Tis the Season

Hello all!  It's the start of a brand new week, and I've made it to half way through my self-imposed challenge to get all of the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas done in just over 12 days (rather than the generous 12 weeks which Linda Coughlin - the Funkie Junkie herself - allows us all).

This is my sixth tag but since I'm now running out of order, it's actually Linda's eighth.  If you take a look at her original, you'll see mine is pretty much a direct CASEing of her design, but transferred into my preferred colours.

Once again - as I did for Tag 4 Let it Snow - I've exchanged the poinsettia/red combination for snowflakes/blue.

I don't have the poinsettia-making equipment nor, as regulars will know, do I go much for red around here.  It just never really feels like "me" when I use it, so I'm sticking to what I know!










I absolutely adored Linda's crackled light in her lamppost, so I followed her example for that.  I actually made the lamppost first of all, as I knew the Crackle Accents would need time to dry.













I've used the PaperArtsy White Fire paint for my silvery lamplight and I love the soft glow of it.  I left it overnight to get on with crackling.













The next morning (ie. a couple of hours ago!) I cut some snowflake masks using the Thinlits, and then spritzed Stormy Sky Distress Spray over them.  One of them flapped a bit in the draft of the spray so there's some leakage, but I'm pretty happy with the result overall.













Since I'd used White Fire in the lamp, I decided to stamp my sentiment in my favourite metallic embossing powder, Liquid Platinum.













I had a feeling it would tone in with the White Fire pretty well... it's no accident that I love both of them.

Having done the sentiment, I wanted more Liquid Platinum, so I brushed around the edges of the tag with the Versamark pad to add a textured metallic frame to echo Linda's gilded edging.












Then I thought I should probably also echo her gilded splatter so for that I used the White Fire again - very happy altogether with the wintry shimmer of it all.

I googled for a vintage winter photograph and came up with a couple of options.  I know I've seen this girl before - is she one of Tim's Found Relatives too?












Anyway, I printed out both her and the little boy, but when I tried them next to my lamppost, it was clear that I needed the bolder shapes and contrasts of the girl's photo.  Don't worry, that little chap will be stored away for future use...

I mounted her on card and inked the photo with Antique Linen and a hint of Vintage Photo (but of course).  I'm all about the holiday greenery, so this photo appeals to me no end.













And since she's gathering greenery, I wanted plenty of greenery around her.  I used my mop-up inky papers left over after Tag 9 Pine Cones Galore! to cut some fir, holly and mistletoe.











To create some more colour variation, I blended some Forest Moss onto some of them - it's a lovely earthy green which I haven't really made the most of in the past.













A couple of sparkly berries top the pile of gathered branches.  Oops, I notice the glue's still wet... well, there you go, you're practically at the craft table with me!









I've used music manuscript again on this tag (it put in appearances on Tag 1 Bare Branches and Tag 3 The Silent Night).

This time, rather than forming the background, I've used it to cut a few additional snowflakes dotted around the place.

You may notice another Tag 3 echo in the black embossing I chose to do on my lamppost to get a nice shiny wrought iron look.  It must be brand new!















Of course, I added some shadowy ground for the lamppost to stand on - Paynes Grey DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic, applied with a water brush.













So that's my version of Tag 8.  I hope you like it.  I do - I think it's joining the Pine Cones Galore! as one of my favourites this year.  It feels pretty good to have made it to half way, plus I have a couple more already done and waiting to make their appearance here at Words and Pictures.

But after such a quiet year on the blog, it feels like overload to go for multiple posts in a day... so you'll just have to be patient, I'm afraid.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll be back tomorrow to share another tag.






A few days before Christmas Tom Garland and Dan took a bill-hook and knife and went into the woods to cut branches of scarlet-berried holly.  They tied them together with ropes and dragged them down over the fields, to the barn.  Tom cut a bough of mistletoe from the ancient hollow hawthorn which leaned over the wall by the orchard, and thick clumps of dark-berried ivy from the walls.
From The Country Child by Alison Uttley

I'd like to share this as Tag 8 in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique
I'd also like to enter it in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is Let There Be Snow

Fall in Love

Hello all... hope you're all having a lovely Sunday!  I'm here to share my version of Tim Holtz's fantastic February tag.  A bit of a journey from the original this one, with a lot of improvising - some of it voluntary, some of it necessary because of not having the proper ingredients.

Firstly, I'm really not a "red" crafter - or at least I haven't got there yet. (Given that this whole crafty business came completely out of the blue, I'm never going to say never about anything to do with it!)

But, for now, I decided I'd stick with the neutrals of my comfort zone, with the addition of the dramatic black of Tim's tag, which I loved.

Secondly, the only Blueprint set I've got (so far) is the Autumn one of the leaves.  I was trying to work out how one could incorporate autumnal leaves into a Valentine when the happy wordplay available in the American word for Autumn flashed into my head.  So, here we have "Fall in Love" .

(See, it really wouldn't work in UK English: "Autumn in Love" - that's not a thing, except perhaps the title of a really gloopy made-for-tv afternoon movie.  Yes: two people in the autumn of their years; to begin with, they spar with one another over various neighbourly disputes, then there's a softening into affection, then one of them becomes ill and the other nurses them through it, and in the end they see out their days together.)




I used Picket Fence and Antique Linen in my background, following Tim's instructions, and while I really liked the subtlety of the result, I found that it wasn't holding its own against the stronger other elements.

So in the long run, I added to the tree theme of the tag with some woodgrain stamping which gives the background a bit more weight.







I haven't got the Kraft Core Seasonal Impressions, where the cardstock comes ready embossed, but I did pick up the Valentine Background texture fade for a song very early on in my crafty journey.

It's only been out to play once before, so it was time for it to do some more work.









