Christmas Tags

I was going to title this post Holiday Tags - but with the controversy over whether it's more appropriate to say Merry Christmas or use the politically correct "Happy Holidays", I decided to go for the politically incorrect approach instead!

These are the tags I worked on over the weekend - and posted a few pictures of them in the last post. Today you'll get a better view, and a few details. I began stamping using Ranger's Distress Vintage Photo ink and the CHF Aged Sheet Music Scrapblock, which is a huge 6x6 inches! It's a beautiful stamp and the large size is very cool. After stamping the image, I spritzed the tags with water which causes the ink to bleed. The tags will curl when wet (see below), but flatten as they dry - or you can hit them with a heat gun after you are satisified with the amount of ink bleed.

After the tags were dry, I stamped the snowflake image from Stampin' Up! Winter Post (gorgeous!) on some of the tags using Memento Rhubarb Stalk.

Continue stamping with additional images until satisfied. This photo was in the last post as well ... sorry for the repeat, but it wouldn't make sense to leave it out (at least in my little brain).

Finish off the tags with ribbon and embellishments. The first tag below has felt ribbon and vanilla hodgepodge hardware from SU! The vanilla didn't work with the manilla tag, so I colored it with Copic markers.

The second set of tags below also have ribbon from SU!, and I popped up Santa's Sleigh and colored it with a clear Spica glitter pen from Copic for a wonderful little sparkle!

And finally - here is my little stamper kittie who helped me make all the tags. And by "helped" I really mean pounced on my hands and played with the tag strings the entire time.

happy stampin'

Stampin' with Scor-pal

Hello everyone, I'm finally back! Did you miss me? Wait ... don't answer that one, lol. Today I want to share a discovery with you. I found that the magnificent Scor-pal has yet another use. Over the weekend I was making a few holiday gift tags and realized the Scor-mat was perfect for cling mount stamping! The stamps held tightly to the surface and it made stamping and switching out images a little faster too. Here are the photos I took to help visually explain what I am talking about, not to mention that I love showing off my pudgy middle-aged hands!

First, I chose a stamp from a fantastic Christmas CHF set called Primitive Christmas. Just pop it down on the reverse side of the Scor-mat and it clings wonderfully! You may notice that the tag has already been stamped with a background image - more about that in my next post.



Ink the image - here I am using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I love the new Memento inks, they give great coverage and vivid color, the smaller Dew Drop pads travel well, plus the ink works great with Copic markers.



Next, stamp the image. I am using manilla shipping tags from Office Depot. I just flipped the tag over and pressed over the stamp with my fingers (this is how I always stamp large images like Scrapblocks or background stamps to get a good impression).

This is the result ... so far:

Since that seemed to work well, I decided to grab an additional image and a fresh tag and try stamping two images simultaneously, like so:

The images were inked with Memento Tuxedo black and Rhubarb Stalk. I rolled the black over the sleigh edge for a little shadow and Voila! Just look what came out below.

I'll have more details and photos of the finished tags in the next post. I really love the tags I made ... what a shame my Christmas wrapping papers don't coordinate at all, lol! Oh well, I guess that means I'll have to wrap some gifts in parcel paper so I can use the tags.

happy stampin'