Made With Love by Kat

I'm really enjoying playing around with some mixed media projects. A bit of paint here, a bit of paper there... add some acetate or some vellum... When I look at Google images for inspiration, a lot of the pictures I see seem a bit (whisper it) old fashioned - hence why I love designers like Heidi Swapp whose collections have a really fresh feel.  This tag was made using one of the painted kraft tags I blogged about on Tuesday as a base. I added ephemera from my Heidi Swapp, Maggie Holmes and Docrafts stash and a Docrafts puffy sticker (I LOVE the Docrafts geometric pieces - about as far from stuffy old fashioned scrapbooking styles as you can get). The little peg was just a plain wooden one from Hobbycraft which I painted with my neon pink paint. I plaited some embroidery thread just as a change from using twine. What do you think? Share your links to your latest projects below - I'd love to see them. 

I have an excess of gift tags! I got a tad (tag?) overexcited this weekend after I got some great stamps free with Docrafts Creativity magazine (a recent but much-loved already discovery) and some super cheap neon pink paint from Tesco. I particularly love the contrast of the neon paint with the brown kraft paper. However it does mean I'll have to give away an awful lot of presents to use them all up.  I love these simple two-colour tags - I think I'll use some of them for scrapbooking. I've only just started to get into stamping, after my lovely boyfriend bought me a cute owl stamp from Hobbycraft a few weeks ago (he needed change for the parking meter!) I love it though - typically I've acquired lots of stamps very quickly and we even have our own bespoke wedding stamp which we'll use on our envelopes and favours! It's from The English Stamping company who are one of my favourite new finds. 

I'm OBSESSED with playing with paper at the moment. Whether it's my Project Life album, mini albums inspired by Stephanie Bryant , scrapbook pages to go up on the wall, cards or more, I love messing about with patterned paper, ephemera, stickers and all the other gorgeous crafty bits. I know that sometimes it seems like there's not enough time to be creative, but that's simply not true! I made this cute tag in about quarter of an hour, and I felt so happy when it was done! I used this Maggie Holmes how-to to make the tassel - I've been playing about with modifications of my own which I'll post soon, along with instructions, but for now head over to Maggie's site - it's so gorgeous and full of inspiration, you won't regret it. Once I'd made the tassel, I attached it to some embroidery thread, with the other end tied to a plain brown kraft tag. The I pulled out loads of bits of ephemera from my stash - I was using bits from the Maggi...

Time for the June giveaway! Anyone who makes a purchase throughout June will be entered into a draw to win a lovely set of three luxury handmade feather and button gift tags (pictured in the last post below). See them here.