Going Rustic with Funkie Junkie

Linda's tag six reminded me of a sweet rustic country style.....which for some reason put me in mind of a Swedish Christmas.  I've always loved the idea of a beautiful tree, lit with candles, and the lovely candle-lit crown that is worn on St. Lucia's day to celebrate the light.  

 As I was leafing through my stamp images, I came across a set of rustic ornaments from Waltzing Mouse that I had purchased some time back; the stamps come also with a set of outline dies, sort of like a Sizzix Framelit.  One of the images is of this cute little reindeer, which resembles a Dala horse, an iconic image for me.

After fooling around with some failed backgrounds, it finally dawned on me that I could use one of the Nordic knit embossing folders, and this time get that image of the reindeer into my tag, which I was formerly unable to do.   Yay - except that in the end, I ended up covering the reindeer for the most part, lol!

I cut a tag with  Stephanie Ackerman's Sizzix Bigz die, using a piece of the new Sizzix white leather paper, which I think is one of the best new products around - it is so adaptable to different techniques, as you can see from Zoe's post and two from Anna-Karin here and here.  I sponged first with Antique Linen Distress Ink, and then followed with Peeled Paint, as I wanted a bit of green for what was coming.... 

I only embossed the  upper 3/4 of the tag, as I wanted to make a little tabletop feel at the bottom.  This was done with Tim's wooden planks embossing folder.  Here I sponged on Gathered Twigs, and wet the area to get the color to spread.  This folder gives you the little nail heads, which  add to the plank table feel.

Next, I stamped and cut out my little reindeer.  The die actually gives you a little border around the image using a very clever registration system built into the die....but I colored to the edge, as I wanted a more three dimensional look.  The body is stamped in Wendy Vecchi's Red Geranium archive ink (love that red!) and the antlers from her Potting Soil.  I originally used Tree Branch, but it was too light for my liking.  Then I heat embossed the whole thing with clear embossing powder, to emulate the shiny lacquer finish on a traditional Dala horse.  

I cut out some holly from Tim's Holly Branch Bigz die; the paper had been previously mooshed around in Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss Distress Inks with a lot of water, and then oversprayed again with  Mowed Lawn.  After embossing these with a flourish folder, I once again hit them with a lot of Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss Distress sprays.  I let the spray sit, so it would seep into all the wonderful nooks and crannies created by the embossing.

I played around with placement..... 

and decided to put the little reindeer in an evergreen centerpiece, using the last of my greenery from this....

Given my inspiration, I had to have a candle, of course!  I used the large flame from the Candlelight die, which had last been put to rather sinister purposes, lol!    The die provides little cuts that make the wax, but I prefer to add my own with texture paste sprayed with Antique Linen.  The flame was made with the same Maya Gold paints as previously shown in the Oracle in the Crypt post.  Here I propped the flame up behind the wick with a little foam dot.

 The candle sits on the tea saucer from the mini Teatime Movers N Shapers die, which has been colored with Forest Moss Distress Pen, and as elsewhere, I shadowed things, this time using the Ground Expresso Pen.  And I must say, that table is looking pretty table-like, lol! I also lightly distressed the edges of the Nordic Knir bits with Frayed Burlap, and with Ground Expresso on the table top.

 The holly leaves were bent lengthwise, to give a bit of depth, and then placed under a little bow made from pre-died seam binding (I bought a bunch of this before I knew we could custom die our own, and this season seems as good a time as any to use it up!)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and for the comments on these tags and other work - I appreciate them all, and love hearing from you!  Stay tuned for more tags - not sure I will get to all twelve this year, but I am going to try!  Thanks to Linda and her wonderful Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring this challenge again!  And please do visit on this coming Tuesday, the 22nd..... can't tell you, as it is a surprise!
xxx Lynn

And ps -

I am sharing this also at Emerald Creek Dares "Wishing You a Merry Christmas" challenge.