Tutorial by Linda Fields
Christmas is calling! It’s that beautiful, gift giving time of year and I’ve officially opened my studio for the season. I’m so excited to bring you this tutorial for making clean and simple tags.
Supplies
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Cutting Tags vs. Bookmarks
Tags come in all shapes and sizes. You might want a teeny tiny tag for those sweet little gifts or a huge tag when gifting a car but here are my numbers.
Tags Measure: 2.5″x 6″
Bookmarks should be skinnier, and in most cases, longer so it fits nicely in any book or planner.
Bookmark Measure: 2″ x 6″
Making Paper Leaves
I’m always saying don’t throw your mistakes away, you’ll find another purpose for them later. I die cut these pretty green leaves from an experiment that went wrong. What would happen if I “brushed” alcohol ink directly onto watercolor paper? Honestly, I didn’t like the results until today! So I say again, keep your scraps and have fun! You never know when your experiment will pay off!
Embossing to Die For
Did you know you can use your dies to emboss paper? That’s right! And once you do this, you’ll immediately double your supplies with more options! Every die cutting machine will be different so you might check to see what your machine needs to do this great technique.
I used my Spellbinders Platinum machine with the base, the blue plate and brown cushion to emboss using one leafy die from the Hibiscus Garden Craft-a-Flower set.
Splatter, Edging & Thread
Ok, you’ve die embossed and die cut all the leaves. Use a watercolor brush to splatter gold and dark moss over your cut tags and bookmarks. Maybe you want to add some gold to the edges? Or add green to create a frame? Do you want to stamp a pretty sentiment? Do you want to decorate the back or leave it blank? Once you get these little details all worked out, glue your leaves in place, leaving space for your piece to breathe because less truly is more. Add your ribbons and metallic thread for that finishing touch anyone would love.
Note: You know, there’s nothing saying the tag can’t double as a bookmark! As Christmas nears, tags can also double as pretty tree ornaments!