Honey, You’re Sweet!

Just a quick Friday Night post to share a SWEET Inky Antics card! 

The stamp set is from Inky Antics - Bee Benton from The Inspiration Emporium.    I just kept the card pretty simple and had some fun coloring the image. 

I hope every one has a nice weekend.  Mine will be a busy one, but not as busy as next weekend so I’ll enjoy it while I can!!  Next weekend I’ll be making lots of cinnamon rolls for yet another 8th grade fundraiser (Since my kids are so close in age, this is my third one, third year in a row.)  So if you’re local – look for us at Napa on Saturday for a carwash/bottle drive and at Ray’s for a bake sale. 

Going Green – Inspiration Emporium

The Inspiration Emporium went (since I’m kind of late to the party) green this month! 

First, I used Tim’s Wrinkle Free Distress technique to create my green background paper.  Then I used the splatter image from Stampers Anonymous  Bitty Backgrounds – it’s such a great stamp set for the grunge look!  I also used it on my paper flower (which I also dyed to match with the Distress Ink).  If you can’t tell by the picture, the card says “You are so…. Wonderful”.  I combined a stamp from Pink Paislee Spring Jubilee (the word wonderful) and the “you are so” is from the Penny Black set Betsy Bluebell – both are such great sets – totally different styles but still you can build with any set!  And of course, the bird and cage are from Tim Holtz as well – Caged Bird and I added a little texture to the bird with a Bricked and Woodgrain Texture Fade.

Ha!  There.. two posts in one month……..not too bad : )

Be sure to check out the other fabulous green things (and all things inspirational) from the rest of the Inspiration Team!!

Hey Stamping Strangers!!

Woohoo?  Anyone out there?  It's been almost 10 whole months since I last blogged - WOW - and how things have changed!  I'm not even sure I remember how to blog...I even thought that I forgot how to stamp!!  Thankfully, I either still remember how to do it or I'm reteaching myself - haven't quite decided yet!! 

So where have I been you ask?  Working and not working.. both - yes.  Right around the day of my last post I started a new job (out of the house) while continuing with my old job of 16 years (working from my home).   There were some big changes, even some scary changes ... I had put my big girl panties on (and if you've ever seen me... you know they've got to be BIG!!).  But boy am I glad I did that.  I'm so thankful for this new chapter in my life; so thankful for the people I work with and I couldn't be happier about NOT working weeknights or weekends!!  Even though it's been 10 months - I'm still adjusting, but between work and kids, I have found time to stamp again!  (and speaking of kids - boy have they grown up too! One is driving with his license for almost a year now and another has her permit and the youngest will be in high school in only a few months - YIKES - time really does go by too fast!)

Okay - enough about me - let's look at something crafty - and I think it's perfect timing for this project!! 

I picked up where I left off, creating for the Inspiration Emporium Inspiration Emporium, and jumped right into this Pocket Watch project.  I have to say that it felt amazing!! 

This little girl comes from the Our Craft Lounge set called Treasured Friend - it's one of my favorite images that I created for OCL.  I thought she'd fit perfectly in the pocket watch - I added a little river rock and some Glossy Accents for the water so it looks as if she is wading in the water.  I also used an Idea-Ology Muse Token, which I felt sort of tied the metal together yet kept it soft and "wonderful'. 

Be sure to check out the other fabulous creations from the rest of the team over at The Inspiration Journal. 

Although I am officially back I can't promise how often I'll post - I can promise that I'm stamping and taking pictures though!!  My goal for now is once per week - perhaps a weekly journal of sorts.  I hope you'll stick around, and if you've stuck with me this long - you can probably handle a little longer, right?

Thanks!!

The Happiest Birthday Yet!!

Just a quick little card – I LOVE the sentiment .. It’s another from Big Birthday Wishes from Our Craft Lounge.  I LOVE that’s it clear and I love that the sentiment is long and can be curved like this!! I think it really makes the sentiment stamp more versatile AND makes the card a bit more fun! 

I just used some scraps from my Mabel paper, did some quick stitching and it was an easy layout!  The background paper is “stained” with a little bit of Wild Honey Stain and Vintage Photo Stain.  The bird and birdcage are from Tim’s Mini Bird and Cage Set, distressed with Walnut Stain ink and covered with Glossy Accents. 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your DAY is the happiest yet!!

