Spellbinders ~ Lisa Horton Christmas Gift Tags

Hey crafty friends, I'm back with a cute set of tags I shared over on my Instagram Page a few days ago. It's a busy season for me with Halloween fast approaching. But I'm so happy to be able to take a few moments to create some Christmas makes, because that'll be rushing at us so fast very soon! I was invited to create with a really lovely selection of items from Spellbinders by Yana. I adore her work, her creativity is so incredibly inspiring. If you've not yet discovered her gorgeous channel and blog, do add her to your watch list, because she is a huge source of inspiration for so many including me! As you might imagine, despite it being a really busy time for me, I was not going to say no! But it does mean I have to share a few more posts, closer together than I usually might. These cute tags bases are part of the recent release by Lisa Horton who many of you may know from the UK. She has released some really lovely sets with Spellbinders this month and I have two to share. This is the first of the two.

The tag base is a new die set called the Essential Tags Etched Dies. These are part of the Essential Holiday Collection by Lisa Horton. There are eleven dies in the set, four are nesting nesting tags which come with a little die to create the whole, a tab and the reinforcer. There are also four different swallowtail narrow tags so it has got some great options and deserves the 'essential' part of its name. I used two different 3D Embossing Folders from Spellbinders to add a little texture and interest to the backing tag. I used the All Dressed Up Embossing Folder and the Holiday Lights 3D Embossing Folder which has a cute string of holiday lights across the panel. I have embossed the red panel and then backed this with a plain white panel on the reverse so a message can easily be added. For the front tag, I cut the next one down in the set. The red tag is the largest size in the set. 

I decorated two of the tags with another set released by Lisa Horton called Festive Ornament Etched Dies. This set is also part of the Essential Holiday Collection by Lisa. This set has eight dies and creates a fun range of Christmas baubles along with little strings and connectors to hang them from. There's also some really sweet holly berries and leaf dies as part of this set, perfect for those sweet finishing touches. You can see that I've used those holly berries and leaves on the Christmas Pudding version of the die set. It comes with the base of the berries, to show where to adhere them and give an easy anchor point. The pic below shows my process shaping these berries with a ball stylus tool and soft mat used for shaping elements for flower. The mat is from Spellbinders and is part of the Susan Tierney Cockburn range. That little pud is a really fun addition to this set I think. I inked the edges of the icing a little, but it was an otherwise quick and easy build. 

I ink blended in green the first two tags and in blue the third tag. I splashed them with a little water to distress the ink blend a bit. Just a fun touch of colour behind the designs, nothing too fancy. The baubles from the Festive Ornaments are actually a really good size, perfect to add a few to an A2 card size, but I wanted to include more than one design per tag, so I offset them and trimmed off the sides. I really like how this looks. Below I'm auditioning the pieces to see how this will look.

I added a simple sentiment across the lower third of those two tags, that had been stamped in black VersaFine Nocturne Ink, which I then clear heat embossed. I added little silver reinforcers to the front tag, put the red and decorated tags together and connected them with some pretty lace ribbon from my stash. I tied some silver thread with a couple of tiny jingle bells on each tag and finished with a simple bow. 

I had another sweet set that was sent to me which included this little cardinal bird. I thought he'd also be rather perfect on one of these tags, so I added him to this third tag. The die set is called Conrad Cardinal and these Etched Dies are a part of the Dancin' Christmas Friends Collection. The set includes four thin metal cutting dies, which include all the smaller pieces. It's very easy to assemble as Spellbinders has again taken the time to etch exactly where the different elements sit on each layer. The wings are not etched as this allows them to be moved into several different positions. It's such a sweet little die set and fit perfectly on this wee tag. I finished this tag design in a very similar way to the first two, just opting for silver heat embossing of the sentiment this time. The sentiments are all from the Season of Wonder Sentiment Set from the Collection of the same name by Stampendous for Spellbinders. 

Spellbinders has has been having the most wonderful sale, I spotted some fabulous Clearance Deals well worth a look if you're a bargain hunter like me! Click through on the banner below for a direct link. You can easily click through to the UK store from there if you're shopping in the UK. I so appreciate you using these links if you are shopping. They cost you no extra whatsoever, but may encourage Spellbinders to invite me to design with them again.

Thank you friends for popping in to visit today. I hope I've inspired you with these little tags. I've linked all the elements I've used in the thumbnails below for quick and easy reference. I wish you a beautiful week and thank you for taking the time to visit my lil' corner of the blogosphere. Hugs and happy crafting, Wends xoxo

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, which gives me a tiny commission but costs you no extra whatsoever. It helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice and track my contributions. I am deeply grateful if you use them for these reasons. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

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