celebrating with The Crafty Scrapper...

hello friends and 

Merry Christmas to you...

today I'm a guest over on 

the Crafty Scrapper blog...

Carolyn invited me to participate in their 12 tags of Christmas posts and since I've experienced their southern hospitality many times, 

I was happy to play along...

PS...there are PRIZES!!!

if you're in the Waxahachie, Texas area, 

I'm certain that Carolyn has all the supplies needed to create this tag & you'll also find tons of inspiration in the store...

she also has a GREAT helpful staff...

and

their new location is fabulous!

(I just MIGHT see you in the classroom in 2016)

since the holidays are fast approaching & time seems to be flying by, I wanted a simple tag that really can be a quick creation...

this same concept would make a fun card too...

I started with a #8 manila tag, cut to 5 ½ inches tall...

I inked over the tag with these archival ink colors...

sky blue, cornflower blue and 

then added shading with potting soil...

in the photo below, you'll see that I have added washi tape to my distress sprayer...

this is my reminder that this sprayer contains rubbing alcohol...

my sprayer without the tape is plain water...

I use that with distress inks...

ok...

I misted the alcohol onto my craft sheet & pressed the old wood floor background stamp into the alcohol, just once, then stamped over my tag...

you'll see that the rubbing alcohol lightens and removes some of the archival ink...

(water will not work, since archival inks are waterproof)

next, I stuck the industrious sticker frame right onto to the craft sheet and swiped 

the tree branch archival pad

 over it to change it from silver to a gold-ish finish...

once dry, it's on there & doesn't rub off...

BUT...

if you change your mind, rubbing alcohol will remove the color  and you can easily change the color to another one...

M A G I C!

next, I used jet black to stamp the sentiment right under the reinforcer and then added the frame below it...

I used the blending tool with 

tree branch archival ink 

to color 2 small & one large mat mini pine tree...

I'll be using these trees for non-holiday art too...

they're only a Christmas tree, if you want them to be...

otherwise, they're an everyday green tree...

I used the ground espresso distress marker to color the tree trunks...

I used potting soil to stamp the polka dots over the large tree...

and the potting soil again, but with the vintage text background to add interest to the 2 small trees...

to add some bling, I misted over them with sunflower sparkle perfect pearls mist and dried them...

to age the mirrored stars, one drop of

 mushroom alcohol ink does it!

you can see the sparkle on the trees in the photo...

oopsie...

I forgot to take a photo, but you'll see that I added my white embossing paste to the bottom of the tag and while the paste was wet, I sprinkled on rock candy distress glitter...

it makes the perfect snow bank & the glitter is firmly attached to the white embossing paste...

now the paste is dry and I can work on the top of the tag...

here's another way to use the spatter stamp from the faux graniteware starter kit...

lightly rub the mini collage glue stick over the stamp, then stamp randomly over the top of the tag...

 sprinkle on the rock candy distress glitter while the glue stick is wet...

clean the stamp with water & no harm was done...

this makes the best tiny glitter snowflakes...

and it's another way to use the spatter stamp...

I  love to use the tarnished brass distress paint dabber to add an edge to tags...

it's a nice/simple/quick/easy finishing touch...

I used multi medium to add the 2 small trees directly to the tag...

and I used the black adhesive foam to add the larger tree...

I LOVE this stuff...

it's a very strong adhesive, with the bonus of a little dimension...

I created a tiny twine bow...

but the light color got lost in the snow...

ground espresso distress spray stain to the rescue...

and now I have a bow that stands out...

the spray stains can change ribbons/twine to any color you need...

cool stuff !

a little multi medium holds the bow in place...

I added a little pen stitching detail to the tag edges and here's my finished tag...

seriously,

the longest part is waiting for the paste to dry!

thanks so much for stopping by and thanks to Carolyn for the invite!

pop over to their blog for more Christmas tag inspiration...

and to enter their giveaways...

I hope you have time to...

make art!

wendy

WAIT...

leave a comment and I'll send this tag plus a "little something" to a random commenter.

I'll give you until 7am on Tuesday (Chicago time) and then Rick will choose a winner...