this is the sixth year i’ve played along with the annual Ellen Hutson’s 12 Tags of Christmas, an event i look forward to.

as a bereaved parent, the holidays are challenging so i like to immerse myself in a creative mess and be inspired by fabulous designers who take me outside my comfort zone. this week was difficult because i had to say goodbye to my sweet grandbunny after 11 years.

this year’s tags focus on christmas carols and day 1 starts with rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. THERESE CALVIRD’s tag inspired me with her attention to detail, pretty colours and i love the layered tag.

instead of holly, i used trees to frame rudolph; i painted the mama elephant reindeer with twinkling H2Os on hot press watercolour paper, adding a glow to his nose. i found a white shimmery paper at my favourite art store, currys, that i die cut with a lawn fawn circle tag die and discovered it takes distress ink sponging very nicely. i also learned i could paint on it so i used twinks for the ice, added liquid pearls for snow and popped rudolph on foam tape so he’s flying. finally, i added a small cheery lynn tag die stamped and white heat embossed with mama elephant sentiment and tied with doodlebug twine.

thanks for popping by.