Lucky Enough: A Step by Step Julie Nutting Doll Tag

With Easter coming early this year, my favorite March holiday seems to be getting the short end of the stick at my favorite craft stores, sites and blogs.  St. Patrick’s Day is such a happy holiday that I just had to do something special to honor it.  One of my dearest friends was born on St. Patrick’s Day, and as a child I was lucky enough to be present at her home most years to partake in the celebration.  That celebration always included corned beef and cabbage for dinner and to this day it somehow doesn’t feel like St. Paddy’s if I don’t have corned beef that day.  There were lots of tales of leprechauns living at the end of rainbows giving out luck for gold as well as searches through the clover (if the snow had melted) for the elusive four leaf clover.  This tag sort of rolls all of that together with favorite saying to give me a smile every time I glance at it.

This is how I created it:

Materials:

Chipboard Tag (created on Cricut Explore, I sell them in sets of 4 on Etsy)

Watercolor Tag (created on Cricut Explore with Canson 140lb/300gsm cold press watercolor paper, again you can buy a set of four from me on Etsy, or get a mixed set with 2 chipboard and 2 watercolor tags to use together the way I did with this tag.

Julie Nutting Stamp Natalie

Julie Nutting Stamp Candie

Copic Markers- Mignonette, Lime Green, Skin White (now Cotton Pearl), Barely Beige, Sand, Cool Gray 1, Warm Gray 1

Colorbok Green cardstock

Canson 140lb Watercolor paper

Pitt Black India Ink Pen XS

White Gelly Roll Pen

Ranger Glossy Accents

Simon Says Stamp Sequins, Yellow/Crystal

Scor-Tape ¼” and ½

The follow along video is below.  (I apologize for the horrible resolution. I’ve been trying different things to find a way to create great videos.  In this instance my old digital camera was a huge failure, but you can get the general idea of what I’m doing even though the video is really fuzzy.  I did insert some still photos that are clear to try to salvage it.  Please don’t give up on me, I’m determined to find an equipment and lighting combination that works!) Beneath the video I’ve explained the steps in case you just can’t handle the poor quality of the video.

I began by stamping Natalie and Candie on 140 lb. vellum finish watercolor paper.  I only inked the top and bottom of Natalie, leaving her middle ink free and then inked the skirt only on Candie.  I also chose the colors and patterns of cardstock I wanted for the outfit and re-stamped Natalie’s jacket and shoes as well as Candie’s skirt on my choices.

I then used my Copic markers to color the stamped images, before cutting them out.  Once they were cut out I needed to do a little ‘surgery’ on Natalie so that the shorter skirt from Candie worked.  Then I glued her top and legs to the skirt to create a ‘new’ doll.  Once she was complete I fussy cut the outfit pieces and shaded them with my Copics to give them a bit of depth before gluing them all on to create her outfit.

When coloring her legs, I got impatient and didn’t wait for the ink to dry enough so it smeared a bit.  I decided to re-stamp Natalie’s legs on white cardstock and draw my own green stripes on them to create tights.  I ended up loving the effect so I’m kind of glad I messed up on the coloring.  The only thing she needed to really make her a cute leprechaun was a jaunty hat.  I did a search for a leprechaun image on my iPad and sketched a simple outline of a hat I liked on the clover green cardstock, then I shaded it with Copics and highlighted with my white gelly roll pen.  I also added a black band and a gold buckle, using a gold gelly roll for the buckle and my black Pitt pen for the band. Voila, jaunty hat!

Once she was finished, I moved on to the tag.  Using one of my 9”x5.5” watercolor tags I used my Salty Ocean Distress Ink to create a soft blue sky, allowing plenty of white to show through like ‘clouds’.

To create a rainbow I used blue painters tape to mask off areas as I used a blending tool with my Distress inks.  Once the rainbow was complete I splattered a bit of water on the rainbow to get that neat water droplet effect that makes Distress Inks so cool.  Then I added ‘grass’ below the rainbow with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink.

Using my ¼” Scor-Tape I adhered my leprechaun to the background.  Using my Cricut Explore I cut out some green clover and one four leaf clover in a slightly lighter green.  I shaded them, again with my Copics, as well as creating the white centers with my white Gelly Roll pen. Then I glued them in a couple of bunches, one large one with the four leaf clover in the middle and a smaller bunch near the leprechaun’s feet.

I used my printer to print the saying “If you’re lucky enough to be Irish you’re lucky enough” and cut it out in the shape of a cloud by hand.  Again, Copics allowed me to shade and add dimension so that it looked like a cloud.  Foam tape allowed me to pop it up off the tag, and I also used some foam dots to add some dimension to a few of the clover leaves and the four leaf clover.

A little Glossy Accents on the hat band, the shoes and the four-leaf clover added a bit more texture.  Using my ½” Scor-tape I covered the back of the tag and then adhered it to one of my 9” x 5.5” medium weight chipboard tags to make it sturdy enough to use as a home décor item, either hung on a wall, displayed on a small easel or on a mantel, etc.

The final touch was to thread a combination of green baker’s twine and green sparkle eyelash thread through the hole in the tag and tie a little bow.

I love the versatility of the Julie Nutting Doll Stamps. The ability to use two stamps to combine them into a new design the way I did for this tag makes them even more versatile.  Do you combine your doll stamps too?  Would you like to see more art work using Julie Nutting dolls here on the blog?  Let me know in the comments below!