A Chalky Christmas

Hello all, lovely to have you stop by.  I'm here with my creation(s) inspired by Tim's fabulous November tag.

Yes, I know that's a canvas, not a tag... this is a tag! 

But once I had the bit between my teeth with the chalk technique, having lots of fun, I found it taking on a life of its own and demanding a larger canvas, so that's what I gave it.













And it was weird but rather nice, when I went blog-visiting at the end of the day when I'd been making my carollers, to find that the fabulous Brenda over at Bumblebees and Butterflies had been up to something very similar with them!  Great minds, you see...











First up, though, the tag which started the whole thing off - and I pretty much played it straight with this.  I don't have any of the stamp/die sets so I went with one of my all-time favourite Tim stamps which also has that lovely writing around the outside, similar to the blueprints.












Love the effect of the layered wings - and the new Idea-ology linen ribbon seemed like the perfect simple finish.






Given the time of year, though, my brain immediately went to the snowy possibilities of this chalk technique, so I grabbed some black card and started cutting wintry dies with the BigShot.

The carollers got the full stamping treatment, using the lovely handwritten music from the Joyful Song set.














But for the lamp post and the house I used a paintbrush to scoop excess embossing ink from round the edge of my pad and apply it just where the snow would sit...













...on roofs and ledges and sills and edges.

Then I chalked it all up - and I love the snowy results.








I needed somewhere for all my chalkboard elements to live so I grabbed an A4 canvas and glued some tissue wrap over the whole thing.




I used Gelatos to create most of the sky and snowscape.  (I was lucky enough to go and play with them for the first time at a Craft Barn workshop with the lovely Chris Dark of the Sketching Stamper recently - more of that and what I made then another time.)










I added some of Tim's little trees, stamped with Cobalt Archival so that they would stay put whatever else I decided to do later.













I did have to slightly remove the trunks with another wash of paint.















And regulars will understand that I simply had to carry them on round the sides too, of course.

Up in the sky I added some white embossed snowflakes, later giving them a dusting of Rock Candy Dry Glitter too.

I've only just started catching up with some of the CC102 techniques (stupidly timed house-moving!), so it's lovely to get this chalky one under my belt via this November tag - but I knew I had a use for another of them.

I'd seen the crackle-glazed glass turning up around Craftyblogland, and wanted to use it in my lantern glass.









I used some leftover acetate packaging for the technique, and coloured the card behind it with Gelatos to give the idea of the glowing flame.

Once it was all glued in place, I added a thick coat of Glossy Accents over the top of the "glass" to give it a bit of extra dimension.









I do rather like the echo of Narnia with the lamp post among the trees!  

And I'm pretty pleased with the white Gelato shading to show the gleam of the light its giving off.











There's also Glossy Accents doing the job of glass in the windows of the little house.  And Gelatos again to create the warm golden glow from inside.













Some of that glow spills out onto the snow and the garden "path" of Chitchat stickers... 












... so that they are warmed by the light too.













I did lots of shading using Distress Markers around the carollers and the other elements, to try to embed them into the landscape.



















I do love these two - and given that I love creating things inspired by music, I hope they'll put in appearances year round, not only at Christmas.




















The panel at the centre uses one of the Mini Holidays stamps (I now "need" the large version!!), stamped on Specialty Stamping paper and then covered over with Rock Candy Dry Glitter.  I'm not a glittery type in general, but this stuff... lovely!

I added some more music stamping to the snow too...













... as well as some flourishes stamped in Weathered Wood and embossed with the Frosted Crystal powder.  

They're so subtle as to be almost subliminal, but I rather like them swirling in the snow drifts.






There's a dusting of Rock Candy Dry Glitter over the snow and throughout the night sky, so that the canvas really sparkles as you move it in the light - not so easy to catch with a camera, but I hope you get the idea from some of the photos.

So there you have it... my chalky Christmas.  I hope you like it.  Thank you, Tim, for the inspiration that took me off on this unexpected journey - not my usual thing, but so much fun to play! 

I'd like to enter this as my November "tag" in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 - can't believe there's only one more.

I'm also thrilled that this can double as my first contribution to the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique; inspired as it is by the chalkboard technique on Tag 1, by the fabulous Linda Coughlin.  A canvas, rather than a tag, but the rules do say it can be any kind of Christmas creation. I don't know if I'm going to make it to all twelve, but I'm going to try!! 





And the Christmas Carol service is the real start of Christmas for me, so the rehearsals are one way of counting down the time left to go - as well as counting the beat of the music, of course! - so I'd like to pop this in over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is Countdown to the Holidays.







Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.
From Song of Years by Bess Streeter Aldrich

There is a Christmas song upon the air,
There is a joy innate within the heart;
An inner sense of peace, a holy light
Illumines life and sets these days apart.
From A Song Upon The Air by Edna Greene Hines