Anchored with love tag and card JRC_077

I made this tag and card for JustRite Friday Challenge #077 - "Tag! You're It!". When I saw the challenge, I instantly thought of making a wooden tag which would be part of a card and could be removed by the recipient and used as an ornament, but most of the people who receive my cards keep them forever, and once the ornament was removed the card wouldn't be pretty any more. I decided to stamp the anchor in the center of the card, so there would be an image there when the tag was removed and mount the tag over it. Unfortunately the tag didn't look so great over the stamped image, so I decided to make the card so that the tag would go inside instead.

The stamp set I used was JustRite's Anchors Away. The wooden tag was stamped with Black Stazon, and the stamps on the card were done with VersaFine Onyx Black. The tag is on two layers of wood veneer, with the grain going in opposite directions for strength. The front is oak, and the back is mahogany.

The tag was lightly colored with Copics, and the card was distressed with Antique Linen. I die cut all the stamps with JustRite's Nested Medallion Labels Dies, Nested Oval Medallion Labels Dies and Vintage Label & Banner Dies. The stamped images are mounted dimensionally, and the Anchor and background were stamped twice, and the rope part and anchor were cut out and mounted dimensionally over the first stamping.

The DP is from K&Co, and is mounted on very old linen textured metallic antique gold. I applied two narrow lengths of antique gold Offray ribbon for added interest, and used the same ribbon on the tag.

Ship Box with JustRite Stamp

I haven't got a card finished today because I finished this box for my shop today.

I stamped JustRite's Anchors Away onto wood veneer and die cut it in my Grand Calibur with JustRite's Nested Medallion Labels Dies, then painted it with craft acrylics. Unfortunately, the paint was drying too fast even though I used a retarder, and it's not as smooth as I would have liked. It looks smoother in person. I was also having trouble shading the rope because it was drying so fast and it looks a bit messy in the photo. Then I mounted the veneer onto a wooden box and put a few coats of varnish on it.

I'd rather be making cards, but customers like my boxes too, so sometimes I have to make other things.

Spellbinders, Stamps, Wood Veneer and Copics

Yesterday I posted a tray with stamps on wood Veneer and cut with Spellbinders dies. People who come into my shop really loved it, so today I made four more. One of them I added a touch of color with Copics. Since they are so popular, I am going to do wooden Tissue Box covers to match.

This is the same lighthouse as in yesterday's photo, only this one I colored with copics. The colors don't show up well in the photograph, but the grass is green and the water blue, with a yellow light in the top. They do show up well in person. The wood grain and stamping show through the colors and it looks like the wood is stained.

The other three I made today are below. I didn't color them, and the photos of all of these are before they have all of the layers of varnish. I may do other colored ones as well after I do the tissue boxes and some other things I plan on making.

Spellbinders, Stamps and Wood Veneer

Today I tried stamping on wood veneer and cutting it out with Spellbinders dies, and this is the result. It worked very well!

Quite a few years ago I got some paper thin wood veneer. Some of it had self adhesive backing, and some didn't. For the veneer without the backing, I ran it through the Xyron. Since some of it is fairly brittle, I am thinking that there is less chance of splitting it in the Grand Calibur if it's stuck to paper than if it isn't.

After using the Xyron, I put one coat of water based varnish on the veneer to seal it just in case the wood is porous. (It's just the hardware store kind of water based varnish, not the fancy, expensive artists stuff). I then stamped it with Stazon. The stamps I used are JustRite's By the Sea set. The darker background was cut with my paper cutter to the size of the tray, then I used Spellbinders Labels Eighteen and ran the stamped veneer through my Grand Calibur. It cut perfectly in just one pass.

After adhering the layers of veneer to the tray, I gave it three coats of the same varnish.

I may try this again by cutting out the background and then cutting out a stamped image in another kind of wood so that they are flush rather than layered to see how it looks. I also want to try coloring one lightly with my oil color pencils. (I think they were from Walnut Hollow).

It's fun to see how many things we can make with our Spellbinders dies and stamps!