Week 4 of the Funkie Junkie's 12 tags of Christmas, Jane's Journal style

We are now 1/3 of the way through Linda's fun Christmas Challenge. I am really enjoying it and also my Christmas cards are piling up nicely. Thank you for all the really encouraging comments you have been leaving, I really am grateful. I am glad you like to see my creative process, I think in the crafty world we all like to learn new things and sharing is so important. I love to see other people's design processes too and I thank them for their crafting generosity. I really think that I have learnt so much this year and it has moved my card making and creativity on a long way.

Everyone is welcome to join in with The Funkie Junkie challenge which closes on 21st December by which time you need to have submitted all 12 creations using Linda's tags for inspiration. You can make anything at all. The full rules are over on her blog here . Linda offers 3 very generous prizes of gift vouchers to spend in her terrific on line shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Do have a look at the link here .

Here is the inspiration tag which Linda has made for week 4.

I was inspired by the "primitive" look to Linda's tag and the simple colouring. I also thought the inked border cut with pinking shears looked great so I wanted to use this on my card. Her shiny embossed heart looked fun and I remembered I have a great "primitive heart" punch I could make some with. I also really liked the green, red and browns she used with her stencil.

So armed with my ideas from her tag I got down to business in my studio after work on Monday. I used Kraft cardstock.

I chose my 3 Distress ink colours and masked off parts of my stencil. I used one colour at a time to build up my background card.
I cut the edge with my pinking shears and masked off the border which I coloured with festive berries DI. My inking was not perfectly straight but I decided, as I have such limited crafting time, that it added to the "primitive" feel to my card (well that's my excuse).

I wanted to use one of my Tim Holtz Father Christmas stamp and I chose to ink up the stamp using the same 3 inks. I only have gathered twigs as a pen so I swiped the others on from the pad and cleaned off areas I did not want to cover.

 I then gave a "huff" to my stamp as the inks had dried and stamped him out onto another sheet of Kraft card.

I also punched out some hearts and added ink and clear embossing powder to make them shine.

Next it was time to put on my creative hat and put together my card. Here is my finished creation;

and a couple of close ups

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas #4
Craft stamper mulitcoloured stamping
Natalie and Amy colouring on Kraft
Little Claire's Christmas
Christmas cards all year round embellish it
Whimsy stamps anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday anything goes
Simon Says stamp Wednesday Use Kraft
Crafty Ribbons tags and ribbon my sentiment is a tag


I would like to thank everyone for the really kind and really touching comments you left on my last "Poppies" post and my tribute to my Grandad. I think it makes us appreciate that we really must seize the day, no matter how the much the path we walk can twist and turn as we make our way along it. Above all life needs to be cherished and enjoyed to the full.

Another weekend is fast approaching. We actually have a free one so I hope to get some more sorted out in the garden as after this we have a rather full diary ahead and the countdown to Christmas really will begin.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x