25 Days of Christmas Tags: Day 7

Hello and happy Sunday! We are wrapping up the first week of tag inspiration for Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags with our Day 7 guest and sponsor, Sunny Studio Stamps! 

I was excited to play with Sunny Studio's new Christmas set, Santa Claus Lane. Here's Santa! 

Some simple masking allowed me to have Santa ready to whoosh down the chimney! Of course masking meant I had to fussy cut my image rather than die cut - it seems like this month is turning into a master class in fussy cutting! :D I used Sunny Studio's fishtail borders to cut the puffy snow roof line and a dotted line so I could make this a two layer tag. I stamped and embossed the world's smallest stamps (from Here Comes Santa Claus) before sponging the tag base for a night sky look. Of course some Stickles were called for... it's the festive season, after all. 

When you open the tag, there is just some simple stamping and colouring, with lots of room to write a message. 

I was having too much fun not to make a second tag! 

I think this fireplace image is great, too, but didn't really want to combine the roaring fire with Santa about to slide down the chimney. ;) So I created a second tag, using patterned paper to suggest wallpaper and flooring. Some masking involved again with this tag, adding the cute little stockings to the mantle. 

I may decide to seek out a tutorial before colouring my next fire-in-a-fireplace. :D 

Lots of Copic colouring for Kathy Rac's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. 

Are you ready to play along? You can be eligible to win a prize by creating your own inspired tags, commenting on the designers' tags, or both for more chances to win! See this post for all the details. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you have enjoyed the first week of tag inspiration! 

Our amazing sponsors! 

Supplies: (ho ho ho) Neenah white cardstock, Sunny Studio Stamps Santa Claus Lane & Here Comes Santa Claus,  Versamark, Versafine onyx black & chipped sapphire & blueprint sketch distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic markers, Sunny Studio Stamps fishtail borders 2 & CUTplorations manila tag die, icicle & frosted lace Stickles, gold gel pen, (?) ribbon & Hemptique red & silver baker's twine; (magical) Neenah white cardstock, Echo Park Winter Wishes patterned paper, Sunny Studio Stamps Santa Claus Lane stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic markers, CUTplorations manila tag die, frosted lace Stickles, Craft Smart silver ribbon

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25 Days of Christmas Tags: Day 6

It's the weekend, and I hope you have "holiday tag-making" on your to-do list! It's Day 6 of Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags event, and if you've been playing along, you should be seeing those festive tags starting to make a nice little pile, ready for gift-giving! For all the details of this fun event, check out the main post and link-up. 

Today we are welcoming guest and sponsor Avery Elle! 

Avery Elle has tons of cute stamps, whether for the holidays or year-round use. And while normally I'm drawn to the cute side, I decided to challenge myself a little, too, by picking the more rustic Alpine set. I also chose it because I thought the sled would make a fun shaped tag, so that is what I did: 

The sled is a two-step layering stamp, although I may have defeated that purpose a bit by stamping both the outline and the woodgrain in the same ink. :D I tried lighter browns for the filler stamp, but couldn't find a combination I liked. I also shaded the sled with a light brown Copic. As I was doing this, I realized a properly rustic look would be better achieved on natural, rather than bright white cardstock. Note to self: don't automatically default to white ALL THE TIME. :D Anyway, after colouring, I also stamped the wreath and coloured the berries using red glitter glue and a toothpick. I trimmed the sled closely and punched two holes at the top for my red cord. 

Of course, then I had to try the sled on some non-white cardstock: 

Which is when I discovered that using white cardstock for the first one was not such a bad idea after all - even with quick and light Copic shading, on the thinner natural cardstock there was bleed through to the other side. But that meant I could put this one on a festive red tag and add a sentiment! For added variety, I used an evergreen bough and a bow instead of the wreath. 

My talented tag teammates, Carol, Joyce and Kim, as well as members of the Avery Elle design team and of course Tracey herself, all have delightful tags to kickstart your creativity! I hope you'll join us - you might just win a prize! 

Our generous sponsors! 

Supplies: Neenah white, Stampin Up ruby red & (?) natural cardstock, Avery Elle Alpine stamps, Memento rich cocoa & bamboo leaves, Catherine Pooler rockin' red & Simon Says Stamp extreme black ink, CUTplorations manila tag die, Copic markers, Recollections red glitter glue Twinery cappuccino twine, scrap ribbon & red cord, foam tape

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25 Days of Christmas Tags: Day 5

It's Day 5 of Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags event! Today we are welcoming Reverse Confetti! 

Reverse Confetti is letting the Tag Team play with some goodies from their brand new release out today! I received the sweet stamp set Birdie Buddies. Here's my tag: 

If I have a stamp set with music notes involved, I'm likely to find a way to include them. For this tag, I used them to randomly stamp a background panel in festive colours. I wanted my birdie to be bold, so I paper pieced him with red cardstock, and added a little white gel pen on his wing feathers. To get just the right size tag I wanted, I cut my own rather than using a die to make a tag. Then I decided I wanted a contrasting tag reinforcement. While I am sure I have such a die, could I find it? Of course not. Luckily, I had another die that I could make double use of. Finally, I stamped and added the sentiment banner. 

