CHRISTMAS GIFT TAGS

 

Here are two of the packages of Christmas gift tags that were sold at a Holiday Auction silent auction. Again, I've used retired products as well as current ones. The bells on the heading of the one on the left are from the wonderful stamp set Bells and Boughs in the current Holiday Mini Catalog. I used markers to color the stamp and then cut out the images to adhere to the heading. The bags are Stampin' Up! medium cello bags. The perfect size.  Each tag in that bag is different, some embossed, some beaded, some booklet form, some simple tags.  All of the tags in the bag on the right are punched from retired Designer Paper wtih the Ornament punch and the scallop circle punch.  If you don't have those punches, you should.  They are so  versatile, not just for punching Christmas tags.

Packaging the tags this way, the buyer will have a nice gift for a hostess or office Santa, or ....

I can't believe that it is nearing mid-November and this is the first Christmas stamping I've done this year. I'm still working on autumn and Thanksgiving. I'll show you a few more of these and then get busy on Christmas.  Hmmmm - wonder if I'll get my own cards made this year?

Season of Simple Grace Holy Family

I really like this card - the best yet. It was quite a process of evolution for it is nothing like the card that I envisioned when I planned to use this stamp. I wanted to emboss in white and I wanted to use these colors, but the first samples that I made were so boring. Really. I had to let it sit for a couple of days and simmer. Even then, once I started working on it, it kept changing Isn't it funny how the creative process works sometimes? Of course, some people are more creative than others. I'm definitely in the "other" category. But, I am very happy with this card.

Stamps: Season of Simple Grace
CS: Bravo Burgundy, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Night of Navy
Ink: Whisper White Craft, Versamark
Accessories: Silver Embossing Powder, Bravo Burgundy 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Brocade Blue 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, scallop punch, corner rounder punch, paper piercer and pad.

More Gift Card Holders

The last - at least for now. The gold embossed wreath is from Keep Christmas and Santa from Deer Friends. If you've been following this blog, you've seen these sets before. They are so versatile. The wreath gift card holder is the same style as the candle one on the inside - a panel with slits to hold the card. The Santa one is a pocket - very quick to make. For now, these are just samples for the gals to choose from if they would like.
We need to make some gift card holders that are not for Christmas, too, so I think I will start with Crazy for Cupcakes set. Watch for one or two of those in the near future.

Gift Card Holders

We're making Gift Card Holders for my church's Christmas Bazaar. Here are some samples of ones that we have made and others that we might make. The Christmas Tree is in the lovely
Snow Swirled set. The gals learned to emboss the evening we made that one - magic! What fun it is to see someone learn a new technique and get so excited! The packet opens up to find pocket page inside for the card.

The candle is from Keep Christmas. By now, you know that is a favorite set of mine, don't you?
Inside is a yellow panel with slots for fitting a gift card. I used Stampin' Up! Slit Punch.

Season of Simple Grace Card

Season of Grace is a lovely set and here is my first card. Again, I used retired colors and ribbon, but it is close to Ruby Red. The images are embossed with Versamark and gold embossing powder. You can see that I am still having fun with our scallop punch. The sentiment inside is stamped with Ruby Red.

Keep Christmas Card 2008

This week I have been working on my personal Christmas Cards and so have not posted for a while. My friend, Jane, chided me for that today, so here are two of my cards. I've hesitated to post them for two reasons. One - because some of my family and friends will be receiving them and, second, because they use some retired Stampin' Up! products.

Cranberry Crisp was one of our former In Colors. I liked it so much that I ordered several packages of it just before it was discontinued, knowing that I would use it for Christmas cards. So, here it is, along with the ribbon that is also retired. The image is actually embossed using Bravo Burgundy, which works just fine. I sprayed the card base with gold Pearl-Ex and hairspray mixture to get the shimmer effect. The sentiment inside embossed in gold on the Cranberry Crsip and mounted on Apricot Appeal. Looks nice. I will sign these cards with a gold pen. I think it is an elegant card and am very happy with it. Happy enough to make 30 of them.

Deer Friends - Infant Jesus Tag and Card

Here is another Christmas card with the stamp that I like so much. This one has a removable tag in the pocket. The recipient may use it as a gift tag or a tree decoration. Again, I believe that the stamp calls for a card with clean and uncluttered lines to emphasize the Christmas message. The same template is easily adapted to any stamp that is the right size. I will probably make some of these with the angel stamp that comes with the set, too. I can't believe I didn't start with the angel!

Deer Friends - Infant Jesus Tag and Card

I think this tag makes a beautiful card, so I will put cord in just a few and leave the rest unpunched.

I like the simplicity of the card for it emphasizes the message. It is more elegant than it appears in the scan. Both the image and the word are embossed.

Stamps: Deer Friends, Tres Chic background stamp

Card Stock: Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla, Confetti Cream

Ink: Creamy Caramel Craft Pad

Accessories: Clear embossing powder, 1 1/4 circle punch, scallop circle punch, corner rounder, Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon

Deer Friends - Beaded Christmas Tree Tag

Here are several versions of the Christmas Tree stamp in the Deer Friends stamp set. All of the trees are beaded with clear beads, using Crystal Effects. This one sparkles and is very pretty.

