is it a Christmas tree...

or is it a ________...?

when I announced my new products last week,  I mentioned that I designed images that were not all strictly "holiday" images...

but could easily be used for holiday art...and used year round too...

this is the "holiday icons" SiSi (stamp-it stencil-it) & it includes 2 stamps & a coordinating stencil...

below is the "happy holidays" stencil...

take a look at these tree stencils...

do you see what I see?

it started like this...

I put rubbing alcohol onto my craft sheet, added a drop of the gold metallic mixative & a drop of tree branch archival reinker...

then mixed the reinker into the alcohol to dilute the reinker...

then placed the tag into the inky solution to soak up the color & then dried the tag...

I used a small #5 manila tag...

honestly, I've not used this tag much in the past, but I'm LOVING this small size for super quick projects...

I'm planning to use them for all my holiday gift tags...

their small size will make them a quickie project...

I plan to make all the backgrounds at once...

with the rubbing alcohol/reinker technique, it will only take a few minutes...

once my backgrounds are done, I can finish the tags in small increments of time...

it's VERY interesting to note that even though the tag gets completely saturated, there is NO warping AT ALL...

that's because I used rubbing alcohol...NOT water...

the rubbing alcohol actually gives the manila tag a velvet feel...

a very fun discovery...

next, I used watering can archival to stamp small portions of the new lace to the tag top & tag bottom...

to create the oval, I used a  scrap of a reinker/alcohol background that I had created previously...

it's cut from a larger sheet where I used forget-me-not & cornflower blue reinkers, to create a monochromatic background...

the oval is the left over, cut-out part of tim's ornate frame die from Sizzix...

NOW...

if you look at the tree stencils below, I think they look like FERNS!

I stenciled leaf green & fern green archivals thru the upside down trees...

SEE...how the trees have been transformed into... ferns! 

I'm flippin'...happy that now I can use these stencils all year round...

you'll see I used jet black archival for my sentiment...

and added some gathered twigs distress ink to accent the oval edge...

next, I stenciled tree branch thru the "add a stencil"...

a small detail...BUT...

EVERY little detail & EVERY layer matters in the end!

back to the tag...

I used the "yikes, stripes" stencil with tree branch, then moved the stencil over to mask off the stripes & used cornflower blue to add another color of stripes...

if you don't position the stripes stencil exactly...

you'll get a third color of stripes...

see the manila peeking thru?

I think it accentuates the stripes & creates a faux dimensional effect!

it's a very simple background & easily customizable for any project you're working on...

I added gathered twigs to the tag edges & flicked on some water using the detailer waterbrush...

that bleaches out the distress ink & creates some water spots in the areas that were inked with distress inks, but the water didn't affect my permanent archival inks...

now...on to the oval...

I used watering can to stamp the flourish...

and the tarnished brass distress paint to add an edge to the oval...

what's a project without a flower?

I stamped just the pansy SiSi flower using jet black, onto a "clearly for art" scrap, that was covered with vintage dictionary text...

then positioned the stencil over the flower...

you'll see below that the pansy is a 2 part layered stencil...

I added orange blossom archival first, using the portion of the stencil that inks the outside edge & the flower center...

then I positioned the open part of the stencil & added yummy dandelion...

and cut out the flower...

I heated the clearly for art to soften the material & slightly bent the petals to create some dimension...

here's my finished tag...

don't forget a few black glaze pen dots & some pen stitching...

it may be a small tag...but I think it's CUTE & it makes an impact!

I like that the oval hangs a bit over the tag edge...
and I LOVE the super simple multicolored background!

so the moral of this post is to look at what you have & ask yourself...

"what else can I use this for...?

when I...

make art!
wendy

ps...like the stamp says...