Want more information on how to play along with this fun event? All the details can be found here. Whether you decide to join us by making tags, or commenting on the designers' tags - you will be in the running for a terrific prize! 

Our generous sponsors! 

Supplies: Neenah white, Recollections black & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Reverse Confetti Birdie Buddies stamps, Versafine onyx black, Stampin' Up real red, Memento bamboo leaves & dandelion inks, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic marker, MFT meet in the middle die, Hemptique yellow cord, (?) striped ribbon, $ store jingle bells

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Seize the Off-the-Edge Birthday!

Time for a new Seize the Birthday challenge! 

Our latest topping is a fun one: Off the Edge! Lots of ways to interpret this: you can stamp an image so it is off the edge of a card, or maybe the image hangs off the mat or edge. It's up to you - or you can make any birthday card to add to our link-up. 

I picked a stamp that was large enough to hang off the edge of may main panel and the backing panel. 

I started by cutting both panels and stamping my image twice, once in each corner. Since stamping over two layers of cardstock always leaves a little blank spot, I cut an intermediate panel that matched the ink I used. I added a sentiment in pale gold pearl embossing powder. 

This blue card was the first one I made, but not the first one I stamped. Initially, I had stamped in black and embossed the same two images, intending to colour them. Then I had a crisis of colouring: it looked intimidating! Also, I thought the black might be too strong. So I went ahead and made my blue one. But there was my first one, just sitting there, and I couldn't let it go to waste...

This turned out to be quite easy to colour! The shading in the flowers from the stamp itself means little marker shading is needed. And with the deep red, the black seems to work. This time I used a vintage gold embossing powder for the sentiment.  

There are lots more examples of ways to take your birthday cards "off the edge" on the Seize the Birthday blog - hope you will come and play along with us! 

Looking for Day 4 of the 25 Days

of Christmas Tags? Scroll down or click here. 

Supplies: Neenah white, Recollections black & (?) blue cardstock, Stampin' Up Elements of Style, Clearly Besotted Say What & Judikins calligraphic sentiments stamps, Versamark, Versafine onyx black & Memento Luxe Danube blue ink, Wow clear gloss, pale gold pearl & Simon Says Stamp vintage gold embossing powder, Copic markers

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25 Days of Christmas Tags: Day 4

Happy Thursday and Day 4 of Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags event! I'm so honoured to a part of this fun event - if it's new to you, everything you need to know can be found here. Today our guest and sponsor is Uniko. 

Uniko sent each of the Tag Team a generous assortment of goodies to play with. Mine included a pretty snowflake stencil - I don't have one quite like it, so I knew I wanted to play with it. As a 6x6 stencil, I was able to make two tags from it. Here's the first: 

For the sparkly pale blue snowflakes, I mixed white embossing paste with dry Stickles glitter. While it dried, I stamped the sentiment and used Prismacolor pencils to give the letters an ombré look. 

For the second tag, I went a little more elegant:  

Again, I kept the tag simple so as not to take away from the snowflakes. A sentiment and some sheer ribbon was all I needed. 

While the snowflake embossing was drying, I also had time to make a third quick tag! 

I had stamped two of the Let It Snow sentiments just in case my ombré colouring didn't work the first time. For the second one, I coloured the letters in more simply with a brush marker. I stamped the snowflakes above and below, then found a scrap of coordinating patterned paper. 

So much inspiration, as always, on Tracey's blog today! Whether you create your own inspired tags, or decide to comment on the designers' posts, you could just win a prize from one of these sponsors! 

I'll be back in a few hours with the newest

Seize the Birthday challenge! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Echo Park Winter Wishes patterned paper, Uniko  Festive Sentiments Outlined, Background Builders: Christmas & Simply Said Blocks: Christmas, Versafine onyx black, MFT blueberry & Memento Paris dusk inks, Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaways tag & CUTplorations manila tag dies, Uniko Let It Snow stencil, Dreamweavers glossy white embossing paste, Ranger waterfall dry fine glitter, Prismacolor pencils, Marvy Uchida ColorIn marker, Hemptique navy cord, assorted ribbon

  

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Happy Little Stampers ATC: Die Cuts

Here I am with my THIRD (this my be unprecedented) post of the day: it's time for the ATC challenge at Happy Little Stampers! For the month of November, we are looking for you to use die cuts on your artist trading cards or coins. 

I actually have an ATC die that I use to make the bases for my trading cards, but I thought I could probably stretch to more die cuts than that. ;) I went nautical, and chose to (sorry) anchor my ATCs with the same image on each: 

Not only do I have a few different sets of nautical stamps and dies, but also some different patterned papers on a nautical theme as well. I had a lot of fun mixing and matching them. My stamps are from Paper Smooches and Neat & Tangled; the papers are from Authentique and October Afternoon. Here's a closer look at them: 

As long as you use die cuts, the theme of your ATCs (cards or coins) is up to you! Have some fun with your supplies and join us. 

Earlier posts today: 

the November ABC Christmas Challenge and

Day 3 of the 25 Days of Christmas Tags!

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