Tore around the info, ran the edges across a couple ink pads and glued it onto the backside of a cereal box. (See backside at end of post).

I trimmed a little off the long side of the photo so I could have more space for the laminate sides to adhere together. I glued the photo onto the other side of the address info and let it dry a little. Then I placed the photo inside the laminate, leaving extra space at top to cut out a hole. I just free-hand cut out the hole with a zacto knife. You can see it’s not perfect, but who cares? Glitter will take care of that!

I used my bone folder to get a really good seal. Pressing the edges and as close to the photo sides as possible. The laminate was pretty slick so I sanded the edges for a better glue surface to stick to.

I wanted lots of bling with different sizes and usually that means I’ll grab for my Gala Glitz. But this  will be handled quite a bit and I can’t use glass! So my next favorite big bling is Dazzlers. Here’s what I used:

D55 Queen’s Robe
D52 Rockettes
D44 Hollywood (stars)
Microfine Opaque Glitter #502 Diva Gold

Here’s how to get a quick easy mix, without mixing all your glitter together: Lay down your Designer Dries Clear adhesive. You can either paint it on or do the lazy messy method I use, take your ultrafine metal tip off and draw a thick line of glue, then smear it across your area with your finger. Start with your largest size of glitter, (the stars), take a small pinch of them and drop them on the glue sparingly. Then take the next size, (Queen’s Robe), and sprinkle some more on. Then fill in the rest with an ultrafine or microfine glitter (#502 Diva Gold). You’ll love the results! Be sure to work in sections so you can get it all done while the glue is wet, white and shiny.

I also edged the photo, the hole and sides with Queen’s Robe and Rockettes for a nice finish. (AND Because I smeared the glue on, the sides weren’t completely covered and I wanted to fix the hole too!)

I don’t know if any of you do this, but when ever I’m working with these larger glitter sizes and I have a left over pile of mixed pieces, I save it in a special jar, a sort of a kitchen sink concoction. I’ll use that later for a quick edging to finish off a piece. I have another one set aside for glass glitter and beads.

Here’s the backside with her address info blurred out. I just did a quick border with my left over glitter pile from the front side.  As you can see the front is not quite dry. My theory was that I didn’t need to do the backside since it would show through from the front. I didn’t have time to find out if that was true, had to mail it off to her before it completely dried, but I’m sure it looks great. It has to…it’s glitter!