Category: gift tag

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A Foxy Christmas Tag

You can find more of my Christmas Gift Tags from over the years by checking out #inkyandstampytags on Instagram, or my dedicated Pinterest board

OK, I definitely went out of my usual comfort zone for this tag – not only are there no foxes here in New Zealand, I also strayed away from my favourite traditional Christmas colours by using the Burnt Orange. Luckily gold goes with practically everything!

This tag really is a simple one – mostly die cutting using products from Honey Bee Stamps, Taylored Expressions and Lawn Fawn.

I chose to use watercolour cardstock, even though I didn’t paint anything, because I like the natural texture.

I have listed all products used at the end for your reference.

How cute does he look all put together!

The Taylored Expressions Little Fox has two dies – one for the fox body and the other for the white accents – it cuts the two cheeks, nose and tip of the tail at once. I went through my scrap folder (click here to see how I organise my cardstocks and coloured scraps) and chose some burnt orange and cream cardstock. I did not worry about trying to colour those teeny weeny eye pieces, rather filled those tiny gaps with black Nuvo drops. I did colour the nose with a black copic marker.

I wanted my gift tag to have a little bit of a difference to all my others, and decided the Honey Bee Stamps tag set with a vellum centre layer would be just the thing. I realised two things through trial and error. One, best to stamp and heat emboss any images first, so I put his wee gift a little to the left, plus the To/From and my logo on the back. Two, liquid glue was difficult to get a smooth finish on the vellum, but Gina K’s adhesive dot roller worked best to adhere both white circles on either side of the vellum.

Lawn Fawn Winter Gifts

The little gift is from a discontinued Lawn Fawn gift tag stamp set – but search your stash for a suitable little gift image.

FYI: the tag die is still available, and was used in my Christmas Gift Tag Class – Night Skies Ink Blending.

I used the Large Lawn Fawn Wreath to cut the greenery sprigs from scraps of green cardstock found in my stash, and placed them leading out to the right. The little fox is adhered on top using little foam squares and liquid adhesive. I cut the bow from the Lawn Fawn Wreath set out of Gold Vellum and put it together using Glue Dots. A Glue Dot secures the bow to the top of the tag nicely.

I searched through my Christmas sentiment stamps – I do have all my Christmas stamps stamped out into a binder, making this easy to flick pages to find the perfect sentiment to fit. You can view my stamp storage and binders here.

I white heat embossed the sentiment onto black cardstock and cut them as thin as I dared! The sentiment strip was placed with a foam adhesive strip directly beneath the fox and the gift.

I finished the tag off with Lawn Fawn Gold trimmings.

This completes my cute little gift tag today. Thank you for stopping by! Below are links to the products I have used – some are affiliate links (not all) which simply means I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you when shopping. Thank you for your support – it means I can keep creating and sharing with you.

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708

You can find more of my Christmas Gift Tags from over the years by checking out #inkyandstampytags on Instagram, or my dedicated Pinterest board

For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.

Tour my Craft Room

You can check out how I store my stamps and dies, inks and cardstocks.

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Night Skies Ink Blending

I had a brilliant day back in the classroom at Scrapbook Central today! 10 people came along to learn ink blending techniques and together, we made a cute set of Christmas Gift Tags.

ALERT: We will offer this class a second time on 14 November 2020 if you or a friend missed this! Please let Philippa at Scrapbook Central know, as we will only run this additional class if there is genuine interest. Contact Philippa directly here.

We used a small palette of Distress Oxides to ink up four different night skies, plus we added extra features to our skies with splatter, and also by lifting colour.

All products used today were from Lawn Fawn – the Everyday Gift Tag, Say What Christmas Critters, Stitched Hillside borders, the Little Town Border, and the Mini Snowflakes die set.

Check out some of the photos of the day below!

Along with the Distress Ink Combos, the class had a quick introduction to masking and colour lifting, and their blending onto the tiny spaces was stepped up for each tag – they had to blend FOUR colours onto the top half of their last tag – a challenge they all stepped up to!

After the ink blending part of the class, there was stamping, die cutting, colouring and heat embossing to be done. Even fluffy hats were made!

Check out the gorgeous tags made by all participants – everyone did an amazing job with their ink blending and even though we used the same colours, everyone had beautifully different results. Plus the added fun of splattering pigment, and revealing crisp white moons!

