A 2nd PaperArtsy Challenge entry and ..........It's shouting 'CHRISTMAS'!!!

Evening everyone,

Are we all fireworked out yet?  I blooming well hope so because inspite of it raining heavily we have had fireworks going off since before dark (about 4 hours) and OH and I are exhausted listening to our poor Snoopy barking like crazy to protect us from the nasty bangs! Still got at least three more nights of it too I bet!

Oh well, at least after this week .......it's not long to Christmas (just sayin'), lol, and that leads me nicely onto my project for today.  I'm on a bit of a roll with the Triptych theme over on the PaperArtsy Blog and made another entry to the challenge.  I was partly inspired by Alison Bombers lovely trio of tags HERE but decided to make mine Christmassy with some of the PA Hot Picks Christmas stamps so I can either give it away as a special Christmas 'card' or keep it myself and put it on display ;-).

I chose a fairly rustic style using red and Kraft with just a little colouring of the lovely images from PA Hot Picks Xmas 03. 

Left side tag. 

Right side tag.

 

 

There is star stencilling in Chalk PA Fresco Finish on the red tags and stamped tiny black stars.  I can't believe the only PA star I have in my collection is a huge Sara Naumann stamp so the little one I found after an extensive search through all my stamp stash, lol!  I then went round the edges randomly applying Versamark ink and Seafoam White embossing powder.  I added some of the stamped stars with Potting Soil Archival to the Kraft tags at the last minute.

 

 

Middle tag.

 

On the Kraft tags I very roughly brayered Chalk Fresco Finish paint followed by stamping the music strip from ESN13.  I'm so pleased to have discovered brayering the paint onto the stamp works so well for me as I've never been successful stamping with paint using other methods.  I also stamped the holly flourish using Potting Soil Archival (second generation stamping) and then went all round the edges with embossing.

The bells and street lamp were stamped onto Kraft card and fussy cut.  I used pencils to add colour because the card I used is extemely porous and it was much easier to use pencils than paint.  The sentiment is from the new Hot Pick Xmas 08 set.  I liked the bare wood stars as they are so left them that way and added eyelets to the tag sides and laced them together with gardners twine.

Well I hope you are having a more relaxing evening than we are, lol!  Snoopy is still being driven bonkers by the bangs ....... I'm off to link to the challenge.  See you again soon.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx