Shabby Winter Cottage Tags for YPP Swap

Hi! I hope everyone is having a lovely Wednesday! It's one of my favorite days of the week. Wednesday is my day to volunteer as a docent for the Historic Charleston Foundation. I give tours at the Nathaniel Russell House, and I soooooo love it!! I get to share my love of history with the wonderful visitors here in Charleston, and am privileged to work with amazing and incredibly knowledgeable people!
I have a few photos to share of the tags I created for Your Paper Pantry's January tag swap. The theme for this month is 'winter', and a cozy, snow covered cottage kept appearing in my mind, so that is what I went with. I had so much fun making these!

I used the Sizzix 'Album House' die to cut the shape out of cardboard, then I removed the paper covering so the bumpy part was exposed. I know there are probably more technical terms to describe cardboard, but I don't know them so I'll just go with 'bumpy part.'   

I mixed a couple of colors of Folk Art acrylic paint to create the blue/green color I used on the cottage (it's my favorite color right now!) After painting I 'aged' it with Tim Holtz distress inks. My 'snow' is cut from felt using Papertrey Ink's 'in the meadow' die collection', then covered in Rock Candy Distress Stickles and mica flakes. 

I 'shingled' my roof with Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I like their cardstock because it's nice and heavy. I painted the shingles with Folk Art taffy acrylic paint, sanded them a little, then inked them with distress inks to make everything look more vintage and shabby. This became a little tedious by the time I got to the third or fourth tag, but I'm glad I did it now that they're finished:-) The top trim is also made from felt covered in Rock Candy Distress Stickles and mica flakes.

The window is from Prima's line of Shabby Chic Treasures. I painted it in brown acrylic paint, then went over it with the same color of taffy I used on the roof, leaving traces of the brown in the recessed areas. I lined the inside of the window with a piece of plastic packaging covered with mica flakes to make it look like glass that was all frosted over.   

The sentiment and shape were created from a stamp and die from Papertrey Ink's Frienship Jar series, then I attached it to a painted toothpick and added some sparkly fluff to the top edge. I stained and crinkled some seam binding and tied it around the tag, then added a vintage button. I made a snowflake flourish on the left of the tag. I cut my flakes with the Sizzix 'snowflakes #3' die and the Martha Stewart alpine snowflake punch, then covered them in Sparkly Fluff and added a few little plastic snowflake embellishments. 

For the finishing touch I added some tea stained lace to the top. I created the mittens with a die from Papertray Ink's 'love lives here: holiday' die collection, and attached them with a pin from Making Memories 'vintage findings' collection.

I covered almost everything with mica flakes! I wanted my tags to sparkle and look like they were covered in ice. You should see the floor of my craft room. Mica flakes like to go everywhere. Yes, my crystal ball predicts there will be sweeping and cleaning in my future! But in the words of Scarlet O'Hara, I won't think about that today, I'll think about that tomorrow.

I also have a Youtube video on these tags. If you'd like to take a peek I'll post the link here:

 

When I get home tonight I'm going to take a nice long walk, then put on my coziest pj's and relax. For dinner I'm making the ultimate in winter comfort food:

Cream of Tomato Soup

and...

Honey Basil Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

There's nothing more cozy than a bowl of tomato soup and a melty grilled cheese sandwich. After that my hubby and I have a date in front of the television for American Idol (we're big fans!) Yes, Wednsday is definitely one of my favorite days of the week! My best wishes to you for a great day as well, and thank you, thank you, thank you for stopping by!!