A quick little post today... lots to do, of course. ;) The challenge this week at Tag Tuesday is to use the Christmas Colors of Navy, Turquoise, and Red. This was a fun one once I found my little feature image that I received in a swap, which happened to have the required colors in it already. I glittered it up and framed it with a Tattered Angels frame that I had sponged with Chipped Sapphire distress ink. The snowflake border is cut with a Martha Stewart punch, and the stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms. A little bling, a little Broken China and Antique Linen distress ink, some soft velvety ribbon that I got in the same swap... and a frosty little Christmas tag was born.
I hope all my American friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I don't do black Friday, so hopefully I'll get some time to craft after my dinner settles, LOL! Thanks to everyone who follows, comments, shares, inspires, visits..... I am so grateful for all my crafty, blogland friends!
This week at Tag Tuesday, guest hostess Pam has challenged us to make a tag where the background is the star. I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while - using Tim's snowman texture fade in a way that would convey how much I'm wishing for snow, ice skating, making snowmen.... you know, all the things that a northern girl transplanted to North Carolina yearns for when the weather turns colder.
I think of this tag as a snowman wishing to happen. The background is Glimmer misted (can't remember all of the colors, but Dragonfly is my fave). I sprayed them on my craft mat, smooshed them on the tag, then spritzed the tag with water for a more snowflakey effect. Then I embossed the snowman and sanded him, so that he's sort of a shadow of a snowman, looking at that big snowflake and wishing to appear. A little pigment ink white and some mica flakes give him somewhere to call home.
This was a fun and creative challenge, and many thanks to Pam for being such an inspirational hostess. I've got a day filled with kids' sporting events, but I'm hoping to get in some time to visit all of the lovely blogs I've been missing these past few days. a sweet end-of-the-weekend to everyone. :)
I just wanted to pop in quickly and let you know about a post I have up over at the Rogue Redhead Designs blog today. It's a quick and easy little gift idea for the book lovers in your life. It's getting to be that time of year.... ;)
Our ATC club had a Christmas card swap (actual greeting cards, not ATCs) tonight. I went with two general themes - kids and Santa - and used lots of Christmas paper scraps that I've been hoarding from years past. A few quick and easy and *mailable* cards, very fun to make.
Here are a few using Artistic Outpost's Sleigh Ride plate, along with some Tim Holtz texture fades, glitter, Tim stamps, and Hero arts snowflakes sprinkled in:
In purple...
And white...
And blue....
And here are a couple of Tim Holtz Santas, with ticket stamps and dies:
In white....
And blue...
Have you started your Christmas cards yet? Do you make yours? I was very surprised when I saw that one of my very, very favorite papercrafting artists and bloggers actually orders hers from an online shop that prints them up with the customers own photos. *Manufactured* cards, from someone who makes quite possibly the most beautiful Christmas cards I've ever seen. *Gasp!* So whaddya think? Is your Christmas card list so long that you have to buy them? Does it feel weird? Do you give handmade cards to the chosen lucky few? Or maybe you do a Christmas letter. Or maybe, like me, your are a queen-of-the-last-minute and end up either doing them at 2:00 AM or just throwing in the towel. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm hoping to get enough done for everybody on my list this year. Maybe. Hopefully.... ;)
Real stitching, faux stitching, embroidery stitches - any kind of stitching you like is the theme for this month's Random Redhead challenge at Gingersnap Creations. Use your machine, a needle and thread, a stamp, or a pen. For my stitching example, I kept with the Haute Couture theme of the month and created a little French fashion-inspired pocket stitched from vellum and adhered to the front of my card. The pocket holds a tag for a little additional message, stamped and colored with a fashionista from The Artistic Stamper's Twenties No. 1 plate. Here's a better look at the little diva:
In addition to the stitching around the pocket, I also stitched the main patterned paper panel, alternating zig-zag and straight stitching for a little more interest:
The tag base is from 7Gypsies, and the words and Eiffel tower are from Cornish Heritage Farms.
I hope you'll have time to play along. After you post your project, link up over at Gingersnap Creations so that we can all see what you've created. Have fun!
