I can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving — and Christmas is right around the corner. Although it shouldn’t be a surprise since holiday merchandise has been showing up daily at all the craft and hobby stores. I decided to take advantage of some of the “pre Black Friday” sales that were advertised and pick up a few things, including these black tree tags.
You can do this project with any kind of tag, wood, or chipboard. It can be painted or unpainted – it’s really up to you. These called to me as they match the table runner I usually use for Thanksgiving.
Here’s what I used: a sturdy tag, the Best Glue Ever, Ranger Texture Tread, roller, loose leafing, scrap piece of wax paper, and a stiff brush. To start, I squeezed a generous amount of the Best Glue Ever onto a piece of wax paper. Next, I used my roller to spread the glue and then apply it to the Texture Tread.
While they are designed to be used with UTEE you can also use them to stamp, which is what I’m doing with the glue. They are also perfect for use with the Best Glue Ever, as the lines are nice and thick.
After the glue was applied to the Texture Tread, I pressed the trees into it. I used a separate spot on the tread for each tree. If your stamp is smaller or your tag larger you may need to reapply more glue between stamping.
And here’s what you get after you stamp. Now, the very next thing you do is WASH your roller and Texture Tread. These trees will wait — the beauty of the Best Glue Ever is that it dries tacky — and will remain tacky. So go ahead, clean your stamps, answer the phone – they’ll wait.
I usually like to gently wash my tools first in warm water to get any wet glue off. You can use a drop of dishwashing detergent as well. After they dry I use the Best Cleaner Ever to removed any remaining glue. You can either spray a little on the Perfect Cleaning Cloth then rub, or spray directly onto your stamp. If I have a lot of dried glue on my stamp, I’ll spray directly onto the stamp first and let it sit for a minute. After I’ve cleaned all the glue off with the Best Cleaner Ever I’ll give the tools a quick rinse in warm water.
Now it’s time for the bling! I have a packet of multi colored gold leaf, which I like to use for fall projects. It reminds me of the multicolored leaves that are currently all over my yard, LOL! I like to place my pieces of a clean sheet of paper, which makes it easier to put the leftover leaf back into the package.
Place a bit of leafing onto your piece and use a stiff brush to push the leafing over it. Once you’ve covered the piece use the brush to remove leafing by going back and forth firmly over the piece. You want to keep brushing until all the extra leafing is removed. Don’t throw away the extra! It can all be reused.
Once the leafing was complete I added a bit of twine and some fabric leaves. These tree tags already had a punched hole in the top. I simply added a length of twine, doubled it, threaded the loop through the tag and leaves, and placed the ends through the loop.
Here’s what it looks like again, wrapped around a napkin. Now all I need is the turkey….
