Paper craft no. 397: Season's greetings mixed media tag

I'm excited to be part yet again of Loll's super awesome event, Twelve Tags of Christmas. Loll started this annual event last year and I had a fun time, as well as many other fellow crafters. This year promises to be even more awesome than the last because there are not 12 but 25 of us guest designing for Loll! And there are even more prizes -- you won't want to miss it :o)

For my mixed media tag, I started by applying a coat of gesso on a large manila tag. Next I applied white Distress paint and once that was dry, I placed the Holiday Words stencil and sponged Ranger archival inks (Emerald Green and Vermillion). I gave the tag some faux texture and dimension by stamping pine boughs (Christmas Bell Medley) and grunge stamps (Mixed Media Elements). I also added some splatters with Inktense pencils and ran a dark brown Japanese watercolor brush pen all around the edges of the tag. I stamped the framed candles (Framed Christmas: Celebrate the Season) and colored them with watercolor brush pens before adhering to my tag. I also stamped, colored, and fussy cut several poinsettias (Christmas Bell Medley)  and layered them onto the tag. I gave them a little shimmer with Twinkling H2Os. Last, I stamped the sentiment (Christmas Bell Medley) on scrap, cut it out, and adhered it to finish the tag. 

Whew! To tell you the truth, it took me 3 days to finish this tag, thanks to my sweet little bundle of joy, Kathryn, who's now 10 weeks old (and growing and getting more and more adorable by the day, if I may say so). I worked in 5- or 10-minute blocks and the tag I visualized in my head when I started was not the tag I ended up making. Nonetheless, I was happy with what I made ;o)

Below is another look at my tag.

Hope I've inspired you to make a mixed media tag and I hope you'll join Loll, me, and my fellow guest designers by linking up your creation(s).

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget to smile :o)