If you’ve been following along for a while, you’re probably already aware that one of my favorite stamp sets of all time is the Abstract Paint Strokes from the Essentials by Ellen line. Since it’s been at least a month since I last used it (who am I?!), I figured it was time for a comeback – this time, with a Valentines theme.
This weekend I’ll be hosting brunch for a group of friends, and the project I’ve got for you today is a set of gift tags made with (mostly) non-Valentines supplies. It’s always so satisfying to find ways to make the stamps in your stash go further, whether that’s with a seasonal color palette, sentiments, or both.
To get started, I stamped an entire sheet of 8.5 x 11″ cardstock with one of the stamps in the Abstract Paint Strokes stamp set, working in diagonal lines with the following inks:
Hot tip: I highly recommend stamping a full sheet of cardstock rather than smaller panels because it means you only need to draw guidelines with a pencil and ruler once. I’m all about saving time!
Once my sheet was covered, I also added random hearts with a small stamp from the Love Notes stamp set in these coordinating ink colors:
With the print created, I used one of the dies from the Farmhouse Tags die set to cut 8 tags, then did the same from a sheet of plain white cardstock. (This isn’t necessary, but I wanted to stick each plain one to the back of the printed ones to make the tags more sturdy.) While my Farmhouse Tags were out, I cut 8 long skinny ones from vellum, 8 from coordinating cardstock, and 8 reinforcements from gold cardstock.
The die cutting wasn’t quite done yet because I needed sentiments – short ones! Using the Classic Block Alpha die set, I cut the letters for LOVE and MWAH until I had 8 sets. From there, all I needed to do was glue the block letters and reinforcements to the long skinny tags, layer them over the printed tag and vellum piece, and tie them to the wrapped candles I made.
I hope this project has encouraged you to stretch your supplies, perhaps making them work for occasions like Valentine’s Day. Whether or not you’re doing anything to celebrate, I hope you’ll treat yourself to a little extra self-care, whether that’s in your craft room or doing something else you love!
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