Christmas is Just Around the Corner...

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With the California-like weather we are experiencing in New York, it is hard to imagine Christmas coming soon, but it will be here before we know it. I thought I should get a good head start on my gift giving this year and this week's Friday Challenge: Christmas in September seemed to prove me right! I thought I'd change things up a bit and make something other than a card, and the Moxie Fab World All Wrapped Up Challenge was the perfect excuse to make a gift bag.

I began with this wonderful image of Santa Claus, which was originally just his face. I have always loved the story of how the big guy squeezes himself down chimneys and decided to draw in the rest of him doing just that, popping the original image out over for some dimension after coloring in with Copics. Next, I framed him with this pretty holly border, coloring in and accenting everything with some glitter and metallic pens. I matted some nice Kiwi Kiss patterned paper (it's old enough that, I'm sorry to say, I have no idea from where it came from!) along with a Purely Pomegranate punched border. I added a nice satin bow, complete with button, from which I hung a Christmas tag: I hope we are ALL blessed his holiday season, which is really just around the corner!

BEAN NOTES

• Stamps: Old Fashioned Christmas, Christmas Nested Frames & Occasions, and From Our House (Just Rite)
• Ink: Ripe Avocado Hybrid (Papertrey Ink) and Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
• Card Stock: Kiwi Kiss, Purely Pomegranate, and Bordering Blue (Stampin' Up!) and Solar White (Neenah)
• Patterned Paper: Kiwi Kiss (unidentified SU!)
• Tools: Border Punch (EK Success)
• Fibers: Olive Satin Ribbon (Kate's Paperies); Hemp Twine (generic)
• Dies: Classic Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
• Coloring Medium: Sketch Markers (Copic)

HAPPY BEANS

• Coloring Medium: 0.03 Black Multi-liner SP (Copic); Glitter and Metallic Pens (Sakura)
• Other: Kraft Gift Bag (repurposed)

By the way, have you signed up for the Taylored Expressions Blast From the Past Blog Hop? Well, if you haven't, you have until Thursday, September 16. One lucky participant in the Tuesday, September 21 Hop will win a TE stamp set! Come play with us by signing up HERE!