Naughty Pinup Baking Tags

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These are not your grandmother's baking tags, unless your grandmother used to serve drinks at the Playboy Club. Make certain your recipient has a wicked sense of humor. Not recommended for the church bake sale.

Happy Birthday Anyway

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That's me in the photo for this card. My 2nd birthday and I was none too pleased to have so many people squawking all around me. I remember it vaguely. I remember being irritated by all the fussing. Really had me on edge. Was it too much to ask that everyone place their gifts at the door, get off the property and grant me the space and quiet to dive head first into a cake, undisturbed???

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This card had been done before, by me, last Fall. A simpler design with a plain white interior. I'd wanted to see more, to play up the crazed circus aspect of the whole affair, so I redid it with front and back continuous designs, bright aqua blue stripes and bubbles.

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When I was small, the favorite local ice cream parlor was circus themed. I really disliked it, was completely disturbed by all the primary colors, the noise, and especially the freaky clowns, but the ice cream made it worth the hassle. Good stuff. Funny how, all these years later, I still equate the circus with massive annoyance, going so far as to slap the design on my card. At least I have a sense of humor about it now. I certainly hope the recipients of these cards will, too.

Let Them Eat Cake!!!!

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I think things are prettier in layers, even cupcake gift tags. I see all those trays of patterned paper in craft stores and long for ways to incorporate it into my work. I thought adding a 2nd layer to the tags made them livelier. Not that the designs aren't pretty on their own, but something in the dark backgrounds made them less exciting as tags until I dug around in my vellum collection and found something bright and pretty and iridescent to add to them. I also used sheer white ribbon to soften them up a bit.

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These gift tags come in a set of 8. Available here.

Valentine's Day - An excuse to play with pink

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I am a big fan of gift tags. The more detailed or unusual, the better. You could wrap a gift in newspaper, but add a pretty gift tag and no one will notice.

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I've been making these little folder tags, a similar design to my handmade envelopes, putting tiny printed note cards inside, embellishing them with lace and jewels. I go nuts with creative glee when I see things like this. And they're a great way to get some pink into my work.

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I don't do enough with pink. I didn't even start to wear pink until 2 years ago. A color I should wear more often seeing as my skin is so fair you could almost call it blue. I make mayonnaise look tan.

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Click here to see these little beauties in my store.

Stationary Sets and Handmade Envelopes

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I'd been wanting to create an official set of this particular stationary since I first started printing the design. I have always loved stationary sets, the little things to go into them - stickers, tags, informal notes, formal cards, etc. . This is something I would like to do with the cherries and the coffee/tea images as well. They speak to a broad audience and when I get a set all pulled together, it looks so pretty and refreshing. I suppose it feels like my birthday or Christmas morning.

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The best part was having an excuse to make the gift envelopes. I love these. Their recipients love them, and they're so much fun. They allow me to integrate collage, a true passion of mine but one in which I seldom indulge. Once I clone myself this won't be a problem. But for now, it's not so easy doing 10 things simultaneously (see multitasking card below as reference). This particular envelope goes easy on the collage - only one piece glued down - but does let me have fun with color and pattern.

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The chartreuse and gold leaf rice paper feels like fabric. It's delicious. The heavy card stock is a bear to bend and fold, even with a proper folding table and blade, but very worth it. It's sky blue and pearlescent. I feel decadent just holding it. With a bright red strand of ribbon, it's a perfect trifecta of color.

Multitasking Sucks

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Now available in my Etsy store, this card came about as a result of nearly pulling my hair out last month. Very busy time. Very spinning head. Very burned out by year's end. I took last week off to decompress and do a little merry making.

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While I was browsing around Etsy, I found these fabulous vintage images of Alice in Wonderland. The image seen above caught my eye immediately, a swirl of cards spinning all around Alice, her face contorted with anxiety, arms flailing. I took one look at her and said, "Ha! That's me!" And so came the birth of the multitasking card.

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For added effect, I designed the back of the card with a little detail of her hands surrounded by many boxes, each in my mind symbolizing yet another thing on my list of stuff to do and not enough time to do it.