Wrapping up my 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style Printers Trays...

...well, they were wrapped for yesterday, and now they are unwrapped!   My girls loved them!

Ta-da!  All finished!  These projects were my absolute favorites of the year!  Putting my spin on Linda Coughlin's (aka the Funkie Junkie) 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style inspiration tags was 12 weeks of pure fun!  You can check out all of Linda's tags here.  The link will take you to week one, and you can click to each week's tags from the links on the right.  While you are clicking, make sure to check out all the amazing creations from the other participants.  I had just as much fun looking at all of the other entries each week as I did creating my own. 

If you have been checking in on my progress, you know that I had plenty of extra spaces to fill, beyond the 12 that were inspired by the challenge.   Now you can see how I tackled these:

I had to have some bottle brush trees!  I trimmed this one with dots of Distress Stickles, and added some Tim Holtz trimmings, and background papers from his Merriment collection.

I clipped these "snowballs" from a craft store floral spray, gave them a thick coat of gesso, followed by a coat of Picket Fence Distress Paint.  I sprinkled on a layer of glitter while the paint was still wet for some sparkle. 

I love doing shadow boxes, and with my Silver Bullet cutter, it's really easy to cut all the tiny little shapes.  This piece has five layers, plus the frame.  All pieces were cut from white cardstock, and colored with Distress Inks.  After taking this photo, which shows a bit of the sparkle on the trees, I decided that the frame was too plain.  So I did this:

 

That's better!  I recently ordered a bottle of Distress Glitter, Antique Linen, from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and I LOVE it!  I'm a bit of a "glitter-phobe" but honestly, this stuff is much less likely to end up all over the craft room than standard glitter, and the vintage appearance is beautiful. 

Another bottle brush tree, with as many pearls as I could squeeze on. 

Santa!  Other than making a burlap background and adding a touch of Distress ink to his beard, I didn't alter this magnet before gluing him in. (Confession:  I originally had the shadowbox scenes in this space, but it was the only space that the Santas fit in.  So I tore out the first set, recreated them in a different space, and put the Santas here. 

This is one of my favorite spaces.  It represents one of our favorite traditions, cutting the tree.  We shove the real one in the back of the truck, but here, I made a tiny trailer from cardstock to haul the bottle brush tree home.  I wrapped the trunk with bakers twine, and painted the mini metal car with Distress Paints. 

I couldn't resist making a pair of paper houses.

This piece represents my youngest daughter's paper chain countdown.  She has used it each year since kindergarten.  She is now a Freshman in college!  She loves her traditions more than anyone I know!  She was really pleased that I incorporated it into her gift. 

This is the custom piece for my older daughter's tray. 

 

  Deer head ornaments were one of her first purchases last year for her first house.  (She's in the college rental stage of her life, and loves Christmas decorating almost as much as I do.)  I painted the antlers of the Tim Holtz trophy antlers with Bronze Distress Paint, and added a wreath of Pine Twine.  That's more of the Merriment paper collection in the background.  I love it so much that I ordered a second stack of it today.  (There is a terrific clearance sale going on at the Funkie Junkie Boutique right now! I may have gotten the very last stack of Merriment, though. Sorry ;) 

A big shout out is due to Linda, the Funkie Junkie, for orchestrating this amazing challenge!  It is amazing to me that she takes the time to create 12 marvelous pieces of inspiration for us each year!  I am already excited to see what is in store for next year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Elizabeth