Festive Feeling... Giveaway Time!

Goodly Morning Stampfans! Tis that time of the month again when I do my taggy giveaway... this month the tag has been inspired by lots of different techniques shown by Tim Holtz during his 12 Tags of Christmas bonanza this year. Did you know that Jennie is feeling in a very generous festive mood and not only is she giving away two free limited edition stamps with every single order... she has also set up a special discount of a mahoosive 20% on any orders for the stash used in the 12 Tags... to see all the deets, please CLICK HERE. The offer is only open for a limited time... til 18th December so time to grab yourself a nice Christmas pressie bargain! On with this months tag for giving away. To be in with a chance of winning it is a doddle... simply leave me a comment here and tell my what your favourite Tim tag was this year... the winner will be chosen at random and announced here on the blog on January 3rd 2012. I had lots of fun making this tag because I included all my favourite stashly supplies. The base of the tag was coloured with Antique Linen Distress Stain. I spritzed it with water and then dipped the tag into a smoosh of stain (liking that description!) on the craft sheet... using Frayed Burlap (this has to be one of my faves for vintage, nostalgic Christmas projects)


Anyways... I dried the tag with a heat tool and then did some "Ghost Stamping" with the crackle background from the Joyful Song stamp set. This is a really fab technique and so easy... simply pop your stamp onto your craft sheet face up, ink with your Distress Ink and then pick it up in your hands and kind of roll it over your tag... this will mean that there's no start or finish to the image, instead it just fades out... no harsh edges! I dried this with a heat tool and then roughed up the edges with a Paper Distresser and blended Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges. I used a variety of green Alcohol Inks to colourize a piece of Kraft Glassine paper, scrumpled it, dragged Vintage Photo DI over the top of the scrumples and then dried it. I used the Holly Branch Alterations Die to cut five leaves out and then used the Tattered Pinecone Die to cut out three shapes from brown cardstock... I then assembled them into the pinecones and added Picket Fence Stickles to the edges of the bracks. The little holly berries are Baubles, coloured in a zippy bag with Red Pepper Alcohol Ink and tied with wire and some vintage lace - these are FAB ideas from Tim... and all the deets for the 12 Tags are on his blog. I used a piece of Lost & Found music paper to cut a Tattered Banner and popped this into the pinecone/holly leaf assembly and then set about making the sentiment... which is another easy but cute way of stamping; using Distress Embossing Ink for stamping the sentiment onto Kraft card and then embossing with Ranger Black Embossing Powder and cutting around the sentiment and edging with Vintage Photo DI.


Cor... this is a long winded explanation for one tag... nearly done! The Idea-ology Christmas Adornment charm was painted with a selection of Adirondack Dabbers... using a teensy Claudine Hellmuth Studio brush to apply the paints... then drying with a heat gun, sanding gently and then squishing it into the Distress Embossing Ink and embossing with Clear Embossing Powder... worn of warning... don't try to pick it up straight after you have heated the powders... it is metal... and that means it is hot... ouch!!! Just sayin ;o)) I repeated the "enamelling" process so the bells are really covered with a good thick layer of powders... punched a hole in the top using the Idea-ology Screw Punch and popping onto a little Jump Ring and Mini Safety Pin. Once the whole tag was assembled, I gave it is a really fine spritz with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mists.


You will see that there's a border of snowflakes and the odd snowflake dotted around the tag... I made these using more Alterations dies to cut Kraft Glassine that I had coloured with SnowCap Alcohol Ink... I have done a quick Tutorial over on my own blog so you can see how I did this... all the deets are HERE. Well, that's all from me for now... thanks for looking!!! TTFN

Hels x