"Kelly Creates"; word stamps for brush lettering from American crafts

Hello my friends!
This is just a short post to let you have a look at the Kelly Creates stamps carried by Michaels. I just wanted to share these, because I love the scripty font and the price is so reasonable! They stamp sets are only $5 each. That is in Canada, so they may be even cheaper in the US. And of course cheaper still if you use a coupon! It is a large set of stamps and there are about 18 to 20 words in each one. Tp give you an idea, the package size is 6" x 10", and as you can see, there isn't a lot of wasted space.  There are some word duplicates, quite a few actually, mostly the smaller words, but at this price I can live with that!  They are not in the regular stamp section. They are in a new section for journaling and brush lettering. There are eight different versions. I got 6 of them the other two are the months of the year and days of the week. I don't think I have much of a used for that, but I may end up getting them anyways as the price is so good. If I use my coupon, I am looking at about $3 a set! These are part of a collection of brush lettering items.  I think the purpose of the stamps is to help learn brush lettering.  There are also workbooks, brush pens and workbook covers etc.  All related to brush lettering. The other items are somewhat pricey, so I was surprised that the stamps were so reasonable! I have to admit, I did get sucked into purchasing some of the other items, LOL. Luckily it was a 55% off coupon weekend. 

The brush lettering is so pretty, I wanted to give it a try. A little bit challenging for someone that is legally blind! But I haven't let that stop me from being creative yet! I would have to say that the metallic brush pens are very soft and it is hard to adjust the pressure to make thick and thin lines. So I was disappointed in them.  I had to search for them at a few different Michaels, too.  Although I have to add, I couldn't find any other metallic brush pens.  But they were not cheap, $40 regular price in Canada. I also found that the black brush pens seem to run out of ink quickly. They were $12 regular price for 3 various sized black brush pens.Just a few observations I thought I would pass it along. So in summary, I wasn't as impressed with the metallic  markers, they were okay but expensive. for the quality. Now, I need to let you know that I AM NOT an experienced brush letterist!  So that could be part of the problem!  I had the best luck with the small black  brush pen.  The set of 3  black pens were a little easier to work with than the metallic, but seemed to start to dry out quickly.   But as for the stamps, I love them! And I love a lot of the words in the sets which would be great for card-making, and art journaling and mixed media art. There is also an alphabet set that you can use to create your own words. I believe these are carried exclusively at Michaels. And Kelly, of Kelly creates has several videos on brush lettering, so if you are interested in that you should definitely check her out.  Cursive lettering is going to become a lost art.  I don't believe they are teaching it in schools any more, which I just don't understand, so this is a good way to keep it alive.

I hope you found this helpful, happy crafting everyone!

Kim  xo

" pink houses" tag for the music prompt at#onelittletag"

Hello my friends!
We are actually done with the music prompt at the one little take craft challenge, and on to a new week. But I had already started a few more tags for the music prompt, which I had tons of ideas for! So I am still going to finish off those tags, just because it's fun! This tag is based on John Mellencamp's song Pink Houses. First I created my background using distress ink.

I did some random stamping with some white ink and an inkadinkado stamp. The white ink did not show up very well, but you can see it. I also did a bit of random stamping with a local King rubber-stamp and a prima stamp using some distress inks.

I used a My Favorite Things die to cut out the little houses and accessories from some pink cardstock. A lot of little pieces!. I cut some out of white cardstock as well. I use distress ink to color the trees, and I watered down some distress ink and dragged the houses through it to just add a little bit of texture. I also use the Prima stamp to stamp the houses once they were dry just to add a little more interest.

I used a We R memory Keeper's die to die cut out the Sun from some yellow cardstock. I did some edging with some distress ink and a little bit of doodling with my white gel pen. I splattered some water on the background, because I love that water reactive quality of the distress inks. I use a glue stick to adhere everything down.

I used my label maker to create my words and I used an edge punch from my stash, I believe it is a Fiskars punch, to create the grass in the foreground.

I use distress ink to color and edge the grass, spritz with water and when dry I added my words which I also colored with some distressing. Once I glued that down to the tag, I punched out some flowers from some scraps and adhered those to the tag as well. Once everything was assembled, I glued the tag to a black net to finish it off. I once again enjoyed the whimsical quality of this tag. It took a while to put together with all the little pieces, but it was fun to do.

I hope you enjoyed my pink houses tag, thank you so much for stopping by to have a look! I will be back soon with more tags. I may have a couple more inspired buy some song titles, just because I like doing them, and I will be also creating some tags for the new prompt of the week which is wings!

