I’m the guest designer today over at the Tag You’re It! Challenge Blog! For challenge #38, the inspiration was a watercolor birthday tag. It was created with a watercolor background and impeccable die cutting by the talented Tracey McNeely.
I loved the background on her tag, so that’s what I used that as my jumping-off point for my project. It’s cut out of watercolor paper (regular cardstock just doesn’t do the painting justice), and I went with the same shapes and layout as Tracey did.
I got the Winter Woods stamp set from Papertrey Ink in the mail yesterday, and couldn’t wait to use it :)
The first thing I did was hand cut the tag shape from my watercolor paper. Then, I die cut the bottom edge. The blue layer was easy to size here as well, by sticking the white piece down with repositionable tape. I trimmed the edges, then die cut the bottom so both layers would match.
Next, I stamped my bluejay and heat embossed it with a Clear Embossing Powder. After that, I covered the bird’s eye area with Nuvo Masking Fluid to keep it safe from my paint. Once it dried, I wet my tag a little bit with clear water, then swirled some yellow and turquoise watercolor paint around the bird.
When the paint was dry (it only took about 20 mins), I rubbed off the masking fluid. Then, I applied a piece of Post-It Tape to cover up the bluejay and stamped the branches and sentiment.
My tag still needed something, so I decided on little white berry bunches which I made with some Nuvo Crystal Drops.
The Crystal Drops set pretty fast, so after I grabbed a cup of tea and came back to my desk, I was ready to thread the ribbon. I chose a chevron piece to go along with the other patterns.
Thanks for stopping by today to see my watercolor birthday tag. If you liked this post, share the love by pinning it on Pinterest!
Niki I love how you translated the inspiration, your tag is beautiful and that stamp set is fabulous. I have enamel accents but have only ever used the black now it is time to use the white. Thank you for being our guest this challenge!
It was my pleasure, Tracey! I look forward to many more challenges. Y’all have some great designers & I love their work :)
So Nice to have you guesting over at Tag You’re IT with such a lovely tag.
Thank you Anja :D
So pretty! I love the colors and the bird!
Thank you Kelly :)
Niki, your tag is a gorgeous translation of Tracey’s! I’m fascinated that you used her background as a launching point, and crafted from ‘back to front’! Cool strategy (I”m a go-with-the-obvious crafter…need to expand my vision!). You’ve created a wonderful nature-themed scene with your pretty blue bird, nestled on the sky/branches background. Love it! Thank you so much for being a most inspiring GD over at Tag You’re It!
~c
I’ve been trying so hard to incorporate water colors into my projects lately.. Alas I’m not much of a painter. This is the first thing where I haven’t muddled the colors, haha! I’m so glad you like it!
Hi Niki, Congrats on our guest design team spot! What a beautiful tag and take on Tracey’s tag! The dots are so fun !
Aw, thank you, lady! I think I’ll be making many more tags in 2016 :)
Niki this is so pretty! Thanks for explaining how you achieved this effect on a flat tag! The color is amazing!
Thanks Jeanne! I’m feeling like I’ll be going on a tag kick for the next few months, for sure.
Niki, your bg is gorgeous! Beautiful tag, and the finishing dots are so much fun!
Thanks Nancy! I’m always looking for places to use that enamel :)