It was truly good fortune the day Sandy Allnock came into my life. This lady is not only exceptionally talented, but she is kind-hearted, compassionate, supportive and has such an awesome sense of humor (check out her 50 Christmas Jokes video)! Sometimes I wonder if I live under a rock - haha - because it was only a few short months ago that I met Sandy for the first time, only to find out that she lives close enough for us to actually get together! I am looking forwards to having Sandy join Kat (my now 14-yr-old) and I for a coloring date soon - we are SO lucky and REALLY looking forwards to spending time "playing" together!
You must head over and explore Sandy's blog as she shares a treasure trove of information there, on her YouTube channel and of course on the Operation Write Home blog (which celebrates and helps our nation's heroes)! This week Sandy is sharing her 24 Tags of Christmas with you on her blog - yes, you heard me - TWENTY FOUR tags! I have oogled these tags, touched these tags and wondered how on earth she manages. We hope that you enjoy the techniques she shares with you here and on her blog!
Sandy, thank you so much for joining us here this year for our Feminine Tags series and even more importantly thank you for your friendship and support! You are an amazing woman and I am blessed to have you in my life! -Ellen
Merry Christmas! I'm Sandy Allnock, and I'm the founder and Executive Director of Operation Write Home, a charity that sends blank handmade greeting cards to deployed service members to write home on. As well as lots of letters of gratitude from home! And I'm so excited to bring you one of the 12 tags of Christmas this year - the tags so far have been absolutely amazing! The tag I'll be sharing sports some Hero Arts stamps and a stencil that are fundraiser products for Operation Write Home - a percentage of proceeds are donated to OWH by Hero Arts, which helps us with shipping and all the other expenses incurred in the project. In addition to the fundraiser items show in this post, you can check out all the goodies that you can buy to help out service members far from home!
Before getting started - this tag took a bunch of twists and turns along the way. But just LOOK at that shimmer - it was worth all the effort!
I began by cutting three pieces of Neenah 110 cardstock; the finished tag is a #8, so the outside layer measures 6 1/4" x 3 1/8"; middle layer is 6" x 2-7/8"; top layer is 5-7/8" x 2-5/8". I rounded the corners of each with a Corner Chomper, the 1/2" side.
To prepare for the airbrushing, I cut a quickie mask with a sticky note; I laid my stencil in place and traced the rough horizon onto the stickynote to trim it out and mask off the snow at the bottom section.
Next up: Copic airbrush! I just LOVE that I can make two colors blend that just wouldn't with marker strokes; the sky goes from pink at the bottom to blue at the top, and the middle layer is the reverse - but that layer is airbrushed around the entire piece. You could achieve a similar effect with distress inks or other types of inking techniques.
Then comes the shimmer! I mixed Hero Arts Ultra Fine Prisma Glitter with a blob of Ranger's Texture Paste. I mixed it in pretty well; I used a good bit of it, figuring if a little made me happy, a lot would send me over the moon!
TIP: I tried to guess about how much I'd use for this tag, and I did have a little left over; so I had a card staged on the sidelines that needed a little sparkle, so I could use up the excess.
I applied first the inch and a half portion at the top - since my stencil wouldn't stretch over the length of this large tag. Then I moved the stencil down, applying the paste as thin as possible - about the same thickness as the stencil itself.
When it came to the snow at the bottom, I began by following the stencil, but then removed it - and just pretended I was frosting a cake! I even went over the top edge of the area I had stencilled, and liked the rough edge so much better. I washed the stencil, palette knife, and craft mat right away. Note that a little of the color behind the texture paste may show through slightly once it's dry; You can see a little of the sky color behind the trees. That's why I masked off the snow at the bottom, to be certain that remained really white.
Next up, layering the tag together - the middle layer was adhered directly onto the back layer, then dimensional adhesive for the top layer.
To create the sentiment banner, I cut some Avery Elle banners, and stamped a sentiment and snowflakes from the Winter Wishes set - another OWH fundraiser. The softer snowflakes were stamped with the same ink as the tiny banners - but were stamped on scratch paper first, then onto the tag, so they would be light and keep the sentiment readable.
The last element is the bear, from the What a Guy OWH fundraiser set! I used my EK Powder Tool on a piece of cardstock, stamped the bear in Versamark, then used Hero Arts white embossing powder on the bear. I heated him up, and while he was still hot, I added more embossing powder, and hit it with the heat tool again; then did that a third time. It made him a thick, shiny bear that I could fussy cut!
The last touch is something that I seem to be doing a lot lately: using my Signo Uniball pen to create snow or stars in the night sky! And my finished tag is so pretty....I'm now on the lookout for the perfect holiday wrapping paper to go with it. Hmm, maybe I'll have to airbrush my own!
The alternate version: mass producible!
I know not many folks are going to have the patience for quite *that* much work on a tag. So I have an alternate version to share, and made it much smaller in this adaptation. It's inspired by the YUMMY May Arts silk ribbon in the store....if you haven't touched this ribbon, you need to! It's just lucious!
I followed the same basic process for the tag: texture paste with glitter, embossed bear, a sentiment tag (this time embossing in Hero Arts white powder). These would be fast to mass produce in a line....mix up a whole container of the glitter and texture paste, whee! Then the magic part: for the layer behind the white-on-white elements, just use a Copic marker to color the edges of the layer, matching the ribbon you want to use! You could make a bunch of the white tags and swap out ribbon and accent color for all your gifts!
I hope you might also consider supporting Operation Write Home before the year is out! There are some easy ways to do this, even in the midst of the chaos of the holiday season:
- Send in a few cards! We all have a couple cards in our stash; pick out your prettiest handful of them, write Operation Write Home on the back (that'll save waiting for your free stamp for the back of the card to arrive!)
- Write a letter! When your family gathers for the holidays, put out some thank-you cards for everyone to write notes in. It's a great way to share your values with your family, and make the meaning of the season more tangible.
- Shop! When you purchase OWH Fundraiser stamps and stencils, that helps raise funds for the project.
- Make a donation! :)
Thanks so much for staying tuned through this long post - now go out and have a very Merry Christmas!
