Brown paper packages tied up with strings

Hello all and a happy December to you!  I'm delighted to be here to share a project created for The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog.  The new challenge is a festive one: It's the Holidays!  It launched yesterday with wonderful inspiration projects from the fabulous FJB team, so do check out all the details over there.

I was invited to be their guest for this theme after my Sunrise, Sunset book cover was the chosen winner last month.  That was one of my more complicated creations, but at this time of year when we're all so busy, it's often best to keep things simple.  So to fulfil the brief of making something I can use over the festive season I've created some gift tags to go on the presents I'll be wrapping.

I've used brown parcel paper for my Christmas presents for decades, each year with slightly different decorative features - sometimes a few berries, sometimes some real greenery, sometimes ribbons or more recently even some stamping or stencilling.






These tags will provide the main decoration on some brown paper packages tied up with string (string to match the string on the tags... I've got a huge great ball of the stuff.














They're really very simple.  I used some pre-cut tags (also pre-strung, though I've changed the string so that it will match the stuff I'll be using on the parcels) and stamped some of Tim Holtz's beautiful ornate festive greetings on them.














They're embossed with Wow Bright White embossing powder.  I think it looks great against the kraft, and the touch of texture and slight glossiness is so effective against the rustic look of the sepia background.














I spritzed a whole sheet of A4 card with various green Distress Sprays and Oxide Sprays (it's part way through the spritzing stages here, but the camera didn't keep hold of the next few process photos)...











... and then used the TH Holiday Greens Mini Thinlits to cut my fir fronds and branches.  (I've got plenty of inky green card left over to use on more Christmas creations, time permitting.)














Then it was just a case of layering up the greenery - trying to keep as much of the stamping visible as possible!
















Each tag has a little cluster of sparkling berries too.














I seem to have taken these photos before the berry glue was properly dry... apologies!














I really knocked these up very quickly.  The most time-consuming and fiddly bit was poking out all the tiny detailing in the die-cuts.
















Oh, and deciding where to position some of my ivory sequins for some extra light-capturing gleams.  But once that was all done and stuck down, I was able to finish off with my favourite snowy spatter.














Now all I need to do is buy some presents for people so that I can wrap them up and label them!














I hope this has given you some inspiration for ways to zhuzh up your gift-wrapping this Christmas.














If you're still after more festive creativity, do hop over to The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and see what the team have been making, and then come and join in with the challenge.








Many thanks to Cec and the amazing FJB team for inviting me along to be their guest, and many thanks to all of you for stopping by today.  I hope that your Advent countdown will go smoothly and that all your to-do lists will soon be done.  Happy crafting (and Christmas prep) everyone!

The ribbons! The wrappings!
The tags! And the tinsel!
The trimmings! The trappings!
Dr. Seuss

I'd like to share these at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the invitation is Let's Sparkle - there are the berries and although the sequins are subtle, they definitely sparkle too
At Tag Tuesday, Joan's theme is White Christmas - I've got lots of snowy spatter to offer

Orchard Fruit

Hello all!  I'm still a bit groggy from my cold, but getting there.  Sorry I've not been visiting much - I'm conserving my energy for recovery!  I'm here with some watercolour orchard trees today for the Fruits & Vegetables theme at Art Journal Journey.

Most of this page spread was done before I got ill, and it's been sitting on the craft table for two weeks waiting for me to have the energy to stick it all down.









The trees themselves were actually painted months ago - done with some of my Daniel Smith watercolours in an A4 watercolour sketch pad.
















For these pages, I tore around them and inked the torn edges with Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs to give a nice framing effect.












I think they look pretty good against the simple kraft pages of this 8x6 inch Paperchase journal.  (As a double spread it measures 12x8 inches.)














I love the soft patches of colour creating the foliage...
















... layered and overlapping...















... and the intricate twining of the trunk, branches and twigs...













... done with dip pen and ink.

I'm also pretty pleased with the soft shadowy trees in the background, giving the scene a touch of depth.













The Art Journal Journey theme meant I needed some fruit to be hanging from the branches of my trees, so I used Fresco acrylic paints to add some green apples.














I applied the paint quite thickly to give them a bit of dimension.  But then I decided the green wasn't really doing it for me...














... so I gave all the apples a touch of Cherry Red/London Bus over the top.















And then on top of that each one got a blob of Glossy Accents to give them even more dimension and that glossy look of delicious ready-to-eat apples.














It also helps them stand out from the watercolour effects in the background...















... as well as fulfilling my favourite light-catching function.














The words are from my PaperArtsy EAB04 Autumn Edition.

They're stamped in Sepia Archival on one of the leftover scraps from the torn up watercolour page.











You'll have noticed in the green-apples-photo that I'd done some colourful splattering on the kraft background.  When I changed apple-colour I also decided I wasn't enjoying that, so I turned over a new leaf and tried again.













