Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas # 7 - Christmas Joy!

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven. The tree is decorated and some of the presents are wrapped, but - most important - I think I might be able to finish the 12 Tags of Christmas, especially as Linda has extended the deadline! I hope I will find some time to complete the two thank you tags, which she is adding on the 23rd and 30th of December too. If you don't know about this brilliant challenge, and I can't believe that you wouldn't by now, click here to find out what you need to do to be in with a chance of winning the great prizes on offer from the Funkie Junkie Boutique, which you can view here. Today I've been inspired by Linda's beautiful tag 7, which you can view here. The theme of this tag is most certainly 'Joy'. I was inspired by Linda's mini tags spelling out this word and the die-cut 'Joy to the World' at the top of the tag. Throughout the Challenge I've had to play around with my stash to find new ways to interpret Linda's tags, as I have no die-cut or rubber stamp alphabets. Now that's something to spend my Christmas money on! I wanted to express the idea of joy at Christmas so out came my Artistic Outpost Snowy Woods plate again, which has served me so well for this challenge and this is what I created. I cut my card from corrugated card this time, painted with Paper Artsy Antarctic and Mermaid and edged with White Fire Treasure Gold, which highlighted the corrugations. I love playing with corrugated card and since I discovered the great textures you can create with it I've been hoarding enough of the stuff to construct a small bungalow!

I was inspired by Linda's use of three small tags, but I went with just one and instead of spelling out
 'J-O-Y' it displayed the sentiment 'Joyeux Noel'. I love the idea of three - three tags on Linda's card, three letters in the word joy, but I went for three glittering leaves. These are all cut from the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die, but the top leaf is made from Shrink Plastic painted with Paper Artsy Fresco Hey Pesto and tipped with Gesso and sprinkled with Frantage. The other two leaves are die-cut from card and painted with Fresco Antarctic, Mermaid and a little Inky Pool around the edge.

I added a skeleton leaf, which I sprinkled with Distress Glitter. This delicate skeleton reminded me of a book my children both loved when they were young and which we took them to see performed at the Young Vic one magical Christmas. The book was 'Skellig' by David Almond and the wonderful David Threlfall played the title character. The story takes place when a young boy called Michael and his parents move, and he finds a strange, arthritic homeless man in the cluttered and tumble-down garage of the new house. This man is more than he seems, however. As the novel unfolds he emerges as a rich and strange being, part owl, part human and part angel and Michael and a new friend Mina name him Skellig. In a dream Michael sees Skellig watching over the cot in which his baby sister is lying ill in hospital. She has a heart condition and it is uncertain whether she will live or die, but after this dream she 'pulls through' and Michael names her 'Joy' after the poem by William Blake, a poet whose writing his new friend Mina loves. Both the novel and the play convey a sense of wonder and hope: perfect for Christmas - and, of course, this is another interpretation of the idea of angels, who or what they might be.

Linda's tag featured a beautiful die-cut poinsettia. I don't have one of these, so I used my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die to create a Christmas rose from the pages of my old book of Christmas lore. I sponged it with Distress Inks in Evergreen Bough and Broken China blended, edged it with White Fire Treasure Gold over some Vintage Photo and gave it a little pearl centre. I placed my flower on a die-cut oval fixed on with dimensional pads. A sprinkling of Frantage on my label and leaves and the tag was complete. I hope you like my tag number 7, which I should like to enter for Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge. We are moving ever closer to the 25th now so I really appreciate any visits. Have a joyful and productive day.