My annual Christmas Tag Post....

 Hello Friends,
If you have followed my blog for a while you know that every summer as time permits I start making Christmas tags to give as gifts to my family on Thanksgiving Day.  This summer I didn't get as many made as usual because of some health issues but I did get my tag designs started and I thought I would share with you what I have created so far...,.WARNING this is a LONG POST with tons of PHOTOS!

A tag design using the Tim Holtz Stocking Stuffer Bigz Die by Sissix:

The sweet Gingerbread Girl is from Paper Sweeties "Ho Ho Ho" stamp and sweet cuts sets. I colored her with Copics.  The pine fronds are from a die I have had for years not sure of the maker?  The snowflake is from Taylored Expressions I believe.  And the "warm winter wishes" tag sentiment is from Lili of the Valley stamps in the UK.  The "To and From" is from Papertrey Ink.

Next some lovely mitten tags from Waltzingmouse Stamps (now with Gina K Designs).  These are reverse stamps so I used my MISTI and two colors of ink (Pure Poppy and Cherry Cobbler) and stamped them 4x to get a great impression and add the second tone of ink around the edges of the mittens:

I love how this turned out!  I stamped the tags below on "Aqua Mist Cardstock" from Papertrey Ink.

 The "Holiday Hugs" sentiment is from the "Candy Jar Christmas Fillers" stamp set also from Waltzingmouse Designs.

 I love the two tones of ink and the red and aqua color combo!

And what are Christmas tags without jingle bells! :)

How about some snowmen tags?  Here is one I made for my son who LOVES everything Harry Potter:

 He is holding a wand made from a red/white piece of wire to look like a candy cane! :)  And the glasses I found at Hobby Lobby in their Paper Studio Gem section.

 These tags use the "Shape-Up" Series Snowman stamps and dies from Papertrey Ink.  The sentiment is from the "Candy Cane Christmas stamp set". 

I wanted a top hat for my snowmen.  This hat is from Paper Sweeties "Snow Friends Sweet Cuts" set.


This next tag was inspired by a tag that Debby Hughes created which I saw on Pinterest: HERE 
I was surfing Pinterest for tag ideas and also saw these ornaments where the deer's head was made with a heart-shaped button: HERE.  The heart shaped button along with Debby's tag inspired me to create these tags:

 I think next time I will draw in some eyelashes to highlight her green eyes!  The antlers are made with the Sissix Bigz Die called Snowflake 2.  The heart base is punched out from my lovely old heart scalloped punch.  Some buttons, bling and googly eyes along with a holly embellishment and these were done!  I am thinking about making more of these but possibly stamping a background on them or embossing them for more texture.  I love how quickly these can be made!  Punches are so fast!!!!

How about some more "punch" tags:

And some lovely stocking tags using a new Penny Black Die set called "Christmas Stockings" :

 I added some Stickles Diamond Glitter glue in the openings of the die cut for some sparkle!

 Here are some made with music paper!  Love this look...again inspired by Pinterest!

And if you know me then you know that I have to use red and green gingham papers to make my tags each year!  I love gingham for that homespun look!

Speaking of Gingham...I call these next tags my "Cup of Christmas Cheer" tags!  I posted a tutorial on YouTube for these and I have never gotten to 1000 views on a video that fast!  I am a very amateur video maker so if you go look please be aware that tutorials are not my strong suit! LOL!

 Hot Chocolate is a very big part of Christmas and winter in general at our house.  I set up a hot chocolate bar every year complete with marshmallows and mini candy canes plus special Christmas mugs to drink it out of.  Tim has a cup almost every day after school with LOTS of marshmallows on top!  Just like these tags:

These tags use two sets of the marshmallows from Papertrey Ink's "Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers" stamp set.
The teacups are die cut from the Tim Holtz "Tea Time" Bigz die by Sissix.  The small candy cane is a little bits die from Taylored Expressions.  I think these are my favorite so far this year and I will be making more of them!

Here is a smaller hot chocolate tag using the mug from "Candy Cane Christmas" from Papertrey Ink and the marshmallow stamp once again but trimmed down to fit in this smaller mug:

I made the "Hot Cocoa" heart tag on my computer.

I also made a set of snowman tags like this one below that were inspired by a Pinterest image which I can't find right now.....will try to add it later...

