Tis the Season!

Good Thursday all my crafty friends!  Well Tis the Season to be..........finish that sentence!!! For me, this week, it's been "the season" to be home home with my sick girl!! LOL She is my "seasonal" baby! Unfortunately, she deals with sinus issues and respiratory issues most years around this time.  What's so funny is she was just saying, "mom, it hasn't been bad this year!"  LOL Boy isn't that how it works sometimes!  My husband has seasonal issues as well, so she gets it honestly! All that said, I am back to work today after being out for two days so I am fast and furiously trying to play catch up! I wanted to post however because I have received happy mail and sent out happy mail that I want to share!

First I will share a sweet tag I got in my mail several days ago from Anne Williamson out in California!! As I have been out of the office, I haven't had time to post this for you all to see. You guys know I love getting happy mail, so I was doing the happy dance at the box the other day when I got this in (yes, it was a scene!:) LOL!)  My sweet tag came in an envelope that Anne had gussied up with all kinds of cute Christmas embellishments, which got me all excited about the cuteness inside! :)

As a part of the tag swap over on Google+ Creating and Sharing Mixed Media Art, Anne was my partner for the month of December and the theme was "Red!"  Red indeed!  Anne had a beautiful red snowflake background embellished with lot's of Christmas time ornamentals.  The focal point was the lovely red cardinal, which I love!  I love cardinals! We are are "semi" bird watchers at my house and I love to see the cardinals come in with their blaze of color! So do my cats, but that's another story! LOL She finished with some sweet glitter and "Peace!" Christmas season is definitely all about "Peace," in so many ways! Thank you so much Anne for your tag gift! :)

Likewise, since Anne let me know that she received her tag that I sent her as a part of the swap, I will share that with you today as well! This season has been so much fun!  I love doing holiday tags THE MOST!  This one was no exception, I had a lot of fun doing it! I had some awesome digital Christmas catalog paper that I had downloaded and sprayed it with Dylusions Post Box Red and then distressed with Barn Door.  I think I might have even sprayed some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold Lame on top.  I can't remember as I did this tag back in November!  I was so excited to be doing the swap that I went ahead and did it then! LOL I had also downloaded the Santa and little tag that I distressed both with Vintage Photo.

I had some cheapo doilies that I get from the "bakery" aisle that I wanted to use because they always make me think of snowflakes.  So I covered the doily with Faber-Castell Glass Bead Glitter Gel medium to give it some texture and shine and then used the rest of the glass bead gel through Dyan Reavely's Let It Snow stencil. I adhered everything to the tag with Aleene's and then added some little "snowflake looking" silver beads to dangle with the small tag along with some ribbon. Fun, fun, fun!

I also sent Anne an ATC that was Christmas "Red" themed.  I am part of another swap group over on Facebook that is all ATC's and as I was working on those as well, it was easy enough to do extra for other projects such as this! I sent the ATC on the left to Anne and then sent the one on the right to my good friend Becky Wentworth! So much fun and so many lovely people to send them to! :)


I also want to share with you my "regular" swap tags that I sent Becky Wentworth this month! As I mentioned last month, Becky and I are just craft hounds and have been enjoying the heck out of creating, so she and I just swap because we love it! But I did the same theme of "Red" with her as well and I thought I would give you a look see.  She has received them, but hasn't had time to post, so you may see hers post as well in the day or so! 

As I mentioned above, I sent her the little ATC to the right and then sent her a Santa tag and a sweet little Santa's Helper tag! I have to say that I was in the zone and couldn't stop myself whilst making all these tags and ATC's! I was having so much fun and little ideas kept popping into my head, so I just kept going and going!  Now as MANY of you know, we can get that creative block from time to time, so while the mojo was on, I just kept creating! LOL On the Santa tag, I simply took an old stencil that I believe has various "circles" on it and I sprayed Dylusions Cut Grass through first, heat set it and then took Tim Holtz's Burlap Layering Stencil and sprayed Post Box Red over top. I believe I then distressed the edges with Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo. I then sprayed a fixative over top so I could apply other layers.

I had some real cute Christmas tape that I got in the bargain bin last year after Christmas along with the snowflake punch and I simply put the tape on the tag and punched some snowflakes out that I then covered with mod podge and Ranger's Distress Stickles Dry Glitter-Clear Rock Candy. I also had used a piece of emphemera, a digital Santa and another piece of the doily that I used in Anne's tag and adhered them all down with Aleene's. I also went over top of the art and tape with Mod Podge so I could shade in the end. I also decided to add a little more color to Santa with Viva Decor Inka Gold in Steel Blue and edged the tag with the same color. I finished the piece by heat embossing Season's Greetings with ColorBox ink and clear embossing powder! Voila!

The sweet little Santa's Helper tag is just oozing with cuteness and I just had to send it to Becky because she just oozes with sweetness! :) I loved, loved doing this one because that little girl just called to be used in a project for Christmas!  I downloaded her the moment I saw her! Isn't she just precious?? I started the tag by adhering some geli print paper to the tag with some mod podge and then I sprinkled some of that Clear Rock Candy Glitter over the top and heat set. I fussy cut my little helper and the Merry Christmas banner and cut out my emphemera and distressed them all with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. I added some extra glitter to her bonnet and took the liberty to make out her Santa List! LOL! I shaded everything with Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen in Nougat and add a sweet little "puff" to her bonnet along with some ribbon. Pretty simple, huh? Double voila for today!
:)

A lot to digest today, no?  All I can say is the Christmas season brings out the best, in ALL of us! Going back to my original sentence...Tis the season to be..........have you thought of any words yet? Jolly, kind, giving, helpful, thankful, loving, hopeful, caring, the list could go on and on! I pray that you extend any of those sentiments to another during this season. It may be the only act of kindness that is extended to that particular person this season, so why shouldn't it come from you?

More sharing tomorrow, I'm sure you are pooped out from my sharing today my friends! :)

Blessings to you as you bless another! :)