That's what my room has felt like, these last few weeks. As the holiday rapidly approaches, I find myself scrabbling to keep up with the plethora of cards, tags, and gifts, I've happily decided to undertake this season.
It all started with this idea for Christmas cards. I know this is going to be a difficult Christmas for all of the Leija's. It's the first Christmas we've had without Uncle Joe, who went to be with the Lord this past September. I was in charge of the memory boards for his funeral and it was then that I realized how valuable my beloved hobby is. How photographs are incredibly important in the preservation of our cherished memories. Thus, I wanted all of my family members, down to my very littlest cousin to have at least one photo of our loving uncle, father, brother, son and grandfather. And here is the result. I included the same poem I used for Nana's Christmas present as well as a favorite Christmas photo of him.
My next project were all of the little gift tags, I want to include with my presents. I had the idea to make them layered and dangly and love how they turned out! They were incredibly time consuming but definitely worth it. I'll start my tutorial on how to make these little buggers from the bottom tag up.
- Using my Slice, I die-cut a 4 in. tag out of Kraft cardstock using the Vintage Memories Design Card
- Then, also using my Slice, I die-cut the word "joy" at 1 1/2 in. directly out of the tag, using the Mistletoe Design Card; and also being mindful of the placement of the word. I had to play a bit with positioning to get this in the general area of where I wanted the cut out to be. Save the cut out from the letter "O".
- Next, I cut a 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 in square to back the word "joy" from behind. I choose Making Memories Argyle Mistletoe patterned paper bc it's decorative on both sides. I adhered it to the back of the tag and affixed the cut out from the letter "O" to the the red paper.
- Playing with my left over cut-out, I sprayed the word "joy" with Emerald Metallic Maya Mist and set it aside to dry.
- I typed out the phrase "Do not open until..." and arranged the text into the shape of a Christmas tree.
- Using my Slice again, I cut out a mini tag from green cardstock and printed the text directly onto the tag. To decorate, with a gold paint pen, I added a star topper and the trunk of the tree. Finally, I inked the edges with gold stamping ink.
- For the next layer, I again turned to my trusty Slice. I cut out a 2 in. ornament using the Mistletoe Design Card. Next, I distressed the edges with Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo distressing ink and stamped a red calendar with chalk ink and American Craft's 2 in. circle calendar stamp. I circled the word "DEC" and the number "25".
- The easiest part were these gorgeous snowflakes cut from red cardstock, using the Mistletoe Design Card and the Slice.
- Finally, I tied them all together with Martha Stewart's Holiday Baking Twine and hand wrote "To" and "From" on the large tag.
These smaller tags were an after thought, but ended up being some of my favorite creations!
- I cut up a manila folder into 2 in. x 3 1/2 in. rectangles. Hole punched a circle at the top and cut down two of the sides to create the look of a tag. Then, I distressed the edges using Tim Hotlz's Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and an ink blending tool.
- Using the cut-out sheet from the previous gift tags, I positioned it over the manila tags and covered off the rest. I sprayed the Emerald Metallic Maya Mist and the Red Maya Mist over the cut out and then removed it to reveal the shape of snowflake.
- Next, I cut out the shape of a gingerbread man using the Slice and the Mistletoe Design Card.
- I threaded the two tags, along with a button, together using Martha Stewart's Holiday Baking Twine and tied it off with a bow
I had a lot of fun creating all of these Christmas goodies! So much fun, in fact, I made too many =) To get everyone into the holiday spirit and to wish you all a Merry Christmas, the first 5 people to comment on this blog entry will receive one of the Christmas tags showcased above. Please include your e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you for address details. Wishing you all mil blessings and besos!
xxbesos
j.leija
Those tags are adorable and I would love to have one!! Thanks so much!! This post is reminding me of how much I need a electronic cutting machine. :)
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add this in my first post, so I'm leaving a second. I'm a scrapbooking newbie, and I completely agree with you about the importance of documenting our lives. My heart goes out to you during this difficult time. Even though your uncle won't be physically with your family, he lives inside each of you forever.
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