 These use a retired Stampin Up "Two Tags" Bigz Die.  The hat is from the Papertrey Ink Shape-Up Series Snowman Die set once again.

The scarves are torn pieces of flannel fabric.  Love the frayed edges!

And here are some "Believe" tags using a Heidi Swapp die:

The sentiment "A Gift for you" is from Papertrey Ink's Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers once again!  (Linked above) The tiny tag dies are from Taylored Expressions.  The large tag was made by cutting a strip of kraft paper.  I left room at the top to wrap a strip of gingham paper from front to back to add interest. 

I started this long post with a stocking tag so I thought I would end with some stocking tags:

If you have made it this far....Wow!  This was a lot of pictures and a lot of tags!  I like to make this post each year as it is an easy way for me to look back at what tags I made the previous year.   I try not to make all of the same tags each year for my family members. I like to switch things up and keep it interesting since it is their Christmas gift from me!

Thanks for taking a look!
Happy Christmas Crafting!
Jill

Christmas In August....

Hello Friends,
Thought I would post a few, all right a LOT, of pictures from my "Christmas in July" tag making.  Summer is drawing to a close and often I forget to photograph my tags before packaging them up and putting them away.  I give each of my family members a set of Christmas tags each year on Thanksgiving to use for their Christmas gift giving.  I have a big family so this is a LOT of tags!  I like to get most of them made during the summer months when I have a little bit more free time.  Here are some of the tags I have made so far this summer:

First some candy canes:

This is probably my favorite tag die!  It is an old 4x4 die that was made by Lifestyle Crafts and cuts two candy canes - one is a solid back piece and the other is an overlay piece for the candy cane stripes.  After cutting and gluing the two pieces together I just add some embellishments and a string tie.  The tags are from two different stamp sets.  Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers from Papertrey Ink for the "candy canes 5 cents" tags.  And  a Christmas tag set from Lili of the Valley stamps in the UK for the "Christmas Hugs" sentiment.  These two stamp sets and their various sentiments and tags are used on almost every set of Christmas tags I make! 

Next come the gingers!  Gingerbread men on parade....

This is an old gingerbread man steel-ruled BIGZ die from Sissix.  It is definitely a favorite of mine and my family members for Christmas tags!  It gets a lot of use each year!  I get a lot of questions about where to purchase this die....I got mine on EBAY.  It is, very sadly, retired!  I wish Sissix would bring back this one! :)

 How about some smaller gingers:

These are some 2" gingerbread men using a die from Cottage Cutz.  They are all hanging out together in a little gingham box!  Too cute!

And here is one more:

This tag uses the sweet gingers in the "Ho Ho Ho" stamp set from Paper Sweeties!  The sentiment is also from Paper Sweeties.  It comes from the "Christmas Blessings" stamp set.  I love that their is both a boy and a girl ginger!  I colored these with some Prima colored pencils. 

Now onto some sweet little deer tags:

 This adorable set of "Oh Deer" stamps is from one of my favorite stamp companies - "Your Next Stamp"!  Karen the owner is as sweet as can be and has some really fun products!  This is one of my favorite sets for baby cards and Christmas tags and cards.  These deer are so darn cute!!!!

 This set uses the Minnie Pearl tag set from "A Jillian Vance Design"  I love the sweet scalloped edges on these tags.  And this deer is looking at the sweet butterfly that has landed on its tail!

 These tags use the Tag Sale #8 dies from Papertrey Ink.  And this deer is running and has a bow around its neck! (Sorry about the poor picture quality!)

 Minnie Pearl tags again....and this deer has one hoof up.  They are all so cute!

How about a pink version:

Perfect for a little girls gift this Holiday season!  Or....a new baby gift this winter?!

All right that is it for now!  I am still working on my stash of angel, mitten and stocking tags.  Hopefully I will squeeze in another post to show them off later but I wanted to at least get this post in as usually once school starts my crafting time is more limited!

Crafty Hugs!
Jill 

A little Christmas Tag-a-long....

We had a busy weekend at our house as we were making some Thanksgiving cut-out cookies.  Some turkeys, pumpkins, acorns, and leaves all decorated up nicely for the upcoming holiday.  Now they are safely frozen away until the big day!  Because of all of the baking I didn't make any full cards but I did make some adorable christmas tags for gift giving.  Hope you had a glorious weekend!  Enjoy each moment!