Today my blog post is two hours later than usual and I have no excuse other than I had a lie in. The morning started slowly and seems to be continuing in the same vein, not that that’s a bad thing. When I got up I had in mind a masculine gift tag, and that’s what I made. What I hadn’t known at the start that I’d end up with a collaboration using products from the Annual and new Mini catalogues. It’s a simple Sunday project that makes me smile.

ON TO ADVENTURE

I began by cutting a 2-1/2″ x 4″ piece of Thick Very Vanilla Card for my tag base. Then I cut a 1-3/4″ strip of the blue argyle pattern from the Country Club 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper (DSP).

The DSP is part of the Country Club Suite which includes a great golfer stamp set and dies. Unfortunately I don’t have that bundle, yet, so I went looking for another stamp set. I had a feeling the ideal product collaboration was waiting in my craft studio, I just had to find it.

After rejecting a number of sets I came across the On To Adventure Stamp Set. I love the images and sentiments in this set and it’s been ages since I inked it up. What’s more it had the perfect masculine image for my gift tag.

FUSSY CUT CHEAT

To keep things simple I decided to colour my golfer image using Stampin’ Blends, but without doing any blending. So using Tuxedo Black ink I stamped the golfer image onto a scrap of Thick Very Vanilla Card. Then I began to colour using Ivory, dark Balmy Blue, Poppy Parade, Crumb Cake and Mango Melody. I also used light Granny Apple Green, Shaded Spruce and Smoky Slate.

Next I needed to cut out my coloured image with Paper Snips, but that flag pole would be tricky. So rather than try to cut around the flag pole I simply cut it off!

Going back to my tag base I used Tuxedo Black ink to stamp the golfer image in the bottom left corner. Then I coloured the image to match the first one.

Instead of punching a hole at the top of the tag I decided to use Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to stick a loop of twine. I chose the Night of Navy Twine from the Country Club Twine Combo pack and sandwiched the loop between the tag base and the DSP.

With the DSP in place I could then use liquid glue to fix my fussy cut golfer to the gift tag. By lining up the edges of the fussy cut piece with the visible part of the image stamped on the tag, I was able to give the illusion that the golfer was once again holding the flag pole.

That just left the “Happy Retirement” sentiment from the On To Adventure Stamp Set. Once again I kept it simple, using Tuxedo Black ink to stamp it onto a 1/2″ strip of Thick Very Vanilla Card. Then after using liquid glue to attach the sentiment to the tag I was finally done.

CATALOGUE COLLABORATION?

I love it when I can see ways for products from the different catalogues to collaborate on a single project. It just proves the versatility of the Stampin’ Up! products in my craft studio.

What surprises me though is that sometimes it can take a long time before I see the connections. Does that ever happen to you? If you’ve found a different product collaboration pairing do let me know.

If you’d like to see more from the On To Adventure Stamp Set, check out these earlier blog posts:

• The key to new adventures
• Ommm, yoga na laugh at this
• This photographer made me smile
• Follow your bliss
• An old-fashioned grandma

PRODUCT LIST

UPDATED 2020: Sadly the following products have retired and are no longer available from Stampin’ Up!

• Country Club Designer Series Paper
• Country Club Twine Combo Pack
• On To Adventure Stamp Set