by the fire {25 days of Christmas tags guest post}

Hi there! I'm joining some of the lawn fawn girls for Tracey's 25 days of Christmas tags bonanza. (Because, 25 days of anything can clearly be labelled a bonanza.)

I grabbed lawn fawn stamps, and mama elephant dies and got to creating another gigantic tag:

I have loved Cozy Christmas for so long - it's still a classic Christmas set, in my opinion. To limit the number of smiley faces, I opted for the woodsier fire from Love You S'more.



I didn't bother masking anything; I stamped the stockings and note to santa separately and snipped them out.  Because figuring out how to stamp and mask everything perfectly was making my head hurt.

Plus, I love the hint of texture you get from glueing the stockings onto the fireplace. It's subtle, but makes a handmade tag a little more special.

I hope you like it!

Tracey's tag bonanza comes complete with prizes from amazing companies like:

lawn fawn ♥ paper smooches ♥ neat and tangled ♥ cas-ual fridays ♥ clearly besotted ♥ reverse confetti

She's allowing me to choose a winner from commenters on this blog post! So, leave me a comment by the end of the day today and when I wake up tomorrow morning, I'll randomly pick a name to forward to Tracey. That person will be included in the prize draw that she will be doing tomorrow.

Good luck!

♥.

fa la la!

Hi there! I have one last Alpine Carolers project to share for this release. I just want to thank the Mama Elephant girls, and all of the Ele-fans for making this an exciting past month for me!

Let's dive right in!

I created a couple's Christmas card, and borrowed elements from Arctic Penguins to do it: the hat on the mister and the cup of steaming cocoa for the missus.

Once I had everything stamped the way I wanted, I masked them both (and their accessories, and a snowy ground for them to stand on) and sponged on a light brown sky. I love how it makes the carolers stand out.

Before removing the masks, I grabbed another new set - Basic Borders - and used the polka dot strip to mimic a snowfall. It's very subtle, and shows unevenly on the card, so perfect for a snowy sky.

The wavy border from Tags a lot was perfect for stamping a nonchalant "fa la la" greeting. I accented it on either edge with a swipe of a green marker. It looks so much more festive that way!

To finish things off, I cut my panel with the Femme Frames rectangle die, and then cut into it again with the new Borderlines Trio edge die. I slipped in some candy cane patterned paper to make up the difference. I love the stitched border all the way around!

I hope you like what I've created! Thanks for stopping by!

♥.

custom carolers {mama elephant stamp highlights}

Hey there!

We're back for another day of Mama Elephant stamp highlights, and we're showing off the new Boutique Borders.

I couldn't help but pair the striped image strip with my cutie carolers:

Remember I told you that it would be easy to customize the look of the carolers?  The ones on either side have been tampered with. hee.



I used the ones in blue for these tags, and you can see the difference in the photo above.  All it takes is a little careful inking. Wipe off the ink below the skirt (or shirt in the boy's case) before stamping down once, and then ink only part of the legs and match it up. I love that it's so easy to do with clear stamps!

When you are die-cutting the smaller carolers, you'll want to make sure to not cut it all the way through in one pass. Use the partial die-cut technique to send it through and cut each end separately.



Once I stamped and die-cut the carolers, I popped them up onto a tag base - I love this shape, with its scalloped border. I swiped the scallops with a brown marker to make them pop, and did the same to the edges of the sentiment banner with a blue marker. It adds interest and polish to the final tag with hardly any effort at all.



The sentiment is from bloomsies, and fits perfectly onto the banner found in the tags a lot set.

I hope you like what I've created! In case you missed it, I also turned the "daddy" caroler into a spitting image of my own hubby, hee hee - click!

♥.

merry and bright {mama elephant stamp highlights}

Hi there, and welcome back to another day of Mama Elephant stamp highlights. We're showing off the hand-lettered, big-lettered Christmas sentiment set, Peace on Earth.

It is beautiful, and steals the show on every project:



I made another giant tag, because I love them so much. Everyone is getting a giant tag for Christmas this year. I used the new scalloped border to create an all-over fringe on the tag base. If you look closely, you can see that the scallops work their way down the tag, but up from the bottom as well. I hid a strip of patterned paper into the space where they would meet. I wanted the outside edges to have a clean, straight look.



I stamped and fussy-cut the giant sentiment, so that it would pop right off the tag.

I hope you like it!

There's more to see on the Mama Elephant blog this morning - click!

♥.

You can't be sad... {mama elephant designer series}

Hi there! I'm here and on the Mama Elephant blog today, to show off the brand new "tags a lot" die. I went bananas when I first saw this tag set. If you're thinking who needs another tag set - the answer is you do. this one. The oversized tag is making my life.

Who needs holiday cards when the tag is card-sized? Fantastic.

I combined the following sets for my tag:  toy shop, cozy christmas, and carnival toppers.



You can't be sad when you're holding a holiday treat is my new fave. I did some selective inking to achieve this sentiment. Forget cupcakes! Gimme a plate of gingerbread cookies, please.



I stamped the toy shop directly onto the tag, masking it and the tag's edges to be able to sponge on the rich, red ink.  I like the pop of white around the outside of the tag!

I also created a bit of a bokeh effect by splattering water onto the tag. The red distress ink reacted with the water and gave this great effect.  In front of it all, Mrs. Claus is standing out front passing out free samples.

I hope you like it!  I'll be back tomorrow with a Cozy Christmas card.

♥.