Sunday Spotlight: Christmas Tags

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to another Sunday Spotlight! Today I’m featuring some fun Christmas tags in a variety of styles. One of the things that I really like about tags is that because of their size, they are perfect for using up some of those scraps from past projects you have lying around your craft room. Or sometimes, especially in stamp sets, you have a bunch of these tiny little stamps that you just don’t know what to do with because they are harder to find a place for on a card… but as with the paper scraps, those such stamps can indeed find a home on your tags!

For my first tag, I  created a sentiment using my Silhouette Cameo, and then stamped the little tree stamp from the Recollections “Winter Wonderland” stamp set in Staz On “Timber Brown” ink. I also stamped and heat embossed the snowflakes with white embossing powder. Afterwards, I watercolored the tree with Peeled Paint, Forest Moss, Wild Honey, Fired Brick Red and Dusty Concord distress inks. Then, using a few more distress inks (Broken China, Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord) and an ink blending tool, I applied the colors (in the order listed) to the edges of the tag, taking care to leave extra white space around the sentiment. Some splatters of ink, faux stitching and some glitter finished off the tag. I really like how the ink splatters all over the background adds some great interest to the tag’s overall feel.

While my first tag was full of bright colors, this next tag is a white-on-white effect! Taking care to use a lot of texture to keep the tag from “blending into itself”, I first cut the snowflake image out of some white cardstock using my Cameo. I then covered the entire snowflake with a thin coating of Rock Candy distress Stickles. This glitter glue is amazing… once dry, the texture of the glitter is very crystal-like; almost reminds you of “chipped” glass. And of course, it sparkles beautifully! I set my snowflake aside to dry and continued onto the rest of the tag… The white heat embossed snowflake stamp is from the Recollections’ Christmas collection; I used only one of the ten snowflake designs for this particular tag. After I heat set the snowflakes, I also took some white vellum and scalloped-edged paper strips, and adhered these to the middle of the tag. The snowflake is adhered to the tag with dimensional foam tape… and 1/2 white satin ribbon tied with some red and white baker’s twine for a splash of color, completes this tag! The Rock Candy Stickles is by far my favorite aspect of this tag… I just love how it sparkles in the light!

Next up, we have this adorable little snowman from the Penny Black “Jolly Friends” stamp set… I cannot get enough of his cozy little hat and scarf… and of course his cute smile! I wanted to create the look of a night sky behind him, but not too dark, so I opted for “lighter” colors to create my background. Using Broken China, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, and Dusty Concord, I inked the edges of my tag, making sure that Broken China took up most of the center area. I stamped the snowman onto watercolor paper with Staz On Jet Back ink and watercolored him with Festive Berries, Peeled Paint, Iced Spruce and Worn Lipstick distress inks. I then cut him out and created a snowbank to sit in front of him. Some silver glitter wash tape on the bottom of the tag, cut with scalloped edged scissors, and clear glitter on the pom-pom of Mr. Snowy’s hat, adds some holiday sparkle to this cute little tag!

I don’t know about you, but I love paper piecing! Using bits of paper to “color” your stamped images not only helps clean out some of those stashed paper scraps (hooray!), but also adds some great texture and interest to your project. For this tag, I die cut a cream circle and a brown scalloped-edged circle using my Sizzix Big Shot. The sweet little mouse stamp is from the Penny Black “Jolly Friends” stamp set; I stamped the little guy onto a piece of white cardstock, and onto multiple scraps of patterned paper. After cutting the entire image out of the white cardstock, I then began cutting portions of the image from the patterned paper scraps and adhered them to the cardstock image. Once my mouse and stocking were “colored”, I adhered them to the tag front using dimensional foam tape. Glitter was applied to the berries on the holly and the white areas of the stocking. For some depth, I used some Prismacolor pencils and added some shadows to the stocking, mouse and holly leaves. And because I was going for a cute look on this tag, the “to” and “from” labels are written out in my own handwriting. Doesn’t that little mouse look so sweet sleeping in his stocking?! :)

One more! Yes, one more tag for today! This tag incorporates both stamping and some paper piecing… The background of the tag is made from a kraft-colored patterned paper, to which I applied some Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain distress inks to. The snowman and stars are from the Recollections “Winter Wonderland” stamp set; stamping the snowman directly onto the patterned paper (using Staz On Timber Brown ink), I took an ink blender and white pigment ink and brushed on the ink to “color” the snowman. I paper pieced his scarf out of red patterned paper, as well as all the stars in a golden yellow paper. The snowbank upon which he sits is a textured paper, which I edged with some Rock Candy Stickles, after adhering it to the tag. Some more glitter on the stars and the snowman’s scarf added a little bit more shine to this country-style tag.

Tags are so much fun to make… and so versatile! Not only can they be used on a wrapped gift, but on also on:

• cookies you give to your neighbor
• as the focal point on a card
• tied around a wine bottle you bring to a social get-together
• as an ornament (if not too big!)
• a bookmark
• as a special note in someone’s lunch bag
• and much, much more!

I hope today’s post has inspired you to go and create some tags of your own! Happy creating!