Sunday, December 28, 2014

Stamping More Than Cards!



Every single year at Christmas, I mentally promise myself that THIS is the year that I will make the kids' teachers a gift, rather than purchase.  Every single year, time slips through my fingers and I am running to the store for gift cards!

 
NOT THIS YEAR!
 
 
I recently was participating in a blog hop by SugarPea Designs, and one of their talented designers had posted this on her blog.  Cathy Preissing at My Creative Space, a designer for SugarPea, had the amazing idea of stamping on tissue paper and then using an embossing gun to adhere the tissue to the candle.  I was inspired! (she included step-by-step photos of the process, so I highly recommend a visit to her page!)
 
To make my version of the candles, I purchased generic, unscented pillar candles.  I cut white tissue paper, a little smaller than the candle.  I then used the Sweet Treats-Christmas clear stamps by SugarPea Designs.  I stamped and embossed in different glitter colors.  It was truly a matter of trial and error at first.  I found that the embossing powder did better when I held the embossing gun at an angle, and approached gently.  A few times, I blew the powder right off the tissue in the first pass! LOL!
After the tissue was all decorated, I then held the tissue to the candle.  By applying the heat of the gun, it caused the outer layer of wax to get wet, and the tissue paper essentially "melted" right onto the candle.  The challenge was making sure it was all smooth.  Wanted to give it the appearance of having been stamped onto the candle.  I actually made about five candles, and this got easier as I got more practiced. 
After the candles were dry, I made a gift tag.  I started with the Gift Tag Die from SugarPea Designs.
I cut the tag out of colored corrugated paper.  I then used a combination of dies.  The oval die came from the Die-namics Well Worn Greetings dies set from My Favorite Things.  I cut it from a great paper set from Authentiqe.  It is their "Seasons: Winter" set.  The "to", "from", and banner were made using the Winter paper set as and cut with the Gift Tag Die from SPD (SugarPea Designs).
 
I tied it all together with a pretty Christmas ribbon and some paper string. 
 
I must say that I was very proud of myself for starting this project and completing it!  I couldn't wait to hear what the teachers all had to say when opening!  LOL!
 
I absolutely love that one can think out of the box and do more with stamps than just cards!
 
 


3 comments:

  1. Beautiful! I love how the small snowflake strip on the tag matches the snowflakes on the candle. Well done!

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    Replies
    1. Aw! Thank you so much! I found that paper and thought the same thing!

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  2. This turned out so beautifully!! I know the teachers were delighted to receive such a heartwarming and thoughtful gift. I'm thrilled that you were inspired by the SPD blog hop to try this technique. :)

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Thank you for your kind words!

XOXO
Dina