December days 5, 6, and 7

Here are my newest tags inspired by Tim Holtz, but if you are following his blog,

you can see that mine ended up very differently

His day 5 was a red background with stamped white letters

I used a plaid paper

(I just finished reading Diana Gabaldon's new book

The Scottish Prisoner

and I suspect that I was influenced in my color and pattern choices by the thought of Jamie

I added some black Prima lace, some red tulle, and a Russian enamel brooch

His day 6 was a funky technique using some stuff I have never seen so I dug in my scraps box

and came up with a scrap of a painting that I had done in watercolor and gold leaf

It made me think of the wonderful dark chocolates that my DH gave me for my birthday

(I had saved some of the wrappers)

and I just accented it with a peacock feather and some charms along with the title

Finally day 7

Tim die cut holly leaves but I painted them and cut them out

I used a scrap of Stampington paper and a torn Prima butterfly (missing some parts!)

some little pearls (don't know whose)

I am really enjoying making these little tags

I will admit that I have moved away from scrapping pretty much

but it is so much fun to play with paper

flowers, ribbons, inks, and paints

I am ready to create some more tags but lest you think I haven't been painting

just a quick little sketch in my sketchbook of a Venetian door

from a photo I saw in a book

I am super excited to be enrolled in a painting class starting in January

about painting Venetian landscapes in watercolor

Maybe my OLW for 2012 should be Italy -

I could paint Italian scenes, learn to speak Italian (I have some cd's), 

watch movies filmed in Italy (the Tourist, Under the Tuscan Sun, etc.)

eat Italian food (my son gave me a Venetian cookbook for my birthday),

well,

it's a thought anyway

What are your plans for next year, and do you have any favorite movies or books set in Italy?

thanks for stopping by,

Chris