"Tag - you're it!" ...

.... that's the title Claire has given to her WMS Christmas 2010 Challenge.  Claire wants to see tags - all sizes, shapes, designs - with the key themes being Christmas, beauty and elegance.  To quote Claire, "I just want to see prettiness! So, gimme your best frills, your finest feathers, your most prized pearls!".

And best of all Claire is offering a fantastic prize of a £100GBP voucher for the WMS store - which can be used on anything!!!  And if you use Waltzingmouse Stamps on the tag - then Claire is adding an extra £25 to the prize.  She's an amazing lady and this is a brilliant prize.  Now, how do I fix the random number generator to select my tag?!!

 The deadline for the competition is 6th November - so only two days to go - and the winner will be announced on Sunday 7th November.  That just happens to be the day that the new Waltzingmouse Stamps are launched.  It's so exciting - Claire and her Design Team will be featuring the new stamps in the few days leading up to the launch.

I've decided to include several photos of my tag and I've got pictures of front and back.  It's a large tag measuring 7½" (18.5cm) from the star to the end of the gems.  It's much longer if you include the ribbons.  It's just short of 4" (10cm) across at the widest point.  When Kathryn saw it - she said she'd love to have it on her Christmas present!!!  Don't you just love kids?

It took me a while to think of what to do, but once the idea came it was easy.  I knew that I wanted to use the large Christmas tree from the Nutcracker Sweet set, but I wasn't sure what shape to make the tag.  Then I realised that the new Spellbinders 2010 Heirloom Ornaments were the perfect shape and just the right size!!  I wonder if Claire already knows this?

I love green and purple together - I've used that colour combination lots of times (well, if it's good enough for Wimbledon, then it's good for me!).  I stamped the Christmas tree image four times and embossed them all with detail silver.  On the tag base I added some lovely stars which I embossed with detail clear.   I used distress inks in shades of purple and green to colour the ornament, and rubbed the ink off the stars - a very pretty effect.  To colour the trees I used Twinkling H2Os - you can't really see it in the photos, but in real life the tree has a lovely shimmer.  I added a bit of glitter to the heart and spot in each segment of the tree and then cut out the pieces.  The back of the tag has an area for me to write a Christmas message.  I found some blue and green beads in my stash and threaded them to make a long tail for the tag.  Finally, I added ribbons at the top and a little greetings tag on the front. 

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse Stamps - Nutcracker Sweet, Teeny Trees

Spellbinders:  2010 Heirloom Ornaments, Labels 14

Paints:  Twinkling H2Os - Snapdragon, Cedarwood, Green Tea, Lemongrass, Irish Mist, Guatemalen Green

Inks:  Versamark; Distress - Milled Lavender, Shabby Shutters, Dusty Concord

Ribbons, beads from my stash

So that's my entry for Claire's competition.  I had such fun making the tag - and now all I've got to do is decide which present it's going on!!  Do check out Claire's blog - it's a great competition!!  

That's all for now.  I'll be back again tomorrow.