Sunday, October 2, 2011

Joyeux Noel Christmas Tags


This is one of the 28 tags I made for the annual Christmas Alphabet Tag Swap that the Canadian Stamp Talk Yahoo Group holds each year. Each one was just a little different as I tend to get bored doing the same thing over and over. This fits well with the sketch this week for Challenge #67 at the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challange.


I made the ornaments using the Burnished Velvet technique. The base is one of the Spellbinders 2010 Heirloom Ornament dies. I covered that with Sookwang double-sided tape, then applied various masks made from the tape's peel off liner. With masks in place, I sprinkled one colour of glitter, then removed some masks, sprinkled a second colour of glitter, and then removed the last masks and sprinkled the third colour. I used my finger to burnish the glitter into the tape and it became smooth as velvet but also incredibly sparkly.  Click on the photos to see the glittery goodness!

I cut the masks with dies, such as Tim Holtz's flourish, and border punches. I used punchinella (sequin waste) on a few as I discovered it lifted cleanly off the tape so could be used as a mask.

I got the Letter X in this swap. I decided to use the Joyeux Noel from Waltzingmouse Stamps Very Vintage Christmas stamp set and highlight the X in the word. The boughs were stamped in various green inks to create a background.


Here are a few more individual shots of various tags:

I made a few little acrylic fragment tags for the swap hostess. I have hosted this swap in the past and know the incredible amount of work involved. I really appreciate the effort, and each Christmas it is so much fun to receive a ring with everyone's tags on them.


It's amazing what people come up with to interpret their assigned letter. I have many years' worth of these small "booklets" now and they fill a basket at Christmas and are fun to leaf through. Even non-stampers enjoy seeing them.

11 comments:

Kelly S. said...

Glittery gorgeousness, Charmaine! I am so jealous of all those beautiful tags you have done already! Love those fancy ornaments tucked in the pine boughs, and the lovely angled sentiment!

SherylH said...

Beautiful -- what a lot of work to do so many too! Thanks for the ideas to use this ornament die, in particular with the punchinella (which I am sure I have around here somewhere)

Cathy Weber said...

Wow, you did so good with that letter X! This is a beautiful set of tags and I love that velvet technique. Never heard of that one, but it looks gorgeous on your tags, so sparkly too.

Deborah Frings said...

Charmaine - these are stunning, they must sparkle so much in real-life. Love them!

Lynn Mercurio said...

Holy moly...these are tremendous and each so beautiful. Looks like you really have a jump on your holiday tags. This is something that I always WANT to do, but never end up doing it. NOT THIS YEAR....I'm determined to have tags as gorgeous as your for all my Christmas gifts. Well done, my dear.

Karen said...

These are gorgeous! I love how they're all a bit different, yet such a unified collection. The burnished glitter technique is so beautiful, and even more so in real life. Thanks for these inspiring tags!

Edna Morrisedie said...

Lovely job on these, I especially like all the foliage, thanks for playing along with the Mischief Makers this week!

JJ Bolton said...

Wow, I just want to reach out and touch them! Just beautiful! That technique sounds so interesting:)

Helen Berry said...

Glittery and Gorgeous Charmaine-these are fantastic and I wish I had all these wonderful tags under my belt by now, but sadly I'm way behind!!

Jean Martin said...

Wow I can almost imagine the wonderful texture on those tags. Fabulous work! :)

donna said...

Gorgeous tags. Very elegant..Donna