Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Make It Monday - Easter Tag Cards

Today I have something I made for the PTI Make It Monday Challenge - Heat Embossing on die cuts.  I needed 3 special Easter Cards for my grand nephews and niece and when I saw that Erin used the Special Delivery stamps, Sentiments and dies for her sample - I knew I wanted to design something with that set - seeing as I just had to have that set - and then never used it - until today!
I made Tags for the kidlettes - and used a really long piece of twine on them - so they could wear them like necklaces if they so desired - or they could hang them from a lamp or something.   
I like to try and use ALL PTI products when I participate in the PTI challenges, but I thought I didn't have any Easter stamps to use even though I have a plethora of PTI stamp sets!!??!!  

So I went to the PTI shop and typed in SENTIMENTS in the search box to see if I could find a set with Happy Easter in it  -  and Limitless Labels was one of the sets that came up - (an older PTI set which I happen to have!) and lo and behold - the set contained happy EASTER AND a little egg!  
Then I checked my Tiny Treats Valentine's set because I knew that had a lot of little animals in it - and sure enough - there was the little bunny with a heart cottontail, sweet as you please in the set!
And did you notice the cool little blue and pink 'enamel' dots on my tags?  I made them myself (!) - out of Perler Beads  -  which I had never heard of (not having young kids doing crafts in my home anymore).  I came across a tutorial in blog land on how to make dots out of them.  I found this package of them at Michaels for $5.99.
Basically -  you heat your oven to 325 degrees F,  place a piece of parchment paper on a small baking sheet (I used a pizza pan!), stand up the pieces on end - leaving enough space between them so they don't melt together, and cook for 35 minutes!  It doesn't smell at all (sometimes when you melt plastic in the oven it stinks!) and they come out perfectly round!
Here they are all standing up on their ends before going in the oven.  Here's a link to the tutorial I found by Katie Gehring
Here they are after 35 minutes in the oven - perfectly round shaped little 'enamel' dots! (you[ll notice two of my orange ones were too close together and they merged!)
and here they are taken off the parchment - Gosh -  just looking at these makes me happy!!
The beads that are in two colors - the light blue and light pink in my package shown above - melt down to look like little flowers or pinwheels - those are the ones I used on my tags today.
 
I'm also entering these in the Curtain Call Challenge - Confetti Crush
 
 You never know when you are going to find something fun and new out there!

Stamps:  Special Delivery, Special Delivery Sentiments, Tiny Treats Valentines, Limitless Labels - Papertrey Ink.
Paper:  Sweet Blush, SPring Rain, Harvest Gold - PTI
Ink:  Versamark, Hibiscus Burst, Spring Rain - PTI
Accessories:  Perler Beads (to make enamel dots) - Michaels, Ocean and Blossom Twine - The Twinery, Ranger Distress Marker - Spun Sugar, Word Window Punch - SU, Tag Sale Die #3 - PTI, white embossing powder, Special Deliver Die - PTI, heat gun.

34 comments:

Lynn said...

Julia, these tags are absolutely adorable...and what a cool way to make enamel dots! I love them!

Diane Jaquay said...

These are so cute, Julia! Love what you did with the beads too!

Annette Allen said...

oh my word cutest tags ever and how clever to make your own enamel dots with the beads... very very clever.. thanks for sharing.. might just have to give it a try.. :)

~amy~ said...

awesome tags and yahooo on your enamel dots:) Good to hear that it doesn't come with an odor.

Betty Wright said...

These tags are super cute, Julia! Love the colors you chose! I am going to have to make some dots, too! Thanks so much for the tute/tip! Awesome!

Anonymous said...

Oh WOW I love those tags!! So festive!!!Great enamel dots too, so very clever!

Mary Marsh said...

the tags are so cute Julia and the kids will love them. Thanks for the tip on making enamel dots-I have to try this-going to Michaels to buy some with my 40%

Mona Pendleton said...

So cute Julia! I love the little melted beads! Fantastic idea! Thanks for the inspiration!

Kay D said...

Super sweet and oh so adorable! I love your perler bead enamel dots- I need to go raid my daughter's stash to see if she has any of those striped ones.

