A Merry Little Christmas

Hello all!  And so it gets closer... and things are starting to shape up preparations-wise.

Here at Words and Pictures we're into the second half of the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique, so the countdown really is well under way.

This one takes just one main design feature from Linda's inspiration Tag 7 - the quote in the Ornate Frame - and then carried on playing with the elements which have danced from one tag to another in my own collection of tags so far.

So for a background, rather than stencilled plaid, I've used another of the Christmas Jingle papers by Anna Marie Designs.  I just love these fir branches over the music.















As you can probably guess if you've seen almost any of my tags so far, the winter greenery is a huge part of Christmas for me.

Decking the house with ivy and holly, not to mention, of course, the tree itself, is the activity which tells me the time is almost on us.  













We're late decorators compared to many - as close to the 24th as we can, and then it all stays up until 12th Night, January 6th.

So it's nice to play with all these Holiday Greens on the tags in advance of the actual decorating.











My Ornate Frame, cut from quite thick card, is painted, crackled and antiqued in all sorts of ways.














I used DecoArt Crackle Glaze over Fresco Chalk paint, and then once it had crackled I used ink and paint and Antiquing Creams to create my weathered finish.














And inside the frame, I've got some kraft card, inked with Walnut Stain and spritzed.














Over that I embossed the sentiment in Wow Vanilla White powder.  I don't have the Minis of these stamps, so my sentiment fills the frame and then some!

Almost forgot... I must have the annual link to one of the finest Christmas songs of all time (songs rather than carols - that's a whole other ballgame!).












I do love the glossy embossing against the rich brown.













Rather than a poinsettia (I never have really got on with poinsettias - even real ones) I've embellished with pinecones and some berries.














They're resting on some of those wonderful boughs and branches which have featured so prominently on my tags this year (and most tags in other years, truth be told) - some die-cut and some punched.













Down in the corner there's a little deer - he was lying on the craft table and he just wanted to go there, so I let him.














And some snowflake die-cuts which were also lying nearby decided they'd like to be involved too.  I layered them with padded tape so it's a pleasingly dimensional snowflake.











So far there have been Christmas Clippings on each of my tags so, although there's already a perfectly good sentiment here, I added some more of the tiny strips to the mix.













Some simple white twine tops us off again and we're done.  From wondering what on earth I was going to do, this one became one of my favourites as I was making it.  Thank you as always, Linda, for a lovely couple of hours at the craft table.







Down at the end of a winding path
Is a group of evergreen trees,
Pine and hemlock, and spruce and fir,
With their resinous fragrances;
And truest picture of calm content
That mortal ever saw...
Elizabeth Anne Chase Akers Allen

I would like to share this as my Tag 7 in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique
I'd also like to join in at That's Crafty Challenges where Tis the Season is the theme