The 12 Tags of Christmas -- Day 2

Yes, I realize it's barely 6am in NY, and here I am, already finished with the Day 2 tag.  No, I'm not really that obsessed; I'm just not much of a sleeper, and  I conked out at about 10 last night, which means I was up and wide awake at 3, when Tim's new post went live in my time zone.  I just thought I should establish that I am not a total lunatic.

Click HERE to check out Tim's tag.  It is not a very complicated one to make, and I think the background is beautiful.  I had to improvise on this background (more on that in a bit), and I chose a different focal image, just to be.....well, different.

 

Tim's background called for using his seasonal kraft resist paper.  I do not have that pack, but I do have the "regular" kraft resist paper.  Here's what I did:  first I found a sheet that had a large enough area without any resist images to create a tag.  Here are two possibilities (I used the first one):

Once I had the tag cut from the center portion of the paper, I just stamped over the script with a variety of Christmas stamps, using clear embossing ink and clear powder.   And that is how to create your own seasonal kraft resist paper.  Ta da!  Now, if you don't even have the regular kraft resist pack, all is not lost.  Cut a tag from a plain old grocery bag and stamp the background of your choice with brown or black archival ink.  Then procede with the embossing as explained above.

While I dearly love the reindeer Tim used, (and have that die, by the way) I did want my tag to be MY tag, so I went another route.  Back in the olden days, before Tim teamed up with Sizzix, when we wanted seasonal grungeboard images we bought them, and I still have a ton of them.  In the seasonal pack I found the tree, and covered it with the sticky back canvas, which was inked with evergreeen bough and gathered twigs around the edges.  It was embellished with some tinsel and a star charm.

Back to the background for a minute.  Have you attempted to create snow flurries by holding, squeezing, spraying the perfect pearls mist, as per Tim's directions?   Were you successful?  No?  Neither was I.  So here is a tip if you, like me, lack the patience to practice Tim's technique (which I'm sure is awesome and doable, just not by me).   Spray some of the mist onto your craft sheet.  Load up a brush with it, and aiming at your tag, smack the handle of the brush over an extended finger on your other hand.  Repeat as necessary, then follow the rest of Tim's directions.  Voila!  Perfect perfect pearls snow flurries for the impatient and/or uncoordinated.

About the bottom of the tag......Tim used gold paint on the trim, but I thought silver would work better for my tag.  I couldn't find any silver paint, so this is how I created the tarnished silver look I wanted.  First I covered the grungeboard trim with clear embossing ink and silver embossing powder.  After it was heat set and cooled down, I distressed it with sandpaper and then inked it with gathered twigs distress ink (because it was on the table.....black or any other brown would work as well).   Here's a closeup, that unfortunately does not do it justice; it is really a very nice aged look:

I don't have the Christmas muse tokens, but the "believe"philosophy one seemed appropriate.  I just covered it with white paint, then wiped the paint off.  It settled into the letters and makes them pop.

And now, I think I deserve some breakfast.