I love the sanded card so much that I added an extra bit - another little hug and kiss attached to the side of the tag.










So, to the leaf (well, leaves, really, since they're in layers)...  I played for a while with proper autumnal colours, having lots of fun playing with the distress markers on watercolour paper.

But again, in the end, it wasn't really floating my boat when I played with assembling the tag.

So I decided to foreground the colours I'd enjoyed in my background, and started blending Antique Linen and Scattered Straw.  Love the technique of nib to nib blending with the markers!

There's also some Vintage Photo and a hint of Rusty Hinge in the webbing of the leaf.














I'm very happy with the delicate colours of this version.  And it means I've got some lovely autumnal leaves ready to play with at some point in the future.









You can't quite layer up the leaf image in the way you can with the playing card, but I liked the look of the three layers anyway, with the added dimension.

Cutting padded tape to fit along the narrow stem of the leaf was quite a game - an 18 Certificate for the language employed at this point!











I've no cash keys, but I do have little ornate oval frames that I'm very fond of.  And sadly my Chitchat stickers don't have the word FALL, or I'd've happily used them.

Instead, I stamped my punning sentiment and inked the edges.  I used Ranger Crackle Accents to fill in the frame and left it overnight to do its thing.







There's no two-tone paper string in my stash either, but I do have the neutral Solids.

I took one strand each of black, brown and cream, which toned in perfectly with the palette of the tag, and twisted them into place.

And the hand is stamped onto card with some more Antique Linen watercoloured onto it, and then outlined with black pen, since I don't have the vial labels.

I love Tim's positioning of it pointing to the sentiment (or, in my case, the pun) in the charm...






Finally, I created the tissue tape ribbon as in Tim's original, but - having missed out on the cash key - I decided to add some typewriter key charms instead... an X and an O, what else?

I love that they're right next to the embossed words "hugs and kisses" - happy accidents are so useful.







While we're on the subject of happy accidents, I'm also rather taken with the reflections of tree branches in the type charms in these photographs.

The little pin says "elements" on it - for all the elements I've had to adapt for this tag!!




So, there it is...  I'm loving how inventive everyone's being with this February tag, there are some amazing pieces out there, well worth hopping round for a look.

For now though let me say a big thank you for spending some time here at Words and Pictures - it's always a joy to have your company.  Happy Crafting til we meet again...










Falling in love is one of the hardest things to do, because you can never be certain that someone will catch you.
Anonymous


First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.
Maya Angelou


Wise men say, "Only fools rush in",
But I can't help falling in love with you.
From Can't help falling in love, sung by Elvis Presley, written by  Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss


I'm entering this as my February tag in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013
At Anything But a Card they'd like us to Share the Love

In a Heartbeat

Hello all, and a happy Sunday to you!  There's a brilliant challenge recipe over at DragonsDream Tag It On, set by the amazing Trace from Inkypinkycraft.  It's called "In a Heartbeat", and it calls for a beating heart, a weathered timepiece, and some grunge - and for this challenge, only a tag will do.  Not only is the work from the Design Team totally inspirational, but there are some absolutely cracking entries too - well worth a visit, and still a couple of days left to play as well.

For what it's worth, here's what it summoned up for me...

I went slightly sideways to create the idea of the heart 'beating', and went for a musical 'beat'... so both my heart and my timepiece are made with musical notation.





The clock is a sheet of music from an old songbook, backed onto chipboard and cut with Tim Holtz's Weathered Clock die.  I distressed it with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain DIs and some Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder for extra rusty texture.

The heart is one of the lovely rusty ones available from the Funkie Junkie Boutique (now with a whole new dot com shop), edged with some extra Walnut Stain, and stamped in Staz-On black using the Kaisercraft music stamp.  

It's mounted over the inner circle of the clock die, which got a hit of the grunge stamp as well as a coating of Rock Candy Crackle Paint.

I had an absolute ball making the background.  I stamped the Kaisercraft Grunge stamp quite randomly in black and coffee archival, and then stuck a layer of my bread wrapper wax paper over the whole of it, keeping plenty of wrinkles for texture.

I added some more of the Grunge stamp in a few places - I like that some of the grunge is below the wrinkles, and some more sharply above.








I then brushed Black Soot DI over to highlight the wrinkles.  I blended on some other DI colours, and used some Pewter Perfect Pearls Mist for some gleam, but it still wasn't quite hitting the right note for me.  Finally, I added some Rust Alcohol Ink to the mix, and that gave more richness to the colour, as well as adding a lovely lustre.

I adorned the top of the tag with black paper string ribbon, knotted, and some white raffia ribbon, inked and shredded, and added some rusty bells to help "keep the beat".

Yes, keep the beat, as the sentiment says - the musical beat, the heartbeat - up to you... It's stamped onto paper, and mounted in one of the Funkie Junkie's rusted bottle tops, which I then filled with Crackle Accents.  Took an age to dry fully, or I could have posted last night!

It also caused the ink to run it seems (even though it was Archival), but I quite like the 'bruised heart' look of it!
















As you can probably see from the photos, it's altogether a grimmer, greyer morning today, so perhaps yesterday's post really did tap in to the 'last days of summer'.  But, even without the sunshine, I have to say I'm happier with today's project - more at home than in yesterday's slightly too girly world!

Do hop over to DragonsDream to see lots of fantastic creations out of the same inspirational recipe.  I look forward to bumping into you again soon, either here, or elsewhere in Craftyblogland... and in the meantime, have a wonderful Sunday, whatever you're up to!









I'm entering this - did you guess? - in the In a Heartbeat challenge at DragonsDream Tag It On
At Happy Daze, they're having a Steampunkery challenge - hope it's got just enough!
And with all those rusty elements from the FJB, I'd like to offer it up in the Sunday Share at Frilly and Funkie

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
Joseph Campbell