Bar’s Birthday Blog Hop!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Barbara Anders!!!  Today – we celebrate YOU!! 

Here are the Birthday Blog-Hoppers – so go check out their birthday cards for Barb!!! 

Tammy Hershberger

Broni Holcombe

Kristin Eberline

Laura Pryor

LeAnne Pugliese

Carole Burrage

Betty Wright

Jody Morrow

Makiko Jones

Cindy Haffner

Silke Ledlow

Julie Koerber

Jessie Rone

Frances Byrne

Lynda Benden

Vicki Garrett

Christina Fischer

Jodi Collins

Kim van der Sanden

Taylor Van Bruggen

Kirsty McIntyre

Iwona Palamountain

Wendy Bond

Jessica Diedrich

Lynn Put

Jackie Pedro

Joanne Basile

 

Card Info:  Paper used:  Mabel (of course).  Dies:  MFT – Die-Namics Fresh Cut Grass and   Open Scallop Border.  Stamp sets:  OCL – Out for a Spin (the little flag with the birthday sentiment) and Pretty Petals.  Ink:  Antique Linen Distress Ink and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  Sparkle and Fluff:  OCL Sparkly Fluff - Real Juicy Orange. 

May we Challenge you?

The Inspiration Emporium has a new challenge for the month of May!! (Yes, I know I’m weeks late – but better late than never, right?)  So here it is…..  PACKAGING!! Create something with some sort of packaging – We want to see you upcycle your product packaging!  You can find all of the challenge information on the ‘packaging’ link!!

Can you find my repurposed packaging?    I used a Cherry Coke Zero Can! Can you find it?

It’s the bird!!  Cool, right?  I used Tim Holtz’ Caged Bird die cut – it cut the tin can beautifully!!  I added some rustic colors with my Copic Markers – they worked PERFECTLY on the tin too!!   Then I used the brick embossing folder from the Bricked and Woodgrain set – and it embossed beautifully as well!  In Oregon, I can get a 0.5 cent refund for this soda can, but a 0.5 cent embellishment?  NO WAY!   I used Adage Tickets AGAIN! I love those guys – especially perfect when I don’t have the perfect sentiment stamp!  I used the Sentiment Flat Die and stamp set from Lil’ Inker Designs to stamp and cut the ticket – gave it a fun new look!!  I had LOTS of fun with the Kaiser Craft Pearls – Pearl color and just created some free-flowing swirls.  The birdcage and paper behind it comes from the yummy Mabel paper pack as well.  I used a pre-cut Manila Craft Tag #8, as well as Wild Honey Stain and Vintage Photo Stain to create the background and distressed the edges  with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Now go to the Inspirational Journal and check out some fabulous upcycled samples and join in the challenge! 

A simple card … not so simple

Boy, do I struggle with clean cards!?!   No sponging, no grunging, minimal layers… oh it was a struggle! I can’t say I love it….But I can say I did it : )

Here’s the Color Throwdown Swatch:

Ahh! What great colors!!  Of course I had to keep it clean : )  I did get to burn something though - the flowers!!  That was fun and a little dangerous!!  (Thanks Broni).  The fabulous Birthday Sentiment is from Our Craft Lounge’s set – Big Birthday Wishes.  A perfect sentiment-building set!  The floral print paper is of course Mabel – I should probably be ordering more of that wonderfulness!! 

Thanks for stopping by!! 

Be sure to check out the other Throwdown Girls for some more fabulous color inspiration!!

Barbara Anders

Broni Holcombe

Carole Burrage

Cathy Rulli

Danielle Kennedy

Tammy Hershberger

Kristin Eberline

Laura Pryor

Jen Mitchell, May Guest Designer

Horsin’ around with color

Clever title, right?  Ha!!  Here it is Color Throwdown Color Challenge 140 and  I’ve managed to keep up for 6 weeks!!! 

Now, isn’t he genuinely cute?  ; )  I adore this guy!!  He reminds me of Mr. Ed from YEARS ago on Nick at Night!  You know… I guess HE could be a She.. but today I’m going with he!   You can find him over at Paper Pretties.  The set is called Horsin’ Around.   I love that the image is fairly large – so it works perfectly for the front of a card and it’s a great size to color too!  The set also comes with some great sentiments too! 

