Christmas Leftovers

Hello all!

I'm just popping in to share my leftovers with you today... no, not turkey sandwiches (we haven't eaten our main Christmas meal yet, and we don't have turkey in any case).

These are leftovers from my Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas which I've whipped up into a little bonus tag.

Those who thought the little boy with the Christmas tree might put in an appearance soon... you were right.

I made the crackled background just for this, but everything else is left over from the 13-day intensive tag workshop that took place in my craft room pre-Christmas.  It rivalled Father Christmas's elves for productivity!













This is DecoArt Chalky Finish paint and crackle - Everlasting applied over a combination of Serene and Relic.
















And I've given the edges a good inking with Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso - I hope that gives it the look of an old wooden panel.














The blue snowflakes are the masks I used to create my splattery background for Tis the Season, to which this has become a sort of partner piece.

I cut them out of scraps of the music manuscript which put in an appearance on several tags, and once they'd been spritzed, they were too good to throw away.













The little boy was up for a possible starring role on the same Tis the Season tag but, as you know, he was pipped at the post by the girl who had also been gathering Christmas greenery, though not quite on this scale.

He gets a tag all of his own here.












There were a couple of leftover bits of greenery, as well as a scrap of shimmering green card which hadn't been used, so I cut a couple more boughs.
















And I added a couple of the sparkly berries which were hanging around on the desk.














With the greenery in place, I needed a little more colour around to echo it...














... so I added Peeled Paint and Forest Moss with a water brush in various places.














At some point during the 12 Tags, I seem to have cut one more Layered Snowflake than I needed.

Oh yes, I was planning to layer white and kraft alternating on the snowflake for Snow Flurries, and then decided to go with pure kraft for that one, so I was left with a white one to play with.












I edged it with Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso and then used Frosted Crystal embossing powder to give it an icy shimmer.













I suppose the wooden stars aren't strictly leftovers.  I did use some for my Bare Branches tag, but the rest were back in the jar... but it needed just a little something extra.













So not quite all leftovers, but what are a few tiny wooden stars between friends?!














Oh, and there are some words, of course...













So there you are - some leftovers for you to enjoy while I do my main Christmas Day today... I'll be round to spread some festive cheer over the next few days though, I hope.  Stay warm and safe, everybody.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.
Calvin Trillin
(I know I've used it before, but it's such a good one!)

The Twelfth Tag - To Wish You Peace And Joy

We're almost at the start of the 12 Days of Christmas and I'm here with the 12th Tim Holtz Tag for 2015, so I'm going to use it to wish you all a peaceful and joyous festive season, however you celebrate it (or not).


Season's Greetings to all my lovely followers - thank you so much for your company on this crafty journey.  Who knew, when I started this, that I would find so many kindred spirits around the world?  It's a joy.


But to the tag... I went off-piste colour-wise, but other than that it's pretty much according to the word of the master, so you can find all the how-to details by checking out his fabulous tag and tutorial.

Despite my recent foray into traditional reds and greens with my Christmas Story Book, I couldn't quite bring myself to go with red... so instead of spray ink, I used heavy gesso through my stencil for the background.

I have a couple of the punches, but I added in some of the Holiday Greens Thinlits to zhuzh up my wreath.










I chose quite soft bluish greens from amongst the Kraft-Core papers, and helped them along in places with some Evergreen Bough ink.  I added some Rock Candy Dry Glitter for a bit of sparkle, and also brushed on some white paint in the end for an even frostier look.

The wreath-building may be fiddly, but I think it's so worth the effort.  I've already had a play with one kind of door garland earlier in the festive season, so I resisted the temptation to build a door for this one to go on.









I actually ended up with my garland greenery going the wrong way, but once I'd started it was too late too stop!  I quite like the energy of it all springing upward, so I embraced the imperfection (and repositioned the bow to deal with it!).

And I'm embracing the imperfection of the glue gun cobwebs too - I think they're rather magical.









My bow is not red either, obviously, just a nice bit of white crinkle ribbon, with a white-washed snowflake to fasten it.













Rather than decorating with bells, I went all starry-eyed... little white-washed wooden ones amongst the greenery...














... as well as a few of the pewter Idea-ology Star Fasteners scattered around the surrounding burlap in place of the large star Tim used.














And I couldn't resist exchanging the Small Talk stickers for one of my beloved Word Bands, burnished for a slightly more silvery look.






So here are the rest of those 2015 tags all lined up.  Yes, I know it's a Baker's Dozen - that's because I created double trouble in January!  (If you want to revisit any of these posts, just click on the "Tim Holtz 12 Tags" label at the foot of the post just before the comments start, and they should all appear for you.) 

And finally we're here in December with the last of them.  What an incredible year of inspiration!  It's the first time I've managed to complete all the tags, and I can't tell you how much fun I've had with them.

I really hope that Tim will offer up some more of his 12 Tag creativity next year, even though I already know that I'll only be able to play catch-up with quite a few of them, owing to travelling for work.  But one of the other great joys is seeing what everyone playing along comes up with - so I'd still be able to enjoy it all that way.  Fingers crossed!

I'd like to enter this as my December tag in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2015

Merry Christmas all!

Now I'm going to leave you in peace now to enjoy your Yuletide festivities.

I hope you find some time for the things that matter to you,

and that the season will be kind to us all.

As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is.

Eric Sevaraid

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