Christmas Tags at Crafting with Dragonflies

Our challenge this fortnight at Crafting with Dragonflies is Christmas Tags. We want you to make a large tag, roughly 15 cm long and around 6 cm wide.

I used a Tim Holtz tag as my base, and made two matching gift tags on which I clipped a pack of instant cocoa.

I started by stamping the bow, colored it, and covered it with Molotow masking liquid. Then I stamped the mug in green on top of it, and removed the masking liquid with an eraser. I cut the mug shape from masking paper and used it to mask both sides. Then I stamped & inked to my heart's delight! The "Fa-La-La" is a rubber stamp that I colored with Marvy embossing markers & heat-embossing with clear powder for a resist effect. The snowflakes are a large stamp & are heat-embossed with glittery white. The rest of the stamps are from sets that came free with a magazine. The Santa clips were premade. For the back, I masked the mug again to serve as a message section.

I had tons of fun getting messy & making these, and can't wait to spread the smiles! Hope you'll join us for this very special challenge.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Double Trouble Challenge #15: Sweet Treats for the Holidays + Sparkly Embellishment
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Baby It's Cold Outside
Use Your Stuff #338: Mood Board + Stash (I've had all these stamps forever!)


Thank you for visiting & hope you'll join the fun at Crafting with Dragonflies, 

My first Crafting with Dragonflies DT project -- Christmas Tags

So, like many of us, I keep quite busy in the online crafting world: I'm a sponsor/DT coordinator, on 3 design teams, and volunteer twice a week at Paper Playful. However, I just couldn't pass up the invitation to join the Crafting with Dragonflies team. Hey, why the heck not?!
This is my first challenge as part of the DT. Our theme for this fortnight (I know that not a word we Americans use, but this is an Australian-based challenge & I really like the word!) is Christmas Tags. So, no cards, tags only!

I used Santa in Chimney by QKR Stampede to make tags for some little presents for our nieces and nephews. We visited them last month, and my Mom had bought them all sweet little ornaments, so I cut the boxes with my Silhouette (using a design by Lori Whitlock) and added the paper-pieced tags.

I pieced the image in three pieces: the base, which includes the chimney; his body and coat (which I digitally paper-pieced with a textured-red digi paper); and his bag, which was cut from a shiny green paper. I heat-embossed the names (I have a tutorial here). I used white flocking and Polar White FlowerSoft for Santa's beard and trim.

Here is a sample of the lovely ornaments Mom sent:

Inspiration/Challenges:
All Crafts Challenge: Anything but a Card
Anonymous Stamps Challenge: Anything Goes (optional theme: Deck the Halls)
MarkerPOP Challenge: Happy Holidays + Copics
Miriam's Crafting Blog Monthly Challenge: Homemade Gifts
My Craft Creations: Always Anything Goes
Perfectly Rustics: Christmas Gift

Many thanks to the Crafting with Dragonflies team for welcoming me into the fold. Hope you all will join us for this challenge! Thank you for visiting,

Pile On the Patterned Paper!

This week at Pile It On, we want you to pull out that delicious Patterned Paper!

I had a bunch of scrap pieces from my Patterned Kraft DP pack from Recollections, so I made a tag/gift card holder using this fun Nutcracker freebie by Wonderstrange Art.

I used my wood-grain embossing plate form a*muse studios for the back:

Inspiration/Challenges:
Anything Goes Challenge - Early Christmas
Bearly Mine - Anything But A Card
Crimbo Crackers - something to hold a gift card

Jackson's Digital Expressions - Anything But A Card

Make it Monday with Kraft Outlet Challenge #86 - Shape It Up + use Kraft paper
Moving Along With The Times - Make a Christmas gift for someone
Nutcrafters - Christmas 
Paper Shelter Challenge - tag
Shopping Our Stash - Wooden It Be Nice

Thank you for visiting,

Ice Skating Tag

The theme this week at Pile It On is "Tags", so I used the Skating Boy and Let It Snow Tag digi stamp set by Jellypark to make this penny-slider tag:

It's practically impossible to see in this photo, but the non-embossed half of the tag is covered in Glossy Accents so that he's really "ice" skating!

