Making Christmas Bright

With Christmas just over two weeks away you’ve probably sent all your cards. Now it’s time to start wrapping the gifts and work on those finishing touches. Handmade gift wrap, tags, treat packaging and table favours all add a personal touch. This week’s What Will You Stamp? challenge is WWYS198 Making Christmas Bright so for my Design Team contribution I decided to create this gift tag.

JUST A LITTLE STAMPING AND PUNCHING

I began with a piece of Whisper White Card and using Tuxedo Black ink stamped the right side of the long string of lights through the centre.

On a separate small strip of Whisper White Card I then stamped the ‘making spirits bright sentiment’ and set it aside.

I decided to colour the lights using Stampin’ Blends, starting with light Daffodil Delight, then dark and light Granny Apple Green.

The larger light bulbs came next, starting with the bulb tops stamped on Whisper White Card using Smoky Slate ink. Then I punched out the bulb tops using the Christmas Bulb Builder Punch. As a by-product of the punching I also ended up with the three plain white bulb shapes I needed.

GLOSSY LIGHT BULBS

Each of the plain white bulb pieces were coloured in the same way using Stampin’ Blends.

I began with a stripe of light Daffodil delight down the right-hand edge. Then I added some dark Poppy Parade down the left side and across the bottom of the bulb. Finally I used light Poppy Parade to blend the colours, leaving a small patch of Daffodil Delight showing as a highlight.

With the bulb coloured I was ready to add the finishing touch, giving each of the bulbs a thick glossy coating.

I initially thought I coat them with a layer of glue from the Fine-Tip Glue Pen, but that was too messy. So I went with plan B and decided to emboss them instead.

Holding the top with tweezers I pressed the bulb face down onto a VersaMark ink pad. Then I dipped the piece into a pot of Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder. I pulled out the shape, tapped off the excess powder and then melted the rest with my Heat Tool on 2 (high). As soon as the powder was melted I dipped the shape back into the pot of powder, tapped of the excess and melted the rest. Once I’d repeated the process twice more, the bulb was carefully set aside while I embossed the other two bulbs.

ASSEMBLING THE TAG

I thought it would be fun to give the impression that the string for the tag was part of the string of lights. So using Tear & Tape Adhesive on the back of the stamped Whisper White layer I attached some Basic Black Solid Baker’s Twine. Then I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to fix the layer to a piece of Granny Apple Green Card. Looking at the front of the piece I adjusted the twine so it lined up with the left-edge of the stamped light string, and then pressed the layers firmly together.

Turning over the layers I created a loop with the other end of the Baker’s Twine and attached that to the back of the Granny Apple Green layer with more Tear & Tape Adhesive. Then I used liquid glue to mount the layers onto a piece of Poppy Parade Card.

With the embossed bulbs now completely cooled I used liquid glue to add the stamped bulb tops to the embossed pieces. Then I fixed the three bulbs to the front of the tag with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Finally, with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals I added the sentiment strip to the tag and I was done.

Oh I do love how this gift tag turned out. Those red bulbs really do look impressive, even if I do say so myself.

WWYS198 MAKING CHRISTMAS BRIGHT

The Making Christmas Bright Stamp Set is the featured set for this week’s What Will You Stamp? challenge. You’ll find projects from other members of the Design Team over on our blog today. Do check them out.

If you have this stamp set we’d love you to show us your ideas. To join the challenge simply design a new project (it doesn’t have to be a card) and upload it to the challenge gallery for WWYS198 Making Christmas Bright.

At the end of the challenge we’ll randomly choose 1 person to be our winner. They’ll get bragging rights and a winners badge for their social media. They’ll also be invited to be our Guest Designer for the final challenge of 2018. I can’t wait to see your creations.

BUNDLE BONUS ENDS SOON!

Although I admit the Making Christmas Bright Stamp set is basically designed for Christmas, it’s more versatile than that. Imagine how it could be used for a celebration card, or a birthday. You could even have a string of lights with individual letters stamped on to create a banner-style sentiment. With so many possibilities I’m really pleased that the stamp set and the coordinating punch will continue to be available into the spring.

The Making Christmas Bright Stamp Set and coordinating Christmas Bulb Builder Punch is available to purchase as a bundle. You order the two items using a single bundle item number and pay 10% less than if you’d ordered them separately. Of course with the price being 10% lower, you’ll pay 10% less tax too!

Now, although both the stamp set and punch are being carried over, the bundle offer is not. So if you want to take advantage of the 10% discount you’ll need to place your order before January 3rd 2019. I’ve included links to the bundle and individual items below so you can explore these options further if you wish.