A Balancing Act. . .

BALANCE is this month’s theme at Anything But a Card and it was a tough one for me. I feel that I lack balance in most aspects of my life, yet it is something that I don’t think about often.  My thought behind my project was that I need a reminder, a daily reminder, to balance my life.  One of the things that I feel will help me balance my crafty life is to use up some of this tremendous stash I have so I decided to make a banner using manila tags.  I recently put a cork board above my craft room computer and with all these elements combined, my balance project was born.

The Tags, already colored & layered

What I Used:

• 7 Manila #8 Tags
• Old book pages dry brushed with gesso (mine were already done)
• Distress Paints in the following colors: Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire and Brushed Pewter.
• Water Spritz Bottle
• Craft Sheet
• Purple Cardstock (for letters)
• Silhouette Cameo (for letters – you can also cut them freehand or use stickers)
• Stickles in Diamond
• White Cardstock
• Gesso
• Eye Dropper
• Silver ribbon
• Your Words (the words you choose to put on your tags)
• 7 plastic coated paper clips
• Crafter’s Pick Glue

First, I “made” the tags.  I used the Distress Paints and just continually made the colors swirl into each other and then I smooshed the tags onto the craft sheet.  When I saw a combination of color I liked, I would allow the tags to dry before adding more color (I used a heat gun or let them dry naturally).  Then I would color them some more with the Distress Paints – I wanted as much of the manila color to be covered as possible, but I didn’t want them to get muddy, which is why the drying is important.   I used some old book pages that I had already covered with plain gesso in the next step.  The white gesso looked too stark next to the warm purples and blues so I colored some gesso with the Seedless Preserves Distress Paint.  I just used an eye dropper and mixed the color in until I got a shade I liked.  Then I put that mix on the pages.  Once they dried, I ripped them into approximately the same size so I could mat them onto the tags. 

The letters were cut out using my Silhouette Cameo.  I just picked a font and spelled out BALANCE using the purple cardstock cut out the letters and glued them onto the tags.

The tags before the bling & some of the goodies I used to decorate the word cards.

 One thing that was important to me was the ability to change what the tags said; so instead of printing my word on the tag, I printed it onto white cardstock.  I used rubber stamps, Distress Markers, the computer, my own printing, decorative scissors, inks and punches to make my words.  I had a fabulous time! It felt like playing – like back when I first started rubber stamping. I just went to town!  I chose words that began with the same letter that was on the tag they were clipped to; for example, on the “L” in balance I stuck the word “learn”. 

The word cards on the first three letters

That’s the way I have it right now, but that may change.  I wanted to be able to change the words because I know if my eye gets used to seeing something I won’t “see” it anymore. 

The word cards on the last four letters

I used plastic coated paperclips to attach my words to my tags.  Lastly, I threaded a small piece of silver ribbon through each tag & then tied that to a long piece of ribbon – this way I can also move the tags around a bit if need be.  This is when I decided that the letters blended in too much and needed a bit of bling, so I took the word cards off the tags and ran the Diamond Stickles inside the letters.  I like it MUCH better with the bling. Then I put the word cards back on & hung the banner up - TADA!

  

All blinged up - complete with cat hair

The banner all done & hanging up!

I really enjoyed making this banner – and once I got going the process was much smoother than I anticipated.  Personally, I enjoy to be challenged; helps me stretch my wings.  I hope this inspires you to create some balance in your life, if needed. Don't forget, there is still time to enter the challenge at Anything But a Card - create some balance & link it up! Thanks for stopping by!  

I would like to enter my Tag Banner in the following challenges:
Brown Sugar Challenge - #77 Anything Goes 
Treasured Times Challenge Blog - #10 Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Challenge - #9 Anything Goes (second entry)