There were borders and images to be added for finishing, plus glittery snowflakes – aren’t they cool??

I was absolutely impressed with everyone that came along today – such enthusiasm and lovely results with their ink blends.

Promised Links

As discussed today, here are some of the links we talked about:

Ranger Ink labels – they do have a range of different ink organisation products you can download, including for Distress Inks and Oxides. Click here to visit the page.

Kristina Werner is a pro at Distress Oxide Blending, and she has a BUNCH of colour combinations for you to try out. Click here to visit her blog post for Combo Set 6 (you can search her blog for all 7 different combination blog posts, well worth the visit.

Last year’s Gift Tag Class held at Scrapbook Central, where we used Shimmer Powders and cute dies to create a set of gift tags. Plus, the Bonus blog post with further tags.

Visit my Christmas Gift Tag Pinterest Board to see other tags I have made over the past few years – there will be a bunch more added in the weeks to come as I share this year’s collection.

Bonus Projects

I also created a couple of extra projects using the same Lawn Fawn products used in class today, and here they are:

Snowy Hillside Card

I used the same blending techniques we went over in class to ink up this sky.

I stepped up the technique by adding subtle rays of light in the sky and created a full sized card to fit all the cute critters from the stamp set.

I created the rays by cutting masks from full sticky backed Post-its and arranged them to splay upwards. I carefully inked over them with the same colour blend we used in class today. I removed the masks, and repeated my inking over the top. This leaves a subtle change in colour over the sky, lighter where we had the masks, giving the impression of extra light.

I completed the card by cutting stitched hillside borders and arranged them to suit. I lifted the top two with foam tape for extra dimension.

I heat embossed the sentiment both at the top and along the bottom with gold embossing powder.

The critters are stamped, coloured and cut and placed within the hills.

I added some Nuvo Blizzard along the top edges of the hillsides and directly beneath the critters to ground them and add extra sparkle and dimension. Finally, a little fluff added to the penguin’s hat, sparkle pen to the critter’s accessories and tiny snowflakes scattered around the top half of the card.

Snowflake Circle

This time, I inked up another sky, but rather than filling the entire card front, I focused the imagery on a central circle.

I inked in stripes to try and mimic the Northern Lights, although this time I used Distress Ink rather than Oxides. You can see a difference in colour even though I used the same colour palette as we used in class.

The Mini Snowflakes set is a brilliant set where just one or two passes through the die cutting machine gets a whole bunch of snowflakes to place. I arranged the snowflakes over my circular inky piece, and trimmed the edges with scissors.

I cut the hillside border from another white circle to fit in the lowest part of the inky sky.

I wanted a few trees, and this little tree featured here is from the Lawn Fawn Home for the Holidays set – a teeny little set that has matching dies and a brilliant price point. I heat embossed the trees in gold and arranged them on the hillside.

The critters are stamped, coloured, cut and placed on the hillside – added fluff to the penguin’s hat again. Can’t resist that Neon Amplify!

To finish, the sentiment is the Lawn Fawn Happy Add-on, and I stacked the ‘Merry’ four times to bring it up to the same depth as the circular piece, also popped up with foam. The ‘christmas’ sentiment is white heat embossed on black cardstock and I added tiny dots of the Neon Amplify within the snowflakes to fill in the gaps (but did not heat them).

Say What? Tag

When the Say What Christmas Critters were released last year, this cute little tag set was also part of the release.

It cuts the tag itself, and a frame, along with speech bubble and a couple of other handy elements for your gift tag creations – all perfectly sized to match the little critters.

I simply inked the tag, added a sentiment to the speech bubble and stacked a couple of frames to give the tag a bit of depth. The penguin and his cute fluffy hat sit atop.

Shaker Tag

Now of course, with that frame option, you can create a shaker!

Shaker tags are super special and easy to make. I chose to use some bright rainbow paper I had in my stash for this one, as I have a small daughter who utterly adores Unicorns, and the associated rainbows!

Attach a piece of acetate to the back of the frame. Use foam adhesive strips on the tag around the entire edge, ensuring there are no gaps. Pop a little spoonful of confetti, sequins, seed beads, even tiny buttons can be effective shaker elements. I coloured the unicorn to match the rainbow paper, and have him/her sitting on a Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud border inside the shaker. The possibilities are endless with Shaker Christmas Tags!