Have an awesome day and I hope to see you back here soon!

Kim xo

" Castle on the hill" tag for music prom a t#onelittletag

Hello my friends!
As you can probably tell, I have been having a lot of fun with the music prompt atThe One Little Tag Craft Challenge Facebook group.  I created this tag based on Ed Sheeran's song "Castle on the Hill".

I created a back ground for my tag bye blending on some distress ink in blues and greens, creating my hill.

I die cut my castle from a spellbinders die set.

I positioned my castle on the hill without adhering it to determine where I wanted my pathway to be.

Then I created a mask ask for the pathway. I use low tack shelving paper to cut my masks from. It is inexpensive, I get it from the dollar store, and it works well. I did tap it on to my clothing before adhering it to make it even less tacky. I'm positioned my pathway with the mask and then blended some darker green at the edges of the path and splattered on some red and white dots. I use distress ink, which I smooshed on to the craft met and added water to for the red dots and I used my opaque Copic White, which I also watered down to splatter on the white. I also splattered on some clear water droplets because I love that effect with the water reactive distress inks. Then I removed the mask for the pathway and use the negative sections to create a mask for the hill leaving the pathway open. Then I blend it on various brown distress inks and added some water droplets and a little bit of water on a brush to create some horizontal lines, which ended up getting blended  out for the most part. I also splattered some gray ink and white dots on my castle, and did some edging with some distress ink as well. I used the distress ink and a pen for the castle door. And when I had everything out, I also splattered some distress ink and Copic white on some gray card stock that I cut down to use as a mat for my tag. I wanted it to look a little bit like stone, too match the castle.

I adhered my castle, and I used a little punch to punch out some flowers from some scrap cardstock I had. I used my label maker to print out the words. I edged those with some distress ink. I also used a little punch to create the butterfly from some scrap paper I had. I adhered the little flowers and butterfly, as well as the words, which I printed with my label-maker, to my tag.

I used a couple of my faber-castell Pitt pens to add some shadowing as well as my white Posca paint pen for some highlighting details. Once everything was assembled, I glued my tag to the gray mat that I had created, and then to the final black matte to finish it off. I really like how Whimsical this tag turned out to be, which was actually my intention!

Well I hope you enjoyed my castle on the hill tag. I really enjoyed creating it. Thank you so much for stopping by and having a look and I hope to see you soon with my next tag. Have an awesome and creative day everyone!

Kim xo

""Wild Horses" for the music prompt at #onelittletag

Hello my friends!
I am back again with another tag for the music prompt at the one little tag craft challenge. This tag is inspired by The Rolling Stones song "Wild Horses". I had my sister in mind when I created this tag. I was also thinking about my niece who lives in Northern Alberta. So far north that you have to use the ice roads to get there at this time of year. There are many wild horses where she lives, they have to put up fences to keep the horses out of the yard. As a matter of fact, she was recently late for work because two horses were having a scuffle in the middle of the road!

To create this tag, I used my homemade stamp positioner to stamp the horses first in brown archival ink. The stamps are from an Inka Dinka Doo set. Then I'm masked off the single horse using a mask I created from a piece of paper previously. I did not mask off the running horses. I use some makeup brushes that I got from the dollar store as ink brushes sometimes. They work quite well. (little tip!) I used various distress inks to create the background. A little bit of blue in the sky and various browns and green for the ground. I kind of swirled things around to look like dust and use my Copic opaque white ( ilovetostuff!) To create the dust clouds. Then I smooshed a few different distress inks on to my craft mat, spritz them with some water, and use my fan brush to add some splatters. I did the same thing with my copic white. Then I unmasked my single horse, and put my tag back into my stamp positioner. This time I used black ink to stand for horse, but I placed the ink strategically knowing that part of it would be Andy dust cloud so I didn't want it really dark.

To finish off the tag, I mounted it to a burlap paper mat  from a pad I got at the dollar store a while back. I thought the burlap really suited this tag. Then, as usual I finished it off with a black mat..

I hope you enjoyed today's take, and I hope my sister likes it!
Thank you so much for stopping by and allowing me to share some of my art with you.

Kim XO

"Tiny Dancer" tag for music prompt on #onelittletag

Hello again, my friends!
Here is another tag for the music prompt at The One Little Tag Craft Challenge. I am loving this prompt.  This tag was inspired by Elton John's "Tiny Dancer".

I used distress ink and gold ColorShine spray too create the background.  You may have already read this in my previous posts, but in case you are new here, I smoosh the ink onto my craft mat, spritz with water  and drag and pounce  the tag through the ink.  I do a few layers, drying in between, until I am happy.  I love the gold marbling effect created when I added the gold ColorShine.

