Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tuesday, December 13th - Day 9

Art ‘n Soul’s annual Twelve Tags of Christmas event to support the Thurston County Food Bank began Monday, December 5th.

Dianne created this tag for Tuesday, December 13^th, the ninth day, and she’ll be at the store all day to show you how to make it.   We’ll have a new tag for you every day through Friday, December 16th.

While you are at the store, be sure to take advantage of our Twelve Days of Christmas daily special.  On Tuesday you can get one free Magenta cat stamp with a minimum $30 purchase. Don't forget, just for coming in, you can fill out a ticket for our drawing! For each $10 pre-tax that you spend, you can fill out another ticket. The Twelve Days of Christmas runs through Thursday, December 22nd.  Follow our blog or Facebook to see the daily special.

Today’s tag showcases one of our favorite techniques: alcohol ink on Yupo paper! To begin creating the background, drop some drops of alcohol ink onto a piece of Yupo paper (I used a piece 2.5" x 3"), and watch the ink "bloom". Then choose a color of ink to apply to the felt of a felt blending tool. Pounce the tool all over the drops of ink on your Yupo paper to create the beautiful mottled effect. Yupo paper works best if you do not handle it or touch it much with your fingers, since the oils on your hands will affect how the ink moves on the paper. To create a similar colored background, you can use alcohol inks in Turquoise and/or Pool, Raspberry, Amethyst or Purple Twilight, Mermaid and Botanical. I pounced with the green ink at the end, so that it would look like the Aurora Borealis.

To complete the tag, I die cut two tags using the Sizzix Super Scallop Tag die (sorry this tag die is no longer available from Sizzix, but you could cut a piece of paper to at least 3.25" x 4.5", round the corners, and punch a hole in the top for a similar size tag). Next I used a Memory Box die 99579, Countryside Circle to cut out the center of one of the tags.

Once the Yupo paper was inked and had dried (the alcohol ink dries pretty quickly) I adhered the Yupo piece to the back of the open area of the Countryside Circle cut-out. I stamped under the cut-out using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I actually have two versions of this tag, since I couldn't decide which stamp I liked better.

The stamps I used are Memory Box B1385 Heaven Sings; and Hero Arts F3605 Peace Border. A piece of ribbon was added at the top. The second tag was adhered to the back.

The Art ‘n Soul staff will provide all the materials you need to make each day’s tag.  The cost to you is a donation of non-perishable food or $1 (or more if you would like) for each tag you make.  All donations go directly to the Thurston County Food Bank.  We really appreciate your support to this great community program.  We look forward to seeing you in the store this month to thank you in person.

Additional News:
We have received a shipping notice that our MISTIs are on the way. We don't have an arrival date yet, but if you want one, we encourage you to call or come in and pre-pay to ensure you get one. We are getting a case of the standard, and a case of the minis.

We have also received a shipping notification from Ranger, and that will arrive on Monday the 19th. There will be Yupo paper, alcohol ink, the small packs of watercolor paper and more!