On any given day we're pretty proud of our design team, we think they have a range of contrasting and complementary styles and like to think that between them there's something to please everyone. Never more so than today - we have a bumper post full of fabulous Christmas ideas and inspiration to make the best use of both individual stamps and acrlyic sets. We love that behind all these ideas their individual styles are so radically and wonderfully showcased - grab a cuppa, have a scroll through and see what we mean.
Personalised gift tags are always fun to add to have, and Nic Howard shows us how to make a very easy version here.
1. Cut an 8x15cm piece of patterned paper - add embellishments to the top.
2. Make a fold at 7cm down, fold in half and create a pocket by putting one staple on each side. (The red is on the reverse side of my paper!)
3. Create an accordion with a 15 x 5cm piece of cardstock or paper. Stamp an image on to spare paper, cut out and staple to the top of the accordian.
4. Add accordion to pocket.
This idea is so quick and easy. You can use scraps after each project to create a quick pocket gift tag - if we did this with our scraps every time we'd have a fabulous stash to turn to every time we needed a gift tag. The pocket tags here are made with a variety of Sassafras Lass & BasicGrey papers, along with the Hero Arts Large Christmas Circle set.
Carole decided to create a pretty Christmas Babble and Box as a gift, she used Carolee Creations Christmas Fun Clear Rubber Stamps for embellishing, and Basic Grey Wassail pattern papers and stickers.
After stamping Merry Christmas onto some white Cardstock Carole used her Quicktuz Curls Goose Bumpz Embossing Diecut, and then cut around and 3D it onto red pattern paper. Carole also created some 3D stamped presents, and also created a hand cut flower for the centre of the gift box.
To create the Babble Carole punched out some hearts, and then layered them on the bottom of the ball, and for the top roughly teared some paper pieces, which where then stuck on with glue then Carole finished off the Babble with a ribbon around the centre, and a bow on the top.
Chris has very cleverly created these personalised wine glass charms using the tag stamp. She used Versa Color Lime ink for the stamping and Carolee's Creations Tiny Whoopsy Red Alpha Stickers for the names, finishing off the tags with some Heidi Swapp Tulle ribbon.
Chris has very simply stamped the gift tag image from the Sassafrass Lass stamp set onto white cardstock using black ink and then cut around the image. She then mounted it onto Scenic Route Roxbury paper and onto black cardstock. She punched a small hole into the top left corner and attached the Strano Miss Scarlet ribbon. A bit of Kindy Glitz and the project is complete and ready to attach to Christmas gifts.
For a very simple and quick to make gift tag, pick up some plain white label stickers from your local stationery store and using Lime and Cardinal ink stamp this great little stamp directly onto the labels. Draw a border around the edge of the label and add sparkle with some kindy glitz. Chris says the kids will love this gift tag activity!
Chris used the 'Merry Christmas' from the stamp set to create a background and greeting on this card. She also used the Queen and Co. solid felt with a Revolution Shape Christmas Tree Die Cut to create the felt tree accent for this card. Adding a little bit of kindy glitz to the tree to make it sparkle!
Again with thise card Chris has used the Queen and Co. solid felt with a Revolution Shape Ornament Die Cut to create the felt accents, she has then stamped just 3 stars to complete the Christmas feel to this card.
For a more detailed gift tag, Chris created these tags using the Revolution Ornament die cut. After die cutting the shape Chris mounted the ornaments onto the black cardstock for extra strength. She then stamped the beautiful dove image from the Sassafras Lass stamp set onto white cardstock using Versa Color Cardinal ink and then cut the image out and mounted it onto the ornament shape using 3D tape. She stamped the tag image the same one and attached it with glue dots.
And if you're wondering... Chris has put together this entire collection of Christmas items using the Sassafras Lass Holiday Bliss Clear stamp set!
Mel constructed this simple little gift bag idea by sewing two small pieces of fabric together, stamping with Hero Arts Christmas Message stamp and then using a dolly peg to hold the gift bag closed. A little Jenni Bowlin felt heart was adhered to the dolly peg to add a sweet accent.
Another idea for stamping on fabric bags is to use a StazOn inkpad (black) to stamp your image. Mel has used a sweet Christmas dove design (Holiday Doves) and once the ink had dried some small touches of acrylic paint were added on the wings and accents to give a lovely bright appearance to the bags. A bling brad was popped through the fabric to hold everything into position.
Starting with a concept she once saw on the Martha Stewart website, Nic F popped some delicious giant cookies in paper cd cases and then embellished with a strip of decorated paper from the Cosmo Cricket "Oh Joy" range. The possibilities for this idea are endless really, the one Nic saw initially was quite plain, but as she shows you here, adding a scrapbooker's touch, you can make them very appealing. Wouldn't these make a wonderful gift for a teacher or guest?
Create a beautiful set of placemats like this one by purchasing light coloured linen placemats (or sewing some quick plain ones) and stamp the border just as Nic has done here.
Nic easily created these custom made napkins and rings by stamping a plain coloured linen napkin with the snowflake stamps. She then cut a strip of acetate from a Hambly heavy overlay and covered that with We R Memory Keepers' flocked lace. Finishing off with a pearl brad to hold in place, Nicole created a unique addition for the festive table.
Nicole created this sweet bon bon by buying cardboard bon bons from a discount shop. She then pulled one apart as a template and traced it onto this Cosmo Cricket paper. She was able to quickly shape the bon bon then stamped the Jenni Bowlin label with a Fontwerks stamp.
Nic created all of these stunning festive ideas using Basic Grey's "Santa Baby" stamp set and a pad of Olive Green Stazon.
When it comes to creating those extra details at Christmas time like tags and decorations, there are only a few crafters that can realistically maintain a high degree of effort on each and every creation. For this challenge Donna set out to prove that you can create single little details in under a few minutes!
Each of these tags required little preparation, a reasonably small amount of product and minimal skill. In fact, Donna even got the kids involved and could now sit back and let them do all the work if she wanted to! The tags shown here work equally as well as Christmas tree decorations or gift tags. The same principle could be applied to gift bags, brown paper lolly bags or gift wrapping.
Donna has used her favourite Christmas stamps by SEI (Alpine Forest & Glitzmas stamps) & BasicGrey (Wassail Ornament stamps), applied a small amount of polished pigments by LuminArte to the stamp using a paint brush and stamped onto plain white cardstock.
After stamping a range of different designs and LuminArte colours, Donna has cut out the cardstock designs and stapled to plain textured art paper. It is a simple, but classic look.
