Fir Tree Christmas

Hello everyone... so glad you loved the Blissful Baubles - it's so lovely that you took the time to say so when we're all so busy.  Jeepers, it's getting close now - and I'm really not on top of things.

But I am slowly but steadily catching up with the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas (hmmm, maybe I need to check my priorities).

This is my take on Linda's fabulous tag number 5 which you can see here.  I was inspired by the beautiful, delicate stamping in the background, and have also cased the composition pretty closely, with the corrugated framing of Father Christmas at the centre and the large flower and lace.

As you'll notice, I'm poinsettia-less.  I have neither a stamp nor the poinsettia die (I'm not wild about them as flowers, to be honest) so I've had to go in slightly different directions.

And the other main difference is the colour scheme.

My alternative to the poinsettia stamp that Linda has in her background was to go for another plant-based image, and use the fabulous fir branch from the Artistic Outpost Snowy Woods plate.

So that pretty much governed my choice of colour...

I love Iced Spruce, and I always forget about it for some reason.  But this tag is very "woody"; it's all over fir trees... what with the fir branches and the pine cones, the wood-look corrugated card, not to mention the Snowy Woods stamps, so Iced Spruce was the obvious choice for the background colour.










My Father Christmas is also from the Snowy Woods set - a slightly more genial chap than this rather stern fellow on the previous FJ tag - a proper old man of the woods.

He's stamped on Specialty Stamping Paper which has had a delicate blending of Iced Spruce DI over it.











The sentiment is from Snowy Woods too (best Christmas stamps ever!), stamped in black Archival.

And the fir branches themselves are stamped in Iced Spruce, to keep that subtle tone-on-tone look that Linda had.









The flower is by Wild Orchid. I've yet to join the handmade flower crowd - especially at this time of year... no time, no time!!

I do occasionally make my own, but for this tag, I stuck to altering this rather beautiful gardenia.

It was a bit too yellow, so I went at it with gesso and all sorts of white sprays (Dylusions, Tattered Angels Chalkboard) until I'd muted it a bit.














The pine cones came from Live & Love Crafts, and have also had a touch of gesso for a snowy
look.














I cut the holly leaves from patterned paper using Tim Holtz's Festive Greenery decorative strip die, and inked around the edges with Gathered Twigs (seemed appropriate given the woody theme).













Rather than the label, I used the Cabinet Card die to cut my frame - I think F.C. looks rather splendid inside.

There's another fir tree cone and holly leaf up at the top of the tag, with a bit more lace, tied together with some tea/coffee stained seam binding (ultra high-tech!).









Thank you, Linda, for another cracking piece of inspiration.  If you manage to get all 12 Christmas tags plus the two bonus ones done by January 8th, you'll get an even bigger discount at the fabulous Funkie Junkie Boutique... and three lucky winners will get vouchers to spend there.  A chance not to be missed.

I'll leave you with Father Christmas in the position I think we'll all be in in about a week's time... flat on his back!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you out there in Craftyblogland soon.

Today's quote is the full version of one of my favourite poems.  Its last verse also appears on the Snowy Woods plate - are you starting to get that I like these stamps?!

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

I'm entering this as Tag 5 in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.
With background stamping, focal image stamping and sentiment stamping, I'd like to pop it into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is to Stamp Out 2013!
And let's also make it a third entry to the Stampotique Designers Challenge where Anything Goes this month.