Quick & easy 3D stamped book tags – How to

There are lots of things you can make with the Old Books stamps that I released recently, but a nice simple project are these little 3D stamped book tags.

These are particularly great as gift tags, and I especially love them gilded with metallic embossing powders and strung up as Christmas tree ornaments or made into garlands. Here is the simplest way to make them.

What you will need:

• Old Books stamp set, from my store here
• piece of white or paler cardstock for ‘pages’ about an inch bigger than the stamp all round
• piece of coloured cardstock for your book covers about an inch bigger than the stamp all round
• adhesive, I use really strong double sided tape, I’ve used Stix2 brand polyester tape for years.
• cutting knife and suitable surface such as a cutting mat
• ink of choice
• embossing powders if you wish

I have prepared a handy dandy sheet here, showing the steps involved in making the tags – you can screengrab this right from this page and keep it handy when you are making.

If you are adding gilding/embossing, you can use the ‘Classic front gilding’ stamp and the thinner ‘Spine gilding stamps’. I would suggest doing your stamping/embossing/gilding right after step 1, then you don’t have to contend with a potential uneven surface after having added glue etc.

In step Number 5, I use a hole punch and a corner rounder to just finish off the process, you could just snip. these with scissors if you don’t have the tools handy, I liked them for handiness when I was making a bunch of these things. Here are some action shots, because I’m a visual learner and I am going to just go right ahead and assume you are too!

Now that your 3D book is complete, you can punch a hole in it to thread through some ribbon or string, or you can leave it unpunched a pop it up on foam tape on the front of a card, or scrpabook page. Are we still using dimensionals? I’m a little rusty.

The back of your tag is perfect for writing on, or you can use the ‘to:’ ‘from:’ stamps that came with the set to finish off. Enjoy! I’m currently using several of these as bookmarks also!