Turquoise Tag

I made this tag for a dear friend. 

The images are had drawn and the fabric is hand-dyed as well as the ribbon :-)

Teal Tag Card

As is customary in Portland...

I put a bird on it ;-)

One Layer Tag

So I was totally kicking it old school for the SDC:216 Tag Challenge.

First I dug around and found my last Ranger manilla tag (love these!) and I stamped Topher near the middle with Versamark ink... that required finding my versa mark ink. I haven't stamped with the intention to color in a loooong time.

Then I made a mask and had to search for some repositionable glue (are you catching theme here... it's been awhile). With mixed media, repositionable is the farthest thing from what I'm looking for.

Once the mask was trimmed all pretty I let the glue set and then covered up Topher. Then I stamped the Angel wings - 2 sided (I am going to use the heck out of this most awesome stamp) kind of catawampus 'behind' Topher. I peeled off the mask and voila - a shy winged dude.

The rest was cake - copic markers for color and I made the very simple background by scribbling a bit of purple neocolor crayons and then blending it out with white liquid acrylic.

Once it was all dry, I touched up the show laces and wing tips with a black micron pen.

Easy peasy. I even got to take a picture before the rain made things too soggy.

Anyone who's been reading this blog for long knows one-layer is way out of my comfort zone. I'm glad I challenged myself to do this and I'm sure this tag will find it's way into an art journal page or postcard before too much time passes.

FWIW, I had a great time coloring and stamping - it's nice to revisit old favorite pastimes. 

Butterfly Tag with Hand Carved Stamp

Playing along with the March 12 Tags of 2015 by Tim Holtz and I got to use a stamp I just carved this week.

I was on the fence about making it (I'm so busy right now with art deadlines I wasn't sure I could spare the time) but then I saw Corrie's absolutely gorgeous version of the tag and I couldn't resist.

Have a great weekend!

Gelli Printed Heart Tag and Card

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer created a very cool challenge called CarveDecember where you carve a stamp a day all month. I couldn't resist. 

I was torn between making a heart or a texture stamp as I've been playing with clay recently and texture is always useful. After going back and forth a bit I decided to do both - a heart with a pattern so it could provide random swirly dots or be a proper heart, as needed.

One great thing about long hearts is that they interlock into a border very easily. 

For the tag above I simply stamped in Staz-On over top a gelli-printed tag. Then I stamped the heart again on white book paper, cut it out and attached it with foam tape.

For this card, I stamped the heart three times on book paper, cut them out and sewed through the middle of the stack. Then I added them to a stenciled, stamped and gelli-printed background and sewed around the edge. 

Happy December!

Bunches of Bird Tags

I've been carving a lot of bird stamps lately.

And before I send them off to their new home (mainly loved ones) I usually stamp myself a stack of tags. 

Tags are an absolute lifesaver for last minute gift giving, note writing etc. 

Your neighbors dog got out again, writing a quick note about closing their damn gate seems positively friendly on a tag while maybe a bit less so on a post-it.

Giving jam, flowers, a little gift... the tag really makes it special. 

Plus the manilla has a nice weight to it, I often fussy-cut out the images and add them to art journal pages. 

Here's another hand-carved bird, this one is for my mom-in-law:

I stamped oodles before dropping it in the mail.

I really like how the carving stands alone as a powerful, attractive image. 

Available on Etsy

Let me know how you like to use tags and I'll pick a comment or two and drop some in the mail as a gift. 

Neon Mixed Media Heart Tag

I often use large tags to mop up my work area. Usually all they need is a little bit of stenciling, a quote or a focal image (in this case, the heart) to pull it all together. 

The heart was a mixed media background I made. To read more about making backgrounds in bulk you can read my tutorial here. 

IMHO, nothing (short of a hyper-color t-shirt circa 1987) says summer quiet like the HOT! HOT! HOT! shades of neon. Thusly, this is my entry for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:

Hot Fun in the Summertime:

"This week the Monday challenge group has a fun and unique challenge for us! They want us to create something inspired by the hot temperatures, the starry nights and the long days spent by the water. You can create whatever the summer means to you, so head to your craft room/space (hopefully it has air conditioning!!) and let’s see what inspires you!"

Papertrey October Blog Hop Challenge

Papertrey Ink is having a blog hop! The challenge is to make a set of five Christmas tags :

Before you know it, all of the gift giving that goes hand-in-hand with the upcoming holidays will be here.  This month we thought we would challenge you to get a head start and create a quick set of five gift tags.  They can be as simple or as complex as you wish, but be sure to make at least five! 

Here are mine, I made them using PTI card stock that I cut with my half and half die collection.

click to see this full-sized

I ran them through my Cuttlebug with a striped embossing folder (sorry, can't recall the name of it) and stamped the top detail in Pure Poppy using the coordinating  Half and Half stamp.

Across the bottom I added some polka dot washi tape and a little row of jewels. I've had these Heidi Swapp jewel strips for eight years and they were still sticky. Color me impressed!

For the sentiment, I die cut and stamped the flourish from Boutique Borders: Thanks Mini Stamp set and then added the phrases from that set and from the Winter Hills set.

To finish things off, I added a shabby fabric flower and polka dot ribbon which I affixed with my tiny attacher. 

