Supplies:
- Frosty Fun Brushset and/or Frosty Fun gift tag freebie
- Watercolor crayons (or any kind of water colors)
- Inktense Pencils (or watercolor pencils)
- Faber Castell Gel Sticks (optional)
- Brush & Water (or refillable watercolor brush)
- Chalk accent inks (optional)
- Glitter (optional)
My new Frosty Fun photoshop brushes are the perfect accent to any winter scrapbook layout... but the possibilities for other uses are endless. You can make holiday cards, home decor projects (see my Halloween Decal tutorial from last year for a fun idea), or gift tags. If you want to get really creative, you can also print them out onto watercolor or acrylic paper and use them in your mixed media or paper crafting and painting projects. Today I'm going to show you how to make some sweet little gift tags using your painting supplies. Want to play along with me? Let's go!
To follow along with this tutorial, I've created a little set of gift tags for you using my Frosty Fun brushes. Go ahead and print them onto watercolor paper or heavy cardstock. For my tags, I used a heavy weight, laid cardstock in camel. The tags held the watercolor okay, but I think next time I would run some watercolor paper through my printer instead. Because towards the end the tags were buckling... but they still turned out okay.
Next, using your watercolor paints, add color to your tags. Get creative and have fun! If you goof up, you can always paint over it or just print another set out. Experiment with different mediums. For my tags, I primarily used my Inktense pencils which add a beautiful vivid color when you apply water. I also accented with my Faber-Castell gel sticks and my watercolor crayons.
Once you are done, cut out the tag shapes. For added depth and texture, I went over the edges of mine with some distressing chalk inks in various colors. You could also add some glitter. I didn't have any on hand, but may try that next time.
I added one of my finished tags to a gift I'm giving tomorrow for the hostess of our annual Christmas party for the Hot Lunch Mamas! (a group of us that volunteer to serve lunch on Thursdays at Ellie's school!) She is an art teacher, so I think she'll like it....
I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy tutorial to add color to my photoshop brushes and to play outside of the "digital" world. It is so much fun and I find it deeply satisfying to be able to mix these two worlds.
Hugs!
N.
You amaze me Nan! They look awesome!
Posted by: Rachel Young | December 09, 2011 at 03:49 PM
Wow these rock!!!
Posted by: claire | December 09, 2011 at 05:19 PM
oh my love them.. btw. I love my gelatos by fabercastell!!!!
-- dalis
Posted by: Dalis | December 09, 2011 at 05:24 PM
These are so awesome Nan! Thanks for sharing :)
Posted by: Rachel Rerko | December 09, 2011 at 05:44 PM
Thank you for the creative tags, love them!
Posted by: Kathy Phillips | December 20, 2011 at 11:32 PM
Very creative and artistic as well. I love the idea of using your own talent to make an incredible and amazing creation like this.
Posted by: contemporary metal wall art | June 16, 2012 at 12:10 PM
I absolutely LOVE your creations and have been a fan since I took Jessica's Digi Art Journaling Class! Your name is the one I always search for first when looking for new items. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!
Posted by: Alaine | June 20, 2012 at 10:53 PM