The paper is Mabel AGAIN!!  I just LOVE it!  I used my Vintage Photo Stain to speckle it up a bit and give it some good ole’ farm grunge!  Love that stuff!!  I stitched it up, tied a bow, hung a Muse Token on it and called  ‘er done! 

Don’t tell any one but I’m pretty sure I didn’t follow the Color Throwdown swatch 100%…. I’m really, really stretching the Blushing Bride… ok…. and the Baja Breeze just a wee bit too.  Shhh..

Be sure to check out the other Throwdown samples at the Color Throwdown – as always, they are pretty darn amazing! 

Color Throwdown Challenge 139 (with a prize!!)

My sweet friend Kristin designs for My Time Made Easy and she’s sponsoring The Throwdown today!!  You can also check out her products on her blog and at MTME!! She has a fabulous prize of her beautiful stamps and paper over at the Color Throwdown so check it out and see how you can win!!  Here’s my card using her digi papers!!  They were so easy to print out – I even printed them in a few different sizes for some size variety!

 

I used 5 of her papers from the Fresh Cut Expressions Collections 2 digi paper set, did some sponging and sewing, a bit of die-cutting and viola a card!!  The ticket flags are made from Adage Tickets, sponged, then cut with Lil’ Inker Designs Sentiment Flags die and tucked under the button.  The butterflies are cut with the Mini Butterflies Movers and Shapers die. 

 

Ok, here’s the colors.. go soar with them!!

A dirty little beach…

Tag for a Treasured Friend! When I first started working on this tag I had NO idea what direction it would take me.

I started out with a blank Manila Craft Tag #8 ( I LOVE THESE), a bit of Walnut Stain Distress Ink, and a little bit of Broken China ink.  I used my non-stick craft sheet, a bit of water and the walnut stain ink and applied it mostly around the edges.  I felt like it sort of resembled a shore-line and a little light bulb light up in my head… so I sponged a tiny bit of the broken china ink in a few places and thought that the little girls from Treasured Friend would work perfectly!! 

It’s a pretty good-sized tag and the girls are pretty small, so I decided to leave the girls as their own scene at the bottom, but add some fun messy layers above them.  My eyes can’t really decide where to look first, but naturally they start at the top, which I think is just the way it should be.  One would think that the embellishments and layers would draw your attention away from what I feel is really the main part of the tag (the girls), but my eyes don’t spend much time up there at all – they are immediately drawn to the girls – which is PERFECT!!

I love that the seam binding looks so ragged and worn, like’s it’s been hanging out at the beach all summer with the girls! The cute tiny rose-buds are made with the dyed seam binding to match! I went with the alphabet paper because it reminded me of schoolgirls – it just felt right!  I used the back side of an Adage Tickets to stamp the sentiment on and I slid a Charm Clip tided with a tiny shred of seam binding on the edge for a little hardware look.  The Tiny Attacher was perfect to attach the MFT – Open Scallop Border. 

Thanks for stopping by!!

A sweet Birthday girl, a sale and a fragment!

Jay and Joy of the Inspiration Emporium are saying Happy Birthday to their sweet little Mama, who they actually call “big mama”!  To celebrate, they are having a store sale – 15% off your entire purchase by using the code bigmama at check out! 

The Emporium is also still having their monthly challenge (where you can win Idollars to spend at the store!!)  You can read about it at the Inspirational Journal (blog). 

Here’s another little card using a tag fragment from Fragment Charms. 

The stamp set is called Sweet Thang from Our Craft Lounge.  It’s such a perfectly cute spring set!  The patterned paper is Mabel  (again, yes, I know, but I LOVE it) but this time I changed it up a little using some Ranger Stains!  The original color of this paper is the blue strip in the middle – bright and fresh!!  I used Vintage Photo Stain on the first largest piece – I just quickly applied the stain (watered down a bit)  with a paintbrush  - I love the aged-paper look it gave!  Then for the smallest strip on the right, I used Wild Honey Stain – it has a little bit of an orange tinge to it.  You can go pretty light depending on how much water you dilute the stain with – and it still works perfectly!! 

The birds are colored with Copic markers and some highlights and texture are added with a colorless blender.

 

The log was covered with Crackle Accents to give a bit of wood-grain texture.  It’s a little hard to see in the photo – but it’s there!  (it’s the shiny stuff!)

