A Joyful Christmas Tag

Hello everyone and welcome, with an especially big welcome to the newest followers - lovely to have you on board.

Hope you've had a lovely week, and are looking forward to a great weekend doing whatever makes you happy...

I'm back with another Funkie Junkie inspired tag.

Yes, slowly but surely I'm making my way through Linda Coughlin's fabulous 12 Tags of Christmas... just not in the right order.

For my fourth contribution, I've leapt forward to Linda's number 9 which you can see here.













If I manage to get all 12 done by the 22nd December, I'll qualify for the prize draw sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  You can find all the details and rules here.

And this one was a sheer joy to make from beginning to end.  Again, I haven't travelled far from Linda's original, but there are some variations to keep you posted on.











I loved Linda's background so stuck to that pretty closely, using an Artistic Outpost snowflake from the Snowy Woods set for my silver embossing.










Something was going on with the sizes of the tag, the baroque plaque and the sentiment stamp.  I seem to have either smaller or larger versions of each, so it all meant the overall look of the tag has altered somewhat.











I cut the music from a card of Bach's manuscript so it has a slightly shiny finish which was slightly reluctant to take the ink I edged it with until I added some gesso on too.

I notice from these close-ups that I seem to have stuck it on upside down.  Imperfection, I embrace thee!









I didn't have any kind of large snowflake to hand, but I did have a small wooden dove, part of a set of decorations from the Czech Republic.

I painted him, added a silver snowflake and then, since I don't have any Distress Glitter in any other colours, I got out the Rock Candy Dry Glitter to zhuzh him up.

My sentiment was embossed onto another plaque, but it was way too large and my lovely background was fast disappearing.

I trimmed it down by hand at either side, and gave it a good inking with lots of the dark brown Distress inks.













I found myself wanting some more music around, so I added a bit more to the background using a Tim Holtz stamp (where the music is actually backwards - but we're embracing imperfection, eh?).



















Another major departure from the inspiration tag was to change the fir branches for flourishes.

























And I decided I didn't want to make them all glittery like Linda's branches.  I like them too much in their natural wood state, so all they've had is a little touch of gesso.

















And a happy side effect of that decision is that this tag will fit nicely into Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge this week, With A Flourish.











The paper roses have also been gesso'd, and then I used Treasure Gold in Pewter to give the very edges a bit of silvery shine.














The tiny pine cone needed a smattering of gesso/snow too, and I wound a little piece of fine twine around and about for extra interest.












My heart started out as another of the Czech wooden ornaments (like the golden tree on the last tag).  I gave it a coat or two of paint, then added some silver snowflakes to replace the ones I'd painted over.














I added Rock Candy Dry Glitter again to give it a touch of sparkle.

What's great about the Distress Glitters is that you can ink over the top of them, so I was able to add a touch of Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain around the edges for definition.










And another tiny touch of music too... Christmas should be filled with music.















The topping is some paper ribbon, splayed and frayed, and another of the little pine cones, all bound together with some more fine twine.

Really, really happy with this one (hence all the photos) - and it gave me such pleasure to create it - so thank you yet again, Linda, for a wonderful piece of inspiration.  

I'm starting to think I might stick with this blue and brown colour theme for the rest of my tags... what, blue and brown?  Me?  Surely not?!

I'd like to enter this in the following:
As my Tag 9 in Linda Coughlin's 12 Tags of Christmas sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique
At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge the theme this week is With a Flourish
At The Ribbon Girl they are having a Ho Ho Ho Christmas Challenge
And there's also an Anything Goes month at the Stampotique Designers Challenge


Your destiny is to fulfil those things upon which you focus most intently. So choose to keep your focus on that which is truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting and joyful. Your life is always moving toward something.
Ralph Marston