The 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 2

Before I get into today's tag, can I just say that this has been one remarkable week?  Well, this is MY blog, so why am I asking your permission?  IT'S BEEN ONE REMARKABLE WEEK!!!!

First, I won something on Wendy's blog just for leaving a comment.
Then, last night I managed to win something by being the first to respond to one of Mario's tweets.  Me.....winning with a tweet?  Insane!  Totally dumb luck, as I'm not exactly the techno queen around here.  Something else pretty cool happened yesterday.....my Vagabond arrived!  And wouldn't you know it....today's tag does not require any cutting or embossing.  LOL!  (Oh, and I guess I'll mention that tomorrow is my birthday.  What a way to start the celebrating!)

OK, enough about me and my good fortune.  On to the tag.....Tim's main technique today is to create your own custom stamp pad with cut-n-dry felt. (Click HERE to see Tim's tag on his blog.) Scratch that.  I have none.  I do have a sponge product that I scored at last year's Ranger warehouse sale, but I think it must be meant to be used with something other than distress reinkers, because I tried it and.....well, let's just say it wasn't a pretty sight.  Back to the drawing board.

After several false starts and discarded tags, here is what I managed to come up with:

I stamped the Santa image with brown archival ink, then did some coloring with gel pens.  When that was dry I covered the whole image with embossing ink, using a perfect medium brush pen.  Then I covered it with clear embossing powder and heat set it.  Tim is right.....it would have been easier with the custom pad.  But, we make do with what we have and then create a wish list.

The background colors are weathered wood, stormy sky, and pumice stone.  The script was stamped with pumice stone and the snowflakes with stormy sky.  Barn door and aged mahogony were used on the sentiment.

Tim added a bauble to his tag, and his bird accoutrement.  I tried a few options and they all looked busy to me on my tag.  I finally decided to scratch the bauble and use a small snowflake charm.

If you look at Tim's tag, he used black enamel accents to add dots to the letters of his greeting.  I didn't think black would work on mine, so I used some white enamel accents and hated the dots so much I swiped them off immediately.  If you look closely, you can see remnants, but that just adds to the vintage look. (At least that's what I'm telling myself.)

Now on to my Wendy-inspired version of today's tag....which I actually like quite a bit better than the one I just showed you.



Background colors started out with the same blues I used on the first tag, but eventually peeled paint and forest moss changed all that to green.    The word believe is from the Just Word Art set.

The script in the background (done with frayed burlap) is from Wendy's Botanical Art set. There is a flower in that set which I think looks like a poinsettia when you stamp it twice, side by side, bottoms facing each other, slightly overlapping.  That's what you see in the background, in worn lipstick. 

As for the focal point.....the ornament.  It is actually the cool round pumpkin-like flower from Wendy's Lower Case Art set.  I stamped it with embossing ink on grungepaper, covered it with black embossing powder and heat set it.  I did this twice, and cut them out.  Then I used barn door ink and a blending tool on part of each one, and did the clear embossing powder/heat set thing.  When cool, I finished coloring with peeled paint and repeated the embossing, heating. 

You can't tell from the photo, but the ornament is dimensional.  I cut away the outside sections of one of the flowers, and stapled it to the full flower, folded it in half so it pops up a bit.  I covered the staples with black ribbon.

On this tag, one of Tim's baubles looked just right, at least where I put it.  I didn't bother trying any enamel accent dots....learned my lesson on tag 1!

Now I'm off to play with the Vagabond!!