At The Gate it's Uncle Ben!

Hi everyone and welcome back to my second post of the day (the first was HERE). You are probably wondering what on earth that post title is all about (unless you are a keen bingo player); well it's my way of introducing two more entries for 'The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas 2014' challenge, namely takes on Tag #8 and Tag #10. Before I share them with you a quick bit of 'admin'; this is an annual challenge being hosted by Linda Coughlin, the Funkie Junkie herself and has been very generously sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique. The idea is that you take inspiration from each of Linda's weekly tags and create your own version, linking all 12 before December 21st to be in with a chance to win.

So first up here's my version of Tag #8...

Hopefully the similarities with the original are obvious - a 'Holiday Knit' stencilled Christmas stocking and the inclusion of snowflakes. I took that 'deconstruction' route again, adding the background stencilling to a tag and layering the various elements up. It was fun to echo the larger stocking with the mini stocking stamp from the Tim Holtz 'Mini Blueprints 5' set. And don't forget, you can cut up the filigree metal embellishments available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique so they fit with your design as I did here.

And now here's my version of Tag #10...

The similarities with Linda's original are far less obvious with this one. In fact I went with the principles rather than the look. The whole point to this was to get layers of media going in a way my awesome crafty friend Astrid (Astrid's Artistic Efforts) does. All my efforts were concentrated on the tag element; having stencilled holly leaves onto the base with Pine Needles Distress Paint I added a thin layer of gesso over the top. Next came more stencilling with Texture Paste and the Dots Fade Layering Stencil a mix mix of Distress Spray Stains. This had the inevitable consequence of making the dots blend into the background so I popped the stencil back on and dabbed the raised areas with Picket Fence Distress Paint.

Keeping that layering going the tag was placed on top of a background which had die cut holly leaves, a spritz of Evergreen Bough Distress Spray Stain and some gesso highlighting. To complete the look, kraft core festive greenery (with gold painted holly), a Distress Glittered reindeer 'a la Tim Holtz' and the heat embossed lettering - an idea pinched from the fabulous Sue Carrington!

Thank you for bearing with the frenetic pace of posts from me recently and humble apologies that my visits around blogland have all but dried up - CHA samples and DT work have kept me super duper busy for the past few weeks and there are still a few more things to finish before I have to pack away my craft room for a little while. I'll be back tomorrow with the final Funkie Junkie tag and hope you can join me for that.

Have a great weekend and remember to take care of yourselves even at this time of year, Jenny xxx