12 Tags of 2015: April

Hi,
Hope you had a nice Easter. I was fully enjoying the relaxing long weekend, and was so happy to find some time for papercrafting, too. After making a few 12" layouts in a row it was nice to work on something quite small for a change. Yes, this weekend was all about tags!

Tim Holtz tutorial post for April introduced again a different style. After watching the tutorial I had to grab my stamps, Distress markers, and a few pieces of watercolour paper and get going. And loved every minute of the creative process!!

On the tutorial post Tim made two tags, so I decided to do two, too. For the first one I used warm summer colors, and for the second colder color tones. I like how the two tags have quite a different look and feel, even if they are made using the same 'recipe'!

Even if I did not have many of the suggested supplies to work with, I still think that I was able to interpret the April tag theme pretty well. I loved the new flower stamps by Tim Holtz, but as I did not have them, I used an older set by Stampin' Up. In that 'Secret Garden' set the flowers and stems were separate stamps (as in Tim's 'Flower Garden' set), which gave me more possibilities for the flower placement. However, instead of using the stem stamp I decided to hand draw the stems; masking the crossing stems would have been too much of an effort for me :D ...

Another supply I did not have was the block stencil that was used for the tag background. So I had to get inventive and use my Silhouette. That's why my font and the font size are different from the original tutorial tags.

For the die-cut sentiment text I used another Sizzix text die set I had (follow the link for more info). It's a new Tim Holtz design, so I thought it was just as perfect for my April tags.

The tag background is not a size 8 craft tag, but I decided to die-cut them myself. That way I was able to match the tag color to the Distress marker colors I had used. For cutting the tags I used this Sizzix tag die, and brown and green papers from Tim's 'Retro Grunge' paper stack.

I ended up spending quite a long time on finishing the tags. More than I originally planned to. But I love how the tags came out, and I really had fun making them. That creative pleasure once again reminded me of what this cool hobby is all about: Turning a few pieces of paper to something tangible and beautiful, to something that makes me happy.

I hope you'll share the same feeling when making your next project!

Hugs,