I started my gift tags for the season. I love to make my own gift bags and tags when I can. I don’t always get it all done, but I try. I have many ideas for some other styles that I hope to get done and share with you but for now, here are the first ones I made.
I started by die cutting lots and lots of foliage using this terrific die set from Crafters Companion Vintage Snowmen collection. This set is no longer available on the website but we have some in stock in the store. There are also several other dies that would work just as well for this project and I have included links to them for our online shoppers as well as we have many options in the store as well. I also cut many poinsettias. Again there are several dies that will work for this that we have in the store and online. I cut the foliage and poinsettias in various shades of cardstock as well as white, watercolour paper and gold mirror cardstock.
Next I created the textured backgrounds.
For the tags with the red matting, I used some Stamperia creme paste texture paste through a stencil. I used one I have from Paper Rose Studio but any stencil with a small pattern would work fine here. I cut a piece of cardstock the size of my stencil, in this case 6×6 and used the whole stencil. Once the paste was dry I took my barn door distress ink pad and with very light pressure ran it over my paste.
For the white and gold poinsettia tags, I used an embossing folder. I used an older one that I had in my stash but linked to a couple in the store that would work well as well. We have many great options in the store. This time I did not apply ink.
I then cut my paper down to size for the tags. I was not too particular with my sizing for my tags. I chose to make my tags approximately 2″x 21/2″ to 2″ x3″. I was using up scraps of my papers from my stash so played with the sizes accordingly.
I matted these pieces onto scraps of red cardstock that I cut to be slightly bigger than the textured panel. I used my edge distresser to distress the edges of the mat.
Next, I assembled the flowers using a bit of liquid glue to hold them as it allows for a bit of wiggle time to adjust the layers as you assemble.
I then grabbed the foliage that I had die cut earlier and started playing with the placement until I had something I was happy with and then added glue and adhered it all in place. Note that I adhered the flower first with a dab of glue in the center and then tucked the foliage in behind it. At the end, it is easy to add a bit more glue to the flower if you feel you need it. I felt that my flower was secure enough with the initial dab I had given them so did not end up adding more.
I added some gold pearls from Pink Fresh Studio to the centre of some of the flowers. For the others, I cut the center piece out of gold mirror cardstock from Tonic Studio.
To finish them off, I stamped small sentiments, onto various strips of cardstock. I stamped some on white cardstock with barn door distress oxide ink. I inked the edges of these strips to give them a defined border and adhered them with some foam to the tag front. I stamped some with Versamark on red cardstock after brushing it with an antistatic powder and heat embossed with some white embossing powder and adhered them to the tag with tape. Lastly I stamped some on white cardstock with Versamark after brushing it with an antistatic powder and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. For these ones I also ran the edges of the sentiment strips along my Versamark ink pad and then heat embossed the strips to give them a gold border and attached to the tag. Some I raised with foam and some I adhered with Be Creative tape.