Thank you to all class participants today – it was a great day spent with you all. If you are interested in any of the products featured today, you can visit Scrapbook Central to place an order.

I’d appreciate it if you hit Follow below, and/or follow my Facebook page so you’ll be kept up to date with upcoming classes. I regularly share other cards, along with tips, hints and ideas.

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For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series. Plus, you can Tour My Craft Room!

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Extra Gift Tag Ideas

After having a very full on class with 12 participants making Gift Tags using products from MFT, Lawn Fawn and Memory Box, I had a few minutes to show a few extra projects using the same dies they had used in the class. There wasn’t time to go into detail on the day, but I thought I’d post them here for anyone to refer to.

These tags were not included as part of the class schedule, but rather a ‘Next Step’ in technique that can be completed at home

Products we used:

  • Spellbinders/Sizzix Rubber Embossing Mat
  • Nuvo Shimmer Powders
  • Watercolour cardstock
  • Nuvo Glitter cardstock (gold)
  • Memory Box Snowflake Ornament die
  • Lawn Fawn Mini Wreath die set
  • Lawn Fawn Tiny Tag Sayings
  • My Favorite Things Deer Love die set
  • My Favorite Things Joy die
  • BoBunny Nesting Gift Tags die set

All products used can be purchased at Scrapbook Central

PLEASE NOTE: The Deer Love die set has been retired at My Favorite Things (I’m just as shocked as you are!) – there is another reindeer die set available which can be used in the same way as described here

Any extra products used, I have provided links directly to the company for your information. Please support your local businesses where possible and ask your favourite retailer if they can order them in for you.

Nesting die sets are more than just the shapes themselves. You can use them together to create windows and frames too. The tags we used are obviously a smaller scale than say, a rectangle or circle nesting set which are commonly used in card making for similar results.

In this case a window was cut from the tag using a smaller tag die, and the reindeer placed within. The coloured tag peeks out from behind. For extra dimension, the top frame could have been adhered with some foam tape (something I would do if this was a card).

Intricate dies can be used in so many ways! Here, I have included a vellum layer between the two tags with the ornament cut out. The intricate die cut itself is then placed in the opening on both sides, creating a pretty window.

There are many different fun types of vellum on the market today, plain, pearlescent, platinum, gold, printed, foiled – all of which could be used for a beautiful finish.

In the class itself, we embossed our ornament die. Here, I’ve done exactly the same process, but offset the imprint so it is partly off the tag. Just a different look. This can be quite an effective and eye-catching layout on a card design too!

Again, this is the same technique we used in class – embossing the intricate cut side of the die. But with a Step Up. Before sending the die through the BigShot, I lightly stamped the die onto a Versamark ink pad, carefully placed it on the tag and embossing mat and rolled it through. I then sprinkled gold embossing powder on it, flicked off the excess and heated with my heat gun. The end result is incredibly delicate lines of gold embossing right where it would have cut. So pretty!

Die cut inlay is a fun technique! You get all the beauty of die cut images with no added bulk to the card. I cut the wreath from both the tag and the green watercolored panel (we used the Nuvo Falling Leaves Shimmer Powder). I glued the tag to another on the bottom, and carefully glued the green wreath and white middle piece back in, just like a puzzle. This would look amazing with the ornament die too!

A shaker tag! This tag is extra special. I cut out the ornament once from the green panel, and also from white card stock four times.

The white ornaments had their middle pieces carefully trimmed out, leaving just the frame. These were glued together.

The green ornament had a piece of acetate glued to its back, trimmed down to fit. (Actually Memory Box has a solid die cut of this ornament shape which would make that part a whole lot simpler!).

The stacked white frames are glued in place on the tag, and this is when you can add pretty confetti, sequins or seed beads. I added Nuvo gold confetti shapes to this one. The acetate backed green ornament is glued to the top of the stacked white ornaments.

Bonus Card Ideas

Of course, all of the products used above are not just for gift tags! Possibilities are endless with fun stamps and dies. Here are a few card examples for inspiration.

