Platinum Blondes

Kismet: When you're browsing through web feeds and come across a photo that inspires you to create and it just so happens the theme at Simon's Monday blog challenge is using three of anything!

I haven't watercolored in awhile and thought I'd give an ink and tempera resist technique another try, this time using a tag, hoping the smaller format might be more manageable. It was.

12 Tags of Christmas - March

Here's tag number three of my Christmas versions of Tim's 12 for 2016. Each month he featured a technique remix and for March it was textures and dimensional die-cuts using cardboard.

I played around with my Mixed Media thinlet to see if I could cut a surface area larger than the original die to cover a section for the inside of a tree.

See the thicker line running up the left of center? That's my attempt to line up the die edge next to a previous cut. It was fun and challenging to use the die in this way and makes it more versatile.

The word bits are from this year's Idea-ology Christmas mini paper stash called Tidings and the packages were made from Christmastime ephemera.

Ranger's Stickles decorate the borders, Liquid Pearls created the texture you see along the cardboard ripples, I applied Glossy Accents to the package ribbons and a Mirrored Star tinted red with alcohol ink was the obvious choice for the tree top.

12 Tags for Christmas - February

Monoprinting (a great way to get more mileage out of stencils) and embossed texture paste were the techniques presented in Tim's February tag--here's my Christmas version.

I stayed true to the monoprinting but....

The stencil image (a doily) just didn't develop like I wanted it to so I placed the stencil back over the printing and used paint through the stencil's negative shapes in the traditional fashion.

Without the special texture paste that Tim used, I had to improvise. But I came up with an alternative that yielded a new stencil in the process.

I stamped text on Yupo and cut out the letters to make a stencil then used brown-tinted paste medium covered with glitter.

I've said it before--Yupo makes great stencils (cuts like butter, is durable and easy to clean) and now I have a stencil I can use for future projects.

I love the Santa image from Tim's 2016 Christmastime Ephemera Pack (wish there was more than one) and framed it with tiny dots of Ranger's Liquid Pearls.

Stencil credit: The Crafter's Workshop (Mini Tatting), Stamp credits: Stamper's Anonymous (Christmas Words) and Inkadinkado (Christmas Silhouettes)