Santa's Elf

~gift bag~

I have been playing Santa's little elf during the last few days and have been having so much fun. With my little red elf's outfit complete with hat, turned-up buckle shoes and red tights......oops wait a minute, I'm getting mixed up with a movie I just watched...... okay now focus, Diana!

Today I designed the little gift bag above to hold a piece of my jewelry for a friend. These little bags are a great way to repurpose those bits of fabric, lace, ribbon, paper, vintage millinery pieces, buttons, etc. you haven't known what to do with.

~gift tags~

Then it was time to create some artful gift tags. I have a set of the 12 days of Christmas rubber stamps and featured each day on a manilla tag. I first aged my tag by distressing the edges with a tool that was in a distressing kit by Making Memories...for the life of me now, I can't remember the name of it. You could also use sandpaper or an exacto knife to rough up the edges. I then stamped my tag using a sheet music stamp. Using acrylic paint in an ivory tone, I brushed a thin layer of paint over the stamped sheet music. Taking a baby wipe, I wiped off just enough of the paint to expose some of the sheet music below. Then I stamped the 12 days of Christmas images onto tea dyed water color paper with black ink. I tore each image out and distressed the edges with Tim Holtz's distress inks. With matte medium, I attached each image to the tags. The crown image was then stamped in place as well as the "To" and "From" on the reverse. Using my eyelet setter, I set a gold eyelet in the center of each crown. I love my gold leaf pen... which I used to highlight the edges of each tag. Gold boullion (a fine gold metal thread from my floral design days) was then wrapped around each tag.

~close up of a wrapped gift in which I incorporated a heart shaped stone~

~Christmas Card~

Christmas cards were next on my list and I had fun layering images, fabric, inks, ribbon and gold thread.

I have had time to design some jewelry as well...here is a pair of earrings in which I used etched brass, brass findings and a vintage cut glass jewel.

And I finally had time to secure all of my charms to my bracelet. This bracelet is a sample for the class "A Charming Romance" Riki Schumacher and I will be teaching Feb. 6 & 7 and then again April 10 & 11 on the beautiful central coast of California. See complete information on this class in a recent post and in the sidebar under Teaching. This class will cover many techniques: pmc, etching, cold connections, embossing and more. Class size is limited and spaces are filling up already. Email me if you should like to join us (belladonna1351@charter.net). Riki and I would love to have you.

I know that the holidays can be so very hectic and stressful. But amongst all of the FA LA LA LA, it is so important for me to keep focused on the true meaning of the season and hold LOVE in my heart and gratitude for the gift of HOPE Christmas brings.

******

On another note, only two more days before the drawing for the two winners of my holiday GIVEAWAY. Be sure to leave a comment and your email address on my last post if you would like to be included. Good luck!

Happy Holidays!

Diana