Tag It Tuesday Theme for April 2016

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Drum roll please.......

It's time to announce this month's theme for Tag It Tuesday!

This month we continue our focus on the Spring Pantone colors, and we're combining two of them for an added twist.  Serenity and Snorkel Blue are two lovely blues that I'm looking forward to working with, with Snorkel Blue being the darker shade of Serenity.

Tone, tint, hue, shade.....these can be confusing terms.  Here's the easy way to think of it:  hue is the actual, original color on the color wheel.  Tint is when white is added to a hue and these colors are sometimes referred to as pastel colors.  Tone is when both black and white are added to the original hue and results in a less intense version of the original color.  Shade is when only black is added to the original hue.

The third component of this month's theme is to add circles.  Oh boy!  Another excuse to use my favorite bubble stencil!  :)

So get your tags out and get creative!  The link post will be up on April 19, so you have plenty of time to play.

As a side note, I wanted to mention that I'm thinking of converting Tag It Tuesday to a Facebook group.  My thought is that people might find it easier to follow, participate and post to a Facebook group rather than a blog post with a link feature.  What do you think?  Just brainstorming a way to get greater participation and activity.  Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment!

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!

Tag It Tuesday March 2016 Linky Party

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

It's that time of the month when we link up the altered tags we've made with this month's theme.  For the month of March, we're using the Pantone color "Green Flash" as well as adding a favorite quote or word to your tag.

First of all, two disclaimers from me:  1) As usual, I forgot to take still shots of my process while I was filming my video, and 2) I totally screwed up my quote on this tag.  The actual quote is "The Earth laughs in flowers."  For some reason, the word bloom popped in my head and that's what I used instead.


Here's my process video.  I hope you'll take a look.



I started this tag by collaging some papers onto it.  I then added some Dylusions ink sprays, Color Bloom sprays, and some white acrylic paint applied through my favorite bubbles stencil.  I tried to do some ghost stenciling with the Flower Medley stencil, but the background was just too busy for it to show up.

I took some white paper flowers and colored them with sprays as well.  After cutting off the wire stems, I curled those with my paper bead making tool.  I love doing that.  It adds a fun extra touch to go along with the flowers.

I used my Derwent Inktense Pencils to add shading around the outside edge of the tag, the quote panel, and a few of the paint dots.  I also added Liquitex Glass Bead Gel to the flowers, tendrils, and a couple of edges.  I love that silly stuff!

After I finished filming and the tag was dry, I decided to add a bit of gold and cream baker's twine around the lower portion of the tag.  I also backed it with some green card stock to emphasize the "Green Flash" color we're using this month.

Now it's your turn to link up your tag!  And please be sure to visit the other participating artists and leave them some love as well!



Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!

A Colorful New Year Ahead

Happy Sunday Everyone!

I hope you all had a blessed and wonderful Christmas.  We had a nice day for sure and lots of left overs, since it's just my husband and I and now my mother, having moved her here to Texas in September.

I've been thinking about my Tag It Tuesday monthly feature and wondering if I wanted to continue with it into 2016.  At first I thought no, since participation is always so low.  But as I gave it more thought, I decided to continue anyway.  I enjoy making the tags and I'll keep my fingers crossed that more folks will discover my little monthly feature and decide to play along.

In 2015, I provided you monthly themes to keep everyone's tags focused in the same direction.  For 2016, I'm going to concentrate more on colors and "items" rather than (predictable) monthly themes.  You all are grown ups....you know what holidays fall where.  So if you chose to also incorporate that into your tag, it's going to be totally your choice to do so!

So in that vein, let's talk a little about color....specifically the Pantone colors that are announced yearly.  Below are the 2016 Spring colors and I'll be utilizing them throughout the year for our monthly tag projects.

We'll also be talking about color wheel theory and things like hue, tone, tint, saturation and more.  Many of us learned all that fun stuff in various art classes throughout the years, but do we really remember it and use it?  I know I don't.  So in addition to making our tags, we'll be getting our learning caps on each month as well.

In addition to Pantone, another wonderful resource for color combinations and inspiration is Design Seeds.  I just love all the different combinations they come up with, as well as their pictures that inspired those choices.  Of course, there are all kinds of color wheels out there to help you as well.

Our first tag challenge will be posted on January 5 and the link post will be on January 19.  Each month will be scheduled that way -- theme announcement on the first Tuesday of the month, and link post on the third Tuesday of the month.  Easy peasy!!  The link ups stay live indefinitely, so you can always backtrack if you need to catch up on previous months.

I've always been very inspired by color, so I'm looking forward to this colorful year of tags that lies ahead.  I hope you'll join me (and bring some friends).

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!