Gorgeous DIY Gift Tags - Watercolor and Ribbons

color nature Nov 24, 2020

This holiday season will be quite different.

We won’t be gathering together as we have in the past, celebrating our community of family, loved ones and friends. Why not include a little piece of yourself along with the packages you’ll be mailing? A beautiful gift tag that you have made yourself is an excellent way to make eyes open wide with delight, adding a bit of personal spark to the moment.

I’ve just published a new class on Skillshare teaching you how to use scraps of watercolor paper, paint and cloth ribbon to make your own, unique and gorgeous gift tags. Here’s the link to the class: https://skl.sh/2J1Qo7Z DIY Watercolor and Ribbon Gift Tags.

What am I sending off through the mail this year? Natural dyed napkins!

This week you would have found me in my kitchen rather than my studio. I stirred pots of color, steaming on the stove. I felt like a mad chemist creating combinations of natural dyes that produced surprising and beautiful colors.

As I over-dyed some of the napkins I’m preparing to give as gifts, I felt as if I were glazing washes of watercolor over the top of previous washes. I had an inkling of what might happen. Often, I was fooled by the chemistry that occurred. Stirring a pot of Logwood dye with a stainless steel spoon rather than a wooden spoon turned the napkins a beautiful gray instead of the amazing purple I had achieved in the first round of dying.

Color makes my heart sing whether it’s on a piece of paper or cloth. I awaken to a new scheme of color each day through my window. I watch the colors of the day fade in a unique way each evening and I enjoy observing the color scheme changes of nature as I walk my two mile (or four mile) loop each day throughout the year watching the cycle of the seasons.