Thursday 7 December 2017

Festive at Stamps and Stencils...

Hi everyone, time for our last challenge of the year over at Stamps and Stencils and of course we are getting festive. Sue has chosen the theme this month and wants us to use both Stamps AND Stencils in our festive mixed media style pieces.

'Festive Stamps AND Stencils - Now normally to join in with us we ask you use either stamps or stencils, but for this challenge I want to see both and lots of them with a Festive theme ! So dig out all your stamps, maybe some long forgotten that need some love and all of your stencils and let them take centre stage ! '

I decided to make a box full of gift tags to use this year in my present wrapping.


I started by altering a box...


..and then made a few tags!


For a few years now I have been making my own Christmas wrapping paper inspired by a gorgoeus post Alison Bomber of Words and Pictures did for PaperArtsy here. I love 'brown paper parcels tied up with string' and Scandanavian crisp clean motifs so here's what I came up with this year.

I started off with a teabag box that I'd saved and flattened out for painting.


I still have some Irish Cream fresco paint so used that but didn't add any embellishments as I wanted the box to be practical.



I used cherry red stazon to stamp the images and had some matching card which would be perfect to make the tags from. These were my ingredients. The stamps on the right are a Waltzing Mouse set which unfortunately you can't get now BUT I am sure there are lots of alternatives out there that could be used.


As we are a mixed media blog I had to embellish the tags a little and used crackle paint, teabag paper, tissue, stitching, foiling and embossing enamel in the process. I don't think the tags need step outs but it's rather photo heavy now so you can see them in more detail.















I loved making each little one of them (2 1/4 x 2 3/4 inch) and will have plenty to use next year as well now.


I hope you're inspired to dig out some of your well loved or forgotten stash and create something festive for our challenge and don't forget to hop across and see what the rest of our talented team have created to inspire you. I hope to be back before Christmas but in the meantime enjoy your Christmas crafting! R x

7 comments:

  1. I am truly wowed Ruth! What an incredible tradition and beautiful collection! I just love the color combo and your MM details. These are my favorite patterns and I love how you mixed in the snowflake stencil & cutouts. The tea bag and scrunched red paper details are my favorite. I just love this idea. It has been such a pleasure to work alongside of you at S&S these two years. Merry Christmas, Autumn

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  2. I love these Ruth. Variation and simplicity works so well. Lots of ideas to try out. Love them all. Xx

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  3. Ruth,
    what a creative make!! You really should market this idea! I just love each of those tags, so clever and simple- just beautiful! Well done!
    Jackie xo

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  4. What a delightful, and lovely idea, to use the teabox, to create this lovely tag keeper.
    I love your used red tone, it is really beautiful, and so are all the tags, with the papers and sewing , stamps and die cuts , gorgeous with the crackled snowflake, and the teabag papers - they are all so beautiful, dear Ruth . xoxo

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  5. All the tags are fabulous with that wonderful stamp set and what a great idea to alter a box to store them in.
    Hugs!
    Cec

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  6. "A few tags"! Each and every one of your MANY tags is a delight. I think my favourite is the crackled white snowflake over the stitched, pleated tea bag paper (and of course gorgeous text in the background!) - but there are so many to love and admire here. A wonderful post full of inspiration. I'm pleased to have been even a kernel in the original nut of the idea.
    Alison x

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  7. Love the red on craft and all of your beautiful tag designs! Great repurpose of your box too!

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