The 12 Tags of Christmas -- Day 2

Yes, I realize it's barely 6am in NY, and here I am, already finished with the Day 2 tag.  No, I'm not really that obsessed; I'm just not much of a sleeper, and  I conked out at about 10 last night, which means I was up and wide awake at 3, when Tim's new post went live in my time zone.  I just thought I should establish that I am not a total lunatic.

Click HERE to check out Tim's tag.  It is not a very complicated one to make, and I think the background is beautiful.  I had to improvise on this background (more on that in a bit), and I chose a different focal image, just to be.....well, different.

 

Tim's background called for using his seasonal kraft resist paper.  I do not have that pack, but I do have the "regular" kraft resist paper.  Here's what I did:  first I found a sheet that had a large enough area without any resist images to create a tag.  Here are two possibilities (I used the first one):

Once I had the tag cut from the center portion of the paper, I just stamped over the script with a variety of Christmas stamps, using clear embossing ink and clear powder.   And that is how to create your own seasonal kraft resist paper.  Ta da!  Now, if you don't even have the regular kraft resist pack, all is not lost.  Cut a tag from a plain old grocery bag and stamp the background of your choice with brown or black archival ink.  Then procede with the embossing as explained above.

While I dearly love the reindeer Tim used, (and have that die, by the way) I did want my tag to be MY tag, so I went another route.  Back in the olden days, before Tim teamed up with Sizzix, when we wanted seasonal grungeboard images we bought them, and I still have a ton of them.  In the seasonal pack I found the tree, and covered it with the sticky back canvas, which was inked with evergreeen bough and gathered twigs around the edges.  It was embellished with some tinsel and a star charm.

Back to the background for a minute.  Have you attempted to create snow flurries by holding, squeezing, spraying the perfect pearls mist, as per Tim's directions?   Were you successful?  No?  Neither was I.  So here is a tip if you, like me, lack the patience to practice Tim's technique (which I'm sure is awesome and doable, just not by me).   Spray some of the mist onto your craft sheet.  Load up a brush with it, and aiming at your tag, smack the handle of the brush over an extended finger on your other hand.  Repeat as necessary, then follow the rest of Tim's directions.  Voila!  Perfect perfect pearls snow flurries for the impatient and/or uncoordinated.

About the bottom of the tag......Tim used gold paint on the trim, but I thought silver would work better for my tag.  I couldn't find any silver paint, so this is how I created the tarnished silver look I wanted.  First I covered the grungeboard trim with clear embossing ink and silver embossing powder.  After it was heat set and cooled down, I distressed it with sandpaper and then inked it with gathered twigs distress ink (because it was on the table.....black or any other brown would work as well).   Here's a closeup, that unfortunately does not do it justice; it is really a very nice aged look:

I don't have the Christmas muse tokens, but the "believe"philosophy one seemed appropriate.  I just covered it with white paint, then wiped the paint off.  It settled into the letters and makes them pop.

And now, I think I deserve some breakfast.











The 12 Tags of Christmas, Day 1

One of my favorite events of the year has begun, Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas.  I haven't missed a tag since I discovered this in 2008.  Back then I had almost nothing in the way of Tim's products, so the fun challenge for me was to make do with what I had.  Now, there is hardly a thing I don't have, so the challenge is to somehow make the tag my own.  Click on the highlighted link above to see what Tim cooked up for us today.  My own version is right here:

Tim used his snowflake embossing folder on his tag; I used the snowman folder.  I do not own the NOEL die, so I used the JOY movers and shapers die and then cut around it.  It doesn't show in the photo, but I did darken the area under the word so it does show up better in person.  It is not easy to photgraph glitter.

Thankfully Tim included his pinecone video in today's post, because I did manage to produce several that actually resemble pine cones after watching it three or four times.  I don't have the tattered banner die, so what I did was attach a strip of music tissue tape on a piece of scrap cardstock, trim it to size, ink it, fold it, and cut cut the points on the ends.  I also substited a swirly die cut for some of the foliage that I didn't have.  The pearls are not Tim's baubles, but come from my huge stash of old costume jewelry.

Last year I did two tags each day, the other being one for the Wendy Vecchi group, using more of Wendy's products.  I just can't do that this year, but what I think I will do is start doing 12 tags a la Wendy when we reach day 13.  That I'm sure I can manage.

Oh, and note to self:  don't work with glitter unless you don't mind leaving the house looking like an over the hill disco queen.  Just sayin'.......



My Attitude Is.....

.....Gratitude!   I have a lot on my plate lately (and unfortunately I'm not talking turkey here), so I do sometimes have to remind myself that there are still so many reasons to be grateful.  And those thoughts inspired this piece for the current Making Art challenge at the Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group.

Lori asked us to use at least one of Wendy's art parts, at least one of her stamps, and to stay with the Thanksgiving/autumn theme.  I worked on and off all day today, and came up with this:

The base is from the Artful Shrines art parts package.  It is covered with some Prima paper over which I used the background stamp (burlap, I think) from Funky Flower Art, as well as the weeds from Well Worn Art.