Inspiration/Challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge - N is for Not A Card

Aud Sentiments Challenge #59 - TAG IT!

Cardmadfairy's Digi Days - Christmas

Crafty Creations Challenge #179 - Tags
The Crafty Pad Challenge #180: Interactive

The Crazy Challenge - Christmas

Hooked on Crafts - Christmas

Jellypark Challenges - Christmas

Lollipop Crafts - Christmas

Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge #117 - Christmas

There She Goes - Christmas

Totally Stampalicious - Christmas

Update: This made the Top 5 for The Crafty Pad Challenge #180!

Thank you for visiting,

New Home gift tag

So at the last minute I decided to make a tag for my gift of the new home notelets I made earlier this week. How could I resist the great sketch from Mad for Markers?!

The friend for whom I made the gift is a real ornithophile, so I used a TLC image I've been saving and colored it like an American Robin, with its red breast (I wanted to keep to the color palette I used for the notelets). When I gave it to her, she said It's an American Robin! Which made me happy.

I colored the ribbon and the red button with copics. I used brown StazOn for the brown button and actually heat-embossed the white one. I sewed them onto the card with coordinating bakers twine, and backed them with matching buttons.

Inspiration:
Mad for Markers Tag Sketch Challenge (pic on the right)
colourQ combo #86: Real Red, Daffodil, So Saffron, Early Espresso + white

Stamps: Vintage Bird on Holly by TLC Creations, flourish from Regal Greetings set by {ippity} Stamps, sentiment from stash stamps sent to me from Mom from Nepal
Paper: Hammermill, Recollections
Tools: SCAL, Cricut, Marvy heat tool, Sizzix Texture Boutique & paisley embossing folder
Other: ZipDry glue, Stampendous embossing powder, StazOn and InkItUp inks, bakers twine
Copics: E08, E47, R27, Y17, Y13, Y000, E33, E31, YG03, YG63, YG67, BG93

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Tag Brag Book

It's day 10 of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog; well, actually today's day 11, but Dymonz has kindly given us a few extra hours today to finish our final project:

• make a Brag Book of the nine tags that you have created over the last nine days
• must be bound
• tags must be in the order in which they were created
• display/provide the recipe for each tag
• at least one cut from a die-cutting device
• a cover with a sentiment and an image stamp and the acrylic paint resist technique

Okay, asking me to make a book is sort of like asking an intern to alphabetize the files: whatever the end result, at least you've kept me busy for an extended length of time! Looking over the Official Rules, I realized that at some point I forgot about the "Tim Holtz" look; I really didn't mean to, I just don't have a great understanding for his style yet and tend to get a little overzealous once an idea pops into my head. But I'm really just participating for the fun of it, and for the personal challenge. Be sure to check out everyone's projects; I'm truly in awe!

I just had to make a piano-hinge book for the tags. If you know me, you'll understand. This is also an easy-peasy way to create interior pockets: just glue the edges of the pages. I whipped up some tags with the recipes in InDesign, something I love to do, and InDesign makes it so fast. Couldn't help but make the bullets little diamonds!

I must admit that the recipe for the cover gave me some trouble: it must contain a sentiment and an image stamp and the acrylic paint resist technique. Um, I've never heard of the acrylic paint resist technique. I do enjoy the emboss/resist technique, but the acrylic paint is a much different medium than distress ink! The only acrylic paint I have is a Cranberry Paint Dabber that I got in a Blog Candy bundle...from Stampin' Dymonz! Thank you! I also have her to thank for introducing me to the bolder colors of Distress Inks, with the Marigold ink pad that came in the same candy.

