Clever Crafts: Collage Mixed Media Tag

Welcome to the very first Clever Crafts! This series is all about thinking outside the box and making the most of what you have—pairing your Hero Arts products with creative (and maybe unexpected!) materials from around the house. Whether you're stretching your stash or looking for fresh ideas, we’re here to turn limitations into inspiration—one clever idea at a time.

Hi everyone! This is Rachel Kleinman and I'm so honored to be bringing you the first post in a new series called Clever Crafts! I am a serious hoarder of old books and magazines so I can collage with them in my art journals. So my Clever Craft today is all about collage!

My collaged tag mainly uses the stamps and dies from the Here For You Stamp & Cut, which is a new release for Spring 2025. I will walk you through how to create this fun mixed media tag...

With most mixed media projects, I start off with my Hero Arts Luxe White Watercolor Paper. When working with other paper pieces, I prefer to use Liquitex Gloss Gel - this acts as a sealing glue for whatever paper product you're adding to the watercolor paper. I use the gloss gel both under the collaged paper, and on top to seal it. Once my collaged piece is dry, I stamped the two main flower images in Intens-ified Black Ink (it's water resistant!).

I then sprayed the flower portion of the stamps with Bright Yellow + Copper Metallic Spray. The leaves were roughly painted with Brights Green Liquid Watercolor. Once dried, I die cut the images with the matching dies and my Spellbinders Platinum Die Cutting Machine.

Now it's time to create the tag base! From watercolor paper, I die cut the largest sized tag from the Tag Infinity Dies. I then added some collage paper in torn pieces to the tag, using the Gloss Gel, and let it dry. Next, I sprayed the dried tag with Fuchsia + Gold Metallic Spray and Orange + Shimmer Metallic Spray. 

Now it's time for my favorite part! I mixed a couple drops of the Brights Green Liquid Watercolor with Hero Paste. This turns the Paste to a lovely key lime green color, which I spread over the Floral Garden Stencil using my Palette Knife. When creating a mixed media tag like this, I prefer to just use random parts of the stencil and not cover the entire tag.

With the main elements complete, it's just time to put everything together! I taped some thin gold thread as a background, and added two of the main floral images on top. A lovely sentiment of "You light up my world" is added to the tag as the finishing element.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you've been inspired to pull apart some magazine pages to create your very own mixed media tag!