Winter Singers

Hello all... it's pretty noisy round here at the moment.  In the last post we were ringing, and now we're singing!

I'm here with the second of my inspiration pieces for this month's Nostalgic Christmas theme at Country View Challenges.  You haven't got long left to play, but maybe you've got a little more time to play with now the big day is over.

My Christmas keeps going until 6th December (which is just as well, having had to put lots of it on hold after being struck with the Norovirus - less said, the better!) - but this is the lovely gentle part, with all the planning and preparations over, and the chance to hibernate with a good book, some music and plenty of candlelight - and some time at the craft table too I hope.

Music is so central to my Christmas that it would be hard to manage without it (that's true of life generally, as far as I'm concerned) - and nothing can transport me back in time or to another place more quickly than a particular tune or carol arrangement.  So for a Nostalgic Christmas, these lovely Victorian Carollers were an obvious choice.

I created a soft and snowy forest background (if you want the how-to, it's pretty much the same as the inside of the wallet on my Vintage Journey Secret Santa gift).













The Carollers themselves are cut from some of the Bazzill Antique papers, edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.












I stuck the music paper onto black card initially, so you get a really clear, sharp outline.  It could be done with inking, of course, but this cut out one task, leaving me just with the Vintage Photo ageing to do.

I needed to make sure they were standing on something, so I used some snowflake tissue tape and created some shadows with my Stampers Big Brush Pens.













And I kept the embellishing pretty simple to keep the look delicately rustic.  There are some of my favourite tiny wooden stars up in the sky...












... and some twine around the foot of the tag, tied in the bow and topped with one of the larger stars.











The Chitchat stickers pretty much say it all...










... hidden amidst the shadows of the snowy trees as they are.


















Of course there's a topping to match - seam binding and twine and pale hessian ribbon.











I hope you're all enjoying your 12 Days of Christmas as much as he is clearly enjoying the music.  For a hilarious version of that particular carol - shared with me by the ever-musically-curious Andrea of eclectic meandering - just click here and enjoy the fun!






And of course they can sing facing one another as they were at the start of the post, or join forces to sing out to the world...

I hope that's given you some last minute inspiration to play along with us.  There are lots of fabulous entries already, but we'd still love to see your version of Nostalgic Christmas over at Country View Challenges - you have until New Year's Eve to join in!! 

I'd like to enter this over at the Inspiration Journal blog where the theme for December is Sing, Sing It Loud

I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing.
William James

Compliments of the Season

Hello all - so glad you enjoyed my wintry birds.  We're zooming into December with our usual challenge feast, and it's suddenly got very Christmassy round here!  This is the first of two posts today kicking off Christmas themed challenges - no surprises there, I suppose.




First up, it's Country View Challenges, where the amazing Astrid is looking for projects celebrating a Nostalgic Christmas.

I went for one of the oldest traditions in the book, filling your house with greenery.  Before Christmas was even thought of, green boughs were hung on doors to ward off evil, and brought inside to freshen stale air and remind us of the promise of new growth at winter's end.

So my tag is created around that theme although, having said that...  As often seems to happen round here, I started off with one idea in mind and ended up going in a completely different direction.  This wasn't meant to be a tag at all.

The tree and big decorative vases of ivy and holly are absolutely central to my Christmas celebrations - the only bits I really couldn't manage without.

I can still remember going to choose a tree from rows of them, growing on a steep grassy hillside, and me and my brother running up and down between the rows of trees.  It was like Narnia... without the snow!  (These days it's usually the Swedish furniture store...)

I found this charming vintage image online (by Googling "nostalgic Christmas images"!), resized and printed it, and then gently tinted the sky for a bluesy look.







I still had some tea and coffee-dyed kraft tags hanging around, so I used those with my lovely new Holiday Greens Thinlits (perfect dies, thank you Tim Holtz!).

I did a bit of extra inking with Vintage Photo DI, and glammed them up a bit with some White Fire Treasure Gold.









I used the leftovers from the die-cutting as a stencil to add details around the edges of the circular background.

Ah yes, the circle...

You may be wondering what the whole thing is doing on partial circle.









Well, the original plan was to create a scene inside a circular frame (more of that another time), but somehow it wasn't working for me.

I did quite like the circle though, covered with one of the Bazzill Antique Aged Papers, so I kept that, and trimmed off one edge to make it fit onto a jumbo tag.







The tag was already under way - planned for another project (change and change about on the craft table... why not?).  I'd smeared some DecoArt crackle paste on, pretty randomly, and then painted a wash of white paint over the whole thing.













Once it's all dry, a fingertip-full of White Fire Treasure Gold highlights all the lovely texture, as well as adding a nice gleam.










I used the lovely Holly Bough Layering Stencil to apply some Chipped Sapphire and Faded Jeans inks to the painted background.














The Tim Holtz Christmas music stamp adds some extra music, stamped in Coffee Archival.











And there's a good dusting of Aged Gold Frantage around the edges, though it was a bit too golden, so that also got a smear of White Fire to lighten the colour.












The Compliments of the Season label was another fruit of the Google search ( I think this one was over at the Graphics Fairy, but I'm not sure any more), resized, printed, distressed and tinted.

And there's more White Fire on the tiny Idea-ology key.

Another little bit of White-Fired Idea-ology takes its place up at the ribbon topping...














... and all around the tag you catch the gleam of some of my favourite little wooden stars...









... twinkling from between the fir fronds.

Well, that's your lot for right now.  Of course, you can hop over to Country View Challenges to see the beautiful creations my team-mates have come up with to celebrate a Nostalgic Christmas.

Come and play with us this month, and you could win a prize voucher from our generous sponsor Country View Crafts.






And I'll be back in about an hour with not only the new Our Creative Corner challenge, but also a rather special post... and a giveaway!!  Hope to see you very soon.

Here's to holly and ivy hanging up, and something wet in every cup.
Anonymous toast