Thursday, December 11, 2008

The 11th Tag of Christmas


After recovering from my shock and joy at winning something on Tim's blog, I was able to really appreciate today's tag. Problem....the focus of the tag are his fragments, pieces of clear plastic in the shape of ornaments, and with a pre-drilled hole on top. I don't own anything like that, but still was determined to make the tag. What's that old saying about necessity being the mother of invention? Well, I took an old CD reject, sanded off the silver, and then cut it into shapes with my Big Shot. The crop-o-dile made a hole without cracking anything, and I was left with a reasonable facsimile of Tim's fragments.

I went on with his directions, and had problem #2. My fault, entirely. I have a bad habit of either not reading instructions at all, or not reading them carefully. Tim clearly said to sand only one side of the fragments; I sanded both sides of my pieces. So I had to modify my design. On Tim's tag, the embossing on the sanded side left the embossed design looking clear next to the frosted look achieved by the sanding. With my pieces, you could feel the embossing, and see it at close quarters, but the it just didn't contrast at all with the background. So, I rubbed some Stazon over top very lightly, and now you can see the snowflake design very easily. To see how the plastic ornaments are supposed to look, check out Tim's blog. Though mine are different, I still like them, and like the entire tag too.

1 comment:

Erin Glee said...

Hi Eileen! Congrats on your Tim Holtz win!
Your tags today is beautiful and a great innovation, using a CD substitute for the Fragment charms! Is the "Big Shot" the die cut machine that is black with scrolls on top (looks like Tim's, but is not motorized)? I'm considering buying my first die cut tool and being able to cut CD's and Grungeboard would be optimal! ~Erin Glee from AAT Group