Tim Holtz's "12 Tags of Christmas" Day One

Did you play along with Tim as he showed us his awesome creative genius in the 2011 tags?
I'm way behind but I have a few finished that I thought I'd share with you.
If you've been making tags, maybe you'll get some inspiration on some supply substitutions!
If you're not sure what I'm talking about, head over to Tim's BLOG and prepare to be amazed!  He has complete step-by-step instructions for you plus lots of cool tips.

Here is my rendition of the first tag.

Here's what learned:
Go light on the embossing powder.  The tag looks best when it's "hit and miss".
Here's what I did different:
I didn't have the Kraft Core paper so I used Shelly Hickox's tip and cut a tag out of Kraft CS then painted it with acrylic paint.  Worked like a charm!
I created the tag and paper decorative elements on my Cricut using SCAL and they look pretty similiar to Tim's diecuts.  I hand cut the banner.
I cut the "NOEL" from Grungeboard and because that is very thick, I had to do a lot of hand cutting with my craft knife.  If I were to do it again, I'd cut it on Grungepaper. 
Like the pinecones?  I cut them using my Rolled Roses SVG file (bottom right file).

By following Tim's tutorial using glue and toothpicks, it worked fine as you can see. 
If you're interested in this set, you can purchase it HERE .
I also created my own "bauble" by simply taking a pearl and adding a cap and headpin.
This was a blast to make and I'll have a few more to share with you soon.