Hi, crafty friends! I have a fun gift tag to share today, featuring Flappy’s Christmas Delivery from the Tofu & Friends holiday collection from Purple Onion Designs. I love the quirky nature of the cuties in this collection from the new illustrator.
I stamped the image with Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, colored it with Copics, then stamped again, this time using Obsidian ink from Altenew for crips, dark lines. I decided to fussy cut right against the stamped lines, and put this cute dog to the side while I worked on the rest of the tag.
I die cut a tag from white cardstock using the Stitched Trad. Tag STAX die set from My Favorite Things, before using Polar Bear, Icy Water and Winter Lake inks from Altenew to ink blend a soft blue sky. I die cut a couple of trees using the silhouette snow trees from Mama Elephant and adhered them on top of my ink blending. I used a die in the Stitched Hillside Borders die set from Lawn Fawn to create the faux stitch hill, then used the tag die again to die cut the bottom part and adhered it to the tag also.
I added my dog using foam squares. stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Julehilsen stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto Wild Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things, before trimming it down and adding it with foam squares to the tag. I die cut a reinforcement piece from white cardstock using a die in the Fold-up Tags die set from My Favorite Things and adhered it to the top, before threading some ribbon through and adding a charm. I used some May Arts Natural Twine to tie a bow to secure everything.
On the back of the tag, I stamped the Til/Fra frame from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Obsidian ink from Altenew. I used Dark Chocolate and Classic Kraft inks from Papertrey Ink to stamp the images that make up the background. The stamps are from North Star Design, Inkido and Ladybug and Friends. I believe none of these companies are still in business, but I love these particular stamps and use them regardless.
Simple color palette for this one. No wonder, as it’s essentially just brown, gray and red.
Shari Bresciani’s cast of characters is so fun and quirky. Michele at Purple Onion Designs is very good at finding illustrators with a distinct style. The left tag features 
For both of my tags, I used the Wintry Forest stencil set from Pinkfresh Studio to create my background of blue trees. I used Polar Bear, Icy Water and Winter Lake inks from Altenew to create my trees, die cut my panel into tags using the Stitched Trad. Tag STAX die set from My Favorite Things, then sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous which I melted from the back for a snowy look.
I love the expression on Scruffy’s face! This tree originally has a star on top, but I wanted Starla to add the star to the tree, so I cut off the star from the top and colored the cone shaped part of the star in green, so it looks like it’s the actual tree, even though the even curved line is a telltale sign that it’s not. I don’t think many people will notice, and even less will care.
I stamped the sentiment using two ink colors from My Favorite Things: Jalapeño Popper and Sour Apple. I would have preferred a green tone with more blue in it, but I don’t have that in the ink formulation that’s best for this kind of mostly solid stamping. I find that the squishy ink pads that have become popular in recent years do better with this kind of stamping than the old firm felt pad type ink pads.
Close to the sentiment, I added pearls from the Party Girl mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I was tempted to add lots of pearls in different colors to the tree too, to act as baubles, but opted not to.
I threaded some satin ribbon through the tag hole and tied it with a piece of Natural twine from May Arts. I also added a couple of gold bells from my stash, I love tags that make that jingle sound.
Lots of colors for this, even though I felt like I didn’t use too many.
It’s Carrie’s turn. She goes so well with this snowman, you could almost think they’re one stamp and not two. I don’t mind when things hang off the edge of my cards or, in this case, tags. Will the ears and the branch get bent once this tag is on a present under the tree? Possibly. But I don’t mind, because I feel it adds to the design. If I had cut off the ears and branch to make everything fit inside the dimensions of the tag, this tag wouldn’t be as fun.
For this one, I stamped the sentiment in Amarena Cherry ink from My Favorite Things. It matches her scarf nicely.
I managed to get something sticky in the middle of Carrie. There was no way to remove it, so I was very strategic about the placement of the clay snowflakes I added. They’re Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and I love them.
I threaded ribbon through the hole at the top of the tag, tied a bow around it using more of that Natural Twine from May Arts and added a couple of gold bells to the top. Different kind of bell than on the green tag, but they still make that wonderful sound.
Lots of Copics for this one too. I just can’t help myself.
For the back of the tags, I stamped To/From from the B06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Obsidian ink from Altenew. The remaining stamps are stamped in Classic Kraft and Dark Chocolate inks from Papertrey Ink. For some of it, I used second generation stamping. The circle stamp with 24.12 in the center and the tree stamp are both from Inkido. The little snowflakes are from North Star Design, the smaller circle stamp with God jul in the center is from Ladybug & Friends. Unless I’m mistaken, none of these companies are still in business. It’s kind of sad, but I’m very glad I have these stamps!
I colored the image with Copics and fussy cut around it, leaving a white border. This image is pretty easy to fussy cut, so it didn’t take long. I’m trying to get out of my standard “full panel with cluster” mode, and fussy cutting the image gives me endless possibilities.
