When The Technique Gears Start Turning

Today’s blog project is less of a project and more of a technique idea. You see I was playing around with the Geared Up Garage Stamp Set and coordinating Garage Gears Dies. In my head I had a vague idea of creating a box and for some reason started with the embellishment. Before I knew where I was I’d created a large gift tag.

Large Father's Day gift tag created using the Geared Up Garage Stamp Set and coordinating Garage Gears Dies from Stampin' Up! #papercraftwithme

GEARS TECHNIQUE IDEA #1

A few years ago Stampin’ Up! had a colour called Baked Brown Sugar. It was a warm mid-brown and I used it a lot. I was reminded of this when I saw the new Cinnamon Cider, and I was reminded of a technique too.

To give card a shimmery look simply paint with using a Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush. To add a little ‘age’ to the crisp clean Cinnamon Cider gears I first sponged over some Cinnamon Cider ink. This also helped bring out some of the embossed detail created by this fancy die.

GEARED UP GARAGE

After creating the basic gears piece I turned to the Geared Up Garage Stamp Set. I pulled out the “Happy Father’s Day” sentiment and stamped it onto Thick Whisper White Card using Misty Moonlight ink.

Then I cut out the sentiment using the coordinating die from the Garage Gears Dies. While I was there I also cut out two additional pieces of Thick Whisper White Card using the same die.

It was at this point that my box embellishment turned into a gift tag. There were so many holes in the gears that I didn’t need to punch a new one. I simply chose one and threaded some 3/16″ Braided Linen Trim through the hole.

TECHNIQUE IDEA 2

Next, using Multipurpose Liquid Glue I mounted the stamped sentiment onto one of the spare white die-cut pieces. Then I glued the sentiment in place on the front of my gears piece.

Back of large gift tag created using the Garage Gears Dies from Stampin' Up! #papercraftwithme

Of course while the large open die was interesting it left nowhere to write the “to” and “from” which a tag usually has. So I turned the tag over and with more liquid glue added the remaining white die cut piece. By looking through the holes in the gears I was able to line up this piece exactly over the sentiment. Now I had solved the writing dilemma and my tag was done.

So now I’m wondering what other fancy dies I have that would make really interesting gift tags. All I have to do is match the sentiment shape on the back. Excuse me while I nip off to check my die stash…