Tag Your Addiction

I understand that the first step in overcoming an addiction is admitting you have one. Well, I have a few, one of which is ribbon. Unfortunately, I have admitted this addiction many times and yet I still find the need to save scraps of ribbons from gifts, packages, and any other item containing the beloved piece.

This is a picture of my "traveling" bag of ribbon. I have jars at home containing scraps (organized by color) and ribbons on spools line my work area as well as other jars containing smaller spools. But, I do use my ribbon stash so I'm hoping that justifies my need to acquire every pretty piece/style I come across.

Now that I've explained this addiction, let me show you how this factors into today's project. I'm in St. Louis for a scrapbook convention and so my ribbon "travel" bag came with me. And deep in the depths I found the perfect ribbons to finish the tags I created.

These tags take advantage of stamps from the December 2011 and April 2012 Kit of the Month stamps. And I used one of my favorite stamping techniques - watercolor. And before you start saying to yourself how hard watercoloring is let me tell you about my watercolors - they are pencils and a waterbrush. The pencils allow me to color around the edges to add shadows and highlights. I don't have to be perfect - more pencil in some places, outside the lines in others. I then use the waterbrush to pull the color from the edges to the middle of the image, thus creating the shadows and highlights. It truly makes me feel like an artist!

The best stamps to use for watercoloring are line drawings or open designs because they provide areas to color. That doesn't mean you can't use solid stamps (notice the Made with Love stamp), it just means you have less areas to color.

I love each of these tags, but the poppy (you bring me sunshine) tag truly speaks to me. I love poppies, well actually I love flowers. And flowers are the perfect design to watercolor. And while I love pinks and purples, the oranges of poppies make me happy and fills me with sunshine - which is why the sentiment I used seemed perfect.

The jar, well it offers multiple possibilities and the stamp set comes with three labels. But don't let that limit your creativity. I have visions of filling this stamped bottle with actual buttons on a project. Another addiction I have - collecting buttons.

Tomorrow wraps up this week of creating with Unity Stamp products. Come back tomorrow for the final project. And thank you so much for all the wonderful comments. And remember, feel free to point me in the direction of some of your creations. I love seeing what others create!

Supplies:

Jar, thank full, heart with flowers, and made with love stamps (December 2011 Kit of the Month; Unity Stamp Company)
Poppy and you bring me sunshine stamps (April 2012 Kit of the Month; Unity Stamp Company)
Watercolor pencils (Staedtler)
Waterbrush (Kuretake Co.)
Perfect Little Black Dress ink (Hybrid Ink; Clear & Simple Stamps)
Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Tim Holtz; Ranger Ink)
manila tags
ribbon pieces


Size: 2 1/4" x 4 3/4"