I needed something in the background behind my image, and decided to create a circle stencil to ink blend into. I used Distress Ink from Ranger in Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade, before I removed the stencil and looked through my stash of background stamps I could use to add some more interest. I wound up with a mixture of stamps from Inkido, Tim Holtz and My Favorite Things, and used Distress Ink once again for the stamping. This time Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed for a bit more of an intense yellow on top of the ink blending.
I mounted the image using foam tape, and die cut the word happy from the Bold Happy Birthday die set from My Favorite Things. I die cut four of each letter and stacked them for a dimensional look, overlapping them on my card to make them fit.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Anything-but-Basic Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a piece of Caribbean Sea cardstock, also from MFT. The sentiment actually says Commencing Happy dance, but since I already had a diecut happy, I only needed the first and last word for my card. I added three additional strips of cardstock behind the words for dimension, and finished off the card with a few enamel dots. The teal ones are from the Cool Summer Nights pack from Altenew, the orange ones from a Halloween pack from Papirdesign. I also added a dot of black Glaze pen to the kittens’ eyes and the boy’s eyes, then a white dot using the Gelly Roll 05 from Sakura once the black had dried on the boy.
These snowmen from the 
I have lots of layers on these, and used a whole bunch of Christmas scraps from old collections by Pion Design, as well as some sentiment stamps and other stamps from Inkido and Norsk Stempelblad AS.
More scraps on the back. I love this way of creating, and I hope to do more of it this year!
The process for creating this one was identical to the first ones I shared in 
There’s lots of texture and visual interest on this tag because of all the layers of paper, the foam tape to add dimension and the stenciled background. The accessories on the snowman are in a brighter green color than everything else on the tag, which still makes him stand out against the other elements.
For the back of the tag I used a couple of stamps from Inkido, as well as more of the white heat embossed sentiments from Norsk Stempelblad that I created lots of in one of my compartmental crafty sessions. These tags were heaps of fun to put together like this.
For these tags, I chose red instead of green. I planned ahead and colored some of the snowmen with green accessories, and some with red. For one of these tags I used the Falling Stars stencil from Simon Says Stamp, and I thought it was fitting to add the snowman with the star for that particular tag.
A lot of elements are the same on these two tags as the first two; patterned paper from Pion Design die cut using the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut. I also used the same die from Altenew that I used with the green cardstock on this one, and it’s a nice added element that doesn’t have the perpendicular angles than many of the other layers do, so it breaks up the monotony a little and adds interest. For the tag with the stars, I used the word JUL from the Gledelig jul die from Kort & Godt, and for the tag with the Christmas present, I used the word klem from the Juleklem die, also from Kort & Godt. I added red paper doilies from Papirdesign to the base of these tags, it’s a nice foundation to put everything else on top of.
The backs of these are pretty similar to the backs of the green tags I made. I used the same 24.12 stamp from Inkido and the same stamps from the Distressed Patterns stamp set from My Favorite Things, but changed the ink color to Pure Poppy ink from Papertrey Ink.
For these tags (I’ll have more to share later), I did compartmental crafting. Tim Holtz always raves about this, but I usually sit down and create my cards from start to finish in one sitting. Actually, that’s not entirely true, I do prefer coloring one day and making the rest of the card another day. Coloring takes a while, and once I’m done with that, I’m not really in actual making and assembly mode.
For the back of the tags I used a tag die from My Favorite Things to die cut from more of that Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I die cut a bunch of tags in one session, so I’d have many to do at once when I did the actual assembly. I stamped an older Inkido stamp using Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things, and even did some second generation stamping. I also used a couple of stamps from the Distressed Patterns stamp set from MFT to add additional spatter beyond the 24.12 stamp. I used more of the scraps I die cut and cut with my trimmer, and stamped a to/from stamp from Inkido onto scraps of Pion Design patterned paper using Dark Chocolate ink from Papertrey Ink. First generation stamping on one, second generation on the other for a softer look. It was fun to break out acrylic blocks to use with my stamps again, I use my Misti for pretty much everything, but this didn’t have to be perfect or straight, so I just played and had fun!
I feel like every other day is Wednesday, and today’s another one. Time just goes by so incredibly quickly, it’s hard to keep up and keep track of the weekdays. I colored up 
I haven’t made one of my cluster cards in quite some time, but I really enjoy the process of putting these clusters together, so I decided to do it for this card. It’s a great way to use some patterned paper scraps, and one of these patterned papers is actually from 2007! It’s from Autumn Leaves. Remember them? I think it’s been a while since they ceased to exist. Now, when you go to autumleaves.com, you get to a site for assisted living communities for those with dementia. It’s a Texas based company, and definitely not a maker of pretty patterned paper. The other papers I’ve used are also what we’d call old in the card making world, the yellow one is from My Mind’s Eye and was released in 2011, and the remaining two were both released in 2013, they’re from Maja Design and Inkido, respectively.