And here’s a close-up of the fragment!  It’s a little cutey!!

Have a GREAT Easter!!! 

Got some Cluckin’ good news?

How bout these cute clucks?  OH MY, how I LOVE these chicks!!  Seriously – they are so cute and fun and fabulous to color!! 

These cute chicks are from Paper Pretties – I used two stamp sets – the newly released Return of the Cluck and the older set Cluck Part II – they work PERFECTLY together!! 

I used LOTS of dyed seam binding – I sort of wanted it to resemble a nest with some eggs, so I left the ribbon big and fluffy and added the buttons!  For the background of the circle, I used the cute chicken-wire stamp that comes in Cluck Part II.  I used Vintage Photo Stain – I love this stuff!.  First, I quickly rubbed the stain all over the circle and let it dry.  Then I used my craft mat and created some puddles of stain just by dabbing the stain onto the mat, then I gently placed the circle into the puddle – to get the nice water-drop look, don’t spread it around, just lay it right into the puddle gently then pick it straight up.  You get a great “oil-stain” look or spilled coffee look.  I let that dry and then stamped the great chicken-wire image!  You want to make sure it is dry so you don’t get any bleeding of your image.  

I did the same spilled-oil look for the inside of the card… you can see it below – SIMPLE EASY-PEASY way to get that dirty grunge look we all love!! 

Hmm.. I think perhaps next week I’ll give a quick tutorial on how to make a coffee-cup stain on your cards : )  It’s quite easy!!    

Hope your day is great!! 

Pinwheel, Pinwheel spinning around…

Look at my pinwheel and see what I’ve found!!  Man.. that’s an old song – A Nickelodeon Classic –

And here’s a new spin on an old classic – a NEW die from Lil’Inker Designs – Pinwheels.  (I also used her Flags die too!!).  Lil’Inker Designs is also sponsoring The Color Throwdown this week so be sure to check that to read about a fantastic prize… and once again I got my act together (just barely on time) and participated!! 

The color challenge was DEFINITELY a challenge for me this week!  Apparently I’m not a navy-blue lover – I had NOTHING that I felt was TRUE navy blue.  I scrounged about my paper stash and found ONE piece of dark blue cardstock that I thought might work.. I think it’s more royal blue and it doesn’t even match the patterned paper (lol) but I went with it!  That’s the great thing about the Throwdown color challenges.. it’s all about your personal color interpretation!!    The REAL colors were “PICK ONE,” Navy and  White.. I barely pulled it off – and my “pick one” is more like “pick many”. 

 

The YUMMY Paper I used is My Mind’s Eye – Stella and Rose – Hattie (that’s my great-grandma’s name – Hattie Jane – so I immediately loved it!).   I kept the layout really simple because I wanted the pinwheel (which, by the way, makes a great flower) to stand out.   The stamp set that coordinates with the Pinwheel die is fabulous as well!  It comes with some really fun sentiments!!  The Pinwheel is really easy to put together.  Here’s a tutorial by the fantastic creator, Laura, on how to use it --- TUTORIAL---

I hope you have a great hump day!! 

Send ME sun-filled days!!

Lord knows I need some!!  I’m pretty sure it’s rained all but maybe 5 days in the month of March and so far in April.   Today we actually had a very nice day, yesterday too, and I’m pretty sure this card is to blame!!  I made it for MYSELF as I needed a little sunshine and it sure did cheer me up!! 

Okay, if I must be honest, I made this card for the Color Throwdown Challenge 137!

As soon as I saw the color “Summer Sun”  I knew exactly what set I had to use!! Sunshine Cheer from Our Craft Lounge!  I also used the tree from Swingin’ By.  I think they worked perfectly together!   I even used the cloud from Sunshine Cheer as a mask for the airbrushed sky!  It worked great!! 

One of the main reasons I love clear acrylic stamps is the ability to manipulate and “bend” the sentiments in many different directions.  I love the look of it wavy instead of just straight across!  Makes the set even more versatile!  I free-hand cut the sentiment and used my copic marker to line the edges so it would stand out a bit!  The grass die is MFT – Die-Namics Fresh Cut Grass and the scalloped edge just peeking out is MFT – Die-Namics - Open Scallop Border.  The paper… oh how I LOVE the paper -- It’s MMI Stella and Rose – Mabel. 

