The Twelve Tags of Christmas-day 1

   Last year, I was introduced to the Twelve Tags of Christmas event on Tim Holtz' Blog. While I did not participate, I did learn a thing or two. This year, I decided to try some of the tags myself. I must admit, that while I do like a lot of Tim Holtz' products, I do not own very many of them. Perhaps, at some point in the future, I will be able to acquire more.Meanwhile, I made due with the stash I had on hand.I decided to share some of what I did here along with my version of the tag...which is a bit more like a title block.
  First of all let me say that I do not have the same tag Tim used. Indeed, I do not even know the size measurements of said tag. I chose to use a piece of cardstock 4 1/4 inches x 4 inches. There is no special reason the tag is this size other than that, I decided to draw the title by hand to mimic the" Noel" used on Tim's tag. In doing so, My not so awesome skills of drawing meant the title was a certain size. So I had to make the cardstock base in an appropriate size to match the title and hold all of the elements. So yes, if you just did a double take, I did say that I hand drew the title. I pulled out a piece of grungeboard and did my very best to make my "Noel" look like Tim's.It need not be awesome or perfect for it will be covered with glitter. Glitter and paint can hide a lot of mess from erasing.

After drawing the title, I carefully cut it out using an exacto knife. Try to do it in small stretches, cutting small bits out at a time. Also, don't stress if you accidentally rip bits off, which happened to me. Remember, Paint and glitter can hide a lot of things.

Look carefully and you will see that the top of the N is missing part of what I drew. Also, the flourish under the L lost some of it's tip. Just to review, after I cut this, I then decided on the size Cardstock that I would use as a base.
  The first thing to really catch my eye were the paper pine cones. I wanted to make one so badly! Not having the die, I mulled over a few ideas.The following is what worked best for me.

materials for paper pinecone: scallop border, toothpick, adhesive like hot glue or glossy accents
White paint, brush and stickles( I used icicle.)

I took the guard off of my corner rounder and punched a scallop border. Small scallops seem to work best for this, since I wanted a small pine cone. You could even draw your own border, for the scallops need not be perfect. I initially cut a 12 inch long border. For the small pine cones on this project, I found that I only needed half of it to make one. Once the Scallop border was punched, I rolled and bent the edges a bit. You will do a bit more of this later when the pine cone is completely made,but doing this a little now is a huge help for later.

Next, I adhered a toothpick to the edge of the border. Note that I cut off the pointy end. That way, it does not show on the finished pine cone. After the glue is dry, cut slits at the intersection of each "v" in the border.

Be very careful not to cut all the way through the border strip. Cutting the slits helped me bend and shape the pine cone since the card stock I used was a heavy weight.Now, roll the border onto the toothpick in the same fashion that Tim demonstrated. When you come to the end, adhere the tip of the border. Once dry, begin shaping your pine cone. I found that my paper piercer helped me pull open the pine cone. Just be gentle so you do not tear it. Once that's done, dry brush some white paint on the tips of the pine cone. Then add smear some stickles on with your finger. Repeat to make the second pine cone.

   Honestly, I wasn't really liking my pine cone a whole lot at first. Adding the paint and the stickles is really what gave it that pine cone look.
  For the greenery, I hand drew various leaves in an attempt to match what Tim had cut with his dies. I used a lot of inking to make them look better. I did not have the distress embossing powder. So I chose Coredinations whitewashed cardstock with a blue core as my base. I did have Tim's snowflake embossing folder. I used it to emboss the card, then sanded it and inked it with a variety of colorbox inks in browns and greens.I chose to rub the ink on with my fingers so that I could apply it randomly, but with purpose, to the tops of the snowflakes. My distressing tool was my scissors.I rubbed the blade along the edge of the cardstock at intervals.

Materials: kaisercraft music paper, Colorbox chestnut roan ink, Colorbox ink in olive green
and moss green, paper scraps, Tim Holtx embossing folder. Coredinations whitewash cardstock,
hat pins, glass beads, silver acrylic paint, silver glitter, white acrylic paint, icicle stickles

Since I wanted to use this as a title block, I substituted handmade pins for the jewels and ribbon. As you can see, no one will notice the bits missing from the title. I painted the edges of the "noel" with silver acrylic paint and then added the glitter to the top...effectively hiding the parts that ripped off when I was cutting the title.
  So now, after a lot of work( that I did enjoy), I am off to tackle tag # 2. Here's hoping I am as happy with it as I am with Tag 1!