Live The Life You’ve Imagined

"Live The Life You've Imagined" – I love that!  I had a fun day yesterday because I finally took a break from filming the new Holiday Videos for StampAcademy.  When I came upstairs, I realized that My Embosing Paste had FINALLY arrived!  (It was lost in Ohio for days and days!  Not sure what's going on with Priority Mail – but that's a story for another day!)  So…you know I've been aching to try Embossing Paste! Well, when it finally made its much anticipated arrival, I realized that I had no stencils!  (They're not due in 'till next month!) SO, I did what any crazy Paper Crafter would do, I immediately went on a quest to find one!  

I ran to our local big box Craft Store – which I almost never do – and I looked in the stencil aisle and was surprised to see the stencils from an old friend – Jamie from The Crafter's Workshop!  Wow! I was so thrilled for her!  I had been meaning to tell her how excited I was a few weeks ago when my (imaginary) boyfriend, T!m, used one of her stencils in a video and then mentioned it.  Wow!  I was VERY impressed!  I did not realize she'd become such a star in the world of Paper Crafts!  Back in the day, many years ago, Jamie had an amazing Craft Store in New York called The Crafter's Workshop.  We would go there several times A WEEK!  It was SO fun!  She had EVERYTHING you could imagine in there and, if you asked her how something was done, she would just whip out the products and show you right then and there!  She had amazing Guest Stampers from all over the country that would do classes for her.  It was a sad day when that place closed! But, Jamie just moved over to the Wholesale World and continued to make beautiful things! Her stencils are now "famous!"   It's so rewarding when you see a nice person achieve the success they deserve!  So, I happily brought a couple of them home with me and used them on my September Tag - which is for my now famous friend, Jamie!

So…I started with a plain manila tag and put some embossing paste over a stencil and then let that dry for a few hours.  (This is a different part of the stencil than the one that was used on this finished tag.)

Then, I put another stencil on the lower left and pounced some Whisper White Craft Ink through it and heat set it.  Next, I moved the stencil and pounced some Basic Black Ink through it and embossed it using Clear Embossing Powder and a Heat Tool.  I spritzed the tag with water and ran Distress Stains over it and then spritzed it with more water and heat set it. I added another layer of the same colors and heat set that. I dropped a couple of water droplets over the tag and heat set them.

You can see the layers of colors and the water droplets in this photo. I love how the embossing paste takes the color!  Great texture too!  To add a little more interest, I inked up a French Script Stamp randomly with Jet Black Stazon Ink and touched the tag to the stamp in different places to pick up some of the writing.

I added a rub on (the numbers down the side) and adhered the key to the tag using Glue Dots and then Crystal Effects to make sure it STAYS on there!.I stamped the sentiment "Live The Life You've Imagined" onto the tag but it just did NOT look good.  So, I stamped it onto a scrap of Very Vanilla Cardstock, embossed it with Black Soot Distress Embossing Powder, inked the background in the same way as the rest of the tag, tore it, sponged over it and then ran Vintage Photo and Black Soot Distress Stain over the edges and adhered it to the front of the tag.

The Crinkle Ribbon was spritzed with water and then the same color Distress Stains were inked over it.  I crinkled it, dried it with my Heat Tool and then touched it to the same script stamp in different places.  I heat set it again and then attached a black tag to the back of this tag to give it a finished look.  Of course, my trusty Distress Tool was used on all edges.  I pulled the ribbon through and embellished it using a pin and a token attached with a jump ring.

I like to finish off one of the corners of my tags with a metal corner trinket because I think, if they're used as bookmarks, they'll hold up better.  Not sure if that's true but it looks good anyway! LOL!

I sure do hope Jamie likes it!  It's a long way from the stamping I did 15 years ago but I still love it just as much, if not more!  Tomorrow is the last of my September Tags so definitely come back to visit!  If you haven't signed up for my mailing list yet, you can just leave your info in the box in the upper left corner. Oh and, by the way, here's a picture of Jamie and me! 😀

Thanks so much for stopping by! 😀

SUPPLIES: (Visit my ONLINE STORE for the products with Item #s)

• Manila Tag
• Very Vanilla Cardstock #101650
• Black Tag
• Mini Time Travel Stencil
• Embossing Paste
• Mini Ledger Stencil
• Life's Possibilities Stamp
• French Script Stamp
• Whisper White Craft Ink #101731
• Basic Black Classic Ink #126980
• Jet Black Stazon Ink #101406
• Distress Stains: Fired Brick, Wild Honey, Broken China, Vintage Photo
• Clear Embossing Powder #109130
• Black Soot Distress Embossing Powder
• Heat Tool #129053
• Rub Ons
• Distress Tool #127562
• Crystal Effects #101055
• Crinkle Ribbon
• Spritz Bottle #126185
• Stampin' Sponges #101610
• Rub On
• Assorted Trinkets:  Corner, Key, Pin, Jump Ring & Token
• Sticky Strip #104294
• Glue Dots #103683