The Nice List, Part 2

I am so in love with this banner we made in Heidi Swapp's Stamp Therapy Five, The Nice List. I highly recommend this class if you enjoy crafting for Christmas! 

As you can see, there are a LOT of tags for this banner. These are NOT the jumbo size. The back tags are regular size shipping tags (approx 2 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches), and the front pieces (letters) are approx 2 x 2 1/4 inches. But you can make them whatever size you like. Here is the complete banner before hanging: 

And the individual tags: 

The Nice List, Part 1

In addition to the awesome 12 Makes of Christmas and Holiday Makes classes by Lindsay Bateman, I also could not pass up another super awesome class by Heidi Swapp! I highly recommend Heidi's Stamp Therapy classes (this Christmas one is Stamp Therapy Five, The Nice List) as well. I honestly didn't realize how much there is to learn when it comes to stamping and it has helped me a lot. Not to mention the fantastic projects we get to make!

For this class, I'll be posting in two parts. This post, part one, is lessons one through four. To start, we made basically a 'collage' of the stamps in the sets we used, to get used to how each one stamps, how much pressure is required for a crisp image, etc. I didn't think I needed this process, until I took a prior Stamp Therapy class and realized this step really is very helpful. Plus, I have lots of images I can cut out if I choose to use them on gift tags, etc. These stamps are the new Heidi Swapp release, Merry Little Christmas, available at Heidi Swapp Shop.

In addition to the stamping projects and fabulous tips for better stamping, we learned how to create our own custom Distress Oxide colors. For this class, we made red and green blends to match the pattern papers for the Merry Little Christmas release, as mentioned above. 

The doors are a stamp set, but you can also purchase the die set with interactive doors that open to reveal a photo or whatever you choose to put inside. Super fun to work with and makes a great gift tag as well. 

The cars and truck are one of my new favorites. This set is called Tree Farm and is also part of the new release. 

Once we created our collages and custom ink blends, we made some tags with the stamp sets. 

These last two are 'jumbo' tags (also available in Heidi's store; precut in pads of 24). I love working with this large size when creating a scene. 

Star Dust stickles makes excellent glistening snow. 

And glossy accents were the perfect accent for this string lights!

For this tag we combined a few of the new stamp sets to create one large happy holiday tag. Love!

TOMORROW!!!

Coming in Part 2 of The Nice List, we created a Christmas tag banner that turned out so super cute!!! You're going to want one for yourself, I know you will. :) (P.S. You can purchase the class at any time. Once you do, it will be in your account to use any time you like, as many times as you like. Heidi's store linked above.)

Happy crafting!

12 Makes of Christmas, cont'd

Of the 12 makes, I have completed 9. The final three are waiting for product that I haven't been able to improvise. Without further ado, here are the other five completed tags. This has been such a fun class, and I've really learned a lot and my stamping has improved -well, in my eyes. I hope it's noticeable, anyway. Hahaha. Please don't hesitate to comment or email if you have any questions. Be sure to include your email address so I can respond. :)  

Snowfall

December

Hey, Santa

Holiday Road

Metallic silver pen was perfect for the silver bells. 

Festival of Trees

Of course, more stickles and glossy accents. You can't go wrong! 

12 Makes of Christmas, cont'd

Today's tag share is Peppermint Twist. This was so much fun. Again, I had to do a lot of improvising (had to stamp and hand cut the candies as I don't have the pattern paper that includes them) as well as the "sugary" edges of the tag. (I have yet to acquire Tim Holtz's mica flakes and rock candy.) For that, I used Martha Stewart, coarse crystal glitter and Ranger glossy accents. 

Stamp sets I used for this one Heidi Swapp Trimmings, Merry Little Christmas, November Stamp Society  alphabet, Hometown Holiday. 

Lots of glossy accents, stickles, glitter and heat embossing for this look. Looks almost good enough to eat! Haha

Lumberjack plaid Distress Oxide and black ink are the only colors used for this one. White and clear embossing powder for the peppermints and candy canes.