Let it Snow!

Hello friends! Today I have another Christmas/Winter wall hanging. I think I'm enjoying these decorative projects more all the time. I keep thinking of more ideas I can do. One day my walls will be filled with 'stuff'. :^). I'm submitting this project for the following challenges:

• The 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style Week 11
• Raise the Bar #86 - It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas
• Quirky Crafts Challenges #25 - Snow
• Crazy for Challenges #116 - Let's Go to the Movies (Frosty the Snowman)
• City Crafter Challenge #86 - Home for the Holidays (a project to decorate the home or with a home on it)

You can find Linda's week 11 tag for the Funkie Junkie Challenge HERE. I'm not posting a pic of the tag anymore because for some reason a lot of the commenters that visit my blog seem to think I made the tag (even though I always say it's Linda's tag). I am no where near Linda's level in my work, so to avoid the confusion I'll just link to her tag from now on.

In Linda's tag, I was inspired by snowflakes, the book page background, the Snowflakes on the Edge die and the square fragment. I had a hard time coming up with an idea for my project until I saw tag 4 in Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas series. I was inspired by the snowman (I can't believe this is the first snowman project I've made so far this year!) and the color. I really wanted to do something different. It seems like almost everything I've been making lately has been some shade of brown. I really do like color! :^).

For the base of my wall hanging I used a page from a children's board book. It was already the perfect shape and has a good weight for this type of project. I covered it with a book page, then brushed on a thin layer of white paint. I stamped snowflakes on it with Versamark and clear embossed them. I don't have any Distress Inks in the right colors of blue, and I don't own any Distress Stains so I sponged on a couple different colors of blue paint then dabbed on some white. I wiped the paint off the snowflakes with a damp paper towel. I was very pleased with the way it turned out. I misted the base with some homemade glimmer spray. I mixed a cream color metallic paint with some white Perfect Pearls. I love how it added shimmer without adding color. Unfortunately, I don't think you can see it in the photo. I edged the base with Faded Jeans Distress Ink.

I'm not making tags for Tim's series, but I am checking them out every day. I love the techniques and designs - both his and the participants. I wish my brain worked like his. I don't know how he comes up with this stuff!

I loved the crackle snowman on tag #4 and I just bought some Rock Candy Distress Crackle so I was anxious to try it out. LOVE IT!!! I'm definitely going to have to get a bigger jar of that stuff. I don't own any of Mr. Holtz's dies (I buy very few dies except basic shapes), so I found a piece of clipart I like online, printed it out the size I wanted and traced it only chipboard and cut it out. I painted it white and crackled it. I brushed on some blue paint, misted it with water, and wiped it off so it just highlighted the cracks. I edged him with some Faded Jeans Distress Ink. I added a couple pieces of ribbon and a ribbon tied button for his scarf and added some silver leaves and a rhinestone to embellish his hat.

Of course I don't own a Snowflakes on the Edge die either so I just made my own. I cut a strip and punched the snowflakes out of a light weight box. I think it had sweetener packets in it. I wanted something heavier than cardstock, but not as heavy as chipboard. I used deckle edge scissors to trim one side of the strip and arranged the snowflakes on the back side. I painted everything white, then crackled it and added the blue like I did on the snowman. This piece didn't crackle as well as the snowman, so I think I didn't brush on quite enough of the distress crackle.

I used a little square charm that I had since I don't have any of the fragments like Linda used on her tag. I tried to use the Alcohol Ink resist that Tim used on another of his tags, but it just didn't work for me. So I added the little punched snowflakes and blue rhinestones on top of the alcohol ink background. The snowflakes are leftovers from my snowflake border punch. I knew those would come in handy one day. I save everything.

Finally I added some corrugated paper snowflakes, button, rhinestones, big ric-rak and pearls. Lots of pearls. I think I went overboard on the pearls. LOL!

I think that's it. I only have two more projects to make for the Funkie Junkie challenge so I think I'll make it by the deadline of December 15th. Yea!

Thanks for stopping by!!