paper crafts

Trio of Skull Tags made from Gauche Alchemy's Dia de los Muertos kit

Tag, You’re It!

Projects

I’d spend so much time on the Memorial Canvas & Frames that I didn’t have enough time to even start the next project I’d planned (still in the works, by the way) before the next deadline came due, so I needed a quick fix for an impromptu project.

Enter the concept of highly-decorated tags!

Tags were never really my thing back when I paper-scrapped a lot. They were nice to have and could fill some space on a page quite nicely, but I never really got into them the way others did. I think I’ve now changed my mind on the “simple” tag.

Trio of Skull Tags made from Gauche Alchemy's Dia de los Muertos kit

The thing about tags is that they are, as mentioned, quick. But they’re also great for other reasons:

  • Instant gratification gives you a creative boost for other projects.
  • They can be used to decorate packages, gift bags, or decorations.
  • The small size means there’s not a lot of space to agonize over.

And, possibly the best reason to try your hand at tags:

  • Tags are a great way to use up miscellaneous supplies.

In the case of the Dia de los Muertos kit, it was the 3-D skull stickers. They’re cool stickers with a little bit of a girly-biker vibe, and I loved that they were part of the kit, but they were the type of thing I’d squirrel away and not use because either I didn’t have a specific use for them or I didn’t want to use them up.

Plopping them on some tags meant I got to use them in a no-pressure situation, and I still get to keep the pretty tags around until such time as I find a better home for them. It’s not quite the same as having your cake and eating it, too, but it’s pretty darn close!

Each tag is 3.5″x6″ and is cut from some of the cardstock supplied in the kit. Here are close-ups and details about each one:

Garnet & Gold cameo tag made from Gauche Alchemy's Dia de los Muertos kit

For the Garnet & Gold cameo tag, I stamped the background with the VLVS stamp, highlighted the texture in the braille paper with cranberry ink, then layered it all with woodgrain punchinella and brown & cream lace, stitching the looser bits up along the top edge.

The cameos in this kit kinda make me want to start wearing pins and brooches again, but I gave this set up for the tag and added some buttons and ribbon from my own stash to round it out. In the center I sewed one of the cross beads in the kit and called it a day.

Staring Skull tag made from Gauche Alchemy's Dia de los Muertos kit

The two pink & black tags exist solely to highlight the multi-layer skull stickers. For Mr. Staring Skull, He got embellished with a heart/motif sitcker from the same pack, turned on its side, a purple gem, some pen detailing on the other side traced through the sugar skull mask, a bow from wired mesh ribbon, and a bottle milagro. Cheers, dude!

Talking heads skull tag made from Gauche Alchemy's Dia de los Muertos kit

The talking heads, on the other hand, got a layered heart sticker, some faux stitching care of a silver Sharpie, a matching mesh bow and a heart milagro.

So how ’bout it? Why not drag out those unused stickers and supplies and make some tags?

Project | And Yes, They’re Paper

Projects

For those who haven’t subscribed to the Gauche Alchemy monthly newsletter (and just why not?), I’m thrilled to get to share a project I’ve had to keep close to the vest for more than a month! I know, the suspense was killing me, too–I hate keeping fun stuff from you guys. Even if you did see the project in the newsletter, I’ll be showing step-by-step photos of the process, so it’s worth a peek if you’re curious how I put these awesome Paper Brooches together.

If you recall my altered make-up box, I used  the Intricate Design stamp for the faux-hinges and I believe I mentioned that  I’d had other plans for that stamp to begin with. This is what I had in mind when I ordered that stamp.

After stamping the image on colored card stock and embossing some of each in gold and silver,

I antiqued the embossing with some metallic rub-ons, applied with a cotton swab.

Antiquing the embossing with metallic rub-ons

Since I wanted to hang chains from the motifs, I wide-trimmed each design,

Wide-trimming the motifs before punching the holes

punched a few strategic holes (3 sets along the bottom for the horizontal brooch, one on each side and at the bottom for the vertical) with a 1/8″ hole punch. After that it was time to fussy cut the images, leaving little circles around the punched holes.

