Artsy Labels

I'm a lurker on the Documented Life Project.  The group is  embellishing their planners and these folks take embellishing to the max.     There are weekly challenges,  swaps and some cool tutorials.

I saw  decorated labels on  some of the artwork - you know, the plain, boring address labels that come in sheets for printing.    Now think masterboard on a sheet of labels.   Masterboard is a technique that allows you to create backgrounds by adding stamped images and color to a sheet of paper.  Then you cut up the paper to use a backgrounds, ATCs, tags - whatever.  When done on a sheet of labels, instead of cutting, you peel off each label and get a part of your stamped goodness.

If you are doing masterboard on regular paper, you could use watercolors, sprays, whatever medium you like.  I'm not sure how much moisture the labels can handle, so I stuck with low-moisture options like stamping,  direct-to-paper ink pad , rubbed on Distress Inks, and a tiny amount of acrylic paint smooched on with a credit card.

Here's how it starts.  I found these square kraft paper labels at Staples.

Randomly stamp first image.

Added some texture stamping - a piece of shelf liner glued to a foam block makes an excellent stamp.

Just keep adding stamps until it looks right.   No piece looks complete to me without some pencil eraser stamped dots!

At this point, sort of like with Gelli printing, I sometimes wonder 'Where was I going with this and is it going to work"?  The magic happens when you peel off  the label.

Pretty cool, huh?

The problem with this is that it is addictive - I am obsessed with making these!

These are perfect for mail art, journals, collage or tags.  Here are a few I added to some Mother's Day card envelopes:

Next up, some label circles and some with rounded arch tops.  So many possibilities, so many labels - this is so much fun.