Artful Lettering Touches for Your Holidays

If you aren’t familiar with Joanne Sharpe, I’d like to introduce her to you. She is is a gifted artist and teacher, who is known for her colorful and whimsical work. She has a number of online classes, but I wanted to call your attention to her  Five Golden Letterings class which is absolutely free! It will cost you nada, zilch, zero…nothing!

Five Golden Letterings Free Class by Joanne SharpeThe class was done in 2012, but I’m sure you can find some useful ideas.These ideas are just as useful now as they were when she created the class.  Watch the videos and see which techniques you’ll want to try!  You can even use other colors besides gold! Shhh… I won’t tell!

She will show some great ways to spiff up wrapping paper, gift bags, and cards!  It’s amazing how a handful of supplies can be used to de-stress and make something artful and useful all at the same time!  There is no doubt you’ll find ideas to artfully add some special touches to your holidays!

Stop by and check out her Five Golden Letterings class!  Then come back and share with us what you’ve made!

You can also find Joanne on her Whimspirations blog.

 

Halloween Magic Potions Decor

Add a little decorative element to your home for Halloween by creating some “magic potions!” I know many of you enjoy doing your own lettering and drawing, and you can use this idea as you like. However, when pressed for time, or if you just want to use the get it done version, here’s how to make it happen. When I saw these cute little label stamps, I knew I had to do something fun with them!

C1509 Magic Potions

Magic Potions Stamp Set, #C1509

Each of these label shapes can be cut with a Cricut die cut machine from the CTMH Cricut Artiste Collection cartridge, #Z1790. You can see that the page of the accompanying booklet and the cutting size are marked right along side the stamps. Since they are clear, they are easy to see exactly where to place your stamp on the label.

I grabbed some random bottles and decorated them! You can see I did a very basic version of dressing these bottles. There is so much more you could do, but I wanted you to see that just doing something simple can be very effective!  These would look cute with candy in them. Since these bottles are rather tall, I filled them with water and added food coloring to the water to create the colors I wanted in each one.

CTMH Scaredy Cat papers with the Magic Potions stamps

CTMH Scaredy Cat papers with the Magic Potions stamps.

I love the Black Shimmer Trim! It was perfect for this project to add a little zip to the top of each bottle. All you have to do is pull off the backing tape, and it’s ready to adhere to your project!

Paper rosettes make a nice backing to the labels, or just use some of the coordinating papers from the Scaredy Cat collection, #X7185B.

Magic Potion Stamps with paper rosette

Magic Potion stamp with paper rosette from Scaredy Cat paper collection.

Cutting the labels with the die cut machine makes easy work of decorative labels. Inking the edges finishes this label nicely.

CTMH Magic Potions stamped label with inked edges.

Magic Potions stamped label with inked edges.

Coordinating decorative papers, as well as plain colored card stock make it easy to create projects have a cohesive look when doing a grouping of items.

magic potions stamps and scaredy cat papers

Coordinating papers make the perfect background to add even more interest.

There are so many possibilities for these label stamps. Wouldn’t they look adorable on treat bags? What do you think you’d make with them, my little pretty?

Here’s a peek at the Scaredy Cat printed paper. There are also pieces of coordinating card stock not shown.

CTMH scaredy cat paper pack

CTMH scaredy cat paper pack

914 SOTM KS  


Twist a Tried and True Color Combination

For a new twist on a project, why not start with a tried and true color combination from a holiday, on a non-holiday related project.  Here is page that has summer pictures, with a red and green theme.  This one has quite a bit of red and green, but you could use one color predominantly, and hints of the other.  You could also vary the shades from what we normally think of as the old Christmas red and green.  Also try throwing in a third color and you really lose that holiday feel.