25 Days of Christmas Tags - Day 23

Hello, friends!  Today for the 25 Days of Christmas Tags we are featuring a fun new-to-me company.

Today is all about stretching your stamps and getting creative.  I was kindly gifted Penguin Palace's My BFF (which at first glance is full of sweet spring images) and the Crystal Snowflakes stencil.  I toyed with using the little animals in the stamp set, but kept coming back to the barren tree.  The idea of having a tree get dressed up for Christmas made me smile, so I decided to make it happen.  

I've always been intrigued by magic color slider cards, and this was my first attempt.  I thought this would be a fun way to show the transformation, and let's just say it was a bit of a learning process.  It's definitely doable without any special dies (like I did here), but for ease and the sake of time, I think investing in the dies is a wise decision (wink, wink).  I looked at a picture of the Lawn Fawn dies and used that as a guide to create a folded pocket with a slit at the top that the white tag slides up through revealing the colored image below. 

Second note of advice, there is such a thing as embossable plastic sheets.  Definitely worth it to get them.  I did not have any, and I won't tell you how many times I had to emboss on this clear cardstock to try to get it to work without warping the plastic too much.  And in truth I still ended up having to trim out portions and glue them on top of another unmarred plastic sheet.  Live and learn, friends.  Live and learn.  I think throughout this process I adopted the Little Engine That Could's motto of "I think I can!"

But in the end that sweet little tree did end up in a happy, colorful scene.  I stamped some tiny circles and turned them into hanging ornaments and used the smallest snowflakes in the Crystal Snowflakes stencil to add color to the background.  The sentiment is a combination of "happy" from the Penguin Palace's My BFF set and "holidays" from Sunny Studio's Hedgey Holidays.  Now under normal circumstance I would have embossed the sentiment on the clear cardstock, so it was visible whether in the color reveal version or not, but I didn't have it in me to fight the embossing any more.  So...when the tag is opened you get to see the sentiment twice.  Just consider it my way of wishing you a doubley happy holiday. :)

Moving on. :) After I finished stamping the panel and adhering it on the inside, it was time to dress up the outside of the tag.  Since this tag is all about revealing a surprise, it seemed fitting to make the outside look like a gift.  A few snowflake die cuts and a big bow on top and voila!  A gift. 

Thanks for sticking with me through the journey of this tag!  I hope you had some smiles and laughs along the way.  I know I did.  And maybe this little gift will inspire you to make something.  But if not, no worries!  Head on over to Tracey's blog for a bunch more inspiration options.  I hope you have fun creating...even if it includes some learning along the way. ;)