H{ippity} Hop: Getting ready for Christmas...2010?!?!?!

Welcome to H{ippity} Hop! Can you believe this is the 3rd hop already? Time sure flies! The challenge this last week was to create a gift card holder. I already made one that you can see in this post, but decided to do another for next year.

I only just heard about the "12 Tags of Christmas" challenge over at Tim Holtz's blog, but I decided I needed to try something WAY out of my comfort zone for once. I love Tim's creations, but they are not my style so I rarely spend much time using his products. I do like his distress inks, however, for general purpose stamping. This tag was way more than stamping, though, as you'll see.

I CASEd Tim's very first tag for this year, but substituted a lot since I'm so Tim-deficient.  =D  I can't seem to get enough of the stamps from the {ippity} Kissmas & Mistletoe set, so I used the snowman from the set for my focal image. The stamps in the background are from a couple of Inkadinkado Christmas sets.

My tag followed Tim's tutorial with some changes to inks up until the crackle paint. I don't have any of that & don't want to buy any just to try it out, so I used UTEE and the cracked glass technique to achieve a similar look. I also don't have any grungeboard, so just used cardstock for the snowman and flourish. And, being the bargain hunter that I am, I used some plain 'ole glitter glue instead of Stickles. I had a hard time capturing the sparkle, but the snowman and the flourish both have glitter glue on them.

The back is where the gift card will go. It was pretty ugly from the distressing and UTEE soaking through, so I covered it with some patterned paper from my scrap tray and made a little pocket to hold a gift card. I'll put this in my stash for next year's gift-giving.  ;)

Have a great hop, thanks for coming by for a peek, and have a marvelous Monday!