Place Card / Gift Tag

Materials:

Place cards

Rubber stamp

VersaMark ink pad ( I guess it is also called a watermark or embossing ink and is clear)

Chalk pastels and applicator of your choice

Gel pens

Ink marker, suited for use with rubber stamps.

Step1: stamp image on place card with VersaMark ink. I chose to place mine off to one side to leave room for a sentiment.

Step 2: chalk over the stamped image. My handy dandy chalking implement was made for me by my father but you can get similar tool in your crafting store. I purchased a wood dowel that I liked the size of and some alligator clips. Dad cut the dowel into six-inch sections, cut a groove long enough and wide enough to force the longer end of the alligator clip in. A little glue and some pressure to hold it all together while it dried and I had my own pom-pom holding chalk applicator. I like this tool because I can gain control by changing the size of the pom-pom in the end. I can also spin the pom-pom around to use the entire surface without mixing colors. I have found it more controllable than the sponge applicators or cotton swabs I've used in the past. As you can see from the picture I'm not the most careful chalker ever but I really like the way they kind of mix together in a not so perfect mess that shows I took some time but probably not as much as I could have...it's a personality thing.

Step 3: I used gel pens to highlight the edges of the tree and the garlands. The pens I used had glitter gel ink in them so the details really stand out against the chalking and draw attention.

Step 4: I chalked the edges a little. I don't know why, I guess I saw the guy from Ranger on Carol Duval and he was talking about aging and distressing and the effect of edges...so there you have it.

Step5: stamp in the sentiment. My stamp was two words but in one straight line that wouldn't fit on the card. The key was to ink one word at a time. The tool for this was the marker. You can end up with quite a mess if you try and ink one word at a time on a full size inkpad. I colored and stamped one word at a time. This allowed me to stack and skew them as I saw fit. I free handed these but there is a tool called the Stamp-A-Majig you can get to help you line things up.