California Dreamin'

I have a friend that is currently living in Ohio due to family obligations.  But is dreaming and planning for the day she can return to Sunny California, preferably San Diego.
In honor of her birthday earlier this month I made her a Folder Tag Holder full of California themed tags (as inspired by my art friend and mentor, Dede - you can see the kits she sells to make these yourself on her Etsy HERE).
I didn't get a chance to take pics of the folder before I mailed it off but I did manage to scan the tags so shared them with you here.
When I first thought of the idea I went on Google and searched for California and San Diego Travel Guides and went to the websites and ordered the free paper copies.  When they got here I went through and tore or cut out many images.  I covered the outside of the book with California maps.  Then gathered a bunch of dyed tags and some watercolor paper scraps and started sewing on images.  I've been having so much fun sewing on paper lately!

I'll get Debbie to take some pics of the Folder Holder for me and share those with you another time.  But wanted to share these with you in case you are in need of some warm sunny thoughts and/or some California Dreamin'!

Thanks for taking a look!

Hope you all have a creative week!

Sing Sing Sing

Seems like every once in awhile I forget how much I like to create with tags.  Before I got into art journaling and atcs and was mostly a stamper I used tags ALL the time.
So this week I have been playing at creating with tags.  Here's one I used for a page in my bird themed altered book:

The book is filling up and getting thick and has stuff sticking out of the edges like the ribbons and yarn on this tag.  Love it when an altered book or art journal starts to get to that point!  I don't know...maybe makes it feel more cherished to me.
For this page I chose a page that I had already put some leftover patterned paper on - I do alot of backgrounds ahead of time, using leftover paint and papers from other projects.  Or sometimes just to try a backgound paper idea or technique I want to try.  Also helps me sometimes when I can't get started or come up with a creative idea to just start out by making backgrounds.
I took a standard shipping tag and covered it with sheet music using gel medium as the adhesive.  Once good and dry I cut around the edges of the tag to trim off the sheet music.  Then repunched the hole, stuck one of Tim Holtz idea-ology reinforcer stickers over the hole,  Next I stamped the "sing sing sing".  I screwed up the second "sing" so had to rescue that by gluing a K & Co bee over the G I messed up.  Then glued the K & Co bird and nest image onto the tag.  I had a strip of scrapbook paper with music notes on it.  Tore the edges for a more shabby look and glued it to the background.  Found some coordinating ribbons and yarn for the tag.  Once I had those attached through the hole I glued the tag down.  That's it!
Thanks for taking a look! 

Tags for swap and journal page from leftovers

The Yahoo Mini-Books Group I belong to had a swap I participated in with the subject "Things That Fly".  Each person was to make a 3x5 tag for all participants and then mail them directly to each participant.  I made my tags out of watercolor paper.  I coated both sides with gesso, then used acrylics and a spray bottle and painted on an orangish backgound.  I then used punchinella/sequin waste as a stencil to add the blue dot design.  At that point I cut the paper into 3x5 pieces and made them into tags. Then rubber stamped the image and words.   Lastly was to add the blue hole protectors to the hole I had punched (white ones bought at an office supply store and dyed blue with ink pad) and then add the yarn.

Once I got done with the tags I had all these strips of watercolor paper with the orange paint and blue dots on them.  I just started playing around with them and kinda started weaving them together.  It was looking pretty cool so I though I'd put in in my journal.  I had this blue background I had made by rubbing a colored pencil over the page while it was resting on the rough wood of an old picnic table and got a wood grain design.  I decided to use that as my background for the weaving.  And as long as I was sitting there with all the leftovers from my tags I decided to glue a few of the holes around the edges.  Then I decided I should use the little triangles left over from cutting the top corners of the tags off.  Those and gluing a few more of the left over holes around the weaving, as well as using a bird paper punch on a scrap and adding those completed the page for me.  It was pretty fun to use up my leftovers like that!

What do you do with your leftover pieces from a paper project?