Holiday Gift Tags

Tags are a quick and easy way to add a personal touch to a package. I recently made several sets of holiday tags to spiff up the gifts that will be soon under the tree in the Wyatt living room. The three groups of tags that emerged were all quite different--from girly and romantic, to masculine/traditional, to black and white graphic patterns.

The first set was the girly/romantic group. The German and English scrap angels really called to my inner-frilly side. One of the techniques that I return to time and again is using printed teabags in my artwork. When I saw the German and English scrap angels on Gwen's website, I immediately knew that--combined with printed teabags--they would be perfect for some holiday tag-making.

Scrap angels, blank tags, and printed teabags

I gathered some dry, empty teabags and, with some white acrylic, used some of Gwen's beautiful wood blocks to print the bags. (For a step by step tutorial on my "faux lace" process using teabags, click here)

A standard-size blank tag, and an oversized chipboard tag

Gluesticks work well for adhering the teabags to the base paper

Various laces and ribbons from my stash were
auditioned to see what went best with the printed teabags

An English Scrap Angel was "auditioned" for a standard-size tag

Before being glued, a carefully trimmed German Scrap Angel,
printed teabag and lace scrap were "auditioned" for a large tag

For a more masculine look, I chose some festive red and gold marbled paper from Gwen's sample pack, and combined it with a scrap of commercial scrapbook paper, a bit of polka-dot ribbon and one of the gorgeous Dresden Medium Medallions for a simple, yet striking tag.

A Comet Medallion was "auditioned" for the tag
to see how it looked with the marble paper and ribbon

Since layers of paper covered the tag's hole, an awl was used to poke a new hole in the tag

The medium medallion was attached with a large brass brad, and black words,
printed on clear mailing labels, were added

This close-up shows the mini brads that were added for a decorative touch under the inspirational holiday words

The next weekend, I was tired of red and green and obvious holiday themes and decided to see how some of Gwen's stencils would work in black and white for a holiday look. I painted some tags with white gesso, and others with black gesso. Some black and white gingham ribbon set the designs off nicely. On the tags below, I used both Gwen's cardinal stencil and Ornamental Petal stencil/mask with white paint on a black background.

White stencils and white gel pen on black painted tags

On the tags below that were painted white, I used a wedge cosmetic sponge and small dabber tool with a black stamp pad to print the holly section of the cardinal and holly stencil. Although it is not officially a holiday stencil, the Decorative Medallion stencil reminded me of a snowflake so I used that also. I added a few words here and there with either a black or white gel pen. Since I am not always perfect at stenciling, I fixed the places that were too sketchy or light with either a black gel pen, white gel pen,  and white or black paint on a tiny brush.

Holiday words were added to the stenciled tags using a black gel pen

I usually write the recipient's name on the back of the tag to keep the front looking festive. Now all I need to do is finish my holiday shopping so I have some gifts to wrap up and tie the tags onto!

During the month of December, you can save on German Dresden Trim and German and English Scrap using the code on the coupon below. There's still plenty of time to order so that you can create your own gift tags, cards, wrapping paper or other festive gift items!

Tutorial: Faux Lace from Recycled Tea Bags

-ATC Box with paisley stamped tea bag faux-lace,
lace trim and gold dotted accents-

 

Tired of spending a lot of money on art supplies? Here’s a frugal way to recycle and make some cool art and craft.

1)      Save your used teabags. Pull them out of the water BEFORE you add milk, sugar, honey, lemon or any other flavor-enhancer.

 

-figure A-

 

2)      When the bags are completely dry, carefully open them and remove the dried leaves. (The paper is very delicate.) [A]

3)      Flatten out the paper. You will see mottling/staining—that’s part of the fun. Paper will be different colors depending on what kind of tea you use and how long you steep it. [B]

 

-figure B-

 

4)      Choose a variety of stamps—I prefer lacey feminine ones with good detail. You will need to experiment to see what you like best. You can also use hand-carved stamps and/or wooden stamps. [C1, C2]

 

-figure C1, hand carved stamps-
 

-figure C2, commercial stamps-

 

5)      Apply white printmaking paint to the stamp. You can brush it on or use a brayer. (Printmaking paint stays wet longer than other paints.) [D]

-figure D-

6)      Drape the teabag over the stamp and gently press it down all over. [E]

 

-figure E-

 

7)      Gently pull the paper off the stamp. If it didn’t print perfectly, don’t worry…it can often add textural interest to have an imperfect stamp. (I use the imperfect ones for collage and the “perfect ones” for ATCs and tags.) [F1, F2]

 

-figure F1 shows the printed tea bag as it is pulled away from the stamp-

-figure F2-

 

8)      Drape the empty sections of the teabag over the stamp and press. (You will probably get paint on your fingertips. I keep a wet paper towel or rag nearby to wipe my fingers as I work.) I usually reapply paint every other time.

