Ink to Paper Holiday Create-A-Thon - November 5

Hello!  Welcome to my first post for the special Create-A-Thon going on all month long at Ink to Paper.  We're taking a deep dive into many of the ITP stamps and dies.  The focus for today are two of my favorite new holiday mini sets: Just Sentiments: Be Merry and Watercolor Textures: Christmas.

I sometimes feel that creating simple cards and tags is not enough, that each project I make has to be over the top and must feature an arsenal of supplies and fancy techniques.  For most of us, however, we lack the time and/or the skill to come up with a project the likes of which has never been seen before!  During the holidays, especially, I find the need to simplify my crafting approach as there is not enough time in the day to devote hours to create each card and tag.

My tags for today's post are simply made and don't require special skills or even products to make them.  I'm using basic stamp sets that offer a versatile but varied collection of images and sentiments--Watercolor Textures: Christmas and Just Sentiments: Be Merry.  After stamping and heat embossing the images with watermark ink and white embossing powder on die cut Tagged & Labeled 1 tags, I watercolored the background of each tag by mixing a few drops of water and ink refills.  If you don't have the ink refills, don't worry--you can use regular ink.  Press your ink pad onto a plastic surface to release some of the ink, add a little water, and you've got watercolor!  This simple but colorful method is easy and fun for anyone to try!

I used nearly every image in the Christmas watercolor set, save for the little stars.  By stamping each image repeatedly on the tag and embossing them, it creates a resist against the watercolor and remains white while the rest of the tag absorbs the ink.  (By the way, just because the set is called Watercolor Textures, it doesn't mean you have to watercolor them!)

To accent each watercolored tag with a sentiment, I chose several sentiments from the Be Merry set and stamped them on tags, according to their orientation.  If they were long, thin sentiments, I used a rounded tag from the XO Skinny Mini Tags die collection; if they were more compact, I used a tag from the Modern Gift die set.  I chose to use cardstock colors instead of more watercolored tags for the saturated contrast.

I accented my tag sets with some seam binding and embroidery floss tassels, but you don't have to get too fancy; a little twine to tie them onto a package will work just fine, too.  It's been a long time since I used any tassels and I've been missing them.  I used to sit for hours at our kitchen table making them so I have a pretty good stash of them!  Believe it or not, I found it very relaxing to make them.

Be sure to head to the Ink to Paper blog--they're doing weekly contests where you could win $100 to spend in the Ink to Paper store!  There will be a new post every day this month, too, so if you're looking for holiday card making (and tag!) inspiration, you'll definitely find it there!

Supplies:
Stamps: Just Sentiments: Be Merry, Watercolor Textures: Christmas
Ink: Watermark
Paper: Sweet Blush, Melon Berry, Tropical Teal, Ripe Avocado, Limeade Ice, Berry Sorbet, watercolor paper
Dies: Tagged & Labeled 1, Tag Creations: Modern Gift, XO Skinny Mini Tags
Other: Re-inkers (Sweet Blush, Simply Chartreuse, Aqua Mist, Tropical Teal, Berry Sorbet, Melon Berry, Pure Poppy), white embossing powder, ribbon, twine, tassels