/* */ Beulah Bee: December 2018

December 24, 2018

12 Tags for Christmas 2018 - Tag No. 12


Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved son
With Mary holy we should pray,
To God with love this Christmas Day
In Bethlehem upon that morn,
There was a blessed Messiah born.

(The Wexford Carol)

May the spirit of the season bring you peace and joy.

Thank you for being a part of my artful journey this year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

December 18, 2018

12 Tags for Christmas 2018 - No. 10 & 11


I'm still looking back to Christmas tags from the past and I've saved some of my very favorite tags for when we get closer to Christmas. This is one of them.

The background is made from mulberry papers and the tree was hand-cut out of kraft paper that had been randomly stamped and embossed to create texture. I added the tinsel using glitter glue and a white gel pen.

The text was cut from a recycled store-bought Christmas card and illustrates just how far I will go when it comes to fussy-cutting. Crazy I know but I loved the style of the lettering and I was several years away from owning a die-cut machine.  Since the text was wider than the tag, I just let it bow out when I attached it to the bottom of the tag.


This one's a favorite because of the Thomas Nast Santa (an image transfer). It's an early example of learning how to blend Distress inks, how to emboss (the white scrolls) and how to use masks when stamping.

If you don't recognize the kind of stamps I used at the bottom of the tag they are called Christmas Seals. I inherited a small collection from my Great Aunt Esther, they're a terrific embellishment--I must remember to use them more often!

December 12, 2018

12 Tags for Christmas 2018 - No. 8 & 9


How seriously crazy funny was I about making Christmas tags?!
(Okay, perhaps I still am....)

For this look back at tags from Christmas past, I present one that was inspired by the movie, A Christmas Story.  That's my Uncle Steve sitting on Santa's lap and I made black paper look like film strip by cutting out tiny black squares. The metal rimmed tag was hand made and I found an advertisement for the Daisy Air Rifle and used it for the background.

None of this would have been possible without my laser printer and, of course, the internet as a source for the images.


I'm sharing this tag with you because it shows a way to get more mileage out of a background stamp.

This one is by Tim Holtz and is called Christmas Collage. I think this design/pattern would make terrific wrapping paper.

December 05, 2018

12 Tags for Christmas 2018 - No. 6 & 7


I'm doing a look-back to Christmas tags of the past (see previous post) and this one was inspired by a crackling technique Tim demonstrated on one of his early tags.

I was probably listening to the Nutcracker Ballet when I thought of the design 😏 and, with a very limited amount of crafting supplies back then, I found a pattern for the ballerina and cut her out of card stock by hand.


The background stamp is the classic Tim Holtz Flourish and I may have hand-drawn the numerals. The snowflake sequins were dabbled with paint and glitter and a ribbon was used for the ballerina's tutu.

I am sharing this next tag for a remarkable feature that looks excellent in person but impossible to capture in a photo. Let me explain.


Santa's face is a clip-art photo that was printed onto a transparency (used with an overhead projector in the "old days" for business meetings). Then I placed the image in front of a sheet of metallic silver paper before I set it into the frame.

The effect is truly astonishing and the image takes on a vintage quality similar to that of mercury glass. It's hard to describe but I highly recommend trying this technique so you can see what I mean.


I'm linking this post to Simon's Monday Challenge Blog ("B is for Ballerina").