Musical Christmas Box

Hello all - a warm welcome to you on this wet and scarily windy Winter Solstice.

Sorry to have been absent in Craftyblogland - as you all know very well, it's a busy time!  I'm looking forward to some quieter time over Christmas both for crafting and visiting.

In the meantime, I'm still squeezing in Funkie Junkie makes, trying to keep up with Linda Coughlin's wonderful 12 Tags of Christmas.  Most of this one was actually made a couple of weeks ago, but I only got around to the finishing touches and the gluing this morning.









It was inspired by Linda's  Tag 4.  (I'm happy to say I have completed more than four of them... I'm just going in a slightly random order!).

Thanks to Linda's extended deadline and bonus tags, I hope I'll be able to manage the January 8th deadline to complete them all.  That way I'll qualify for the prize draw sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

For a second time I've burst out of the tag format into another kind of creation.

This is because my main inspiration from Linda's tag was the wonderful letters layered onto burlap.  I immediately thought of one of the Artistic Stamper stamps I got recently, from the Victorian Christmas #2 set.

The problem with that, of course, is that while "NOEL" has four letters to fit nicely on a tag, Christmas gives you a whole nine letters to play with, so I was going to have to go another way.












Instead of a tag, I used a little wooden box tray which had been hanging around for ages.  

I gave it the full works with paint and Fresco crackle glaze, playing with the blues and browns which have featured already in several of my FJ makes this year.









And I used the Seasons Greetings from another Artistic Stamper set, Christmas Greetings #1, to decorate the outside walls of the box.

Rather than the beautiful vintage adverts Linda had, I lined it with some Tim Holtz music paper... and so it became a "musical box"!











I added a bit of pale blue stencilling to the paper for fun.

Over the musical background, I cut up the letters, added a bit of inky goodness, and layered them onto pale burlap.













It's all mounted on padded tape for extra dimension.














I think the Kate Greenaway figures around the letters are adorable.













And I'm guessing we can all sympathise at the moment with how letter C is feeling!














I made a few musical flowers with the same paper, die-cut from the Tattered Flower Garland decorative strip die, inspired by Linda's poinsettias on her tag.










And I filled two little jars - one with little wooden hearts and stars, and one with "snow crystals" (otherwise known as crushed glass/sand from that certain Swedish store we all know and love).














There's a pinecone (because I don't seem to be able to do a Christmas make without them at the moment)...










...and some rusty jingle bells tied up with string, as well as a wooden flourish to frame the central
lettering.















I think I'll probably create some fixings on the back so that this could be wall mounted or hung up somehow.












Thanks so much for dropping in at this insanely busy time.  

I hope you're all in good shape for the festivities... I'm getting there! 








All being well, there'll be a continued stream of Funkie Junkie inspired creations over Christmas so that I can make that all-important deadline, and I can't wait to catch up with what you've all been up to as well.

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
Laura Ingalls Wilder

I'd like to enter this as Tag 4 into the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique.
And with plenty of stamping, I'd also like to pop it into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge's attempt to Stamp Out 2013.