With Christmas right around the corner it’s time to get going on wrapping those parcels. For me that inevitably means making more gift tags. Today’s swinging gift tag project uses the retiring Ornamental Envelopes Stamp Set and coordinating dies. But if you don’t have that bundle to hand, think of it as more of an idea. Perhaps you have bell images, or parcel images. In fact you could use just about anything.

ORNAMENTAL ENVELOPES?!

With no actual envelopes in sight today you might be surprised to find I’m using the Ornamental Envelopes Stamp Set. In fact this stamp set is useful for so many things other than envelopes as today’s project shows.

First though I took some retiring Thick Whisper White Card and some pieces of Stampin’ Sponge. I began by sponging a layer of Rococo Rose ink onto the card. Then I sponged some Real Red over the top, leaving a little of the Rococo Rose showing. Finally I added just a touch of Cherry Cobbler ink.

Then from the Ornamental Envelopes Stamp Set I chose the large image containing 6 different ornaments. First, using VersaMark ink I stamped the image onto the sponged layer. Then I sprinkled the sticky ink with the last of my Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder and tapped off the excess. After removing some excess powder I melted the rest using my Heat Tool set on 2 (high).

Full disclosure: this really was the last of the powder in my pot and it’s been sprinkled and tapped off probably hundreds of times. I think it may also have got a little contaminated with the result that today’s embossing wasn’t as shiny as it should be. It was also quite grainy. I could have scrapped this and started over with a fresh post of embossing powder, but instead I decided to go with the flow.

ENVELOPES DIES?!

With the embossing complete I then turned to the coordinating, and also retiring, Envelopes Dies. While there are some dies to create envelope liners and other details, it was the large multi-ornament die I needed today. This die cuts out all 6 of the ornaments with one pass through the Cut & Emboss Machine.

Then after die-cutting my embossed ornaments I then used the same die to cut some plain Thick Whisper White Card.

I was almost ready to start putting my tags together but first I wanted to stamp “to:” and “from:” on the two largest white ornaments. I found the perfect stamps for this in the make A Difference Stamp Set, and stamped them using Cherry Cobbler ink.

With the stamping done I took a length of retiring 1/8″ All The Trimmings Ribbon and tied it into a simple bow with long tails. Then I fixed each tail end onto the back of one of the white ornament pieces. Finally I sandwiched the ribbon using the matching sponged and embossed ornament and my swinging tags were done.

It was only as I was writing my blog that I realised that the All The Trimmings Ribbon Combo Pack had sold out and is sadly no longer available in Canada and the US. But as I said at the beginning, you could use this idea with any images and ribbon you have to hand.

PRODUCT LIST

RETIRING PRODUCTS – All retiring products are now only available while stocks last. Although the All The Trimmings Ribbon is no longer available in the US or Canada, it may still be in stock in other Stampin’ Up! markets. When I bought the Ornamental Envelopes Stamp Set and Envelopes Dies I did so using a single bundle item number and saved 10%. Now though, the dies are reduced by 40% so you’ll pay less if you order the stamp set and dies separately.