These reindeer are a firm favourite in my stash. Here, I used Nuvo Shimmer Powder in Blue Blitz to create a textured background panel. I used some rectangle nesting dies I have in my stash to create the wee frame (I will link below to the set I have).

The reindeer are cut 3 times, and their antlers twice and stacked together. This gives them nice smooth dimension and they stand out from the background nicely. The snowdrifts are a stitched curved border die (link below).

I added little gems to their antlers for a bit of sparkle and glitz.

My Favorite Things Inside Out Stitched Rectangles

Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders

Using your dies for embossing can be used with just about any die you have in your stash – especially backgrounds, frames, intricate borders, nesting sets and even word dies.

Here, I have used the Memory Box Small Circle Burst to emboss the background. The wreath sits perfectly within. I didn’t have a nice large Peace word die, so I made my own using an alphabet set. I cut the letters twice from white cardstock, once from red glitter cardstock and stacked them together.

Here, you can see a close up of the embossing and how it adds a beautiful background and frame for the wreath element.

Memory Box Small Circle Burst

Altenew Fine Alphabet

This final card design is a tri-fold card. It is made with two side opening cards (one opening to the left and the other to the right) and the middle panels adhered together. The front of the card is die cut with the Memory Box Large Circle Burst and I used some invisible thread to dangle the Memory Box Ornament within the circle window.

I die cut the Joy twice from white cardstock and again from Nuvo gold glitter cardstock and placed it on the front with a little black sentiment strip, heat embossed in white.

Memory Box Large Circle Burst

There you have it. A number of ideas using the same dies used in the Christmas Gift Tag class held at Scrapbook Central in Petone. Please don’t hesitate to ask if there’s anything you’d like broken down further or if my explanation is not clear. Appreciate your visit!

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Gift Tag Class

I taught a cardmaking class over the weekend, where 12 participants came along to Scrapbook Central in Petone to make a set of Christmas Gift Tags. The class was all about using dies to create beautiful impressions on cardstock rather than cutting, achieved by using a rubber embossing mat. Plus we had a bit of fun splashing and spritzing Nuvo Shimmer Powders!

Products we used:

  • Spellbinders/Sizzix Rubber Embossing Mat
  • Nuvo Shimmer Powders
  • Watercolour cardstock
  • Nuvo Glitter cardstock (gold)
  • Memory Box Snowflake Ornament die
  • Lawn Fawn Mini Wreath die set
  • Lawn Fawn Tiny Tag Sayings
  • My Favorite Things Deer Love die set
  • My Favorite Things Joy die
  • BoBunny Nesting Gift Tags die set

All products used in this class can be purchased at Scrapbook Central

Using dies to emboss rather than cut opens up so many possibilities! We used a nesting set of tag dies, and in the above photo, I am showing how embossing the smaller tag die gives a pretty frame on their gift tag which you can see on the tag below. To do this, you need to set up your die cutting machine as if you were going to use an embossing folder (Tab 1 on the BigShot, Plates A, B & B on the Cuttlebug). Place the rubber mat, cardstock and die (or dies) facing down between the plates and roll through.

In this extra example, I have used a Memory Box small circle burst die to emboss the cardstock and the Lawn Fawn wreath sits perfectly in the middle. This technique is great for your background dies, borders, frames, nesting die sets and even your image dies to emboss outlines to gently highlight your images.

You aren’t limited in which side you emboss either! Two tags were embossed using the front and back of the Memory Box Snowflake Ornament Bauble. This first one, we embossed the BACK of the die, painted the impression with shimmer powders and glued the die cut bauble into it. Because a die is always going to be slightly bigger than the actual cut out, you can use this technique for any of your symmetrical shaped dies (circles, hearts, snowflakes etc).

The same bauble die was sent through again, this time facing down and the intricate lines were embossed.

Below are a few more pictures of the day – you can see the ladies used different colours and combinations. Everyone went home with a set of five tags and a whole new outlook on their die stash at home!

As this was my very first class, I sent everyone home with a little gift bag (perfect for carrying gift tags!) and some sweet treats. I had a lot of fun, and a big thank you to Philippa at Scrapbook Central for having me! Also, a huge thank you to my mum for all the help getting this class underway!

Hey you got to the end of my first proper blog post! Well done! If you want to be in the know about future classes, markets and general how-to’s, please follow 😀