Because the CS is dark and might be a challenge for addressing a tag, I added a Whisper White piece on the back, using the large oval punch. You can see that it just fits the scallop circle punch. I don't have any current stamps with a To and From sentiment, so have left it blank for the photo, but will probably go back and use stamps from a retired set. Shhhh. Have you used the Stampin' Up! micro beads? If not, you should give them a try. For some reason, I just started playing with them this past summer and have learned a few things. The most important - to get a nice sparkle, pick up a few beads betten your thumb and finger and just sprinkle lightly on the Crystal Effects covered image. When I first started using the beads, I poured on too many and didn't much like the result. You may prefer the heavier coverage. Try it both ways. Or, perhaps the particular design element will dictate how heavy we want our beading to be. I'm stilll learning.

All images are copyright Stampin' Up! Projects are created by Betty Vene McConnell

Deer Friends - Snowman Tag

Poor snowman's hat got crunched in the scanner, but you wil get the idea. Colors used are Brocade Blue and Whisper White. The entire stamp is stamped with classic ink and then I stamped hats with Brocade Blue Craft ink and embossed with clear EP, cut out the hat and adhered it with a Dimensional.

Deer Friends-GingerbreadMan Tag

I've been busy this weekend making tags with a some of the stamps from the Deer Friends stamp set.

This little guy is one of the stamps in the Deer Friends set. Here he is just stamped in Close to Cocoa on Whisper White CS, colored with Stampin' Write markers, punched out with the small tag punch and adhered to Chocolate Chip CS punched with the larger Tag Punch. You see him with the gold elastic cord and with the caramel gingham. I like them both, but the gingham might be less useable with most Christmas wrap, so I only made a few with the ribbon. The rest are corded.

Designer Paper Angel Tags

Aren't these cute? I have been having the greatest time playing with these little angels. They are made with Holiday Treasures Designer Series Paper.

I am a long time angel collector and had been thinking about what to do for an angel tag. So, when I first saw Tammy Howell's, I knew I had to learn how she made them. She ws gracious and sent photos of her angels along with the address of the blog that inspired her. You can see an excellent tutorial for making the angel by Jen Clendineng at http://www.crazystampgirl.com/?s=angel

Tammy added her own touch and, typical of stampers and paper crafters, I have, too.

As you can see, each one is different. As I played, the more combinations I tried, the more seemed to suggest themselves. I used pieces from only three of the papers in the package, but with two sides to each paper, the design combos seems endless.

My original intent was to make tags, but then I realized that these little gems can be an element on a card as well, so that is why many of them have halos instead of longer loops. Wouldn't a rhinestone brad be pretty at her waistline? I also think that I will add glitter to the wings of future angels.

See what you started, Tammy and Jen?

Cardstock: Holiday Treasures Designer Series Paper and coordinating solid colors cardstock
Accessories: Circle scallop punch, 5-Petal punch, 3/4" circle punch, gold elastic cord

Keep Christmas Wreath Gift TAg

Here is another Quick and Pretty tag using the same stamp set, Keep Christmas. So easy, that I just kept stamping and embossing until I had 32. That's when the cardstock ran out without cutting into another sheet. It is a fold-over tag, book style. I left some of them without punching the hole, knowing that we don't always want to tie our tags on to our packages.

If you don't have the Craft ink, you can use Versamark and Classic ink.

The challege is that you have to clean the stamp off each time before you use the Versamark. The technique: Cover the clean stamp with Versa Mark and then with the colored Classic ink, stamp the image and emboss with clear or Iridescent embossing powder. The image is not a bright, but it can be done if you are making just a few. This process also deposits some Versamark on your Classic ink pad. A little bit doesn't hurt.

There will be tags using other sets - promise! But, I'm probably not done with this one yet. I love the candle arrangement stamp, too.

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Glorious Green Craft
Accessories: Clear embossing powder, red gingham ribbon, Real Red Stampin' Write Marker

Keep Christmas Gift Tags 2

Here's another version of Scrooge and Tiny Tim from the Keep Christmas stamp set. Colors are Bravo Burgundy and Apricot Appeal. The light colored, my favorite, uses the corner rounder punch, Bravo Burgundy Craft Ink and clear embossing powder while the other uses Versamark and gold embossing powder.

For a fast tag or card, this can't be beat. It is almost embarrassing how fast these were to make - less than an hour to cut the card stock and make 18.

Keep Christmas Gift Tags

This first two, from the set Keep Christmas, has been a lot of fun. It has taken me the better part of two days to make 18 of them, mostly because I kept experimenting with colors and form. I intended to make just 10, but it is so easy to get carried away - especially when playing.

Both tags are embossed in black. The lamps glitter with Crystal Effects and clear glitter. Scrooge's trousers and top hat are watercolored. His coat in the right one is also watercolored. The rest of the coloring is done with markers.

The cardstock for the tag on the left is Bordering Blue, Certainly Celery, and Whisper White.

The tag on the right is a fold over tag, book style, using Naturals White cardstock.

I know these colors aren't truly Dickensonian, but it was the combo that I liked the best of the several I tried.

Tomorrow's tag will show the same stamp, but will be a quick tag to make.

This is a delightful set. I will probably use the rest of it as well - a candle arangement and a wreath, along with a Dickens quote. I haven't planned that far ahead yet. If you are a stamper, you know that what we plan isn't always the final product, is it?