I pulled out my letter stamps, and they were a breeze to use. Thanks to a nice big block, I was able to stamp "Tim x Ten" with one press, after inking with three colors of distress inks. Then, I restamped it with Watermark ink and clear-embossed it. I masked the image stamp, and after the piece was dry I colored it with Copics. This just seemed like the perfect stamp!

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Dimensional Tag

It's day 9 of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog, and I must tell you that I've had just a lovely day, making this tag and cleaning house. The latter is not my forte, so having this tag to work on made it much more pleasurable! Dymonz gave us another super recipe:

• create a dimensional tag
• at least two elements must lift up off the page
• the edges of the tag should be inked
• use at least one dimensional flower
• use at least 3 buttons

For the flower, I decided to try the glimmer mist acetate flower I saw while researching how in the heck to make an inked acetate tag for day 7. I used the same orange glimmer mist on the brad and buttons.

Although I did make the 3 sizes of tags in SCAL, I only cut the templates on the Cricut, and traced-and-cut the actual tags pieces. Of course, I did this before I decided to make the shadow-box, so the squares are actually hand-cut with a ruler, a finger-knife, and an apparently ever-improving eyeball. Go cg, Go cg! You know it's the mojo from you, my readers!

Did I already mention that I've spent the day burning plastic & bleaching the kitchen? I might be a bit loopy. :) My husband was kind enough to take photos of this tag, including these awesome close-ups:

I sewed the buttons onto the top layer, and colored the foam tape with matching copics.
Supplies: Flowers & Butterfly rubber stamp from Stampin' Up!, Rose cut file from PaperFacesDesigns, sentiment stamp from Hero Arts, CraftSmart & Memento inks, Core'dinations & Hammermill cardstocks, scarp acetate, Tattered Angels Jack O'Lantern glimmer mist, ZipDry & ZIG glues, WalMart buttons, Offray ribbon, MS detailing scissors, SCAL & Cricut, Marvy heat tool, Stampedous embossing powder, pop-dots, Michaels craft yarn, Crop-O-Dile, Scotch foam tape
Copics: G02, YG03, G07, Y000, FY1, YR09, YR12, YR04, Y17, Y02

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Distressed Tag

It's day 8 (oh my gosh!) of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog:

• distressed tag
• use a minimum of 3 colors of ink
• use at least 1 image stamp and 1 sentiment stamp
• color your sentiment stamp using two different ink colors and stamp with one press
• unique piece of ribbon or other embellishment should be used for the hole in the tag

I really hope I met all the requirements for this challenge, but this tag just came together so well that I can't bear to change it! Thanks for the inspiration -- I've learned a lot this week and am finding myself feeling a little bolder with some of these fancier stamping techniques.

Ironically, this is perhaps the first tag I've made for this challenge that doesn't use Tim Holtz Distress Inks! For the "distressed" background, I used Lemon, Lavender & Light Blue dye inks I bought by mistake (they aren't very good for stamping; I didn't know the difference between dye and pigment inks at the time), and I really like the effect! The peacock/flowers are one rubber stamp (another $1 bin special) that I colored with seven colors of Marvy brush markers (2 blues, 2 pinks, 3 purples). I did the same with the "Bliss" sentiment.

I cannot believe both stamps came out so well on the first try. I never expected that! I scalloped the piece, distressed the edges a bit with an emery board, and mounted it to a lavender cardstock edged with the light blue ink.

For the ribbon, I striped a white ribbon with the seven colors of markers I used for the stamping. It was easy, but I did have to color both sides. I used the markers to decorate the bead as well.

I added a few gemstones on the peacock's fan just because.

