A Silhouette Mint™ is seriously one of the coolest things you can own—you can design and make your own stamp in minutes! It’s specially handy when you are needing to create a lot of tags, maybe for a giveaway, wedding, party, or even your business.

Today, I’ll be sharing how easy it is to create these water-colored Valentines Day tags with your Silhouette Mint™—and yes, you read the title right, it’s embossed too. So fun, right? Let’s get started!

Supplies:

  • Silhouette Mint™
  • Silhouette CAMEO®
  • 45 mm x 45 mm Silhouette Mint™ Stamp Sheet
  • 45 mm x 45 mm Silhouette Mint™ Stamp Mount
  • Black Mint Ink
  • Cardstock
  • Watercolor
  • Mixing Palette
  • Paintbrush
  • Clear Embossing Powder
  • Heat Gun
  • Anti-Static Powder (Baby Powder works too!)
  • You Are A-maze-ing Valentine Phrase (Design ID #72389)
  • Baker’s Twine

STEP ONE: CREATE YOUR STAMP

Open up Mint Studio™ and import your design. I chose the maze heart design from the You Are A-maze-ing Valentine Phrase (Design ID #72389). You can add words as well, but I preferred mine to be the simple maze heart so it can be used in other occasions as well.

Size your stamp by going to Stamp Settings and select 45 x 45, or your choice of stamp size.

Adjust your graphic in proportion to the stamp size. I did not want to use the phrase, so I kept that out of the square box. where the actual stamp will be printed.

Go to Stamp Filters and adjust the Brightness to 7.0 or until you reach your desired stamp line thickness.

Send your stamp to print.

Once your stamp is printed, remove it from the cardboard sheet and mount it onto the compatible stamp mount.

Ink your stamp with your desired ink color – I could not choose whether I wanted a colored heart or a plain black one, so I inked mine quite a few times! When inking, allow the stamp to absorb the ink. I usually let it stand for about 5-10 minutes.

Once it has absorbed the ink, stamp out the excess until your stamp is clear of ink in any unwanted area.

STEP TWO: CREATE YOUR EASY EMBOSSED TAGS

Go into Silhouette Studio™ and cut some tags relative to the size of your stamp. Since I used the 45 mm x 45 mm stamp size, I created and cut 2.25″ square tags.

Once cut, your tags are ready for coloring—have fun with watercolor and create different wash combinations. Make sure not to soak your paper too much or it will curl up on itself and be flimsy.

Once dry, it will be curled, but straighten it out by pressing it with an iron under medium pressure for about 15 seconds.

Since the ink used by your Silhouette Mint™ is a pigment ink, you can use embossing powder to make it look even more interesting! That was a game changer for me when I discovered it.

Before stamping, rub your water-colored tags with some anti-static powder or even baby powder to prevent stray flecks of embossing powder from sticking.

Stamp your tags with your newly-created stamp.

Now, use some clear embossing powder and cover the design heavily with it. Remove the excess by lightly tapping it onto the side. Do not touch the design before setting it with your heat gun or you will brush off the powder.

Use a heat gun to melt your embossing powder, and you are left with a beautiful, raised sheen on your tag. It is highly recommended that you use an embossing powder color similar to the ink color you are using for your stamp.

Attach some baker’s twine and you are done!

 

This would be perfect to tie onto some Valentines Day sweets or even a notebook and pencil to give away to friends or schoolmates for your kids.

What would you create stamps with your Silhouette Mint™ for?