I used a Cheery-Lynn Design die to cut out several ballerinas from a light pink card.  Then I edged them with purple and gold ink.  I arranged them on the tag finishing off with a gold dancer.  I used my label-maker to create the title.

Once the main panel of the tag was assembled, I used a gold mat and a final black mat to finish off the tag.

I hope you have enjoyed the process of creating this "Tiny Dancer" tag.  Thanks for, once again. letting me share my creations with you!

Kim xo

"Dreams" tag for music prompt on #onelittletag

Hello my friends!
This weeks prompt at The One Little Tag Craft Challenge is music.  This can be  interpreted any way we like, I have been using songs as inspiration.  I knew I would be fired up by this prompt, I have a hundred tags in my head that I would like to make!  This tag was inspired by Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams".

I started off this tag with some embossing.  I thought these bubble-like images would give the background a dreamy quality. I used a kaleidoscope  embossing powder that was glittery  with various sparkles of colour.  This would act as a resist to the ink that I add.

I did several backgrounds at the same time.  I smooshed distress ink onto my craft mat and spritzed with water.  I also added some Heidi Swapp ColorShine gold spray into the mix.  I dragged and pounced my tags through the inky goodness, drying in between layers.  I repeated the process until I was happy with the result.

As you can see here, the embossed areas resisted the ink.

I used a Spellbinders die to cut out the dream catcher from some blue foil board.  I love to use gold and silver foil board, but there is also red, blue and green in the package that I don't use as often, so I was happy to find a use for the blue.  I really liked the look.  I don't know why, but I think of blue when I think of dreaming.  I have heard that we don't actually dream in colour.  I don't know if that is true or not, my dreams seem to be colourful!

This is a "Kelly Creates" stamp set that I got from Michaels.  I love these sets and they are only $5 each! Even less if you have a coupon.  I usually find Michaels a little pricey, but was really happy with this purchase.   They all have about 18 - 20 words.  I thought this was a great deal.  Maybe I will do another post to showcase these stamps.  Anyways, Dreams was one of the words on this set.  I heat-embossed it with Rangers gold embossing powder on vellum.  I wrapped the vellum around the tag.  I did this so that it would mute the background enough for the word to stand out, but still visible behind the vellum.

Then I added a blue foil mat and my usual black mat to finish off the tag.

I hope you have enjoyed my process for making this tag.  Thanks so much for letting me share it with you.  Have an awesome day everyone!

Kim xo

Playing with distress inks and Color Shineto make some pretty backgrounds #onelittletag

Hello my friends!
I had some fun the other evening creating some backgrounds for some more tags.  I love playing around with different techniques which is why I always seem to be creating backgrounds for future art projects.  It's just fun!  This time I pulled out my original distress inks.  I squished them down on my craft mat, spritzed them with water and pressed and swiped my tags through the inky goodness.  I dried each layer and then dunked it again, adding more ink or water as necessary.  I like a little shimmer and  thought I'd pull out some Heidi Swapp Color Shine gold spray to mix in with my distress inks and I love the marbling effect it created.

This one actually has no distress ink in it, it is Gold and turquoise Color Shine spray, but done the same way.  I sprayed it onto the mat and added water and smooshed the tag into it!

I heat embossed a couple of tags to create a resist before inking them up for a different effect.

 I splattered the gold onto this tag

I just love how the gold marbled through the distress ink!

I will be using these backgrounds to create some more tags for The One Little Tag Craft Challenge.  It's all about the process and having fun!  This isn't a new technique for me, although it is the first time I thought to add the color shine.  But every time you do it, you get totally unique results.  So every project that you use them for will be unique, even if you finish them all off the same way.  I hope you have enjoyed having a look at my ink play, and I encourage you to give it a try, if you haven't before, and try it again, if you have!  You will be seeing some of these backgrounds very shortly on some new tags.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Kim  xo

Pretty Tag made from scraps for #onelittletag

Hello my friends!
Well, Wednesday is usually an Art Club day (Ajax Creative Arts), but the weather did not cooperate, and we had a snow day instead.  That doesn't mean that I  couldn't have a crafty day, though.  I will confess, I did not leave the house and wore comfy p.j.s all day!

For those of you that are new to my blog, at the very beginning of the year, I created several background sheets using spray inks and stencils.  I call them my "spray play" sheets and I created them to cut dowm into tags, or collage or use as backgrounds for an art journal page (which I am determined to do this year!)