Supplies: sentiment from Bliss set by Stampin' Up!, Peacock/flower stamp from stash, Michaels wooden bead, I ink, Recollections cardstock, ZIG glue, Scotch foam tape, Offray ribbon, Fiskars scallop scissors & papercutter, Marvy brush markers, Martha Stewart gem stickers, Inkadinkado dye ink

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Acetate Tag

It's day 7 of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog:

• An acetate tag (recycling plastic from packaging)
• The acetate must be dry embossed & inked
• Your tag must be two-layered
• Include an image & use some type of "dimensional" product to embellish your image -- fun flock, flower soft, heat embossing, etc.
• Depict a cold scene

I'm having such a great time with these challenges! I'm especially enjoying seeing everyone's work and making new crafting friends. Thank you everyone for all your comments! Please know that I love every one of them.

Well, I totally felt out of my element when I saw today's challenge: I've never dry-embossed on acetate, and I've never had luck inking it (other than just stamping images with StazOn). Sigh, I've never wanted an embossing machine so much! But, as these things often work, I ended up having just what I needed.

I used a piece of acetate from some stamp packaging, and dry-embossed it with a snowflake-themed embossing plate I got free with some magazine and my small ball-point embossing tool. Wow, it's like I knew what I was doing! I couldn't believe how clean the embossing came out; I've done this with vellum, with less successful results. I sponged the back of the embossed acetate with blue StazOn ink, and sprayed the outside with "Frost" glimmer mist.

I adhered the acetate to a blue cardstock with ZipDry and Diamond Stickles (from Stampin' Dymonz blog candy!), then adhered that to the shiny side of the same cardstock, which I edged with a scallop blade.

For the image, I used a Cardinal stamp that I have; I've been treated to a family of Cardinals in the yard this Spring, so I was happy to get a chance to use it. I colored it with Copics and added some "snow" with Polar White flower soft. I added some of the "snow" to the bottom and edges of the tag.

I made the sentiment myself, and printed it on vellum so that I could heat-emboss it. I added some "snow" to it and to the brad as well.
*
Supplies: Cardinal with Holly rubber stamp from Prickley Pear Stamps, Elmer's & Sakura gel pens, Memento ink, Core'dinations cardstock, StazOn ink, Tattered Angels glimmer mist, ZipDry & ZIG glues, Offray ribbon, flower brad from Oriental Trading Co., MS detailing scissors, HP printer & ink, InDesign, Stampendous clear embossing powder, Marvy heat tool, Polar White FlowerSoft
Copics: YR09, R27, R29, R59, E35, G99, YG63, YG67, YG03, B00

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Gift Card Tag

It's day 6 of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog:

• Gift Card Holder Tag created with one sheet of cardstock
• The gift card pocket must have at least 2 of its corners punched with a corner punch
• At least 3 handmade flowers
• The background of the tag must be made using an inking technique

Hmm, the gift card holder is something I love to do (and need practice with!), but the inking and flower-making are a little new to me. I was going to use my beloved spray-inks, but I don't have the colors I wanted, so I ended up using the Sponging technique on white paper with Marigold and Mustard distress inks. I stamped the tree image in Peeled Paint (green); I stamped it twice to create the layering.

I just happened to have some scrap from a project I'm working on that was perfect for the flowers: shades of orange printed on vellum. In the spirit of the challenge, I didn't use a template and hand-cut them. They're affixed with ZipDry and hope, both of which seem to be working.

I added an embossed sentiment at the bottom, in clear yellow.

Although I'm 33, I've somehow gotten on the AARP mailing list (the American Association of Retired Persons, a lobbying/informational group for persons over 50), & in between the constant mailings advertising HoverRound and Not Being A Burden To My GrandChildren, I've amassed a small collection of plastic AARP membership cards. Honestly, they come in so handy for projects like this, as they're perfect dummy gift cards. And because the Universe works this way, I just received a brand-new one in the mail today, which is featured in the photo!