Now there's some watery brayering of Cloud 9 (a lovely soft white by PaperArtsy) as well as splatters and credit-card streaks of the same paint.













There are twisted tangles of thread and some of my much-loved ivory sequins.  Again, it's about catching the light I think - but in a nice subtle way.

And a trio of punched leaves cut with a Tim Holtz punch from some Distress Ink spattered cardstock add the final touch of autumnal colour.













I hope you like my watercolour trees and their glossy fruit, hanging low and ready to be picked.














I was a bit nervous about adding the apples, worried that I might just spoil my autumnal trees on the turn.









But I've ended up rather liking the effect.  And I do think it's quite a good way to give these trees something more to do, rather than having them tucked away in a sketch pad somewhere, never to see the light of day again!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I'm glad to have a bit more colour to share with you than for my previous watercolours Got the Grey-Blues!  I hope you're all having a lovely weekend, and I also hope to catch up with what you've been up to very soon.  Happy crafting, all!

...and so many orchards circled the village that on some crisp October afternoons the whole world smelled like pie.
Alice Hoffman

I'd like to share this at Art Journal Journey where Rike is looking for Fruits & Vegetables
At the Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog they are gathering up Lovely Leaves - since these trees are really all about the colours of the autumn foliage, I hope they will fit right in
I'd also like to join in with Week 38, Year 9 of the marvellous Paint Party Friday

Glowing Acorns

Hello all!  I'm delighted to be here today with a Guest Designer project for the fabulous Try It On Tuesday challenge.

The theme this month is Colours of Autumn, so it couldn't have been more suited to my current crafting zone.

In fact, what I've created here is a partner tag to my October Acorns.  (You can see them both together at the end of the post.)

If the challenge had gone live only a couple of days later, I could have called these "November Acorns"... just that little bit more wintry than the previous tag!


















At long last, those die-cut leaves are putting in their appearance.

I promised you them all the way back at the beginning of the month when I first shared the photo below.  













The tiny punched leaves got used for my Tree Poetry tag and the Colours of Autumn ATCs.   The main tag was the base for the October Acorns, and now finally here are the large leaves which were actually the first thing I started doing with these inky/oxidey tags.












My original plan had included a blue background, trying to capture one of those vivid autumn skies.  It's a combination that's been a favourite on autumn projects in previous years, but somehow it just wasn't happening.  So instead this white-washed woodgrain took its place.















It's glued onto some packaging cardboard which gives it a nice solidity, and it's had a touch of Vintage Photo ink around the edges.















Then it was really just a question of arranging my autumnal gatherings in a pleasing composition.

This, as you know, is the only time of year you'll find me playing with orange, but I do love these acorns (real acorn cups, foam tops).














I must get some of the greenish ones into action soon before the season is over.












The leaves die-cut from the tag have those lovely golden gleaming spots courtesy of some of the Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals powders over the Distress Inks and Oxides.













You have to catch the light at a certain angle to really see the shimmer.















But that's something I've always enjoyed creating - those now-you-see-it, now-you-don't moments.















There are some tangles of white moss...















... the strands add movement, dimension and texture all in one - that's pretty good going!















The Magicals powders are also in action on my tiny Scrapiniec confetti stars.
















Again, at the right angle they can be magical (hence the name, I suppose!)...















... and they also work for spattering if you mix them with some water on the craft mat.













There have to be some words, of course.  These are from my PaperArtsy EAB04 Autumn Edition set.









Some simple rustic twine finishes things off, and that's about that.  But before I go, here as promised is a shot of today's Glowing Acorns alongside the October Acorns.

I often work in pairs and trios, but for once this wasn't a planned pairing.  I guess I must have had some unfinished acorn business... I just had to follow that instinct to play with them again, and I'm happy I did.

Thank you so much to Avril and the rest of the fantastic Try It On Tuesday team for inviting me to be a Guest Designer alongside them this month.  I hope you'll hop over to see what autumnal wonders they've been cooking up, and be inspired to play along with your own Colours of Autumn too.




Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I'm hoping to have a bit of time this week to catch up with you all around Craftyblogland, and I'll be back later in the week with some more new challenge inspiration.  I hope to see you again soon.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

You cannot plant an acorn in the morning, and expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of an oak.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

At Tag Tuesday you'll be happy to hear that Anything Goes (as long as it's a tag, obviously!)
They want to see Die-Cuts and Punches over at MOO Mania & More
These leaves have already tricked a couple of you, so I'd like to play along at the Funke Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog where they want to see that It Looks Real
At Let's Craft and Create the theme is Anything Goes + an option of Colours of Fall
And there's a theme of Anything Goes with an optional twist of Orange over at More Mixed Media
At the Bleeding Art Challenge they want to see mixed media, but other than that Anything Goes