9)      Keep filling in sections until the whole teabag is covered. You can also mix stamps—you don’t have to use the same stamp on each teabag. [G1]

10)   Once the painted bags are dry, you can make all kinds of things with them:

a.       Collage them into one big piece and use it as a journal page or background for other artwork [G1, G2]

 

-figure G1-

-figure G2 has a tea bag lace background overlaid with a
vintage wedding photo printed on sheer silk, with lace and
button trim-

 

b.      Cover a small box with it and decorate with lace (atc box). Be sure to cover box with white gesso first (and let dry) so that the nuances of the printed tea bags show up. [H]. I often use recycled boxes but this one was purchased from Retro Café Arts.

 

c.       Wrap it around an ATC or tag for a base. You can also layer it over a colored paper or fabric background [I1-I5]

 

-figure I1-

-figure I2-

-figure I3-

-figure I4-
 

-figure I5-

 

d.      Scan the design into a photo editing program and manipulate or mix with other images to create very personal art or background papers. [J1-J4]

-figure J1-

-figure J2-

-figure J3-

-figure J4-

e.      Use it as “skin” or a base of a Santos cage on an arty paper doll [K1-K6]


-figure K1-

-figure K2-

-figure K3 used a Dina Wakley stamp face,
Graphics Fairy shoes and tea bag lace arms-

 


-figure K4 uses faux tea bag lace on a large paper doll template from
Retro Café Arts-

 

-figure K5 has a tea bag faux lace base and arms
with Graphics Fairy wings and face-
 

-figure K6 has faux lace arms and legs, an original face
hat made from a recycled, painted coffee filter and
Graphics Fairy butterflies -

 

Indigo Girl Dolls, Geisha Tags, and Alice & the Hare Dolls

Somehow I am computer-deprived. I can't post to my blog from work and our home computer has been moved to my husband's office, so I have to sneak onto my daughter's computer when she isn't looking.

I have an Indigo themed small art trade for June. I puttered for hours with hand needle felting, stitching, painting tyvek and designing various indigo patterns in photoshop. After all that, I came up empty and uninspired. So, I went to my default happy place--paper dolls. I used designs that were inspired by tiles on the wall of my favorite coffee place and translated it into the clothing, printing on extravorganza for the skirts and on cardstock for the limbs.

The Geisha themed tags were for the June Roses on my Table trade. I went to my favorite printed teabag technique with sheer lace and gold accents.

The Alice dolls are also for a Roses on my Table trade. Alice has a kind of Zetti meets RunDMC feel and the hare is just crazy with the fish hat.

I am currently working on Santos Cage Dolls this weekend, which is a new theme for me. It is reminiscent of the Day of the Dead and Frida Kahlo and I am very intrigued by it.

Queen of Hearts Tags & Bubble Wrap Printed Heart Boxes

Where have I been for two months? Unable to post, but I HAVE been doing some small art pieces. Here's what I've been working on.

Queen of Hearts Tags: I hadn’t joined the Roses on My Table tag trade in ages, so when I saw the January theme, Queen of Hearts, it sounded like fun. I researched various queens, and decided on some romantic looking images from The Graphics Fairy. I played with them in Photoshop: one was flipped and arranged like a playing card; another was arranged inside the frame of an old valentine.

I mixed the Graphics Fairy http://thegraphicsfairy.com/ images with some painted watercolor paper that I had stamped over the Christmas and New Year holidays, added lace and some accents with faux gold royal coins and gold certificate stickers as well as fancy ribbons at the top.

 



 

Heart Boxes: A few arty friends are trading small pieces in 2014. There aren’t too many rules other than a monthly theme that we can interpret any way we want, and the rule that the artwork needs to be less than 6 inches. January’s trade theme was hearts.

I make and collect little art boxes, so that was my starting point. I wanted to paint some pre-made heart shaped boxes, but only had one on hand, so I did some Internet research and found a template for making my own boxes.

I enlarged the template and printed it on cardstock, then glued it to some painted watercolor that I had printed with white paint using bubble wrap. When folded up, the underside of the heart closure is visible, so I used printed teabags for accent. As an extra, I used some of my own hand-felted fabric, cut freehand heart shapes, edged them with a blanket stitch, and added a small bead made from rolled fabric, then tucked the felted heart inside the painted box.

Retro Canning Tag

While looking through the archives on The Graphic Fairy’s website, http://thegraphicsfairy.com/I found a beautiful old canning tag. Alone it was quite striking, but I decided to play around with different images superimposed on it. My favorite one to combine with the canning tag was another Graphic Fairy image, a big botanical pink floral, which added a retro feel.

In Photoshop, I sized the canning tag to standard tag size (4_3/4” x  2_3/8”) for the first layer, then added the floral, with the white background removed, in another layer. I duplicated the floral layer twice, then changed the size slightly and moved it around until I had an image I liked.

Next, I printed the tag on cardstock from a color laser printer. Using white printmaking paint, I stamped over the design with a delicate William Morris-style floral, and, once dry, aged the tag by applying liquid chalk to the edges.