Tis the Season 11

This week at Tis The Season is an inspiration challenge.  The colors and sparkly bits are what inspired me and once I saw the challenge at retro sketches this week was a gift tag I immediately that I wanted to combine these challenges.

I love making Christmas tags so putting these challenges together was a no brainer for me!  The silver glimmer paper provided the sparkle along with the rhinestone bling!  And since shimmery paper and snowflakes go together in my book, I added a couple of those too!

We'd love to see your Christmas inspiration at Tis The Season so come along and create with us!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Warm Words (SU)

Paper:  Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores (Papertrey Ink); Neenah Solar White; Silver Glimmer (SU)

Ink:  Hawaiian Shores (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Snowflake Trio die (amuse studio); Maryanne Snowflake die (Simon Says Stamp); Stitched Circle STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX (My Favorite Things); Banner Trio die (WPlus9); Basic Rhinesones, Pewter Jumbo brads, Pool Party seam binding ribbon, Pool Party baker's twine (SU); washi tape

Joy to the World!

Happy Christmas Day!  I couldn't resist sharing this tag with you today because it has a sentiment that is very special on today of all days!

I chose the colors from the Friday Mashup challenge and this wonderful sentiment from Jolly Holiday for this gift tag.  The tag was attached to a gift to my brother-in-law which he opened last night.  I have no idea if he liked the tag or the gift because I'm composing this post on Monday!  Oh, the joys of modern technology!

I hope that your Christmas day is fun, relaxing and filled with joy!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Jolly Holiday (The Alley Way Stamps)

Paper:  Kraft (Avery Elle); Real Red, Gumball Green, Bermuda Bay (SU); Neenah Solar White

Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine); Gumball Green, Real Red (SU)

Accessories:  Tag Your It die (My Favorite Things); Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon (SU); baker's twine

colourQ 220

I have been slightly disorganized this holiday season.  I only just got my Christmas cards in the mail and now at this late date I've turned my attention to gift tags.  And although the colors this week at colourQ don't exactly scream Christmas, I think they say "out of the box Christmas" so I used them to create this tag.

The challenge this week at Sketch Saturday was to pick any one of their sketches after #215.  I chose #217 and adapted it to make a tag instead of a card.

Now it's your turn to take these colors and create something for the colourQ challenge.  The design team has got some great cards to inspire you so don't forget to check them out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Playful Christmas 2 (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Tinsel n' Trim (Reverse Confetti)

Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Summer Starfruit, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar (SU)

Accessories:  Stitched Mats Square die, Stitched Mats Rectangle die, Stitched Sentiment Flag die (Lil' Inker Designs); Kraft Blend sequins (Avery Elle)

Freshly Made Sketches 115

There's a fabulous new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches designed by the talented Jen Timko.  At this late date I am sadly in need of Christmas cards but I'm also in need of Christmas gift tags and when I saw the sketch a perfect layout for a gift tag is what I saw.

I spent a bit of time hemming and hawing over colors before I dug into my stash of DSP and chose Ski Slope for an accent primarily because I love the combo of Chocolate Chip and Baja Breeze.  I added some die cut snowflakes a couple of festive Christmas-y stamps and I was done.  One more tag to cross off my to-do list!

We've got some news over at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  The super talented and very lovely Cindy Lovell is joining us on the design team so be sure to show her some love!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies

Stamps:  Tinsel 'n Trim (Reverse Confetti)

Paper:  Kraft (Avery Elle); Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Real Red, Whisper White, Ski Slope DSP (SU)

Ink:  Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip (SU)

Accessories:  Traditional Tag STAX, Pierced Traditional Tag STAX (My Favorite Things); Snowflake Trio die (amuse.studio); Make a Snowflake die (Taylored Expressions); Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp); embossing paste (Dreamweaver Stencil); Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon (SU); baker's twine

Choo Choo Tag

I love making gift tags and the Christmas Express stamp set from The Alley Way Stamps has got some fun images that are perfect for tags.

