A Christmas Wish

Hello again!  Yup, like a bad penny, I just keep turning up with yet another tag for the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas.

(Okay, there was one brief departure to deliver some Golden Letters at PaperArtsy, but apart from that...)

I've reached my tenth tag in eleven days, and this is my take on Linda's final tag.  Do take a look at her original version - it's completely gorgeous.

And it's also right up my street in colour tones and content, so I was perfectly happy to tread firmly in her snowy footprints, pretty much all the way.

The joy of this crafty playing is that even when you follow somebody else's work, you end up with something different.  












Sometimes it's because you have slightly different materials to work with, or techniques have slightly different results, and it's also because each of us seems to have our own special little touches or preferences when we play.

Anyway, here's what turned up on my craft table as I enjoyed playing with Linda's inspirational offering.

I loved the layered depth of the inky green background, and those white pine branches embossed over the top.












I think because of the particular cardstock I was using it was harder than usual to get the Distress Inks to blend.  I had to keep layering more on to get it smooth, so I've ended up with more intense colour tones than I'm used to.  No harm in that...














My pocket came up looking different from Linda's.  I put too much gesso on, so it didn't end up as distressed as the original.

I actively decided to go for a leathered rather than weathered look, and added more layers of ink.












I can never resist the chance to use this vintage Post Card stamp...













... and I also added some of the delicate snowflake pattern from the Christmas Nostalgia set to my leather pocket.















Simple white die-cutting of lots of holiday greenery (whitery?) next.















And I inked the edges before tucking the branches into the pocket... always an irresistible urge.














The little Merry Christmas tag comes from the same Pion papers as I used on Tag 11 Snow is Falling, inked and tucked in amongst the fir fronds and holly boughs.












There are some more of the delicate Calico Craft Parts snowflakes taking pride of place on this one.
















They were part of the Snow that was Falling yesterday too!















The intricate designs have to be extracted from the sheet quite carefully, but once they're glued down they're pretty robust.

I've used Noel on my version of Tag 7 (you haven't seen it yet - I'm saving it for last), so I went for Wish for this tag instead.













And I've borrowed a technique Linda used on that week seven tag to add a dimensional shadow to the word.

It just helps it to stand out from the background, I think.














A simple twine bow to finish things off, and there's my version of Tag 12 all done.

Only two more tags left to share with you and, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, I'm saving my two favourites for last.  I've been having such a glorious time sparking off from Linda's inspiration... it's so lovely when somebody's done most of the thinking for you!

I hope you'll be able to come back to see the last couple but, in the meantime, happy crafting all and have a great weekend.

The true wealth of a man is not what's in his pocket, but what's in his heart.
Unarine Ramaru

"Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th December to pick a man's pocket."
Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens




I'm sharing this as Tag 12 in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique