Using Leftover Diamond Dotz: Luggage Tag with Monogram

New luggage means a new luggage tag. It took less than 10 minutes to pull together cardstock scraps and extra Diamond Dotz to make a tag that perfectly matches my awesome new, inexplicably-inexpensive, purple suitcase. Make your own luggage tag! Affiliate links below.

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Luggage Tag with Diamond Dotz Monogram

Materials:

• clear plastic tag holder
• cardstock (purple and white)
• texture plate
• scalloped circle punch
• circle punch
• leftover Diamond Dotz and stylus from a kit
• craft glue

Steps:

Cut a rectangle of purple cardstock the same size as your tag holder. Cut a piece of white cardstock so that it is slightly smaller and run it through an embossing machine to add texture. Punch a scalloped circle from purple and a regular circle from white. Glue all the layers together.

Use the craft glue to write the letter of your monogram. Add Diamond Dotz along the glue line to make the letter. Then dot glue along each of the scallops and add Dotz. 

Write your contact info on the back (or attach a business card), then slide it into the tag holder. You're ready to travel!

Tactile, High-Contrast Maze Placemat

Can you solve this maze? I'm pretty sure you can.

But can you solve it with your eyes closed? Not without using your eyes to memorize the path first!

As I was making my various projects using the leftover StickTogether stickers, I came across an extra sheet of green stickers where someone had used three of the stickers from the center instead of from an edge. I ran my finger over the opening and inspiration hit - I could remove more stickers to create a maze. As you know, Trevor LOVES mazes. I have so many wonderful memories of him filling in maze books over the years, drawing his own mazes, and creating maze-themed games. If Trevor had been born blind or visually impaired, would we ever have discovered his passion for mazes? The thought of him never doing mazes makes me so incredibly sad.

From there, my mind went to kids who do actually have visual impairments. So I set out to test ways I could use the StickTogether stickers to make a maze that you solve tactilely instead of visually. As I was working, I realized that by choosing the green stickers, I'd made a maze that was both tactile for blind children but also high-contrast for those with limited vision.

To make your own tactile and high-contrast maze, remove stickers from two opposite sides of a dark-colored sticker sheet to make a beginning and an end to the maze. Then remove stickers one at a time to create a winding pathway between them. I left two-sticker-wide walls between each path, testing frequently with my eyes closed to see if my fingers could follow the path. Then I added a dead end.

With the maze design complete, I experimented with ways to seal the maze so that the stickers wouldn't peel up. The easiest way was by simply smoothing clear contact paper over the top. When I did that, I realized that I'd made a placemat that could be enjoyed by any child, regardless of their visual abilities.

I'm happy to say that there are many tactile mazes available for purchase. Here are some interesting ones I found.

Convert a Photo to a Square (Without Losing Parts of the Image)

I've been going back into the archives making sure I didn't miss any projects when I did my big organization and indexing of all my animal crafts. Sure enough, I found another reptile craft, which I'm very happy about since that category is sorely lacking. I'd forgotten about Trevor's Snake Cake from his early days as a Cub Scout. In order to include it on the indexed page, I needed to convert the existing photo from a rectangle...

.... to a square. 

It wouldn't have been that big of a deal to just crop it square in this case, but there are many projects where doing so would cut off part of the image in an unflattering or confusing way. So I take a few extra steps to preserve the original image while converting to square. Using PicMonkey, I open Design and make a custom canvas size (usually 1000x1000). Then I choose Add Your Own Graphics and put the original photo on top of the plain canvas. I save this file. 

Then I reopen the file in Edit. Next, I make color corrections. The original Snake Cake image is a bit dark, so I adjusted the exposure in the Basic Edits, then used Highlights in the Touch Up menu to lighten the tabletop and the marshmallow eyes a little.

The final step is to use the Clone tool from the Touch Up menu to fill in the white areas to match the tabletop and wall in the original photo.  

I've done this so many times that it takes me just a few minutes to go through the steps to create a square image from a rectangular one. (It's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be since it will be displayed at such a small resolution compared to what you see here.) With new projects, I create the square image from the get-go to save having to go through the steps to create it later.

By the way, not only is this Snake Cake now up on the Reptiles and Amphibians page, but I've added it to my current huge project, which is indexing my edible crafts. I'm almost done, so I'll be sharing that soon! I'm really excited to have all of the edible crafts in one place, and pleased with myself for working hard on another of my 2019 creative resolutions.

"The Most ____ from Each of the 50 States"

I am obsessed with any sort of list of "The most ______ from each of the 50 states." It doesn't matter what it is, I'm pretty much guaranteed to read it. Even if it's April and the topic is Halloween candy.

Source: CandyStore.com

Here are some of the other articles I've read in the past few weeks:

• The Largest Company in Each State by Revenue
• What Every State is Best at - And Worst at
• What Each State Googled More than Any Other
• Top TV Dads in Each State
• The Most Googled "Should I" Question by State
• The Food People Hate in Each State
• Most Iconic Pies from Every State
• 50 States Signature Food

I don't know what it is about these, but I love them. I am particularly enamored with any that have to do with food, particularly if that food is unique to the state. Before we travel, one of the first things I do is find out if there are any local foods that we have to taste in the state we're visiting. You can learn a lot about a place by trying its local cuisine. 

When you're headed to a new-to-you location, I highly recommend researching their official state food(s) and any regional favorites. Then seek out those foods. Our family has really enjoyed trying eating local favorites while traveling, like Smith Island Cake in Maryland or burgoo in Kentucky. So many good memories. 

Pixelated Name Art

Here's another fun idea for using up the leftover squares after completing a StickTogether kit - make name art! Affiliate links below. 

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Pixelated Name Art

Materials:

• leftover stickers from StickTogether kit
• construction paper
• microtip scissors
• cloud punch
• craft glue
• foam dots

Steps: 

Decide what colors you want your name to be. I chose to do rainbow order, but it doesn't matter what you pick as long as the letters that touch each other are different colors. 

Through trial and error, I learned that it is easiest to start your name in the lower lefthand corner. If you do this and have a descending letter, like the Y in my name, you'll need to use a capital or otherwise change the letter. You can start in the upper lefthand corner and maintain and descenders, but it's harder to keep the word straight. I also learned that the D needed to be 5 pixels high in order to form it correctly. Any shorter and it didn't read as a D.   

Fortunately, it is easy to peel up the stickers and reposition them as needed. Once you're happy with your name art, use scissors to cut away the excess construction paper. I chose to remove the material from inside the closed spaces, but that's optional. Microtip scissors make it easy. 

Because I was going with a rainbow theme, I mounted my name art on blue paper and added two clouds (since you can't have a rainbow without clouds). I glued one behind me name and used a foam dot to pop the other one up off the page to add a little dimension. 

Are you inspired to use up your extra StickTogether stickers? Or perhaps try your first StickTogether kit? There are so many I still want to do. (Warning: They're addictive!)