I used a bit of Spica glitter pen on the leaves and a little bit on the sun (the dots)  to give it some added shine  and sparkle – you can kind of see it here : )

Be sure to check out the other great color inspirations at The Color Throwdown today, then pull out your Summer Sun and have a sunshiny day!! 

Fragments.

Have you seen the Inspiration Emporium Blog’s Monthly Challenge? 

It’s all about Idea-ology FRAGMENTS (not to mention the fabulous prize of FIFTY big Emporium Dollars!!!).  You can read about it using the link above!!

FRAGMENTS

Remember this birdhouse I covered a few weeks back  

 

and I mentioned I had this to cover as well? 

Well, here it is!! All buttoned up and beautiful! 

I LOVE it!!

I knew this sconce would be going in the same room as my birdhouse so I wanted to stick with the same theme.. birds, so I knew I had to have the Caged Bird die and I knew it would be perfect!  I used the same paper stash - Retro Grunge and tissue tape – Market Place.   I had some more Prima Sunflower vines so I knew those would also help tie the two together!  Keeping with the bird theme, I also wanted to use the same words, FLY and SOAR, but perhaps with different medium… this is where the Fragment Charms came into play!!  I used the Salvage Stickers to create my “FLY” tags (and SOAR).  The fragment charms were simple!  I cut the letters out, stuck them to some Kraft-colored cardstock, then used Glossy Accents to adhere them to the back of the clear fragment charm.  EASY!!

I also used the cute new Mini Butterflies Movers and Shapers (the two bigger butterflies on the bottom) and my good old Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch for the smaller butterflies.  I covered the butterflies with Scattered Straw Distress Stickles and Spiced Marmalade Distress Stickles.   I dyed some seam binding with my distress inks, added the bird and called it good! (The bird also comes with the Caged Bird die cut – and I embossed it with the Woodgrain embossing folder.   I think my little country corner is going to look GREAT with these two new additions!!

Don’t forget to go check out the Inspiration Emporium Blog and read about the Challenge and how to win the prize!! 

LOVE… and a little dirt

 

I 100% LOVE this sentiment and not just because I made it up … but I think it’s absolutely true in so many ways!! 

I LOVE the colors  and they happen to be The Color Throwdown colors this week – so proud of myself – two weeks in a row!!

Here’s the color challenge colors:

I decided to also add dark chocolate brown – I just had to… it’s dirt color, ya know?!! : )  But I think my hen and some of the distressing should cover the Kraft color!! : )

About the card….. I LOVE it!  It’s not too often that I love my own work or that I admit that I love it, but I really do love this one!  First off, I LOVE the stamp set – I designed it for Our Craft Lounge – I think I’d love it even if someone else designed it though!  It’s called Sunflower Seeds.  One of my favorite elements in the set is the rectangular frame, it’s a no-brainer grunge edge frame!!  No matter how hard I’ve tried in the past, there’s just no way that I could get a perfectly grungy frame like that!!  The sentiments and images in this set fit into the frame to create all sorts of fun.  A seed packet, a frame, or just a plain old grungy rectangle : )

When I saw this Sizzix Die – On the Fence, I knew it would go perfectly with dear Henny Penny!!  The Mini Fasteners that look like little screws…..LOVE those too!!  For the little fancy slit, I used the Ornamental Photo Corners – Movers and Shapers die. 

The brick pattern embossing is from my favorite texture fade folder – Bricked and Woodgrain – LOVE!!

I dyed seam binding to match.. and then stuck a Trinket Pin in it – fun stuff!! 

And of course the paper….. LOOOVVVVEEE (in my most angelic singing voice ever)  - I’m totally addicted to this paper – so much that I’ve neglected to use much else since receiving it!!  It’s sweet sweet My Mind’s Eye – Mabel.  

Well, I think that about wraps it up – I LOVE lots of things today…and I’m always willing to get a little dirty ; )

A Dirty Little Easter Tag

Weird, I know.. but I do think I like it! 

I actually made this card for the Color Throwdown challenge this week!  GASP!!    I think it’s been almost a year since I’ve participated with those lovely ladies!!  I’m sneaky about it though… I snuck right in and added it to their post!! I sure hope they don’t mind!!  I’m still amazed at what I can do with a clean stamping table!!  Ahh! It’s so nice to be able to just sit down and get inky for a while if time allows – so nice that I don’t first have to spend an hour cleaning up my last mess so that I can make a new one!! 