Redanne said...

Your tags are so sweet, I love that you added string so that they can be worn around the neck -great idea! Your beads are am-a-zing, how very clever is that...

Thanks for your lovely comment on my beach house, it was very kind of you. Anne xx

Nancy Penir said...

Julia, these are so cute and clever, I can't stand it! Love your sweet tutorial on the beedy things! I think I have them somewhere. Too busy crafting cards to look! Have a wonderful Easter with you kiddies!

Joni Andaya said...

So Adorable Julia!!! Those little bunnies so cute :)

Deepti said...

Adorable tags!! Afyter seeing ur enamel dots, I guess I will have to make my own... its so easy and they look perfect!!

Bonnie said...

Love these tags, Julia and the dots are terrific! How many tries does it take to get them into the oven still standing? LOL, I can see some tipsy beads! I'm going to give this a try though.

Stacey Schafer said...

what a precious set of tags!

Jen W. said...

Your beads are fantastic! I'm definitely going to get some of these. I'd seen the tutorial on making these and tried it with some beads I had at home. It wasn't until they didn't melt at all after 40 minutes that I realized they were glass! DOH!

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

What a fun design!

Outside Inn said...

Love that you did your own dots! And don't we all have PTI sets that we "had to have" and then don't use... guilty.

Erin (Homemade Cards by Erin) said...

oops, that was the wrong account.

Darnell said...

Where to start? Julia, I loved everything about this post! The tags are absolutely the BEST! And your idea to leave the twine long so they can wear them as necklaces is inspired! Kidlets LOVE that kind of stuff! Thank you, too, for the bead link. I've seen the idea before but I've never seen anything as darling as those pinwheel dots!! Happy Easter to you and your family!! Hugs, Darnell

Manuela said...

lovely easter tags, and your tip is great, the dots looks so cute. i will try it...

Kristie Goulet said...

I LOVE your tags with the homemade enamel dots! So fun!!!

Martha said...

Julia, your tags are absolutely DARLING! I love the sweet images you used and the pretty colors. Beautifully done! And, how fun that you created your own enamel dots.

Patti said...

What an outstanding use of the Special Delivery truck! I LOVE it!

Thank you so much for the tutorial on the little enamel dots! I will be trying this for sure : )

Patti

BLOG CANDY! at my blog : ) For a chance to win simply stop by and leave a comment on my latest post! Hope to see you there : )

inkyfingy said...

What sweet tags these are, I too have only recently discovered how to make the melted dots, aren't they just fun? I only have pony beads which are larger. I will watch out for the ones you mention as they look smaller, oh and thanks for visiting my page and your lovely comments!

Anonymous said...

So so so much fun! I still need to give this a try, maybe during Easter break this coming week. I love them and your tags, just too darn cute.

Joan Ervin said...

What adorable Easter tags, Julia...the kiddos are going to love them!!! Thanks for the tutorial, too...what a great idea to melt the beads!!

Sharli Schaitberger said...

OMGSH Julia, this is awesome! I bet you could get bigger dots with bigger beads, too - have you tried pony beads? I really love the " flower" look of the pink and blue ones and your tags are just darling! I am definitely going to try this at home!!! Hugs!

Tracey McNeely said...

Super cute tags Julia and so creative! Happy Easter and thank you so much for joining us the Curtain Call!

cm said...

Stunning tags, and the enamel dots are super cool! I think a shopping trip is in order....
c

Kelly Griglione said...

Oh yay, we actually own these beads already! I was wondering if they would work but hadn't gotten around to trying them yet. THANKS for letting me know! Too bad we don't have the striped ones ... those turned out so well, and unique from the enamel dots you buy. Wonderful post, Julia!

Loll said...

Hi Julia. Thanks for the tutorial on how to make enamel dots. Definitely have to give this a try! Loll xx

Linda Callahan said...

Cute tags and fabulous how to tip!

Greta said...

Great job finding what you needed in those stamp sets for these darling tags! I only recently heard of Perler beads & now I see I need to get some! Great enamel dots!