Supplies: Foreground Forest clear stamp set from Raisin Boat, Recollections and Hammermill cardstocks, ZipDry glue, Offray ribbon, MS detailing scissors & border punch, Versamark watermark ink, Stampendous clear Lemon embossing powder, Marvy heat tool, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Fiskars corner punch & papercutter

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Card Tag

It's day 5 of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog, and I just can't get enough! So happy to see coloring on today's recipe:

• Card Tag created with one sheet of cardstock
• an image colored by hand, using at least 2 different colors & shading
• mat your image with a mat that has been distressed by sanding

Because I like the idea of having a sort of set at the end of these 10 days of tag-making, I'm sticking to my original tag width of 2.5 inches, but for this one I extended the height to 5-ish inches.

One of my favorite parts of this project was using Copics to color the sliding bead. Wow, that worked great!

I'm really loving everyone's projects, and I'm learning a lot!

Supplies: Hydrangea Bouquet clear stamp set from Raisin Boat, K&Co. patterned paper, Core'dinations cardstocks, X-Press Copic paper, Tuxedo Black Memento ink, sand paper, emery board, ZipDry glue, Offray ribbon, flower brads from Oriental Trading Co., MS detailing scissors, SCAL & Cricut (for fold-out & message cards and templates) only), Versamark watermark ink, Stampendous black embossing powder, Marvy heat tool
Copics: V06, BV00, BV000, B32, B00, B0000, BG10, FBG2, YG03, G02


Making this tag was a breeze, especially now that I'm so well-organized: I got some plastic drawers at WalMart for all my stamps & inks & what-not, and everything's so easy to find now! Plus, yesterday my husband actually asked me if I had something he could organize. Are you kidding‽ Heck yeah! So the wonderful man sat there and organized all my paper by color. I feel like a freakin' princess!

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Accordion/Spring Break Tag

It's day 4 of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog, and I love love love the recipe:

• Theme: Spring/Spring Break fun, sun, and activities
• use one piece of cardstock to create a 4-paneled accordion tag
• one cut-out word which has had its edges inked

The mini brag-tag made by Dymonz is so cute that I pretty much scraplifted her idea! Seemed like a perfect opportunity to use some of the photos I snapped recently.

I did cut the accordion tag with SCAL/Cricut, but I didn't want to try to cut out letters...my machine's been a little touchy recently. It was also a great opportunity to use the flourish-alphabet stamp set Mom just sent (with no label). I white-embossed the letters, cut them out by hand, and edged them with my Yellow-Green Copic.

I used my favorite striped glitter paper from Heidi Grace Designs for the inside, and a piece from my good ol' DCWV Butterfly Stack. The green is a distressed, textured piece of Core'dinations. Plus, it has a color core! I did edge everything with the same Yellow-Green, and as you can see I love my deckle scissors!
In the photo on the far-right, they're actually waiting for my husband to come home. This starts about 4:30 everyday...lots of love in our house!
I picked a couple of buttercups (or what I call buttercups) from the yard...I love how they have a permanent gloss to them, and I tried to recreate that with these little stamped flowers (with a stamp from my stash): I stamped it in Dandelion, oddly enough, and filled in the details with my watermark pen & heat-embossed it in clear yellow.

Okay, bring on tomorrow's tag!

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Steampunk Tag

It's day 3 of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog, and today's tag recipe is especially fun-filled:

• Steampunk theme
• sponging
• heat embossing
• a key
• 3 arrows
• a pointing hand
• a metal embellishment
• one stamped image must be hand cut

Wow, right‽ A few months ago this would have made me nervous, but now I'm all over it! That being said, I had several false starts. It was definitely a creative challenge for me, since I really didn't have any of the required materials, but it was fun to improvise. I always try to think of the Zen adage You already have everything you need.

I found a classic vintage pointing hand image online, printed it on photo paper, and clear heat-embossed it. I sponged the image with Red Brick, Marigold & Mustard Seed distress inks.

The arrows are actually cut files from SCAL; I cut them directly onto masking paper, which worked great! After sponging the kraft paper with distress inks, I removed the masks and used my watermark pen to heat-emboss the keys in clear yellow.

