Celebrate 2021 Tag Tutorial

Hello friends. It is a new year and my first post of 2021. Hopefully it will be a good year!

At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we are kicking off the new year with a 'Use a new or unused product' theme. Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products from a specific company/designer and this week it is Brutus Monroe. You can find their great range of products here. You don't have to use Brutus Monroe products to join, but it is always fun if you do. 

We also have a new guest designer and this month Anita Rao, with her beautiful blog Beads, Charms, Wire is joining us. I hope you will stop by her blog to see what she has created for you.

I mad a tag to celebrate the coming of this new year and used a really cool new-to-me embossing powder by Brutus Monroe, both for the background and the die cuts. It is called Blue Frost and it is the only powder I used here, even though you can see various shades of white and blue and metallic. So cool! 

I started by die cutting a tag from White Heavystock paper and inked it heavily with Black Soot and Blueprint Sketch, leaving the top third white.

Apply SSS embossing ink with a mini round ink-blending tool through the Brutus Monroe Sequin Builder Slim Line stencil and sprinkle Blue Frost powder all over. Distress Ink stays wet a long time and I had only dried the tag for a short while, so there is stray powder on the inky part of the tag, which is also what I wanted since it gives a great metallic texture. Be very careful when using a heat tool so that you don't burn yourself.

The melted powder will have a white iridescent look on the white part of the tag and shades of blue metallic on the blue and black part. It is so cool that you can get all these shades with just the one powder.

I inked the top part with Speckled Egg and a little Salty Ocean.

I tested using Distress Paint instead on a tag. You can see the effect here to the left. I liked the inky tag better.

The dots stand out better on the painted tag, but that was mainly since I wanted stray powder on the inky tag, to get even more of the metallic look.

Die cut SSS Celebrate from white and gloss cardstock. Ink the white die cut with Speckled Egg and the gloss one with Blueprint Sketch.

I also die cut two SSS Simple Stems from white cardstock. The branch to the right was inked with Blueprint Sketch. These three die cuts were embossed with three layers of Blue Frost Powder.

I love the finished look of multiple layers of powder and the iridescent nature of the Blue Frost powder is so cool.

Glue the embossed word on top of the gloss word, off-setting it a little. Behind the die cut there are three strips of Tim Holtz Christmas Trim Tape. I also found a circle stamped with the SSS Mix and Match Circles on my desk and added it to the tag. 

At an angle the word looks like this. The year was die cut with the SSS Archie Jr Solid die set from silver glitter paper and the sentiment stamped with the SSS Because of You set.

Here you can see all the shades from that one powder a little better.

The deep metallic blue looks great on the black background.

I tied the tag with a piece of folded over silver tape.

I hope you will join us this week in our Use a New or Unused Product challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

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