Day two with Sharon Johnson -JustRite Vintage Christmas Tags

Sharon has out done herself today with this gorgeous JustRite Vintage Tags !! All we can say is WOW!!! THESE ARE STUNNING!!! We think you will all agree!! Who knew that brown Vintage tags would be so delightful!!

Today JustRite goes vintage, with the help of Wonderland designer paper by Cosmo Cricket. I am really LOVING this combination!!! I’ve done 9 different tags that are fairly easy to mass produce when you break down the process, and we’ll get to that in a minute. But first I have a question – have you ever designed and made tags, lots of tags, for Christmas gifts – only to find out when you pull out your wrapping papers that NONE of your tags coordinate very well with your papers? Well, it’s happened to me – LOL!!! Over the past several years I have reverted to using a lot of brown paper – brown postal wrap – even grocery sacks cut and turned to the other side. I love the country/vintage charm of the brown wraps. And the good thing is, when I’m making tags, I don’t have to worry about my tags matching – I just keep the brown paper theme in my head as I’m creating, and it ALWAYS works!!! Here are a couple of brown wrapped packages.


The box on the left is wrapped in brown postal wrap and the bag is a purchased brown handled bag that is decorated up. See what I mean – brown, vintage, Cosmo Cricket, JustRite – a project that is Just Rite!!! Let’s get started.

For this project I used the Christmas Stamp Ensemble which is used with the Harmony Classic Circle Stamper III (that’s the largest at about 3.25”), and I also used Times New Roman Font in the smallest of the Harmony Rectangle Stampers. I used Ranger Distress Inks in Vintage Photo and Fired Brick and my ancient Deco Corner Punch by All Night Media and my SU Corner Rounder. Determine how many tags you’d like to make. I cut papers for 12 for this project, but only 9 are completed at this time. I wanted my tags to be sturdy, so I have a SU Chocolate Chip base with the Cosmo Cricket DP adhered to it. Cut your card stock bases to 3 x 7”. Then cut an equal number of DP strips into 3” widths, and I cut mine to 5.5” long. Now, if you are using an 8” DP pack as I was, you will be left with many 2.5’ x 3” pieces to use as well. I used these on the bottom portion of my tags.

Now that you’ve got your strips all cut, stamp all your sentiments using the Christmas Stamp Ensemble. I stamped onto SU Very Vanilla. You have 6 centers to choose from and 6 borders, for countless combinations. Because I wanted a smaller image, I only used my centers for this project. Once stamped, I then cut them out with my Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders. I then used papers from the Wonderland pack to cut out mats and scalloped borders for my stamped sentiments. Your color scheme is pretty well determined by the DP you chose, so take a few minutes and pull out all ribbons and other embellishments you think you may want to use, things that coordinate with your paper and go well with the style you are after – vintage for my project.

The next step is to adhere your DP to your cardstock base. I adhered the top 5.5” piece of DP first, then the bottom smaller piece, separating the two pieces of DP with a strip of a solid color. Then punch your upper and lower corners. I then stamped my To and From near the bottom of the tag, using Times New Roman Font and the smaller of the Harmony Rectangle Stamper (2 come in a box). I set an SU Jumbo Eyelet in the top of each tag with my Cropadile, and then adhered all the sentiments to their mats and frames. I also applied the Vintage Photo ink DTP to all my edges (DTP = means you apply the ink directly from the pad to the paper). And now you are ready for the really fun part – decorating up your pretty tags!
For these tags I used some really pretty wired ribbon-by-the-yard from Wal-mart, twill, a vintage button, rhinestones, and SU Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware. I love using wired ribbon – it just DOES whatever you want it too!!! So pretty!!!
This is probably my favorite grouping of tags. I LOVE the deep red velvet used here! Again, more of the same items listed above, plus some vintage lace from my sewing stash and a Prima.
Here I used a satin ribbon with blanket stitching that has a very, very fine wired edge from Michaels, and more of the same items listed above. Some of my main image sentiments are popped up with dimensional products and some are not – just depends on what other embellies are on the sentiment. With all of these pretty ribbons, are you wondering how I actually tie these tags onto packages? Take a look:

I just run my string or twine through the ribbon loop on the back with my tweezers, using that string to tie my tag to my bag handle or wherever. This allows the beautiful ribbons to stay as is, pretty as can be!!!
This is a purchase brown handled bag, and luck was with me on this one!!! My Cosmo Cricket Wonderland paper is 8” wide, exactly the same width as the bag! How handy!!! I first cut two 2” strips of the deeper red color and adhered one to the top and one to the bottom. Then I just selected an 8 x 8” piece of the DP and adhered it in the middle – my entire bag is covered and looks GREAT with so little effort!!! How fun!!!

And here we have the bag with a tag hanging on it and a small box wrapped in the brown postal wrap. Once wrapped, I took my Vintage Photo ink and DTP’d all corners of the package -- LOVE that look. I wrapped the package with string, tied on my tag, added a button in the upper corner to visually give it a little balance, and called it done!!! HOW FUN!!!! I just LOVE doing these types of tag/packaging projects, and I hope you liked it too and will give it a try!!! It will certainly be a JustRite project for the coming gift-giving season!!!

Editor added: If you love these tags and haven't been to Sharon's Blog today - click here to see the stunning card she designed to coordinate with these beautiful tags.

PLEASE NOTE: Some of your JustRite stamps, particularly those with large, solid images, may have to be conditioned to get a good, clear and sharp image. Please refer to this SCS tutorial on Conditioning Your JustRite Stamps.

Supplies:
JustRite Stamps: Christmas Stamp Ensemble, Times New Roman Font, used with Harmony Rectangle Stamper and Harmony Classic Circle Stamper III
Paper: Wonderland 8 x 8 DP by Cosmo Cricket, SU Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla
Ink: Ranger Distress in Fired Brick and Vintage Photo
Accessories: Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Deco Corner Punch by All Night Media, SU Corner Rounder, an array of ribbons, hardware, buttons, lace, twine, needle and thread, rhinestones, brown handled bag, brown postal wrap, red line tape, dimensional products, glue dots

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".