The circle pattern embossed piece is actually a scrap from my bottlecap card, but I added some copper with a gel pen.

Actually, I did end up having this lovely key stamp from the Metropolitan Museum of Art set, which I silver heat-embossed on kraft and hand-cut out.

I hand-punched the border, but I did take the time to make a template. It's difficult to see in this photo (click on photo to enlarge), but the glittery ribbon is tinted with Mustard Seed distress ink.

The metal key attach at the top is one of the many suitcase lock keys I have around the house. Where the locks could be I don't know!

I'm loving everyone's projects. See you tomorrow!

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Masking/Bee/Shimmer Tag

Ooh, did you see the tags for yesterday's Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at the Stampin' Dymonz blog? Wowzee.

It's only day 2 & I'm already having a ton of fun making tags, something I'm never really done. Oh I make tags for presents, but not the kind of pieces of art that folks are making. Today's tag needs to incorporate the following: Masking, Shimmery effect, and Bees. Yep, Bees!

Okay, so I know that my tag is a little odd perhaps, but when I think of bees I think of the recent lack of them, and how we actually need more bees in our garden (how else do our veggies get pollinated‽). Martha Stewart says that you can make your garden more inviting for bees by putting out bundles of bamboo that they can live in. We have a perfect place in the yard for one, but well I'm sure I'll get to it someday! It kinda bugs me to buy bamboo since the Baltimore area actually has some gorgeous stands of bamboo, but my husband frowns on me acquiring things off the side of the road & probably wouldn't appreciate having to explain my hacking at someone's bamboo side yard.

Anyhoo, that's how I came to the bee-and-bamboo theme. Also, I've been itching to use the Bamboo stamps from my Inkadinkado sets.

Somehow I only have 2 bee stamps, and one reminded me of the freaky bees from Futurama, so I settled on this waspy guy.

The photos didn't come out great, but I masked the bees before stamping the bamboo images. For the border piece, I ink-distressed it with "Peeled Paint" Tim Holtz ink (I used the same distress ink to edge all the pieces). I sprayed the pieces with Tattered Angels chalk mist (Banana Pudding) to add the required shimmery effect. After removing the masking paper (and saving the pieces to reuse later), I colored the bees (except for the wings) with Copics (Y000, FY1, FYG1). Then, because I just got my hot little hands on a Vermsamark watermark ink pen, I used it to heat-emboss the bees' wings with clear lemon embossing powder. I added added extra-distressing to the broder piece by cutting it out with deckle scissors before sanding it.

So fun! Can't wait for tomorrow's!

Stampin' Dymonz Grand Give-A-Way: Nostalgic Tag

Today's the first day of the Tim Times Ten Grand Give-A-Way Challenge at Stampin' Dymonz's, and I'm going to try to do all ten tag challenges. I have many thins on my plate this coming week, so having a tag to make will keep me crafting without getting TOO distracted...that's the theory, anyway!

To make my life easier over the next 10 days, I cut templates for a 3-layer tag. It's very easy to do in SCAL, but if want to use my version you can download it here.

Today's challenge is "Nostalgic Tag", so I pulled out my Tim Holtz paper for inspiration. There's a page of old recipes, so I decided to make an apple-pie-themed tag.

I used an apple stamp from my stash, and colored it with copics; WOW that came out so good! I distressed the edges of the tags and added Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink as well.

The secondary challenge for today is to use the Tearing Technique, so I whipped out my Deckle Tear Edger and made a strip from a different part of the recipe paper. So fun!

I hadn't really thought about it before, but every side of my family has a traditional apple pie. Well okay, on Mom's side it's a tradition of buying a really good pie, but it's a tradition nonetheless! My Grandpa-in-law eats his with cheddar cheese; his daughter makes the most simple and delicious version; and my paternal aunt makes a gooey and glorious one.

Okay, where's the pie?!