One the holes are punched, trim about 1/8" around them

I cut different lengths of jewelry chain and used needle-nose and round-nose pliers to open the links, slip them into their holes, and close them back up. (You could also use jump rings–much easier if you’re stringing multiple chains together, like I did with the silver brooch).

Adding chains for movement and insterest

After that it was all about the decorations. The beads for the silver brooch came from the Black Out mixed media color kit, while the flat-backed gem and coppery brads for the gold brooch came from the It’s All Gravy Baby brown color kit. Also on the silver brooch is a Tim Holtz button (I punched a hole in the center of the paper background to allow for the shank and used clear glue to secure it to the front).

Added buttons, gems, brads and beads to jazz it up

To help the chains on the gold brooch hang correctly, I added a beaded spacer bar between the 2 outer sets–the gold-tone bi-cones added a little sparkle while also serving a purpose.

Beaded spacers to keep the chains hanging correctly

All that was left was to add the pin-backs and let them dry.

The backs of the cards, just about ready to wear

On my next go-round–because I do plan on making more– I think I’ll reinforce the back of the pin with another layer or two of card stock, just to make sure the brooch can stand up to lots of wear. (Probably only necessary if you’re a klutz, like me!) The gold/coppery brooch went to a friend as a birthday gift and was very well received, the silver one I plan to keep for myself.

Paper Petals, Part 2

64 Arts

Tuesday we looked at two ways to make roses from a single length of ribbon or paper. Today we’re going to go strictly paper and add a few more steps. But look at the results!

Paper Roses

Paper Roses

A reminder of the supply list from the last post:

  • Paper
  • Scissors or craft punches
  • Bobby Pin
  • Glue

I found this kit on clearance at Marshall’s a couple of weeks ago to make a gorgeous crepe paper bouquet (it’s also from Martha Stewart, by the way). I opened the kit, preparing to be amazed at some complex project at hand. Do you know the big secret?

Hearts.

Yup. The petals are all hearts, which if you think about it, makes perfect sense. Petals are sort of teardrop shapes, two together make a heart. So, while, sure, having a kit is great, you can totally do this without even paying $5 for this kit (much less the $10 they originally wanted for it). And, since we’re dealing with basic shapes, here, I don’t think I’m really giving away any trade secrets, you know?

Start with the Hearts

Start with the Hearts

 Start with a bunch of heart shapes. If you’ve got a craft punch this would be a great use for it, otherwise trace and cut with scissors or just freehand some. I’ll bet they’ll look even more realistic if hand-cut as opposed to identical pieces. Still, if you don’t trust yourself to cut without a net, go for the uniform, it’s okay.
For each of the hearts you want to curl the curved edges a bit. You can use a skewer or whatever but I found that a bobby pin (used similar to a quilling tool) makes this step SO simple: slide the bobby pin over the tip of the heart/petal, roll away from you, slide it out–it’s like a curling iron for paper.

Do this to all of your hearts and then start assembling them.

Curling the Petals

  Curling the Petals

A Bud from a Single Heart

A Bud from a Single Heart

 The first heart creates the bud and will wrap around itself a couple of times to make a tight center. If you want to have stems for these flowers, wrap this first petal around a pipe cleaner or piece of wire. Dab a little glue on the last flap to fold over and press to secure.
Add more hearts by overlapping the edge of the previous one and continuing to wrap in the same direction until you run out of hearts or your rose is the size you want. A small rosebud will look very nice with only 3 hearts. The fuller flowers used 15 hearts each.

Paper Rose--15 petals

Paper Rose--15 petals

Experiment with different types of paper–I’ve used some shiny tissue paper, banana paper as well as some gorgeous handmade paper from the local art store to make the roses in the opening picture. The handmade paper is my favorite–it looks so much heavier and full, even in that bright turquoise.

Wired, they’d make a lovely arrangement or package tie or could be added to a headband or hair clip. Make enough of them and cover a wreath form (attach with hot glue) for a centerpiece or door hanging (just keep it out of the weather).

Want one more way to while away an afternoon making very cute things out of paper and not much else? Check out this Origami Paper Roses Tutorial from Housewife Eclectic. They could also pass for tulips, too!

How many roses will you make, today?