Hello friends, and Happy T Tuesday!
Today I was up at the crack of dawn or 7am as it is at the moment. After yesterday’s zero temperatures, we are now back to rain and a whole seven degrees warmer! I’m hoping to get quite a lot done today now that I’m not frozen solid!
today’s art . . .
Today I am sharing some faux postage stamps that I stamped out to send to a friend with her Christmas present. We like to enclose little extras like this in our packages so I thought she might like this one. I coloured some of them and left the rest for her to colour or not. They are stamped and coloured in permanent inks and on really thin layout paper so she can use them anywhere she wants, even in her journals as they would be perfect for collage. This is my Day 23 offering for Art Every Day Month.
t stands for . . .
This delicious looking smoothie LOL. I was drinking it for breakfast this morning as I coloured the stamps. Yes it really is that colour! It contains avocado, banana, cucumber, kale, blueberries, cinnamon and some almond milk. It tastes a lot better than it looks 🙂 I’ve been eating poorly lately so I am trying to get back on to the healthy eating train, so instead of half a pot of tea this morning, I had this delight.
t also stands for tutorial . . .
Last Tuesday you might remember I made this tag using an old amazon box and some Sizzix dies.
Today I thought I would show you how to make a similar tag using no dies and just stuff that you probably have lying around the house.
First of all you will need some kind of cereal box like this one, and something tag-shaped to draw around. This could be an actual tag or you could just draw a basic tag shape yourself.
This is a smaller box than the usual cereal boxes so the side panel is not as wide as my usual tags, so I am still going to use it but it will make a slimmer tag. The idea is to use the existing fold to make the opening tag. So fold it closed like a book and then use the tag shape template to draw around it and cut out your opening tag.
I used one of the side panels of the cereal box to make a second tag using the tag shaped template – this one I will have to make my own fold down the centre and crease it with a bone folder or the edge of a pair of scissors.
Here are my two tags, the skinny one on the left using the pre-existing fold from the side panel and then the full size tag I cut from the side panel. *Note – I didn’t use a scoring tool to make my fold, though it would have been neater if I had done. I wanted to use minimal supplies and not everyone has one of those.
To make the windows in the front, use something rectangular or square. I used this paperweight and a roll of washi tape for the skinny tag.
On the wider tag I used a ruler to draw a square and then the roll of washi tape to make the half circle on top.
I used a craft knife and a metal ruler to cut out the window, keeping it all in one piece to use later if needed. If you don’t want to use the cutout piece, you can use scissors to cut it out less cleanly instead.
Here are the two tags with the windows cut out and holes punched in the top using an old office hole punch.
The final step is to cover both sides of the tags with gesso to give you a good base to work with when it comes to decorating the tags.
The two tag bases above are what I used to make the tags I shared yesterday…
Last week’s tag that used tag dies to cut it out.
Yesterday’s tags that used no fancy tools to cut them out.
The benefit of the dies of course is accuracy and intricacy and it’s so much quicker to do if you want to make lots of them, but I like yesterday’s tags just as much as the one from last week so you can get similar results with no dies if you’re willing to do some manual cutting. If you missed any November AEDM posts so far – check them out in the slider below.
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!
Ingredients
Faux postage – layout paper, Lynne Perrella stamps, Pitt artist pens
Tag tutorial – cereal box, gesso, household items,
Smoothie – avocado, banana, blueberries, kale, cucumber, cinnamon, almond milk
Challenges
Art Every Day Month – Day 23 
Altered Book Lover – T Stands for –
You might also like these November posts days 1-22 . . .
Those faux stamps are great! Your friend will love them.
Your smoothie looks ‘disgusting’ but I can well believe it was really nice. I never make smoothies actually. Perhaps I should…
Thanks for the tutorial of the 3D tag. Yours is gorgeous.
Happy T-Day,
Have a great week,
Hugs
Lisca
Love the faux postage stamps and they are very cool gift, Elle! Love the images and the colors. Great tags too – love all of them but especially the new one. I had a smoothie yesterday for the exact same reason! Happy T-day. Hugz
I think the freezing weather has made its way across the pond here to New Hampshire. Its been brutal today. Nice faux postage. Don’t you love those Farber Castell markers? And thanks for showing how you made the tag. I hope you had a great T day, and enjoyed your shake. Hugs-Erika
Haven’t done faux postage stamps in a long time, but I do have a postage scissors that will cut around any image and make it look like a postage stamp. Thanks for sharing your tag window tutorial. Happy T day!
The tags look beautiful – especially the blue ones. Thanks for the tutorial as well, you put quite some work into this.
It’s been around 29°F here in the AM. It warms up a bit but the wind is like ice. Your stamps look amazing. I like the sound of your smoothie too. The Tags are lovely. Happy day to you.
Hi Elle, kind of you to make the tutorial! I would be happy if you would link your new tags to Tag Tuesday again! https://tagtuesday.blogspot.com/ The stamps you made are amazing, they will make a wonderful present. I’ve never had a goddess smoothy! Happy T Day, hugs, Valerie
I’m not a smoothy fan, but I hope it helps you get back to healthy eating Elle!
Those Lynne Perrella stamp images make a lovely gift. A great addition to art journal pages and cards etc.
Thanks for the tutorial for your tag folders. I love that you used cereal box card. I’ve been saving my boxes 🙂
Happy AEDM!
Alison
Thank you so much for sharing this tutorial. I might be able to make the one without the die cuts, since I don’t have a die for that, But it was wonderful you shared both ways.
Your smoothie sounds a lot better than it looks, but smoothies often don’t look good once you start drinking them. Thanks for sharing this tutorial and your smoothie with us for T this Tuesday, dear Elle.
Your smoothie sounds delicious! What a yummy combination.
Your tags are lovely and I especially like those Lynne Perrella images. Thanks for sharing your technique.
Happy Tea Day,
Kate