Snow is Falling

Hello all!  It's snowing again here at Words and Pictures.

Since there were, in any case, some snowy tags amongst the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas, and since I have, in addition to those, converted all the poinsettia tags into snowflake tags, it's been pretty snowy here lately, one way or another.

So this is my version of Linda's charming Tag 11.  Take a look at her original and you'll see why I was almost tempted into using red for this one... those papers!  It's enough to break down anyone's resistance to the colour...

But no, I decided I was going to stick to my guns, and so I've converted Linda's reds into soft blues.

I don't often use patterned paper, and when I do I always wonder why I don't do it more often.  I have a large stash of the stuff, but mostly it gets stroked rather than crafted with.

These papers are from Pion Design.  I'll only ever buy them when I can find them on sale somewhere, but I leap into action when I do.















I added some white-embossed snowflakes...














... they're the small ones from Tim's Weathered Winter stamps.











Regulars may recall that I have a troubled relationship with sewing machines, so it will come as no surprise that having layered up my papers and distressed the edges, I added my stitching in a couple of "faux" ways.












I used a needle point tracing wheel to "punch" stitch holes, and then did dot-to-dot with a fineliner pen.  In places, I added some stamping with my 49&Market stitch stamps for a messier look.

If I ever do conquer the sewing machine, I can assure you anything I do with it will be messy!











I cut one of the Tim Holtz doily thinlits with some more Pion paper.

If you look very closely, you can see it's got some of the same Gothic font as we had on yesterday's Tag 5 The Holly and the Holly.  This one is pre-printed though, and in the coordinating soft blue to match the other papers perfectly.









The Stacked Snowflake puts in another appearance.  For once, I didn't have time to wait for actual crackle to dry, so instead I used the Tim Holtz Cracks stamp, inked in subtle Antique Linen.













And the top layer has been replaced by one of the exquisitely intricate Calico Craft Parts snowflakes.















I created another of my leathery sentiment panels (they've put in a number of appearances over the last nine days of tag-posting), inking the kraft card so that it has a similar depth of colour as the Craft Parts.














Echoing yesterday's holly tag, I wound some twine around under the sentiment panel, and tied a simple knot.













Some more wooden snowflakes are dotted around the rest of the tag, each one a different design.














After all, each snowflake is supposed to be unique, isn't it?  And there's the top of that Stacked Snowflake... waste not, want not.

And I must say, I am completely in love with this Stacked Snowflake die - the dimension it gives to a project is fabulous.

I've really enjoyed using it for these 12 Tags - it also bobbed up in Tag 10 Snow Flurries - and there's one final use of it to come which may even be my favourite.

So there you have it... my version of tag 11 brings us to three-quarters of the way to the finishing line.  Nine tags down and only three to go, and I think they're good ones, though I do say so myself!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and for all your lovely comments along the way.  I've managed to re-start some limited visiting, but of course there's all the actual preparation for Christmas going on too.  Hopefully, normal service will be pretty much resumed at some point in the fairly near future... we'll see!

They say that every snowflake is different.  If that were true, how could the world go on?  How could we ever get up off our knees?  How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?
Jeanette Winterson




I'd like to share this as Tag 11 in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique
And it's also perfect as another entry over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where they are playing Let There Be Snow