12 Tags of 2014 ~ December~ Final Tag of the Year

Well here it is with only a few hours to spare, my final tag of Tim's Twelve Tags of 2014 Challenge! I was beginning to think I wouldn't make it but there is no way I would allow myself not to submit this last tag. The month of December seems to have been busier than ever. Fortunately I found a few spare moments today and set too. I was able to gather quite a few bits and pieces for this tag from the left overs of my Christmas card making. I didn't want to waste this lovely snowflake. Unfortunately I haven't managed to capture even a speck of it's glitteriness but time's running out and I should be putting my glad rags on ready to join our friends at the local pub to bring in the New Year!
 I'm so happy that Tim is going to continue to inspire us all with the launch of The Twelve Tags of 2015  Wow that's got a nice ring to it. So thank you Tim for a great year of wonderful projects, and thanks also to Mario, who keeps everything ticking along very nicely !  Happy New Year to you both and to all my lovely blog friends, I'm sorry to have neglected eveyone recently, I'm looking forward to some visiting and catching up ! x

'Let's Celebrate ! ' ~ Artist Trading Post ~ New Challenge.

Hi everybody! It's my turn to host the new challenge over on the Artist Trading Post Exchange blog. I've chosen the theme ... 'Let's Celebrate !' I hope everyone will be looking forward to celebrating something during the coming year ! We'd love to see your celebration crafty makes. It could be a card, a layout or piece of altered art. Just let your imagination fly! There's a £10 gift token for the Artist Trading Post for one lucky winner and the good news is that this challenge will run until the 7th of January, so there's plenty of time to get involved. Full details and challenge rules can be found on the Artist Trading Post Exchange blog by following this link. I've chosen to make this festive panel in honour of the impending Christmas celebrations and this is how I did it.........
Firstly, I created a textured surface by applying scrunched up book pages, which I adhered with Matte Gel Medium.

I must say I love this new Sizzix Prancing Deer! I die cut him out of thick card, and used Kraft card to cut the small deer, trees, lamp post and branches. 
Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to attend one of Finnabair's workshops. Since then I have been itching to revisit some of the techniques Anna shared with us. So with this in mind, I attached several cogs and a few found objects to the panel, using Heavy Bodied Gel Medium. Once dry, I adhered the trees, large reindeer and  lamp post . I then coated the whole surface with Black Gesso

Now..... at this point, my panel was going in a whole different direction to the one I finally arrived at. Initially, I painted the surface with a variety of rather lovely Ferro Metallic Paints. You can just see the green paint in this picture. I didn't take any further pictures but suffice it to say, I wasn't really happy with the results. The following day, I went back to it and gave the surface a couple of coats of white gesso. I then dry brushed  the back ground and frame with Distress Paint in Antique Linen and Ice Spruce. I also started to adhere a few more elements. As this process is pretty sticky, I didn't get round to taking many photos but I felt much happier with the way it was developing. Once everything was dry and secure, the fun really began when I got to work with my Treasure Gold colours.

I used a small bristle brush to work the metallic pastes into the surface.  The colours I've used  are, White Fire, Aquamarine, Spanish Topaz, Royal Amethyst and Onyxite. 

I used a heat gun to fix  the Treasure Gold, before buffing carefully with a soft cloth wrapped around my finger. The metal flowers are  from Finnabair's Vintage Mechanicals range. I used some pearls from my stash for the centres. To finish off, I stamped a brick wall stamp with  clear Versa Mark ink, in patches around the frame and heat embossed with silver and gold embossing powder mixed together. I also added a stamped sentiment to the bottom edge. My final finishing touch, was a light dusting of Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles dry Glitter. Unfortunately I haven't managed to capture the lovely twinkling shimmer. 

So now folks it's over to you. I hope you'll find a little time over the next few weeks to share your  celebration makes with us over on the Artist Trading Post Exchange blog. If you'd like to purchase any of the products I've used, just click on the highlighted links and you'll be transported straight to the Artist Trading Post. I 'll be seeing you again...... soon ! x