This old-fashioned looking tag came about because of a special gift I received from my friend Robin at Cracker Jack Stampers the other night. Robin made us all beautiful gift tags and adorable little wrapped packages of chocolate – love chocolate! The gift inspired me to create hand-made tags to add to the home-made peanut brittle I make and give each Christmas. The peanut brittle has become a cooking tradition for me and something I really enjoy making and giving.
So using some basic stamping supplies and a stack of manila shipping tags I set out to create a collection of individually-designed tags. I also proceeded to make one giant mess! It’s just the way I work, but I had such a good time. It’s so relaxing just to take the time to sit and play and see what materializes.
The supplies were minimal: Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Perfect Pearls in a mini mister, some holiday stamps (a combination of Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi from Stamper’s Anonymous), pretty ribbons and some steel-rule dies, my Vagabond and some little embellishments.
I started with tags I had stamped recently using a milk-resist technique. I really like the way the milk-resist leaves mottled designs in the background. My style is more prone to earthy, old-fashioned, classic Christmas style so the tags are kept pretty basic with minimal embellishments.
I swiped two colors of Distress Inks side-by-side on a non-stick craft sheet and spritzed them with water and Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls mixed in a mini mister, dragged the tag through the concoction then dried it with a heat tool. I dipped and dried the tag several more times, flicked with water and heat dried. The pine boughs, music notes and sentiment were stamped on after the tag was dry. I then added the rusty star, lace trim and button threaded with a tiny gingham ribbon. It seemed a little plain so I wrapped the gold bells around the star and added the gold ribbon topper.
It reminds me a little of a quaint, country Christmas. I just really love the mottled colors and hope the recipient will too! If you have little or no time to prepare for gifts, then you should visit the nearest gift shop in your area now!
