The 12 Tags of Christmas -- Day 12

If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.

                                                                                                                    Dr. Seuss

And the above sums up my feelings about the 12 tags.  If you haven't tried one, what are you waiting for?  Fun is good.

Before I get into today's tag, let me take a moment to announce that
I AM A WINNER!!!!  My comment on Tim's blog yesterday was one of those chosen today to receive a prize.  Color me tickled pink.  Just having the tags for inspiration is reward enough, but who doesn't love seeing their name in print (on the master's blog, no less).

I was thrilled to see that not only did Tim use movers and shapers dies today, but he even threw in a video.  I've had a few of these type dies for a while, and though I understand the concept of how they work, I don't think I ever knew all they could do until today.  So, another big thank you to Tim.

Another great technique was the coloring of grunge with ink direct from the pad and then painting over it with rock candy distress crackle.  Awesome!  Very hard, shiny, glass-like finish.  (NOTE:  Tim used grungeboard to cut his ornament.  I used grungepaper.  It worked out OK, but it dried totally wonky and I had to flatten it out under some heavy books.  Just wanted to let you know in case you use grungepaper too.)

Of course, I changed up some things on my tag.  Click here to visit Tim's blog and see the gorgeous ones (yep, he went ahead and did more than one tag today) he did.

I did use the same ornament and word insert as Tim, but instead of red, I did the ink/crackle technique in green (pine needles).  And I added some beads to the tip because....beads are fun. And fun is good.  I chose a different background paper from the seasonal stack.  I auditioned several by holding the ornament over them, and the word joy showed up best over the music.

Instead of the December calendar Tim put on the bottom, I went with some tickets.  The one on the top is a stamp; the ones under it are salvage stickers.  All were distressed on the edges and inked with walnut stain.  I held them together with a hinge clip, which was fastened to the tag with a brad.  Tim put some tiny acorns over the calendar.  I tried that, didn't like the way they looked with my tickets.  Then I remembered (now, why couldn't I recall this on the days when Tim used tinsel???) that I had a wee bit of vintage tinsel from my recent Absolutely Everything order.  I snipped off a little and I think it works well peeking out from behind the tickets.

Any other differences?  Well, instead of using a hook made from wire for the top of the ornament (my wire isn't very thick and the hook I made just looked flimsy to me), I used that swirly embellishment that just happened to be on my work table.

For my Wendified tag, I concentrated on the techniques and came up with this un-Christmas piece (which photographed a little out of focus):



I used the baroque movers and shapers die, and a heart insert I had (not a Tim product).  Behind the heart is a Wendy saying, stamped over a Wendy background.  I glued some red ball chain around the heart and love the way that looks.

The flower is grungepaper cut from Tim's tattered florals die and inked with worn lipstick and pumice stone then stamped with a variety of Wendy's backgrounds.

Hanging from the ribbon are a bunch of danglies I made.  Speaking of which.....I never buy beads any more (unless I'm in a store and fall in love); I've just put the word out to friends, family, and neighbors that they should direct all their old, unwanted, broken and even ugly costume jewelry to me.  There is always at least one element, often more, on each piece that I can salvage and use.  Every bead in the danglies I made came from such donations.

So, what do you think I'll do tomorrow morning?  Find another project immediately, or go through Tim-tag withdrawal?