Tab Hunter by Judi Kauffman for The Queen’s Ink

Coming up with names for my tutorials is always a fun challenge. For this one, I’d like to think the words will have you looking for tab shapes, but if you’re a person of a certain age you’re probably thinking I’m writing about an actor by that name from way back when...

This morning I found a sandwich baggie with seven little faces sitting there, minding their own business. I thought they needed a new home: My Traveler’s Notebook! I know HOW I made them, though I don’t know why or when. I think I intended to add bodies and limbs and never got that far. I just know that they make me smile (and isn’t that enough?)... 

Do you have dies for tabs or small shapes like 6-pointed stars? Get ‘em out! Cut some pieces. Make some silly, scary, serious, whimsical or other sorts of faces:

• Mix in pieces of twine. 
• Add googly eyes or make eyes with hole reinforcements, circles, stamps or whatever strikes your fancy. 
• Add pompoms, bits of plastic greenery or other embellishments.
• Keep going...Add bodies and limbs!

Whatever you do, don’t tuck your creations away for months or years. Add them to cards to send to kids 5 and above* or grown-up friends who are kids at heart! Put them into a journal where lumpiness isn’t an issue. Glue magnets to the back and decorate the fridge.

*Safety first: Keep the small pieces away from toddlers and babies to avoid choke hazards. These are decorative only, not meant to be toys!

(??? Does anyone wonder why the number 26 appears at the lower right on the page with the 7 faces? It’s because I have started to number the pages in some, though not all, of my Traveler’s Notebook inserts. I leave the first two pages blank for a Table of Contents that I add to as I go. In months or years to come I can quickly locate something I need to find... I’ve got several finished inserts lined up on a shelf already and figured I needed some kind of ‘information retrieval system.’)

SUPPLIES

• Tab- and star-shaped dies
• Thick twine
• Scissors
• Adhesives of choice 
•  (Pick glue formulated for gems as well as paper)
• Googly eyes
• Pompoms and other embellishments