A Pair of Holiday Tags

Ellen Hutson has been having a "12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist" series at their CLASSroom blog. I'm not sure if they have in the past, but this year they've invited anyone to play along, and create one or more tags inspired by something their designers and/or guest designers have done for this series. These are 2 that I created.

My first tag was inspired by one that Dawn Woleslagle created for Day 12, using a stamp that she created by die cutting some fun foam. I used one of the dies from the Essentials by Ellen "Poinsettia & Pine" set to die cut my foam stamp. I adhered it to an acrylic block, and colored it with Marvy Uchida LePlume II water-based markers. After I colored the die cut, I daubed it with my water brush to activate the color more. Then I stamped that on a tag I'd created by die cutting some white cardstock with the "Stitched Duo 3" die by Pretty Pink Posh. I did both first- and second-generation stamping, about 5 or 6 times total. Dawn had used a Heidi Swapp toner pen to outline her images and then foil them. I don't have that pen (yet!), so I sketched around mine with a silver gel pen.

I die cut a circle from the center with a Simon Says Stamp "Stitched Circles" die. I also die cut a piece of plain white cardstock with that same die, and cut my letters with dies from the Hero Arts "Alphabet Uppercase" set. For the letters, I did one set out of white and a second out of black. I ran them through my Xyron Sticker Maker, and adhered them to my white circle, offsetting the white from the black to create a drop shadow effect. I cut a second tag from white, and adhered it to the back of the first, to provide a place to adhere my word panel. Finally, I cut a circle of white fun foam, and used double-sided tape to adhere it between my die cut greeting circle & the tag. I die cut a tag reinforcer from some silver shimmer cardstock using one of the Mama Elephant "Tags a Lot" dies, and glued that in place. After punching the hole in the tag, I knotted some white & silver ribbon through that.

Carolyn Peeler's tag on Day 1 inspired my second creation. I used the "Stitched Duo 1" die by Pretty Pink Posh to cut a tag from some kraft cardstock. Because I wanted the tag longer than the die, I used some partial die cutting. I cut all but the bottom part first, then lined the die up with the cut lines, and cut all but the top, thus creating a longer tag. I stamped a greeting, from Mama Elephant's "Jolly and Merry" set, on the tag in Versamark ink, and heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder.

For my watercolor piece, I die cut a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper with the same tag die. I stamped one of the snowflakes from My Favorite Things' "Sophisticated Snowflake" set twice with Versamark, and white heat embossed them.

I spritzed that panel with water, and used my water brush to dilute & pick up Distress inks in Cracked Pistachio, Picked Raspberry, and Mermaid Lagoon, which I daubed over and around the embossed snowflakes. The Cracked Pistachio ended up not showing up very well, but I think it turned out fine anyway. Once I had the panel covered in color, I sprayed it generously with my homemade Perfect Pearls mist to add some shimmer. I used a paper towel to pick up some of the color that was pooling on the snowflakes, and then left the panel to air dry.

Once my watercolor piece had dried, I trimmed it shorter. I cut a piece of lace trim, and glued that towards the bottom of my tag with Perfect Paper Adhesive. I adhered the panel over the top of the lace, and used my sewing machine to do a zigzag stitch along the top & bottom of the panel. I also did 2 rows of straight stitching above the greeting.

I die cut a tag reinforcer from some pink cardstock, using another die from "Tags a Lot." After gluing it in place, I punched the hole, and threaded some white ribbon, pink & white baker's twine, jute twine, and silver thread through the hole. I tied all that in a bow, and this tag is done!

I'm also entering these tags in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Tag It" challenge.