I have cut out several tags from these pretty sheets already. (if you scroll through my blog you will see many of those tags) and I have been saving some of the scraps to use later to create  a different background

Some of the offcuts just looked so pretty to me that I didn't want to throw them away.  I had little bits from other papers I had used as well and I decided I would save them and create a tag with them.  I glued them down to some card and them trimmed all around.  I edged all around with gold ink.

I also did some die cutting today.  I find die cutting therapeutic for some reason.  I think I get a certain satisfaction when I run a paper through my die cutting machine and it comes out as a beautiful and intricate embellishment.  Sometimes I will die cut for hours and never actually create anything. True story, a Mimi fact, lol.  A snow day is a perfect day to bring out the Cuttlebug!

So this tag has a lot of die cut elements.  I created the flower using some lovely vellum.  Now, here is the day coincidence.  The new prompt for OLTC had not been posted yet this week and it turned out to be "music", to be interpreted any way we like.  So this tag, with its music notes, qualifies although I had no idea when I was making it! I think I will have some fun with this weeks prompt.  Stay tuned!

Thank you so much for stopping by to see what I have been up to.  For those of you that are crafty, I hope I have inspired you to use up some of those scraps instead of throwing them away, and  create something!

Kim xo

"Walking in the Rain" tag for #onelittletag

Hello my friends!
This is a tag I created a few days ago for the watercolour challenge at The One Little Tag Craft Challenge.  For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a Facebook group created by Jenny Barnett Rohs of Craft Test Dummies.  The focus of the group is to encourage everyone to try and be creative every day, or as often as you can.  The theory being that by taking just a few minutes and doing a small tag, nothing elaborate, every day could keep the creative juices flowing. I enjoy making the tags, so I tend to spend a little more time on them.  I don't get to them every day, but I would say I do something creative most days.  I usually go to our art club twice a week and if I'm not being creative, I am often thinking about what I will do the next time I am!  So whether you spend 10 minutes or 2 hours on a tag, you are staying inspired!  It is also a good opportunity to do some experimenting without making a big commitment.  So if there are any of you that are looking for some inspiration or encouragement and would like to share some of your art, or just see what other are up to and to gain some inspiration, I would encourage you to check it out.  It is no longer just tags, anything you create can be posted, cards, art journals, drawings etc.  there is a weekly prompt, that is completely optional.  There are also random draws for giveaways.  A lot of fun and a good group of people.  Anyways, back to my tag, lol

Watercolour is not my medium.  I like to paint, but I paint in acrylics and I just don't have the knack of watercolour.  I suppose some lessons would help.  I do like to play around and drop paint onto a wet paper and let it blend organically, and play around.  I did a landscape, or attempted one, that I have to admit I scrapped.  But I was determined to do at least one scene.  So this is quite simple, but I don't mind how it turned out.  I used Winsor Newton watercolours, and Crayola brush pens on the stamp of the girl with the umbrella.  I struggled with watercolours this week.  But I also had a lot of fun with my "Purple Girl".  I stepped out of my comfort zone, which was the most important thing, more important than the result.  I hope everyone does that once in a while, it helps us discover new things.  I wonder how many things I would have missed had I never strayed from my comfort zone.

Well, lots of words tonight, I usually try and keep things short and sweet.  Thanks so much for taking the time to read and for letting me, once again, share my little pieces of art with you.

Kim  xo

A new "Purple Girl" watercolor tag for #onelittletag

Hello my friends!
Well, this has been another busy week (some of it involving plumbers!) and I haven't had a change to finish a tag until today!  The challenge this week at The One Little Tag Craft Challenge is water colour.  I had a bit of a head-start with this tag as I created this purple-haired beauty for last weeks purple challenge, but didn't get a chance to use her.  Well, I just happened to use water colours to create her, so guess what...!  She was created using a Penny Black stamp.  I used some Jane Davenport water colours and pencil crayons..  I created a couple of water colour background sheets for her dress and the tag background.  I had fin with those!  I dropped in all kinds of different water colours, including some metallic and just let them basically do as they pleased.  And now I have a few extra tag backgrounds left over as well!

I stamped her dress onto the paper I created and cut it out.  I stamped my favourite flourish stamp in gold ink onto the background.  It is so hard to pick up in photos, but there is a lot of shimmer on this card.  There is metallic watercolour in her dress and in the background, as well as the gold s metallic inked stamp.  I had some fin embellishing her dress and   giving her a choker.  I usually like to add a word or phrase to my tags, but there wasn't anything that popped into my head for this tag.  I may leave her a she is, or add something later if I am inspired.

I hope you enjoyed todays tag, I enjoyed creating it.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Kim xo