Two Christmas Tags–Blueprint Toy Soldier and Blueprint Snowman

Copy cat, copy cat! That’s me. I directly tag-lifted this project from Donna at From My Art 2 Yours. I was absolutely smitten by her work, and when I found her blog,  I had been wondering exactly how I would use my blueprint stamps from Tim Holtz.

I will explain my process, but again, I was using Donna’s ideas!

On the manila tag, I stamped the Toy Soldier Blueprint Stamp with Distress Embossing Ink and then heat embossed it with Ranger fine black embossing powder. I already loved the look. Then I used the Perfect Pearls Palette technique (from Tim) to paint the little soldier. Having stamped a separate “edition” of the little guy, I cut around that stamped image, just around the soldier himself. I used that as a mask over the painted image, while I inked the background with Wild Honey, Squeezed Lemonade, and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks. I used the little holly leaves stamp from Tim’s Mini Holidays 2 stamp set, inked with Brushed Corduroy, to stamp several times on the background. I misted the entire tag with Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls mist (keeping the little mask over the image). I inked the edges of the tag with Walnut Stain, added a seam binding ribbon (stained with the same colors as the background) and a muse token.

The Snowman Tag was made with the very same process, using these colors/stamps:

Background: Faded Jeans, Iced Spruce, Salty Ocean
Background snowflake stamp: Tim Holtz Mini Holidays 3
Perfect Pearls Mist: Turquoise

What is funny to me is that both tags started with a #8 manila tag, and I did nothing to color the snowman. It may be the camera lighting, but the toy soldiers face and the snowman should technically be the same color. Maybe that cool blue just made the snowman look white. Anyway, it makes me happy.

Once again, I have the frustration of the “sparkly” not showing up, but that’s okay, they’ll be sparkly on my tree!