thanks to some of my CT pals.....

I learned a new digi scrapping technique - how to layer elements both ABOVE and BELOW another element - have an element go THROUGH another.

 I did it with this layout with the string - it is above and below the the waves....and the string runs through the tag (that always stumped me!).  And it is really simple - basically you just duplicate the element layer (bring to the top of layer palette) and erase where you want the element to appear below the other element (in this case the waves).