Welcome friends and visitors! Today I have my interpretation of Linda's last of her
12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style, being week 12. Linda has been hosting this inspirational challenge for 12 weeks (well, duh!), and each week she outdoes herself with another wintry/holiday tag for anyone to interpret as they wish. Generous prizes are awarded at the end of the challenge, and Linda's wonderful shop
The Funkie Junkie Boutique is the sponsor. We all are winners, though, in that we've learned and shared new ideas and are rewarded with a stash of Christmas cards to send out either this year, or if you're like me, it might be next! Ha! Ha! This had to be my favorite tag of all! Not only is it beautiful and in my favorite colors, but the inspiration came at a time I needed it most! I was trying to think of some grand way to present gift cards to my sister and Mom. This was like a prayer answered!
You can see Linda's delightfully festive
pocket tag on her blog and see that I was inspired by her snowy background, the vintage Tidings "Noel", die cut greens, embossed pine branches, the little charm, and of course her pocket stuffed with Christmas ephemera. I've had to make some minor changes due to not having the same products, but otherwise it was a straight case of casing! I made two, because I needed two, and I really wasn't happy with my first attempt. We learn so much from our mistakes, but sometime we just have to embrace our impurrfections, which I did many times over on both of my tags. Here is my second tag, which was actually my first. That says Joy, and will hereafter be referred to as the Joy tag.
I made my Peace tag on a black tag and gave it several coats of gesso. This probably was mistake number one. I should have gone with a manila tag, but hey ho, onward and upward! After painting with Evergreen Bough Distress paint, I flicked on some rubbing alcohol. Sometimes those little dots can become big blobs if you don't stop them. I'm going to need to cover that up! Because of the variation of tones, I painted on a wash of white acrylic paint over the full tag to bring the color back a little.
I used the same color over gesso on the smaller panel, but you can see the difference the black substrate and using ink versus paint makes. I did the water spritz and flick just like Linda did on her tag. Live and learn, or not! The small panel was embossed with Tim's Poinsettia Texture Fade and I colored the flower with Picked Raspberry Distress ink. I can't tell you exactly what steps I took to achieve this, but it did involve covering it with gesso a second time after I painted the flower. It looked horrible! But I kind of liked the retro look, so I went with it.
Paint splatter, background stamping (Heidi Swapp script stamp with Distress Archival ink), and embossed pine branches, just like Linda's tag, but I had to substitute my new Tim Holtz stencil in place of the Noel die cut, since I don't have that. That didn't turn out so well using transparent matte texture paste and white puffy embossing powder on the Joy tag, but again, I embraced my imperfection, and tried something else with Peace--plain ole texture paste. Better? You be the judge!
I used Tim's Christmas Blueprints 4 for the pine branches on this one. Christmas ephemera, winter greens, a sweet charm, rustic twine, and a bit of bling on the pocket portion (Stickles), in the likes of Linda's tag. I couldn't locate my early Tim Holtz Merry Christmas stamp that Linda used, so I had to settle with some Metallic Holiday Talk stickers. Excuse the phrase, but this kind of killed two birds with one stone--I got my sentiment and some of the metallic that Linda used on her pocket. I tried to use my gilded rub ons, but although they will stick to anything if you look at them the wrong way, they would NOT stick to my tag!
I'm going to tuck in a little gift card behind the ephemera. This is for my sister and brother in law--I think they will be quite sick of poinsettias by the time Christmas is over.
This one's going to my Mom. See that Special Delivery tag? Hopefully we are going to surprise her and deliver her Christmas present in person. I chose the tag in the pocket for the tiny birds. Her gift is going to be a squirrel proof bird feeder and a years supply of safflower seed, which the squirrels typically won't touch. Sorry all my squirrel loving friends, but Mom said she stopped putting bird food out because the squirrels were eating her out of house and home. But I know she misses seeing her birds.
I forgot to take a photo of the background before I covered it up. I used Distress sprays for this one, and edged in Vintage Photo Distress ink. For my pine, I used a stamp from Tim's Scribble Woodland set. Isn't that deer sweet? She and the silver bells charm are from Linda's shop.
I didn't have Tim's little paper clips, so I used a funky one from my stash. The winterberry branches are embossed with Tim's Texture Fade of the same name. A little Stickles for the berries. You can plainly see another goofy I made with the pocket portion on this tag. Those lines along the sides are score lines. Somehow I had the bright idea I would make this dimensional, but that is an engineering feat greater than I can handle at this time of the year! So I just have scored lines. Mom will think it was a plan.
Well, that's a wrap for me, too! I've so enjoyed Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas challenge! Thank you so much, Linda, for all your hard work and for all your comments you've so lovingly left! I know you are a busy lady,and it deeply touches me that you take the time to comment on each and every entry on top of providing us with such high quality inspiration! Have a Merry Christmas, and I wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!
Many of the products I've used can be found at
The Funkie Junkie Boutique...
I'm sharing my tags with these challenges:
Thank you for visiting today and for your wonderful comments! I read and appreciate each and every one of them! I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Hugs and Blessings!
Sara Emily
