Make it Monday #304 - Photo Ornaments

For this week's Make it Monday #304, Lexi Daly showed us how she creates ornaments each year for a little tinsel tree that she has.  In her case, she takes a new picture of her girls each year in the same spot that she did previously.  Doesn't that sound fun? She can compare the changes in her girls and the location just by looking back at these ornaments.

For Lexi's ornaments she used Limitless Layers Hearts to make her ornament, but I knew that if my order got here in time, I wanted to use the new Tag Sale #12 to create my ornament.  I am so excited for this addition to the Tag Sale dies as I think it is perfect for ornaments.  From the beginning, I saw it as an ornament rather than a tag.

For my ornament, I started by cutting one ornament from Heavy Duty (#160) Tag Stock and another from the foiled Cardstock I wanted for the front side of my ornament.  To keep the look of this neat from the front or back, I glued them together back to back.  Then I started deciding how I would embellish the ornament besides just a photo.  The Tag Sale Die comes with a few circles for the interior, but I was using some fancy wood grain metallic paper that was left from another project I made, so I knew I wanted the ornament to be upscale as well.  So I pulled out a favorite die from and 2014 Stamp-A-Faire Kit called Renaissance that has a die that I love to use anytime I want to highlight a circle shape.  It is made in a style that represents a Rose Window that you might see in a great cathedral such as Notre Dame. Rose Windows are particularly part of Gothic Architecture but are seen in lots of other types as well. I love this little die and knew I wanted to use it for the center picture area of my ornament as an accent.

Because my paper had gold foil on it, I die cut the Rose Window Die from Gold Foiled Cardstock. I like the way this die looks with a solid color behind it, so I die cut a circle from Vintage Cream Cardstock that matched my metallic wood grain paper and that I was planning to die cut my sentiment from. I put a piece of cream colored ribbon through the hole to make a hanger for the ornament.

The hardest part of this card, was deciding what papers would look good with all the elements I used and It took me a while this time.  Kind of as a last resort I went to look at some of the gold vellum I have that I got several years ago from Stampin' Up and came across some that I bought last summer and had completely forgotten about.  It was a pack of 5 sheets, all the same design, with all of these fun gold foiled stars on it.  I wanted a color underneath it so I die cut A2 panels of Hawaiian Shores and the Vellum with a stitched rectangle die. By adding that stitched line, it gave me a place to put the skinniest little bit of dot runner into that line on the Hawaiian Shores panel and lay the vellum on top. You can't see the adhesive at all.  I attached that to a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I should have used Vintage Cream but it was too late by then as I already had the front piece glued down.

To attach the ornament to a card, I put a strip of Removable Adhesive on the card front and added the ornament to that so that when the ornament is removed, there isn't adhesive all over the back.  Removable Adhesive is a handy thing to have around - it's perfect for holding the negative in place in your MISTI when you want to stamp as well. I still use a bar magnet with the negative, but it's a smaller, thinner one.

Just in case you are curious (like I am), the photo on my ornament is me with  my oldest granddaughter, Kaylan, who started college this fall.  I'm thinking I need to keep this and make her a different one. *wink* 

Thank you so much for coming by today to see my project.  I'm going to link up this project over at Word Art Wednesday. I hope you're having a great week and I'm looking forward to seeing all the ornaments over at the Link Up.

Stamper's Select White Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Papertrey Ink Hawaiian Shores Cardstock Shop at: PTI	WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Designer Dies Shop at: SSS
Papertrey Ink Perfect Match Vintage Cream Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS	Papertrey Ink White Tag Stock #160 Shop at: PTI
Papertrey Ink Tag Sale #12 Shop at: PTI	SAF 2014 - Renaissance Kit Shop at: PTI

Make It Monday #258

I am popping on here this morning with a super quick post.  In this week's Make It Monday #258, Laurie Willison challenged us to use a Cover Plate as a decorative option for a tag.  I'm just starting to think about tucking a few things away for the upcoming Holiday Season and I wanted to make a few tags using the Cover Plate: Winter Floral die.  The arched top tag is from WPLUS9 Design Studio's Love Showers Die Set.  The other tag is from Papertrey Ink's Tag Sale: Quilted. The arched top tag is a really nice size being 3 x 4.25 inches and the Tag Sale: Quilted is about 3.75 x4.25 at the tallest point also a good sized tag. These would work on a present or even larger items such as a wine bottle because it is large enough.


I chose to put a "For You" on only the one tag for now so I can pick and choose what I want on the tag at the time I need it.

To use just part of the cover plate die cut, I laid it in to the tag die so that it would cut the same shape and I could strategically place the die cut onto the tag and have it line up.  This was a super easy and quick way to make some holiday tags. You could use the same method for birthday tags or whatever occasion you might need. I only used one Cover Plate die here but I have others I could have used.

For the gold die cuts, I used a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool with Encore Gold Pigment Ink to color them.  I attached them to the tags with Ranger Multi Medium Mat and ran some ribbon through the top.  The "For You" tag was also stamped in Encore Gold Ink and heat embossed with Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder so I could be sure the inks matched.  All of the tags were cut from scraps of cardstock except the Tag Sale: Quilted and it's a great way to utilize them.  The Quilted tag had ink blending done in Simon Says Stamp Island Blue Ink with Papertrey Inks in Tropical Teal and Hawaiian Shores.  The cardstock colors are from left to right and top to bottom:  Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate, Rustic White, and Hawaiian Shores.  The die cuts were all cut from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you'll find some time to make a few tags of your own.