Quick and Easy Christmas Tags

Hello and welcome! Today I am given the honor of being Guest Designer at The Funkie Junkie Boutique blog. If you are a regular follower of the challenge blog you know the current challenge is Tag It. Lucky me; an easy challenge and so timely to help me get a jump start on my Christmas crafting!

First, here are some close ups each of my swing tags. I will share some easy tips for quick holiday tags near the bottom of this post.

For this one, I stamped on a watercolor panel with background stamps-Pine and Holiday Type by Tim Holtz. Ink the stamp, spritz with water and make the impression. I die cut the tag using Stacked Tags.

All greenery is from Festive Bouquet. I die cut two medallions with Gift Tag dies to back my Impresslit snowflake--one white and one  kraft . I cut the snowflake from Kraft Stock heated Ranger Frosted Crystal Antiquities powder and quickly added Distress Glitter and heated it again to bake the glitter onto the flake. I did the same on the berries.

The tag swings away from the background panel that is embossed with a Bold Tidings greeting.

For the next tag, I used the Holiday Type again on a smaller die cut tag. I can swing the tag away and write a personal message on the back of it.

This one's my favorite. The paper die cut bow is from an old Tim Holtz set called Fold Up Bows, but Tim's new Vault set has the same bow. You can see I shaped mine a little differently by cutting off the ends and repositioning them before gluing.

The Sparkles background stamps is one of my favorites, and this time I've stamped in Black Soot ink and heat embossed in clear. A dot of Liquid Pearls adds more shine on the berries.

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And now for a few quick tips to make your holiday crafting fun and time-saving. After all, don't we have plenty to do this time of year? Start by rounding up your favorite Christmas papers, stamps and dies.

1. Set your things up to work in an assembly line fashion.  I approached my tags from die cutting/embossing my snowflakes first and worked back from there, choosing scraps that complimented each snowflake, then stamping and die cutting all my 'main' tags. Then I die cut my foliage and Gift Tags. Then blended all my pieces with ink, then glued and assembled.

2. Use designer paper scraps for background panels. Not only does it save time, it adds color and prevents waste. Most of my saved off cuts were just the right size! All you have to do is punch a hole and blend the edges with a dark ink.

3. Choose a central theme and or color scheme; I decided  to use my new to me, but already discontinued Snowflake Impresslit as my common denominator and chose a traditional color palette. 

3. Personalize your tag with additional tags using lighter colored premade backgrounds--you know those ones you saved when you were trying out your new sprays and inks. Or you can make some quick tags by stamping white or cream card with a favorite background stamp like I did. I just stamped one large sheet and then die cut areas of the card with Stacked Tags dies. 

4. Make your tag extra special by using up those little die cuts you have from previous projects and adhering them to a shaped tag. Or even simpler, stamp your smaller shaped tag with a festive image--there are some great ones in Tim's Holiday Things.

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving a blessed day with family and/or friends! Sara Emily

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