Aside from the Crumb Cake card stock I used mostly primary colors for this so that it would be good to use for a kid's gift.  I always associate trains with Christmas but I think this stamp set could be used for any occasion.  And best of all, it's free during October with any $40 purchase from The Alley Way Stamps!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Christmas Express (The Alley Way Stamps)

Paper:  Real Red, Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Whisper White (SU); X-Press It Blending Card

Ink:  Night of Navy (SU); Tuxedo Black (Memento); Copics

Accessories:  Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX (My Favorite Things); Jumbo Antique Brass eyelet, Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon (SU); baker's twine (American Crafts)

colourQ 169

Happy Christmas everyone!  Thanks to the wonders of Blogger, today I am able to post a gift tag that I made using the latest colors at colourQ.  I actually made the tag over a week ago, and wrote this post on Sunday so don't think I'm spending my Christmas holiday holed up in the craft cave!  For my project today, I just couldn't resist one more gift tag before I call Christmas 2012 quits!

By the time you read this I will know if Santa has brought me some of the crafting goodies that I had on my Christmas list this year.  I think I've been awfully good so I've got my fingers crossed that I get a chance to play around with some new stuff soon!

Hopefully once the holiday craziness slows down and life returns to normal you have some time to join us for our last challenge this year!  Despite the busy season the colourQ design team has put together some great projects to inspire you.  Go check them out!  And thanks for stopping by!

A Mad Dash For a Christmas Tag

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is DASHING THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS and they've teamed up with the 10 Minute Craft Dash for some fun.  The idea behind the 10 Minute Craft Dash is to create a project in less than 10 minutes.  I was intrigued and wanted to see if I could do it.  For my first time around I kept things pretty simple and made a Christmas tag.  And I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do before I started the stopwatch.  But I'm pleased to say that I created this (using the retro sketch) in 5 minutes 47 seconds!

I found it quite chaotic trying to create in a hurry.  I was literally running around my stamp room gathering supplies, cutting snowflakes and rounding corners in a bit of a frenzy.  I'm shocked that I managed to do it so fast, and actually made something nice.  I think I'll need a break before I try that again!

This tag measures 3 x 3 and features some Deck the Halls DSP, some gold striped washi tape, and some pretty layered snowflakes.  The sentiment is from the quickly becoming indispensible Warm Words.  I really like how it came out and it's already been attached to a gift for my brother-in-law who will surely not appreciate how adorable this is.  Maybe I can sneak it back when he's not looking!

I've got one more tag to share before I put away my Christmas stamps for the year.  But you'll have to wait until Christmas day to see it!

colourQ 168

I've got another gift tag today that I made with the fab new colors at colourQ.  I combined the colors with the latest challenge at Deconstructed Sketch which was (to me) a tag.  I had a lot of fun making this and the sketch actually inspired me to think of gift tags a whole new way.

I used some of my never-ending stash of DSP including Deck the Halls, Ginger Blossom and Holiday Thyme on the way to making this tag.  I think I'm swearing off buying new DSP for at least another ten years because no matter how hard I try, I never seem to use up what I've got.  It's like it's secretly reproducing when I'm not looking!

I usually make my own tags for my gifts but I've always thought they were kind of boring and I don't usually post them here.  But after I made this tag, following a sketch, I realized that this is the answer to my boring tag problem.  So I went sifting through my huge compendium of sketches and decided that some of them could be adapted to a tag.  And that's just what I've been doing ever since and I really like my tags now!  I won't get to show all of them here, but there may be one or two that I show off.

So, as we wind down towards Christmas I'm sure that you'll find this week's colourQ challenge very inspiring.  And speaking of inspiration, there's loads of it over at the colourQ blog where the always-amazing design team have got some great cards to share.  Head on over and check them out!

Christmas Tags!

I think it's a sign of the season that the challenges this week at CAS-ual Fridays and Stampin' Royalty were to create a gift tag or to use a tag on a project.  I've been trying to stay on top of my Christmas projects this year and I was already in tag-making mode so it was kind of fun to be able to share one of my tags on a challenge site.  To keep things interesting I used the colors from Color Throwdown and the sketch at iSpy.

The Tempting Turquoise with the obvious Christmas colors of Lucky Limeade and Cherry Cobbler threw me for a bit of a loop and I considered a couple of different images on my tag before I thought it might be fun to combine the red and green with some blue snowflakes.  There are actually two snowflakes here layered together and the top one has been covered in Dazzling Diamonds to add some glitz.  At the last minute I added an Ice Circles Rhinestone Brad, which looks way better in person that it appears here.

The holiday season is truly upon us because later today I'm off to Borderland State Park to help out at a holiday concert.  Time to Jingle Those Bells!