Bold Tidings and Plaid- Swing Tags for Christmas

Hello friends! How are you? I hope you’re well and enjoying some beautiful fall days.

Today, I am back to share a tutorial for the Mini Christmas Swing Tags that I created for the Stampers Anonymous Christmas release. These little tags were made using the the new Bold Tidings Mini Stamp Set CMS440, I made them into tie-on gift tags, but they would make adorable gift enclosures or mini cards too. I just love how they turned out! So perfectly festive all decked out in plaids and holly!

I’ve had a ton of people wondering how the bold tidings were made plaid, and I’m super excited to share the fun technique today!!!

While playing with the stamps, I wondered if the “boldness” of the stamps would work with a very old “kissing” technique that I learned many, many moons ago, and to my happy surprise, it did!

Plus, I wondered if another new product, Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder, would work heated up and then to hold glitter…and guess what, it did as well!

It was a successful day in the studio that day, so much so, that I couldn’t stop making them, there is just something about plaid and the Holiday’s that makes my heart so HAPPY!

So, let me break the technique down and let’s get to makin’!

The easiest way to do these tags is to set up your making space and be ready to emboss the frosted crystal embossing powder and then very quickly, while the embossing powder is still hot, sprinkle with the clear rock candy glitter.. These cards demonstrate the old “assembly line process”. Which when I think back to 3rd grade, was one of my favorite lessons…in fact, I think that’s why I love making groups of cards and making kits, it’s so satisfying to see what you’re doing stack up and then become something that you love!

So, here is the break down and what I used.

I cut a few pieces of Distress White Heavystock down in half, then picked out my Distress Ink Colors. Black Soot and Barn Door Distress ink, and Mowed Lawn Oxide Distress ink. The plaid background stamp is from the Stampers Anonymous Perfect Plaids Stamp Set CMS383, one of my favorite holiday sets.

I set out the Clear Rock Candy Glitter & Frosted Crystal on their own paper plates. The stamp was placed on a clear Grid Block. Although not pictured, my Embossing Gun is off to the the side and ready to go.

Ink up the phrase stamp using your chosen color, I used Mowed Lawn Oxide ink.

Ink up the plaid background stamp with Black Soot Distress Ink.

Using your inked up with color stamp, stamp directly onto the plaid background stamp that is loaded up with Black Soot Distress Ink, then, stamp directly onto the piece of White Heavystock Mixed Media Paper.

A TIP: I tried out several papers for this technique, which included, Plain Cardstock, Distress Specialty Paper, Distress Watercolor Paper (the smooth side) and White Mixed Media Heavystock paper. I found that the White Mixed Media Heavystock Paper seemed to work the best. It took the ink the best, keep it wet enough to add the powder and glitter, plus kept the plaid focused with more detail.

While the ink is still wet, quickly sprinkle the stamped phrase with Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder and Emboss with an Embossing Gun…be sure not to be aiming the embossing gun towards the powder or glitter. 😉

Now, while the embossing powder is still hot, quickly dump a good amount of glitter onto the hot embossed phrase and dump off the extra onto the paper plate and gently flick the paper to remove the extra.

To set the glitter, heat up the area again with the embossing gun.

This all needs to be done pretty quickly, but has AMAZING results.

Keep a spray bottle with water and cotton towel or paper towel close by to clean your stamp and repeat the process over and over again, making sure that the stamp is cleaned in-between stampings.

Once I had approximately 3-4 phrases stamped on a 1/2 sheet of the Heavystock, I trimmed them into strips and began embellishing them with jute, holly leaves and berries. The holly and berries were cut from distress sprayed papers using the Festive Greens Thinlet Set. Although the Festive Greens set is retired, the Funky Festive Set would be great for this too!

I created background papers for the phrases using the plaid stamp and several festive colors of Distress Spray Stains then trimmed the stamped paper to fit the backgrounds. The backgrounds were stitched by running them around the edges using my sewing machine with white thread.

I trimmed Kraft Heavystock Paper to size to fit the backgrounds, scored it, then folded it to create the card part of the swing tag.

I tied jute around the phrase pieces, then adhered pieces of holly and berries around and on the jute using collage medium.

I punched a 1/4″ center circle at the top on the score line of the card, then ran a piece of jute through, making both ends to come up through the circle, this created the swing part of the tag.

Here’s a closer look at the placement and the approximate size of the card base…

my paper was actually 6 1/2″ x 2 1/8″ and scored and folded at 3 1/4″ then punched with the hole punch.

I tied a knot in the jute at the top of the card, then left a section and tied another knot to create the swing tag.

To create more variety, I stamped some Distress Kraft Heavystock Paper using the plaid background stamp with Picket Fence Distress Paint, then, using Opaque Grit-Paste, a palette knife and Clear Rock Candy Glitter added some snow!

I applied Grit-Paste through the mini flurries stencil (mini layering stencil set #50 MST050). While the grit-paste was still wet, I sprinkled it with glitter then set it aside to dry. I trimmed them to fit the card fronts and added the stamped plaid phrase piece.

With that, my tags were complete!

I now have a good bunch of Festive Tags to use for my Christmas Gifts this year…I think these will go great with the jar of Cereal Mix that I give every year! Super cute and Festive!!!

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial…thanks so much for stopping by today!

Take care and see you soon with another festive make!

Creatively yours,

Stacy

Products used to create this project- Click HERE to Shop at Simon Says Stamp!

Bold Tidings Mini CMS440, Perfect Plaids CMS383, Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder, Clear Rock Candy Glitter, Mowed Lawn Oxide Distress Ink, Barn Door Distress Ink, Black Soot Distress Ink, Distress Heavystock White Paper, Distress Heavystock Kraft Paper, Picket Fence Distress Paint, Opaque Grit-Paste, Mini Flurries Stencil (#50 Mini Stencil Set MST050), Palette Knife, Embossing Gun, Festive Greens Thinlet Set, Funky Festive Thinlet Set, Jute, Sewing Machine and more…

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