These will sure come in handy in the months to come. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Warmly,

~~~Nicole

Lord Ganesha Stamped Tags with Gelli Printing

Happy New Year!

Click the picture to see all the details

I was having a hard time coming up with a title for this post as I carved the stamp, Gelli printed the paper, then the tags and collaged it all together in a decidedly mixed media fashion. To encompass all that the title would have been a mile long:

"Mixed-media mono-printed paper and tags featuring hand-carved Lord Ganesha stamp and Ohm"

That's a mouthful!

Here's the stamp I carved, tested on some gelli-printed tags. I'm obsessed with my Gelli Plate if you haven't noticed from my last post with the Collage Girls.

So, you might be thinking,

This weird girl carved an elephant doing yoga...huh?

Lord Ganesha is a favorite deity of mine. He's the Hindu lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles - god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth - destroyer of vanity, selfishness and pride.

Did you catch that, he's the destroyer of obstacles. And I can't think of a better concept as we head into 2013 because seriously I've had about enough obstacles for one lifetime.

Whenever I read about him though I always wonder if the implication is that our worst obstacles are vanity, selfishness and pride and most of our troubles stem from that.  Add poor health and I agree wholeheartedly.

My technique here was after I mono-printed a bunch of typing paper and manilla tags, I stamped Ganesha on the tags in Staz-on. I also stamped him on the printed paper. 

Then, I cut out the main body of Ganesh from the papers and Mod Podged them onto the stamped spot on the tag. It created depth as the lines around him are on the tag below.

After that I added a little color around the image with Caran D'ache Neo colors IIs, some punchinella stenciling and of course flicked a little red paint around. I finished the tags with torn paint rag ribbon and a green bone bead. 

I'm in lurve with these. They make me smile every time I see them.

This is my entry for the bookmarks and gift tags challenge over at Inspiration Avenue.

Linked up for the Gelli Print Party at A Colorful Journey

Thanks so much for visiting :-)

Warmly,

~~~Nicole

Tags with Magnet Gifts: Giveaway

When I saw Paula Cheney's Tag for the 12 Feminine Tags of Christmas my first thought was, "Yeah. Not gonna happen"

It's very pretty but so far from my style I didn't think it was worth even attempting. But not trying isn't my style either - not at all - so I broke tag down to a sketch and took notes from the tutorial of techniques I could use. Looking at it as a sketch helped me "see" the design elements and I realized that while Paula's tag was very layered and filled to the brim with techniques and product, the design was fairly simple and straightforward.

And I liked it so much I made it twice, one horizontal and one vertical.

For this yellow tag I tried to mirror Paula's mostly monochromatic color scheme, deep embossing, color smoosh *grin*, large bow and large round element.

The fun thing about these tags is that the focal ornament is a magnet made from a wood shape, painted black, topped with hand painted paper and embellished with wood letters and ribbon. The recipient can use the magnet once they are done with the tag.

I ended up making a whole stack of magnets. They were too fun to make just one.

This bright tag is built on hand painted watercolor paper embellished with music paper. It's so energetic and cheerful and feels Christmasy even though it doesn't utilize the traditional Christmas color scheme.

Thanks so much for visiting. 

If you'd like to receive one of these magnets in the mail just leave me a comment and I'll choose a winner or two.

Christmas Angel Tag - Bombshell Style

You know I love my Bombshell Stamps. So when I saw an angel tag by Carolyn Peeler for the 12 Feminine Tags of Christmas I couldn't help but add the wings from the Sacred Heart set to the pirate from A Pirate's Life.  Boom! I got me an angel... more like a Victoria's Secret angel but...

It was fun to do some masking and coloring - it's been awhile.

In addition to the glitter, there is a border of glass micro beads around the edge. It gives the tag great texture, shine and interest that the photos aren't quite capturing. Silly winter skies and the trouble they wreak on picture taking!

The color scheme, glass beads and pearl were all inspired by the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger

Thanks so much for stopping by :-)

Trees Christmas Tag

Here's my take on Maile Belles  Christmas Tag for Day Ten of the 12 tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist.

This is Maille's tag:

And here's mine. All my white stamping ink let me down so I squished gesso through a stencil instead and left it to dry overnight.

That tree stamp is SO old. I used it to make Christmas Cards in 2001.

Bird on Branch Christmas Tag

One thing I realized this year during the Twelve Tags with a Feminine Twist is that I really don't bring a lot of my own style to the tags. I tend to make my own version of the designers tag and that's it.

But, I know it's much more fun, and more authentic, to create something my own style that is inspired by the tag of the day. Does that make sense?

My first attempt was earlier today with the Snowman Tag - I flicked some red paint (oh, how I love red splatters!) and stenciled on some white paint through punchinella - and just that little bit made a huge difference in my perspective. 

So when I approached Jennifer McGuire's GORGEOUS tag from Day 4 I did my best to do it my way. Namely I used hand made paper, gesso, lots of ink and hand cut elements. The only purchased product was the scrap of Bazzil I cut into the branch and some jewels  - even the ribbon was from a package we'd received.

I also drew inspiration from Tim Holtz's tag from April, it too used a bird on a branch motif with a background reminiscent of book paper and a color scheme mixing warm yellow/oranges with blues and browns. Over at Simon Says Stamp the current challenge is "inspired by Tim's 12 Tags" and I have to say I had a great time looking through his tags deciding what to draw my ideas from.

It felt a lot better to make it my way and it's a good reminder that it's just not as fun unless it comes from your heart.

Snowman Christmas Tag

 I'm really enjoying the 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist Challenge over at The Classroom. The designers have all been really impressive and you can tell the love and time they put into their work.

This is my take on Tag 8 by Kelly Alvarez. Hers was, of course, just perfect. 

Mine is a little funky, messy, and me-ish :-)