Bright Blue + Cheery Yellow = Summer Fresh w/Rebecca Luminarias

Hi, all! Rebecca here today and I've got some summer-fresh tags and bags to share with you folks. In Southern California, our hot weather started a couple of weeks ago so it feels like summer is already here. The warm temperatures made me want to create something just as sunny and bright as our Orange County skies! Looking over all of my Crate products, I noticed that there are a lot of cheery yellow and royal blue embellishments -- and they sure do look striking together! It's very summery (a little nautical, even) and since creating this project, I've noticed these two colors popping up together everywhere..in fashion, home decor, and of course, paper crafts.

Almost by accident, I happened to lay a few of these embellishments down on a small black and white diagonal stripe bag and my project was born! The yellow and the blue on top of the black and white bags was such an arresting combination that they begged to be used.

I've been on a kind of a tag kick lately, pairing odd-and-end embellishments with paper scraps to whip up some super-quick tags. With my little bags in mind, it was pretty obvious that I had to make some new tags to put in them. Luckily, all I had to do was look through my Crate papers to find beautiful designs and ready-made tags to use. I soon discovered that the CP line by Maggie Holmes had pretty much everything I needed to make this set. I also noticed that bows and butterflies were standing out to me and they, too, became factors in my design -- the little embellishments that tie all of the pieces together.

When a tag was not already made, I simply made one myself from a coordinating paper, like Happy Day (above). In this case, the tag features ephemera die-cuts from DIY Shop, plus a punched butterfly, blue button, and black twine from my own stash. The bag is decorated with sweet bows from MH.

This yellow and white striped tag is from the Tags and Accent Cuts paper. I love the way it looks paired with a blue polka dot bow from MH. And after I topped it with a black and white chevron fabric brad, I loved it even more!

I put the tag into it's little bag, making the brad and the bow a part of the bag decor by sliding the front of the bag up in between the bow and the tag. It was just a simple technique, but it turned out to be a really nice way to store this tag. It makes the bag look almost gift-wrapped.

This yellow and white polka dotted glassine bag came from the Party Day collection. How awesome is it that all of these Crate Paper lines can be used in tandem with each other? I love that! I covered a mini clothespin with MG washi tape and used it to clip a tiny tag onto the bag.

This bag is slightly larger than the others so I used a blue-lined library card as my base and another Maggie Holmes tag on top of it. With a few bits from Maggie's ephemera pack and some stitched doilies, this tag is all set!

For some variation, I made a smaller tag and used a tiny, clear glassine bag. I made the tag using Happy Day again and layered on the accessories. As this project was taking shape, I knew I had to find some way to use one of the rhinestone clips! Used here, it makes the perfect closure!

As you can see, I'm a big fan of using tags of all sizes to complete the look. The layered look is so popular now and I, for one, would layer and pile all day long if I could! It's an easy way to create depth and interest to a card, layout or package like the ones I've made here.

I'm also a bit (okay, completely) obsessed with washi tape and have pretty much been over the moon about the offerings that have accompanied Crate's recent collections. It's possibilities are endless! I used it to cover the mini clothespin and the small wood flag that are clipped to this bag. Then I used it on the tag as accent pieces behind the cake ticket and thread.

This was a very fun project to make and I find that I'm still picking out blue and yellow bits and paper from my CP collections! I could have -- and might still -- make many, many more tags and bags with this combination and all of the beautiful CP embellishments I have sorted out. I love these colors together -- if you haven't noticed bright blue and cheery yellow together before this, I bet you will now!