Melting Away

Welcome everyone, and thank you to my newest followers for choosing to join me. It's still such a thrill seeing that number rise slowly but surely, and I'm hoping you get a little inspiration from what you see. First up a quick heads up. Look to the right of your screen and you will see a link to the latest Crafty Individuals Christmas blog candy. It's immense!! so get over there (when you've finished here of course!) and get your name on the list. And now for my latest creation...

Being a big fan of The Funkie Junkie (Linda Coughlin herself) and her wonderful boutique it was a no-brainer for me deciding to join in with her 12 Tags of Christmas challenge which is very generously sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique. There's still time to join in by taking inspiration from Linda's tags and creating your own projects as the deadline is 17th December - for all the details go HERE. This offering is my version of Linda's tag No. 11.

So what did I use from Linda's tag... well the background is almost identical, with Antique Linen Distress Ink and Brushed Cordrouy Distress Stain used in a dip, spritz and flick stylee over TH flourish embossing (Sheena's WOW pearl blue powder which looks almost Mother of Pearl) and script stamping. I don't have a holly leaf die, but used a template to draw some onto white and homemade brown glitter cardstock. When cut they were layered over some lace - I tried to make a wreath and failed, twice. Who knows why! The berries are my fav Cosmic Shimmer glue coloured with a Promarker, and I took further inspiration from Linda by adding TH mini fasteners as extra metallic berries.

The focal point is where I strayed from the original. Did you know you don't need a meltpot to create a puddle of molten embossing powder and you can mix your powder colours? If you heat them in a mince pie tin (after washing of course:) you can then pour the resultant liquid onto your craft mat and push your stamp into it. A dust of mica pearl powders helps to emphasise the image once you release the stamp. It ends up looking something like an oversized wax seal, depending on the size of your stamp of course.

To finish it was just a case of adding diecut strips of Basic Grey card, some of the matching lace and a 'bronze' button (again from Linda's tag). For me this was a relatively neutral tag which made a change and worked with the kraft card base.

It feels good to get this far with the challenge - only one more to go - and even more satisfying to see a large pile of individual cards ready to go shortly. Phew, no mad rush for a change. And on that note a quick message to my fellow What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday playmates - unfortunately I'm gonna be MIA tomorrow for personal reasons, but rest assured I will try to visit you guys during the rest of the week as time allows. In the meantime (and for those in the UK, in your best Brucie voices) "keep crafting".

Hugs, Jenny xx