Christmas Tag swap

Here are the tags I made for the Christmas tag swap on the cricut circle message-board, Canadian chat.  I had time in November and made 3 types of tags but only got around to blogging them now, that's life eh.  I used my gypsy and cricut expression machine.  I extra challenged myself to use non-traditional papers and I'm pleased with how they turned out.  Click on any picture to enlarge.

The first one is cut from "Picturesque" cartridge at 2" x 3" with the top layer cut from vellum.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "always cut extra."  The vellum was fussy at this size.  I thought they would be able to run through my little xyron sticker maker, nope, I forgot it had to be 1" or less to fit into there, doh!  So I skipped the gluing and just used the cropadile and eyelets with some pretty sparkle thread to hang them.  I didn't take a picture, but the backs are stamped with a to/from stamp from Inkadinkado Christmas Wishes.  I coralled the eyeletes with a roll of double-stick tape while I was working.  I added Pewter stickles to give the birds eyes, but didn't get a picture of that.  I was just proud of myself just for getting this one assembly line photo of the process.

NOTE:  Vellum likes a medium sticky cricut mat.  That mat needs to be well scraped of flotsam & jetsam or the blade will skip around while cutting the vellum.  Yet another reason to cut extra, sigh.

 These  are the "fails."  I cut yellow tags at 6.39"x4" using the "Sophie" cartridge and yellow Recollections brand paper.  I had an idea to spray them with shimmer ink but decided that would be too messy.  I traced out a template on a page protector and used it as a resist to make a green tree.  The page protector was too flimsy, it took forever for the ink to apply and dry, and it was messy.  I abandoned the experiment.

I then dug out the sparkle gelly pens and hand drew around the trees.  I figured out quickly to put a dot at the tip of the branches where I wanted to end up and thought of smiles, to make the lines curving upwards over the image.    I then pulled a variety of pen colours and dug some scrap out of the garbage to test colours to make ornament dots.  This was very relaxing to do.

I decided I wanted a little sparkle to make the top of the tree pretty, how in the world do you attach anything to a hole?  I use a plastic flexible cutting board from the dollar store on my work surface.  Nothing sticks to it, I can beat it up, cut, ink, or glue on it, no problems.  I added the rhinestone, added a glob of glue & let it dry.  Wha LA!  The trees have a star.

Now, I wasn't quite satisfied with the little bitty star.  I have these old clear epoxy stickers, sometimes known as page pebbles.  These are old dollar store goodies.  I tried them in the cropadile and it punches perfectly.  I tried a centre hole and didn't like it so I put the holes at the bottom of the sticker and they look quite radiant now.

 I inherited these next 2 to/from stamps from family, the silver pigment ink looks great.  We won't even wonder why there is almost no room to write names.  You're supposed to be in awe of how lovely the tags are right?  I run the edges through the paper trimmer ripple blade.  I like how it looks peeking through.  Simple cotton green & white yarn for the string.

 These were the simplest tags to make.  I had a sheet of Graphic 45 brand paper, "Christmas past Letters to Santa" which cut up beautifully with Fiscars stamp-edge deckle scissors.  I cut the tags from "Tags bags Boxes & more" cartridge, unlinked the dimensions to 5.25"x 4" using Recollections brand cardstock.  I made fiddly little bows from raffia and gluedotted them on.  I also added tiny stardust stickles dots to the corners of the "stamp" to add some visual interest.  Still no comment on the amazing amount of room to write names!

 For all the work that goes into these tags, it makes sense to see if they can be double use.  See how the middle can be ripped away from the yellow tag? The back of the green tag can be clipped away too.  These are the first Christmas tags I have made since elementary school when we recycled old cards to make tags.  Remember those days?

Happy Holidays!