Handmade Valentine's Day Gift Tag: Love with Hearts and Butterflies

Hello crafty friends!
My project today was inspired by Giorgia's January Challenge over at Sketches4All. Her challenge is to make ANY kind of paper project and include at least one heart. I decided to make a gift tag and although I wasn't sure how I was going to go about it at first, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. 

1. I used a #8 sized Inkssentials manila tag and wanted to leave some of the original color showing through so I did not cover it with anything.

2. Then before I used the embossing folders I took die-cuts and pieces of die-cut swirls and designs and used them as masks.
 
3. Once I lightly applied my first coat of ink over swirls I placed my butterflies over the background and use my ink over them too. 

By using the same ink in increments and lightly each time I was able to build depth into my tag without using any other colors or adding anything to my tag, such as embellishments.

4. After I finished my background and stamped my sentiment with a clear stamp I used my heart embossing folders.

5. To make the hearts stand out more I sponged a little more ink on them while being careful not to hit the tag with my sponge too much.

6. To complete my project I added a tie and bow.

Supplies List

Happy crafting and thanks for stopping by!

Make Your Own Blog Photo Gallery in Blogger

Hello everyone! I'm very excited about my new Photo Gallery page!
You can find it in the top tab menu of my blog.

   I had put making my photo gallery off for a couple of months because it looked a bit overwhelming. Although it was time consuming going back through all of my posts, once I got the hang of it listing my projects went much easier. It took me a few hours from beginning (learning) to end (posting), but it was well worth it. Now that I'm all set up, posting future projects should be a breeze.  

I'm so happy that a visitor to my blog can go directly to the photo gallery and click on an image that will take that person straight to what he/she wants to see.

   Having a photo gallery is essential for craft blogs, because it provides easy navigation to all of your projects. I know when I visit blogs it can be frustrating to have to go through archive menus or page by page (older posts) looking for things I like. I have Popular Posts listed in the sidebar of my blog, but that just means many people may not see something they would really like.

   So here is a quick screenshot of part of my new gallery. I also have scrapbook layouts listed and will be adding new categories for other projects. One option I didn't use was cropping my photos to make them all the same size. I didn't like the idea of doing that for cards and layouts, but there is a way to make sure you don't end up with a large photo in the middle of a row of smaller ones and that can be done after you have placed them in your gallery. If you decide to make your own photo gallery please feel free to ask me any questions as I finally have the hang of it now.
  

 

The information I used to make my Photo Gallery can be found at Sweeter than Sweets

 Happy Crafting!