Creation Station: Gifts from the Garden

Howdy Crafty Friends!  I hope all of you that are in the US are enjoying your Independence weekend.  And the rest of you - I hope you are having a great weekend too!  Our banner really seems patriotic and seasonal - with many thanks to our own Cindy Schuster.

This month we are focusing on Gifts from the Garden - and those can be any type of garden-y gifts, flowers, veggies, you name it.  I'm a "canner," as my hubby refers to me (with more sarcasm than love!).  In fact we have a group of us that get together every summer, compile our garden goodies and can as much as we can - usually until we run out of jars!  We try our luck with about everything - from jams to pickles to spaghetti sauce and salsa.  It's always good to see my cellar shelves stocked full of yummy stuff that we can eat all winter long.....and sometimes longer!

So....I naturally went with some canned goods as my "Gifts from the Garden".

These were so fun  - and pretty simple to "spruce up." I created some little jar tags from the Jar of Love set and Everyday Jars Framelits.  There is a super simple way to create a folding tag with your dies.  Cut your paper twice as long (or wide) as you need and score in half.  For this tag, I needed a piece of Pool Party cardstock that was 2"x6", then scored at 3".  Then, take this mini card and die cut it by leaving the edge of your die a little bit off the edge of the score:

This ensures that you don't cut the edge of the card where the score line is.  I DID die cut first and then stamped afterwards.  Because the stamps are clear, it's rather simple to line up the stamp onto the die cut image.

To jazz them up a bit more, I stamped and die cut out the lid - using Smoky Slate.  I was going after an antique jar look - the kind with the zinc lids.  And because this set has thee most adorable little flowers, I stamped a bunch of those and added them too.  I went with a double color combo of Peekaboo Peach topped with Flirty Flamingo and then Flirty Flamingo topped with Melon Mambo.  It's fun to see how the colors react differently with each other as they dry. 

I think they turned out exceptionally cute!  I think I'll use the extras on other gifts besides my canned goods!  The fact that they came together quickly means that I can mass produce these! 

To finish off my "Gifts from the Garden," I topped the jars with circles of Fruit Stand DSP, then wrapped the lids with some of the new 5/8" Burlap Ribbon.  It's the PERFECT width for the edge of the lids!  YEAH!!!!  Tie the tag on and you've got an adorable gift.  Plus, it's DOUBLY handmade - so who's not to love it?

I hope that I've inspired you to do something a little out of the ordinary with your dies (you can create folding tags with MANY dies).  Now, it's time to continue to be inspired by the rest of our talented team!  Be sure to leave everyone a comment to show them some love!