The 12 Tags of Christmas -- Day 11

I conked out early last night, and consequently was wide awake before 5am this morning.  Grabbed a cup of coffee, headed to Tim's blog, and once again, was rewarded with a great technique ..... cutting custom stamps with dies, using ..... are you ready for this ..... fun foam!

One minor problem.  After a thorough search, not a bit of the foam in my possession.  I found some foam-like substance that was part of some packing material, but it was way too thick for the dies to cut.  Now, I'm not close enough to a store to buy some, and I certainly lack the patience to order it and wait.  I've made 10 tags on the days Tim published his, and today would be no exception.

I went to the one place that often provides me with very satisfactory crafting solutions ..... my kitchen.

This is what I found in the under-the-sink cabinet:

I love this product for cleaning, but would it work for stamp making?  It's not quite as wide as Tim's on the edge dies, and on the thick side, but I thought it might work.  First I sliced it into two pieces as though cutting bread (thinking it was too thick as is).  The serrated knife glided through it like butta!  I followed Tim's directions from this point, and created these two stamps, one for my Tim tag, the other for my Wendy version:

So far, so good.  But would they take the embossing ink?  Would they stamp a clear image?  A great big resounding YES on both counts!  I'm not one to brag, but c'mon....is this a solution or what?  I'm not claiming that these stamps will last as long as the ones made from fun foam (which I sure intend to get), but they allowed me to complete my day 11 tags on day 11.  Which is all I wanted.

Here is my first tag:

I used my new snowflake on-the-edge stamp on the side, just as Tim did. (As I mentioned before, my stamp isn't long enough to cover the entire length of the tag, but I was able to reink part of it and continue the line of snowflakes seamlessly.) 

Instead of cutting the pine tree die that Tim used (from grungeboard), I used the branch tree instead.  Inked it with stained walnut and vintage photo and embossed with stained walnut distress embossing powder.  I don't have sparkly fluff, so I used white flock for the snow covered branches.   Pretty much everything else is according to Tim's directions, just in my own color choices.

This is the Wendified tag I made next:



I discovered that the crucial part of one of Wendy's stamps fit perfectly on the paper that goes behind the ornate plate.  All you have to do to use only part of a stamp is mask off the unwanted parts with tape, ink, remove the tape and stamp.  I even had a little room on the side for Wendy's small dandelion.

No need for a snow covered tree on this tag.  I used Tim's fanciful flight die and arranged it so you just see a profile of the butterfly.  The bottom layer was inked with wild honey and rusty hinge, then over stamped with one of Wendy's backgrounds.  The top layer (with the cutouts) was inked with faded jeans and broken china and then embossed with broken faded jeans distress embossing powder.  And keeping with all of Tim's techniques, I covered the head (is that what it is???) of the butterfly with brown flock.

I added one of Wendy's butterflies to finish it off, and created the antennae with some wire and two small beads.

Eleven days of wonderful tags, lots of inspiration and a whole bunch of fun.  Thanks, Tim!