I use a couple of different dies to make these clusters, I make the banners using the Fishtail Flag Frames set from My Favorite Things, and I use the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from Xcut for all those tickets. It’s one die that cuts nine different tickets, and I love that I get that many from one run through my diecutting machine. I mounted some of my diecut pieces on 1 mm foam tape, and glued others down using just double sided tape. Behind the whole thing I put half a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design. I used the other half for the card I posted yesterday. On top I added a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS stamped in Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink. I mounted that on foam squares, and tripled up the foam squares on the left side of the banner. Finished off with a few pink dots from Papirdesign.
I leave you with the colors I used for the adorable little girl. Not too many today.
This is another one that I’ve colored for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge. I’m getting better at putting my colored images to use. I colored this one for day 13 of the challenge back in March, so this cute little elephant hasn’t had to wait too long.
I used the largest of the dies in a faux stitched rectangle die set from My Favorite Things to create my panel and glued it onto a scrap piece of patterned paper from Pion Design that I’d already cut to fit the size of my card. I added a cluster in the top right corner, I’ve got part of a Doodlebug doily, a couple of patterned paper banners (also diecut with dies from My Favorite Things) and a few enamel dots from My Mind’s Eye.
That light pink paper is from the same paper collection from Pion Design as the darker pink (Vintage Garden collection), and the green one with the dots is from Inkido. I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment using Autumn Rose ink from Papertrey Ink, and that finishes my card.
Lots of greys, greens and even blues for this one, even if the card mostly reads as pink. 3
Denne første pakkelappen er stanset ut med en tagdie fra Sizzix. Jeg har brukt mønsterark fra Pion Design og Inkido, og stempelmotivet kommer også fra Inkido. Teksten er fra Norsk Stempelblad AS, og jeg har pyntet veldig enkelt med utstansede kvister og noen pyntebær fra Magnolia. Den lille snellen kommer fra Maya Road.
På baksiden stemplet jeg et digert Til/Fra-stempel fra North Star Design med Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate blekk, som er samme blekkfarge som jeg brukte på stemplene foran på tagen. Den lille røde biten med twine kommer fra Whisker Graphics.
Pakkelapp nummer to er mye mindre. Her har jeg stemplet og embosset trær fra Mama Elephant på kraftfarget kartong og limt på et lite rådyr fra Nille. God jul-stempelet kommer fra Norsk Stempelblad AS og er stemplet med Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate.
Også her har jeg brukt et stempel fra NSD på baksiden stemplet med Dark Chocolate, men dette stempelet er ganske mye mindre enn det på den første tagen. I enden har jeg festet hvit hamp fra Hemptique.
Denne pakkelappen er av det veldig enkle slaget. Jeg brukte to vimpeldies fra Papertrey Ink, den ene litt større enn den andre, og stanset de ut i henholdsvis kartong og mønsterark fra Pion Design. Jeg pyntet enkelt med seam binding og to bjeller som lager herlig julelyd.
Baksiden denne gangen har et stempel fra Inkido, stemplet med Blueberry Sky blekk fra Papertrey Ink.
Enda en pakkelapp av det enkle slaget. Jeg stemplet et stempel fra Poppydesign rett på et mønsterark fra Maja Design med Coffee Archival Ink fra Ranger og klippet ut formen på pakkelappen rundt kanten på stempelet. Jeg limte på løs bling fra Kort & Godt i midten av hvert store snøfnugg på stempelet.
Enkel bakside med stempler fra North Star Design. Her har jeg også brukt hvit hemp fra Hemptique.
Pakkelapp nummer fire. Her har jeg stemplet tekst fra Papertrey Ink rett på mønsterark fra Pion Design med Memento Rich Cocoa blekk. Formen på pakkelappen er stanset ut med en die fra Magnolia, og jeg har brukt en liten bit blonde og litt naturlig twine fra May Arts i enden.
Stemplene på baksiden kommer fra Norsk Stempelblad AS.
Den siste pakkelappen er den som egentlig er mest omfattende. Her har jeg brukt en liten bit av et stempel fra Penny Black som jeg har stemplet og embosset på akvarellark før jeg har fargelagt med Copic-refiller og vannpensel fylt med blenderrefill. Motivet er skjært ut og limt på en sirkel av Rustic White kartong fra Papertrey Ink med en stemplet tekst fra Norsk Stempelblad AS stemplet med Papertrey Ink Scarlet Jewel blekk.
På baksiden har jeg brukt et Til/Fra-stempel fra Papirdesign. Jeg oppdaget litt sent at bildet mitt av baksiden er litt uklart, men pakkelappen er jo gitt bort, så jeg kan ikke akkurat ta nye bilder. Også her har jeg brukt rød twine fra Whisker Graphics.
Papirmølla 