Loll's mixed media christmas tag event

My subtitle to this post would be: "Um, Santa? He was just here..."

If you've arrived from day six at Stamping with Loll looking for my mixed media Christmas tag, you're in the right place. What an honor it is to be joining her lineup of tag makers for this event! If you're just here by chance, you must take a gander at the Mixed Media Christmas Tag Event happening over at Loll's place when you're done here. Talk about a sleighload of inspiration! Either way... welcome to the evolution of a mixed media tag!

I inked up a tag with DI and stamped a couple clouds then spritzed it with water/Perfect Pearls mix for a little shimmer. (I ended up adding even more Picked Raspberry up top for more contrast.)

Keeping the journey real here... I had thought I would make a stencil out of recycled cardboard (yes, the Oreos were yummy) with the IO Birch Trees die so I lined the trees up as I wanted them to be when I would apply texture paste.  But my spatial thinking skills stink and I hadn't realized I'd have to create my stencil with all the little negative pieces. Nixed that idea and die cut more trees and swiped gesso onto them. Twice.

And then added some interest to the tree bark using Pumice Stone DI and a Prima Crackle stamp (thanks, Loll!). Hit them with a heat tool to dry the ink.

Tore some snow banks from old dictionary and adhered them, roughing up the edges a bit. Notice I swiped the leftover gesso onto the snow banks to subdue the dictionary print a bit.

Die cut three Essentials by Ellen Laurel Wreaths to create my wreath and the Memory Box Holiday Hat. Chose a sentiment stamp from Technique Tuesday Holidays in a Box and heat embossed it on a snippet of black CS. Tested my layout before adhering the trees.

Don't you just love the puff paint on the fur of Santa's hat? And those gold glitter berries on the wreath? They came from the CC Designs Mistletoe die.

And my absolute favorite element of texture and dimension on this tag... the chunky glitter lining the snow banks! (Why didn't I buy the larger gold glitter too when I was at Hobby Lobby this summer?!?!?)

Here's the tag at the end of its journey. Often it seems my projects take on a life and story of their own as I go along. I knew I wanted this tag to be modern and playful. My "storyline" then evolved into Santa stopping by woods on a snowy evening. Doesn't it look like he just dropped his chalkboard and hat and stepped off-stage for a moment...

Long post, hope you stuck with it. I thought you might like to see the steps I took to create a mixed media project - one using stamps and ink and two additional elements adding texture and/or dimension.

TEXTURE: glitter, glitter CS, heat embossing, yarn
DIMENSION: torn dictionary pages, puff paint, die cuts

Have I inspired you to create a scene on a mixed media tag? If so, be sure to link up at Loll's challenge by November 22nd. There are wonderful prizes to be had ;) Thanks again to the uber-talented Loll for having me.

ETA: Had to join the Tag fun over at the new Happy Little Stampers mixed media challenge. And I'm hooking up at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge where it's about Texture.