Quiet Meadow Vintage Style

Although I try not to copy anyone else’s projects, as a papercrafter I’m endlessly fascinated by other artists’ design processes. Something I love but struggle with are collage style projects. These are most often found on scrapbook pages but I’ve seen some great examples on cards too. The other style I’m still working on is ‘vintage’. That’s a real challenge for me, but with practice I feel I’m definitely improving. Today’s experiment involved limiting myself to just a single colour for this gift tag featuring the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set.

Create this vintage style "love" gift tag using the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set and Tailor Made Tags Dies from Stampin' Up! #papercraftwithme

QUIET MEADOW BACKGROUND

Before I could do anything else I needed to make the actual tag using the Tailor Made Tags Dies. Today I chose the #4 (largest) of the flat topped tag dies and used it to cut some Thick Very Vanilla Card. The die set also includes two small solid dies designed to cut pieces to reinforce the holes at the top of the tags. So using the die with the oval hole pieces (to match my tag) I cut a scrap of Kraft Paper.

Now I was ready to begin stamping and for that I turned to the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set and a Soft Suede ink pad.

First I inked up the large buttercup image and stamped-off twice onto some scrap paper. Then when I stamped the flower onto the tag the image was really light.

Next I inked up the background words image but this time I stamped-off onto scrap paper just once. I stamped the left side of the long stamp onto the top right of the tag overlapping the flower image a little. Then I re-inked the stamp and stamped-off again before stamping the right-hand end of the stamp onto the bottom left of the tag.

Going back to the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set I then chose the spotty image. Still using Soft Suede ink I stamped-off twice before adding some very light dots around the edges of the tag.

Finally to finish the background I used a Blending Brush to add Soft Suede ink over the surface of the tag. Then added extra ink around the edges to make some areas darker.

COLLAGE LAYERS

With the background ready I began to think about adding some collage type layers. I wanted to keep with the single Soft Suede colour scheme and so I first reached for the Neutrals 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper (DSP) pack. After some thought I settled on the plaid design in Soft Suede and found a piece about 1-1/2″ high. Then instead of cutting it to size with my Paper Trimmer I decided to trim it using the same large tag die. Now the piece was the same width and had the pierced holes down the side matching the tag base. To add a little ‘age’ I tore the top and bottom edges revealing the white core which I then coloured using the Blending Brush and Soft Suede ink. On top of the DSP I also stamped some light dots to coordinate with the body of the tag.

Lace always reminds me of vintage but I only had Very Vanilla 3/8″ Scalloped Lace Trim which was much too ‘clean’ for my tag. So I simply coloured it using the brush tip of a light Soft Suede Stampin’ Blends alcohol marker. Then I attached it to the bottom of my plaid piece using a little Tear & Tape Adhesive.

To finish this part of the tag I wrapped 24″ of Linen Thread around the plaid layer and tied it in a simple bow. Then I glued the assembled piece onto the tag base using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow).

As I went back to the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set I noticed two very small single flower stamps. So I decided to stamp the larger of the two onto the plaid layer and allow it to overlap onto the tag base.

QUIET MEADOW SENTIMENT

I was almost done but still needed a sentiment. So from the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set I took the simple “Love” and stamped it onto a scrap of Thick Very Vanilla Card. Then from the Tailor Made Tags Dies I took the #1 (smallest) of the ‘flat top’ tag dies. Placing the bottom of the die to the right of the sentiment I cut it out on my Mini Cut & Emboss Machine. Then I put the same die on the right of the sentiment and ran it through the machine again.

While the pierced dots around the sentiment coordinated with the edges of the tag, it was much too clean and bright. So it was back to the dotted image and Blending Brush to ‘age’ it a little. Once it looked more like the tag background I added the sentiment to the tag with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

All I had left was the two small reinforcing pieces I’d die-cut at the start, and I added a little Soft Suede ink to them with a Blending Brush. Then I lined up the holes and straight edge as I glued them to the front and back of the tag. With one last piece of Linen Thread tied through the hole in a simple knot I was done.

I love how this tag turned out. I wasn’t sure whether using only Soft Suede for all the stamping and layering would work but I think it was a successful experiment. What do you think?

For some more projects using the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set, see these earlier blog posts:

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set in a ‘bundle’ with the Meadow Dies (not used today) . Using the ‘bundle’ item number meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included a link to the discounted bundle in case you want to explore this option.