I absolutely adore the new Vegetable Garden stamp set and couldn't wait to use it again this week, to create a set of bookmarks for me and my friends. I must admit though, that seeing them all together makes me kind of want to keep them all for myself! Ha! I paired up the Vegetable Garden, Garden Variety and Garden Variety II stamp sets to create these bookmarks and absolutely love how detailed they are, with just some stamping and die cut veggies! These stamp sets have so many options for mixing and matching that it made it so easy to make each bookmark unique while still allowing them all to coordinate. And can't you just imagine using these as gift tags too??? Punch a hole in the top and you're good to go! How fun would that be?! I've got a few tips for you today, on how I whipped these colorful cuties up!
To start things off, here's what they looked like on my desk. I started by die cutting 5 "bookmarks" using the wine bottle tag die. I have professed my undying love for that die more than once......it's just so handy.
Now let me say here that I fully recognize that those of us that actually use bookmarks, can be pretty particular about our bookmarks. Am I right? Some people like them long and skinny. Some people like them big or small. I happen to LOVE this size and shape for a bookmark! I love the straight edges, in case I want to save my place on a certain line and I love how these are a bit shorter and chunkier. Perfect. :)
Anyhoo....I die cut each bookmark lining up the top edge of my card stock just under the circle portion on the wine bottle tag die. That way I get that straight line embossed detail at the top of each bookmark, without any of the circle portion being cut out.
Next, I started by selecting the colors I wanted to use for my frames and stamped a frame from Garden Variety or Garden Variety II on each of the tags. The ink colors I chose for the frames are dark chocolate, pure poppy, canyon clay, hawaiian shores and raspberry fizz.
Then, I went about die cutting and stamping each of the veggies. Once they were all stamped, I moved them around from frame to frame, considering how well (or not!) each veggie's colors worked (or didn't!) with the color of frame. I'm a stickler for color, so this was an important step!
After I knew which veggie was going to go on each frame, that allowed me to know what other colors to use when added all the extra little frame details. I could pull in colors from the specific vegetable that was going on each bookmark.
Now before I adhered the veggies to the bookmarks, I flipped them over and added this sentiment from Garden Variety II. Jess suggested using this sentiment for VBS teacher gifts at their church, during the countdown, and I thought that was brilliant. It made me think of my girlfriends at church, so I wanted to include this sentiment on the back of the bookmarks. Whether they tuck these in their Bibles or just in whatever book they're reading at the moment, I think the sentiment is just perfect and a great reminder.
All that was left to do was adhere the veggies to the bookmarks with a bit of adhesive. Seriously, that photo above makes me soooo happy. Seeing all those colorful veggies lined up in a row? SIGH.
Just a couple of things to note regarding the ink colors on the veggies.....if you're wanting to make some of these yourself, I thought you might like to know what colors I used and where.
For the tomatoes, I wanted to give them a slightly variegated look.....you know, a bit like heirloom tomatoes, for instance! You know I love my heirloom tomatoes! I inked the left side of the tomato with a little spot of raspberry fizz ink and then inked the rest of the tomato with pure poppy ink. I love how that just adds a wee bit more color interest. The leaves are new leaf topped with ripe avocado.
For the artichoke, I decided to break with convention a little because I wanted to incorporate a little aqua to a second bookmark (there's a hawaiian shores frame on one of the others). I stamped the artichoke with aqua mist topped with ripe avocado. Honestly, I LOVE how it looks. But of course, you could just do a green on green look, if you prefer.
The radishes are raspberry fizz and the leaves are new leaf topped with ripe avocado. The carrots are orange zest topped with terracotta tile. (The two-step stamping with these images lets you add so much color detail -- I love that!) As for the leaves, I wanted to add a little extra detail, so I inked the bottom edges closest to the orange with new leaf ink and then inked the rest of the leaves with ripe avocado. And lastly, for the peas, they're stamped with new leaf and then ripe avocado on top.
Side note: I've added a lovely (haha) distressed detail to the "garden fresh" image found at the bottom of each tag, by accidentally running it through my Vagabond when I was die cutting the veggies!! I do NOT recommend this! LOL. Somehow that little stamp stuck to the card stock on my desk and without realizing it, I ran the stamp through my die cutting machine. Not good. Not good. Thankfully, it didn't hurt it too much, but this is why I'm usually so crazy about putting stamps back in their cases immediately after use! I just happened to get this one out a little too early, I guess. Haha.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little project! I can't wait to tuck one (or all 5) of these into my Bible. Hmmm.....maybe I should just make some more for my friends! (Or perhaps I could learn to share.) Hahaaa!
Have a fabulous day, my sweet friends,
{Veggie Bookmarks supplies -- click on thumbnails}
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