So here it is … My Dirty Little Easter Tag!!

I had the hardest time taking a good photo – I think it’s the red wall behind it – I threw away lost my white board background I used before so I’m stuck with this for now. 

The color challenge:

I think I got all of the colors in there!  My inspiration started out with this FABULOUS bunny sticker from the Idea-ology Salvage Sticker – Seasonal  pack.  My, this has great stickers in it!  Easter, Christmas, Halloween, um… seasonal!  ; )  It had most of the colors in there that I needed – I just had to add some yellow.    I LOVE that they are such a sturdy sticker that you can sand the edges and even sponge it (that’s where I added the Scattered Straw Distress Ink!!!   The word “Easter” comes from the same pack!   To make the tag match, I used Scattered Straw and Fired Brick Distress Ink with blending tools and a craft mat.  I also made sure I got some splatters of ink on the tag to mimic the dripping paint on the egg.  I tore the top section of the tag off, inked it up with Black Soot Distress Ink, then reattached it down a little lower (to make the tag shorter) with my Tiny Attacher.   I dyed some Lavish Trimmings with matching ink and added those as well.

I don’t think this is your traditional Easter tag but I do think I like it!  

OCL Sketch Challenge 58

 

The Lounge has a new sketch challenge today – and it’s based on one of my cards!! 

Check out the sketch here !!  I LOVED making this card!! 

The stamp sets are both fun and cheery so I went with bright colors!! I used Joy in Little Things (the mushroom and sentiment) and The Pond.   

If you can believe it, I actually have two posts today, so be sure to check out the Mermaid Anya below – she’s DARLING!!

A Sweet Little Mermaid! – Repost!!

Ewwwe!! I’m not sure what happened with my post this morning but the photo was NOT the way it was supposed to be! I’ll try again!!

I LOVE this The Greeting Farm image – Mermaid Anya – she’s just so cute and so fun to color!  I actually colored her MONTHS ago when Joy was in town for an Our Craft Lounge class with Cami and I.  I saved the image for a special day… then when I saw the shimmery ric-rac I knew it was time to pull her out, as I thought it would make great waves and I knew exactly what sentiment I wanted to use as well!! 

The sentiment “Hope your birthday is a SPLASH” is from OCL’s set – Whale of a Tale.  I stamped it in Broken China Distress Ink – I also dyed the seam binding with the same ink! (I LOVE THAT STUFF)

I colored the mermaid with Copic markers – and I also used a blue Spica pen to create some scales on her fins!!  Then I glammed her up with Kaiser Craft Rhinestones – Aqua Marine and Kaiser Craft Pearls – Snow. 

Here you can kind of see the scale pattern, right?  Well imagine it all purdy and shimmery!

We’ve had so much rain here this month, I’m sort of starting to feel a bit like a fish myself – wish I could at least have shimmery scales – my scale more like shimmies from the weight of me… it must think I’m a whale!! haha!!

Have a GREAT weekend!!

OCL Challenge 57 – Embossing

Wow! Look at me – playing along with a challenge!!  OCL Challenge #57.

Oh the things one can do with a clean stamp table! ; ) 

The Challenge: Clean & Simple – Embossing

 

Not sure that it is Clean or even Simple, but it is Embossed – so we’re lookin good!!  Ok, so definitely not so much on the clean side, but  it actually really was simple to do!! 

First I sponge-grunged up a Manila Craft Tag #8 with Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint.  I used embossing ink and Black Ranger Embossing Powder along with stamp sets Dandy Days and Life Is from Our Craft Lounge.  

Obviously I’ve fallen onto the dyed seam binding crinkle ribbon bandwagon – What??   A cute ribbon that I can dye to match my project and it’s totally affordable??? WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL OF MY STAMPING LIFE? (I also used the same inks  as above to dye the ribbon – and Black Soot Distress Ink, of course, to get the black ribbon – I LOVE love that it dyes it TRUE black, not greenish or purplish, but BLACK BLACK!!).

I am also falling in love with these tags… but I must ask, What does one do with these tags??

Now go emboss yourself something!! : )