Reflections of Christmas - Day One

Ever since last year I have wanted to participate in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas challenge.  I'm getting kind of a late start, so I'm not sure I will get all 12 done, but at least I will have fun trying!

If you are a mixed media artist or paper crafter I hope you already know about the Funkie Junkie blog and boutique.  Linda Coughlin always has cool ideas on her blog, and her shop and customer service are outstanding.

The challenge is to make something inspired by each of the 12 tags that Linda has created. It can be anything you want as long as it is Christmas/Winter related.  I'm making a set of Artist Trading Cards (ATC) in little frames instead of tags.  Since ATCs are only 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"they have a lot less real estate then the tags Linda used, so I can't include all the wonderful ideas she used, but I'll be able to include several for each card.

Inspirations from Linda's tag:  I used the same background, included a Santa and reindeer, the same sentiment, a music tag and the 25,

Each of my ATCs is in a frame - it's about 5/8" thick, stands a little over 7" tall and is made out of medium weight chipboard.  My plan is to link them together to make an accordion display.

Frame

• Trim:  Bo Bunny Woodland Winter
• Back Panel: Tim Holtz Holiday Knit stencil (I used Antique Linen Distress Paint to stencil which formed a resist for inking ontop)
• Decorative Cutout ”25”:  Tim Holtz Die
• Reflection “merry”:  Printed in MS Word, Segoe Print Font
• Pediment:  Tim Holtz Pediment die
• Metal Sentiment:  Tim Holtz Christmas Word Band

Christmas Village Construction

Would you like to build your own 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Village (see yesterday's post), or just see how it was constructed?

Well, for this project I made a series of videos as I built the project. These videos show the construction of all the parts and pieces that make up the village,

'Twas the Night Before Christmas Village

I've finished my "big" Christmas project just in time, because it is a countdown to Christmas calendar and it is almost December 1st.

The village has 24 buildings on three levels, each one hiding little treats that can be enjoyed as you count down the days until Christmas.  It is 12" x 18".

The project features Graphic 45 'Twas the Night Before Christmas paper collection and Tim Holtz Woodland Trees.

I also made a series of videos as I constructed the project - more on that later.

Dr Dreadful's Apothecary (aka The Wonky Halloween House)

This year’s “big Halloween project”, Dr. Dreadful’s Apothecary, aka the Wonky Halloween House is finally complete.  This project uses one of my favorite Graphic 45 papers - Steampunk Spells.  The idea for the design had been percolating in my mind for a while and I thought there’s no better time to make it happen than Halloween!

ApothecaryTour
Let's start at the front door (although actually it was the last thing to be built because it had to fit in between all the other rooms).

The door itself is almost perpendicular - it might be the only thing that is!  It's made out of chipboard covered with decorative paper and a window cut in it (more on the windows later).

There's a chipboard cutout from the paper collection above the door and a little "poison" symbol hanging from the doorknob.

The columns are made from bubble tea straws covered with cardstock and wrapped with decorative paper at the top and bottom.  The base of each column is a little chipboard cube.

Hanging by the door is a Tim Holtz Mini Lantern - I hope you can see that the light is on!

To the left of the door you can see the front parlor with its shingled roof.  It's a little hard to see but there is a light in that window.