Tags With Purpose

Hello out there blogland! Well it's been a busy old weekend and my head can't get used to the clocks changing at all - probably this pesky cold making it worse, but enough of that. Thank you to everyone who left a comment and took part in my 100 followers giveaway. To make it completely fair I used a random draw to pick a winner (drumroll please...........)

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 3 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

So the winner is............. sam21ski

Hurrah!!! Let me know where to send your prize to by email and it'll be on its way!!!

Now on to the crafty part of this post. Over at The Funkie Junkie blog Linda Coughlin has set a 12 Tags of Christmas challenge that is currently ongoing and is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique. Each week she is posting a new tag from which to take inspiration and create your own project. Don't panic if you haven't seen it/started yet as there's still time - Linda has set a deadline of 17th December for completing all twelve. Why not pop over to the first one HERE to check on the rules.

So here is my fourth tag of the series...

Here's Linda's fourth tag to help show where I took my inspiration from...

I loved the gingham background and 'postcard' top, the pinecone, the red embossed panel and the use of twine on Linda's tag.

The first element to be completed was the kraft glassine pinecone, built by layering successively smaller layers over the original full image. A shout out here to Woodware - you may remember I won a chance to purchase some Woodware goodies from The Stamp Man, and this included the large pinecone stamp. This image includes the pine needles as well as the cone. I didn't want the image to cover the background too much so stamping onto acetate seemed a sensible solution. It also allowed for the addition of the beautiful lace from The Funkie Junkie Boutique, stained with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

Now I don't have any Christmas embossing folders at the moment, but I do have several textured ones and a bingo one. When Tim Holtz designed these he was clever enough to include significant numbers on them. I wanted the run up to the 25th to be shown but not the other numbers - cue my trusty diffusers!!! (another buy from The Funkie Junkie Boutique:)

The embossing was then highlighted by using first gold embossing powder and then swiping most of it with Coffee Archival Ink (yep, another fab Funkie Junkie Boutique purchase:)

Without a gingham stamp the best way to achieve that look was with some Basic Grey paper which was then stamped on and edged with Peeled Paint Distress Ink. This was echoed with green punched leaves covered in Peeled Paint Stickles glitter. Ribbon, twine, buttons and MDF letters completed the tag.

I've mentioned previously that my intention with all these Christmas tags is to use them on cards this year, and it seemed a good time to show you how that aspect is progressing (eleven down so far but not enough room to show them all in any detail!) The sentiments are Woodware stamps, purchased from The Stamp Man as part of that win too. By putting them onto recycled kraft cards, the tags retain their handmade feel.

OK, need to finish by saying a big thankyou to the ladies at Fashionable Stamping Challenges who were kind enough to put me in the spotlight this week. Also, as I go to bed my thoughts and prayers go out to all those on the East Coast of the USA who are facing extreme weather conditions. May you all come through this safe and well. Hugs as ever, Buttons x