Hello! I’ve got a fun and inspirational project to share today. One thing I’m really big on is kindness. Treating others with love and respect, and spreading light and goodness fills me with joy and is something I try to teach to my kids consistently. Not that we’re perfect at this at all, but it’s definitely something we intentionally incorporate into our lives as often as we can.
Here’s a great way to spread kindness, love, and to brighten someone’s day: make some pretty and inspiring motivational messages and share them with others for no reason at all other than to make them happy! You can do this for friends and loved ones, or it’s fun to do this for total strangers as well.
I had a lot of fun making these! Crafting is so therapeutic during stressful times, and it’s a great way to pass the time at home.
What I love about these is that they’re colorful and happy, and they also have a fun surprise–FOIL!
Let me show you how I made these with my We R Foil Quill and The Works All In One Tool:
I started with a plain white sheet of watercolor paper. You can also use white cardstock. I painted with some of my favorite water color paint colors, using lots of pigment and not as much water so the background was plenty saturated. This is best achieved by layering color several times (no need to wait for each layer to dry).
Next, the watercolor paint needs to dry. You can air dry it or use a heat gun to speed along the process. Just be sure to dry both the front and back with the heat gun so your paper doesn’t end up warped.
Once your paper is dry, your ready to foil! Plug the Foil Quill Standard tip into a USB power source to heat for at least five minutes. Then cut a section of Foil Quill foil in the color you desire. You can use multiple foil colors for a fun effect! Tip: my favorite way to cut foil is with the We R Foil Cutting Kit. It works for vinyl too!
Prepare your designs in your cutting machine software. I used my Cameo 4, Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software, and images from the Floral Foil Quill USB Design Drive.
Place your watercolor painting on the cutting mat of your electronic cutting machine, then tape the foil down over it. Be sure to use a low tack tape (like washi tape) so you paper doesn’t tear. Also, keep the tape away from where your design will end up or the foil won’t transfer through the tape.
For added visual interest you can divide the design and send it through multiple times with different color foil. How you do that will depend on your machine’s instructions and capabilities.
Once you’ve foiled all of your motivational messages, you’re ready to trim them into tags and embellish them.
For this I used one of my current go-to tools, The Works All In One tool by We R Memory Keepers. It’s like 12 craft tools in one–no joke! It can trim, score, make envelopes and banners, tags and tabs. It can punch holes, round corners, make pom poms, tassels and bows, and you can stamp with it, too! What?!?
Next, I made tassels with the board using Stitch Happy Thread, which is thicker than traditional thread. It’s more like embroidery floss or twine, which would work great too.
I tied them on with some white twine at the top for tying the tags onto something as well. I love how happy they are!
Now comes the fun part–leaving them around your neighborhood or at your friend’s house, or in your loved one’s mailbox! Here’s a few spots where I left mine.
Now it’s your turn. Grab your Foil Quill, and make some inspiring and positive messages to share with the world. Spread some sunshine and light, and it will lift your spirits too. Have fun!
