Stamptramp: Autumn Tag Tutorial

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Autumn Tag Tutorial

Hi everyone! Now that Halloween is over (so sad I have to put away all the skulls and witches!), it's time to embrace autumn and all the wonderful colors and textures around us. One of my favorite products from Sizzix' Summer release was the Fall Leaves Texture Fades set from Tim Holtz. When I saw that one of the folders was made to emboss the leaves from Tim's Tattered Leaves die, I was so excited! I just got the set and have been anxious to try it out.

I spent a happy afternoon last week playing around with a few different ideas, including the Crumpled Kraft Suede technique from his book, Compendium of Curiosities 2, which is this week's challenge at Studio L3. Tim graciously gave me his permission to share it in my tutorial - he's the best!

I hope you enjoy it! Click on the photos to enlarge if you need to see more detail.

1. Begin by dispensing various colors of Distress Stain onto a non-stick craft sheet.

2. Drag a manila tag through the stains to color. Use heat tool to dry. Continue to press the tag into the stains, picking up more color. You can use a spray bottle of water to move the stains around or lighten areas.

3. When tag is completely dry, emboss with leaves Texture Fade. You can emboss the whole tag by inserting it as shown, embossing and then moving the folder down the tag and running it through again.

4. Using a Perfect Medium pad, ink the raised portion of the tag. Brush inked leaves with gold Perfect Pearls powder. Use another brush to remove excess. Fray edges of tag with distress tool and ink with Vintage Photo Distress ink.

5. Using the Sizzix Tattered Leaves die, cut two leaves from kraft cardstock and saturate with Inkssentials Ink Refresher. Crumple, smooth out, and dry with heat tool.
6. When dry, emboss leaves with Textured Leaves folder. How awesome are those veins?!
7. If leaves look a bit too flat after embossing, rewet with Ink Refresher and crumple again and dry.
8. Ink the raised portion of the folder with Vintage Photo Distress ink. Insert leaves into folder and emboss. This will transfer the ink into the veins of the leaves, making them even more realistic. Apply Perfect Medium to leaves and apply gold Perfect Pearls with a brush.
Note: this part was honestly me just messing around. You could definitely shorten up the process by inking the folder the first time you emboss, and skipping the second application of Ink Refresher. Play around with it to see what results you get!

9. Cut a small tag from manila cardstock using the Sizzix Tiny Tabs and Tags die. Ink just the word 'autumn' on the Thankful Silhouettes stamp and stamp onto tag.
10. Using the Sizzix Harlequin Border die, cut a strip of brown Kraft Core'dinations and sand lightly. Tie a length of idea-ology Seasonal Trimmings onto the small tag and secure with idea-ology Paper String.
11. Cut a pumpkin from chipboard using the Mini Pumpkin die. Coat the stem with Vintage Photo Distress Crackle paint and the pumpkin with Spiced Marmalade Crackle paint. Let dry.
12. When pumpkin is dry, coat with clear embossing ink and cover with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). Heat to emboss, adding an additional coat if desired. Adhere all elements as shown and tie the top with idea-ology Striped Paper String.

After I was done, I also added a light misting of gold Perfect Pearls mist. I love the extra shimmer it gives the tag. You can see the PP also misted over the UTEE-covered pumpkin - I zapped it for a bit to make the embossing liquid again and the gold splatters kind of embedded themselves in the enamel - cool effect!

A new month means a new challenge over at the Inspiration Journal blog. This month, we want to see your Thanksgiving or Fall place setting ideas. You could win a $50 shopping spree, so get busy! I love how many people have been joining in lately - you guys are awesome. :)

All the supplies I used can be found at Inspiration Emporium via the links below. Remember, you can use my coupon code - stamptramp - to save 10% off your order!