Gift Tags & Note Cards

The challenge for the next two weeks at Frilly and Funkie is called Gift Tags and Note Cards, both of which should be in high demand with Christmas fast approaching.  You can make one or the other or even both if you like but make sure they are vintage or shabby chic.

I got really ambitious to start with and decided to make a set of four of each and began with the gift tags.  To make each tag, I took some white card stock and cut it into a tag shape.  Then I used a chewed up old sponge dauber and swirled some Frayed Burlap Distress Ink on it to make the background.  I punched a circle from some dark red card stock, added it to the tag and then punched a hole in the centre of it.  Finally I stamped a little background feature from the Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge set.

Each tag has a border of patterned paper from the Maja Designs It's Christmas Time paper pad and before I attached it to the tag I cut the top edge with a Martha Stewart edge punch.  Then I added some fibre across the patterned paper using ribbon and large ric rac from my stash along with some May Arts crochet lace and jute ribbon from The Funkie Junkie Boutique. A button, brad and filigree metal piece were added to three of the tags.

Next each tag got a panel from Tim Holtz color core card stack and embossed using the Tim Holtz Bubbles Texture Fade and a panel stamped with the ornament from a Tim Holtz mini blueprint set.  I coloured the ornaments with Prismacolors blended with Gotrick odorless mineral spirits.  A gold Sakura gel pen was used to highlight the cap and the decorations on the band.

I cut the snowflakes from white corrugated cardboard with a Spellbinders die and highlighted them with some of the Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.  A gold card centre and a teeny gem finished them off.

Finally, I dyed some seam binding with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and added it to the top along with some lace seam binding from my sewing cupboard.

I have been sick for a month (it started with a cold and then I had a reaction to an antibiotic) so I fade pretty quickly and by the time I finished the tags, I must admit I didn't really have the energy to go all out on the set of note cards.  I should have really concentrated on doing one of each.  Mind you I can't put much texture on the note cards if I intend to mail them because the post office charges extra for thickness so let's use that as my excuse :)  Oh, and I think I am finally turning the corner and will survive.

What I decided to do was make simpler cards that complimented the tags and used some of the same elements with a few twists.  I have used the same Maja Designs papers, made the same embossed panels and snowflakes but I have put the bands of fibre on a little differently and used just lace seam binding in two shades.  The sentiment is computer generated.

The following items used to create these projects can be found at The Funkie Junkie Boutique: