Aloha, all!
Saturdays this month – and probably for the rest of the year – have been focusing on what I’ve been doing outside of the projects on which I’ve posted the rest of the week. This week I made a set of 30 (yes, Thirty!) Christmas cards out of a kit that was not meant for cards. I had a blast, but I’m so glad I’ve finished and can move on to some Thanksgiving-themed projects.
The Tag Buffet Kit
One of Stampin’ Up!’s holiday-themed kits this year is a kit for making tags. I have to tell you that I probably turned that page in the catalog as quickly as I’ve ever turned a catalog page. Sure, when I was younger and had brothers and sisters, children, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles and mothers and fathers, I NEEDED TAGS! But for the past many years since my husband and I retired, I really don’t have much use for tags. Yes, I make tags for my husband’s gifts. And, if there’s a group party, I definitely add tags to gifts that I bring. So maybe half a dozen tags total? A kit with 30 tags was overdoing it big time.
Then it occurred to me that those were great images and fun designs to use as card fronts!
The Tag Buffet CARD Kit!
Not only did I buy the Tag Buffet Kit. I also bought the Tag Buffet Stamp Set that coordinates with it. What a great stamp set – it even has a verse to stamp inside a card!
The first thing that I did was to sort all of the pieces of the kit onto my work table. The write up says that there are 5 each of 6 designs for a total of 30 tags. But that doesn’t mean there were 30 tags. There were 30 larger tags with a printed background design; 30 slightly smaller white tags with gold accents; and 30+ large and colorful die-cut images to finish off the tags. That’s a lot of “stuff” and it doesn’t even count the 3 different sizes of labels to use for sentiments!
Designing the Cards
Once I had everything sorted and took it all in, I could see that there were three colors of cards that would work well with the kit elements. (If I had read the write up in the catalog a bit better, I would have known that right from the start?) So out came the Shaded Spruce, Real Red and Garden Green Cardstock and the inks to match all three.
As I cut and folded all of the card bases, I wondered how the card would look with an extra layer. I cut one 4″ x 5-1/4″ layer and texturized it with the Winter Snow Embossing Folder. That upped the look of the card quite a few notches! So a textured layer it was.
Then I had to figure out which pieces would go well with which card base. Each card was to have 3 layers from the kit’s pieces: a large tag, a white/gold tag, and an image element. Once I had all of those lined up, the production line began!
Finally I had to decide which labels would work well with which designs. I’d already decided to use the two notched label designs with the two sentiments that you see in these cards. I did have to make a few of the double-notched labels myself using Whisper White Cardstock and the Banners Pick a Punch.
The Final Touch
With those darker cardstock card bases, I definitely needed some Whisper White Cardstock inside the card for a greeting/signature. So as long as I had that fun stamp set with a verse all ready to stamp, why not stamp the inside, too.
Have I mentioned how much I used the Stamparatus for this project? For stamping these two stamps inside each of 30 cards, it was an amazing tool! I put both of the stamps onto the Stamparatus plate and off I went stamping away!
They’re All Done!
The Bottom Line
The Tag Buffet Kit and Stamp Set make a perfect kit for card-making! You might wonder how much it costs to make 30 cards rather than 30 tags. I ran some numbers, and one tag with this kit and costs about $1.60. One card, including all the cardstock, the Stampin’ Dimensionals and the envelopes costs $2.20. Not bad for a card that looks this great!
Oh, and if you happen to be on my newsletter mailing list, you’ve already seen one card made with this kit and a tutorial for making it. It’s not the same card, but you’ve missed it if you’re not on the list. There are still quite a few more Wednesday newsletters in my 12 Weeks of Christmas series. So sign up now and don’t miss any more!
Happy Stamping this November!
Love it! Great cards, Robin! I think I have one of those kits and now I have a great project to do! Don’t really need the tags. Thanks!
I didn’t need the tags, either! And the cards look better than I ever imagined they would. I’ll be quite happy to sent these for Christmas! Have fun with it, Janet!