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!)

Leftovers...

Hello everyone...  Thank you so much for all your lovely comments on the tagbook from Tim Holtz's workshop, and the projects made with Anna Dabrowska (Finnabair).  Your words are so much appreciated, and it's been such a joy to read them.

I'm here today to share another project using the new Artistic Outpost releases Chalkboard Wisdom and Chalk It Up.  

Since I didn't manage to get all my creations made before the deadline (postal problems), I have the advantage of having been able to make this one with some leftovers from Anna's class - as well as with some inspiration from some of her techniques.

And don't fall over in shock, but it's a card!

I grabbed some 6 x6 kraft cards the last time I was in The Range, thinking that it was about time I tackled this stupid 'cardophobia' of mine.  The kraft appealed, obviously, and I hoped the square shape would mean I could pretend it was just a canvas to play on...

I arranged some torn strips of book page, as well as some of the packaging left from all the goodies we got to play with at the weekend, and some of the Prima resist canvas strips, also leftover from the projects we made.













Where I've departed from the Finnabair look is in leaving it all "naked" - rather than spritzing and spraying it to within an inch of its life! 

Given the sentiment I planned to use, I wanted to keep things simple and natural.








I grabbed the sentiment - one of my chalkboard experiments from my playing session last week, and added that to the mix.  (For anyone who missed that post, you can find out how I created my chalkboard look here.)

The sentiment is from Chalkboard Wisdom, and I added the frame from Chalk It Up.












The idea of twirling some thread around for extra texture and interest is straight from Anna's journalling pages... 











I love the random look of it.

















So that's all very well, but - deep breath everybody - it's time to get messy...

The final task was to let fly with the gesso - tapping and twirling it off a wooden barbecue skewer... 

... random again... 











...and pretty messy too!












So there you go - a card, and I don't hate it... that's definitely progress!

If we've managed to tempt you into these new sets, or if you've been using any other Artistic Outpost stamps on your projects, you can enter them in the September Referral Programme over at AO, and be in with a chance to win the prize draw at the end of the month.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

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