Here's a closer look at the fence:

It comes from the Outdoor Art art parts set.  I have some distress crackle paint from a Ranger Warehouse sale that was unlabeled.  I think they are broken china and antique linen, and I globbed them on very heavily, allowed it to air dry, then went over the whole thing with vintage photo distress ink.  (The bird, by the way, is from a Sizzix decorative strip die called Birds and Branches.  The branches can be seen on the top of the piece).

The garland of leaves were cut from shrink plastic with Tim's Tattered Leaves die, colored with both plain and metallic markers, then strung on twine after shrinking.

I used the round flower from Lower Case Art to make the pumpkin, stamping and cutting it three times, and gluing parts down on top of each other to make it dimensional.   Then I gave it a good spray with some Perfect Pearls mist.



The sentiment was done on the computer, and it is how I feel.  Today.



Yes, I'm Still Here.......

......and can't believe it's been more than a week since my last post.  First I was out of town on family related business, and then I was too exhausted from that, and then it was suddenly Thanksgiving.
That's it for me; I'm all out of excuses.
Right before I left I received Elena's journal from our asian themed round robin group, and today I finished my pages.

Above is my two page spread.  Elena had requested that we have a black border or frame, so I cut my watercolor paper about an inch smaller than her book and used black distress stain to make the border.

What I like most about these pages is that I think that everything I used on them is something that I received from a friend.  Here are closer views of the two pages:

The first layer on the paper is a bunch of small squares cut from colored paper I received from Lee.  Over that a coat of thinned out gesso, followed by some asian text from a newspaper I got from Teri.  The gold and orange you see is joss paper and I think I got that from Sox.  The bamboo is from a decorative napkin and if I'm not mistaken, Elena sent that to me.  The beautiful images of the Japanese books are from a catalog that Kyoko brought all the way from Japan and gave to me on the cruise.

For better or worse, the haiku is all mine.  I know Elena loves to read, which was the inspiration for these pages.

A Tale of Two......

.....chunky ATCs.   Here's the background to this tale:  Susan at EWV (the Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group) announced a chunky ATC swap.  She posted all the details, but I was so excited to get going I finished mine and THEN went back to look over her post.  Hah!  Seems in my eagerness to begin, it didn't register in my mind that there was a theme, and that the theme was winter/holiday colors.  I looked long and hard at my creation, and there was not one bit of it that said winter or Christmas or Hannukah or New Years.....you get the idea. 

What's a person to do?  Get out another block of wood and start again, that's what.  I had the notion to create a winter village and so I did.  I used lots of Wendy's stamps, of course, some of Tim's artful dwellings (cut down in size a bit to fit on the ATC), and some made from simple shapes cut from cardboard.  I call it "Home For The Holidays."

I used Wendy's gorgeous lace background stamp on the entire block of wood, embossed in white then inked with blues.  The icicles around the top are one of Tim's on the edge die cuts.  The snow on the roof tops was done with liquid pearls sprinkled with white glitter.

As for the first one I made, it's a bit quirky, maybe not to everyone's liking, but I think I know someone who will get a kick out of it, so it is packed and ready to go, an early Christmas present for a great friend.  So here it is....."It Started As An Ordinary Day."

Except for umbrella man (Tim's), this one is all Wendy, from the background stamps to the art parts. And don't you think that umbrella man and cane man go together perfectly?

Grungy Monday Christmas Card

I always enjoy the Grungy Monday challenges, but this week even more so.  The inspiration for it comes from one of Tim's 2007 12 Tags of Christmas.  And, since I got onboard the 12 Tags train in 2008, this was a new one for me.  Please click HERE to get all the deets straight from the expert's blog.

Now, as I've mentioned, my intent is to use any challenges I enter to create some holiday cards.  Not wanting to seem like a copycat or anything, my first attempt used a snowman rather than the Santa that Tim used as the focal image.  I really don't love it.  At all.  But will share it so you can see where things can go so very wrong.



I probably should have used black ink on the snowman stamp.  There just wasn't enough contrast between the snowman and the background, which is what lead to my outlining the snowman with my black glaze pen.  Now it looks like the snowman was pasted onto the background instead of being the result of some wonderful technique.  The paint resist snowflakes came out nicely, however.

So, I went back to the Santa idea, and used a wonderful vintagey La Blanche stamp that I picked up recently at one of those deal of the day sites.

I'm much happier with this one.  The snowflakes and script are both Tim stamps; the sentiment is an old Stampin' Up stamp (done with black embossing powder).

I enhanced Santa's hat with fired brick and forest moss distress stickles, his face with rock candy distress stickles, and added some little pine cones and berries. 

By the way, I'm taking Jennifer McGuire's Holiday Card Boot Camp and if you need a little jump start to your holiday cards, I totally recommend it.  Although it already began, registration is open, and once you sign up you will have access to the class FOREVER (and you can download the files and videos if you like). 





Gearing Up For The Holidays

Last year I dawdled around for so long, my holiday cards mostly said Happy New Year.  I've got a decent head start this year, and feel like I'm on a roll.

What started me off was a play date I had with my pals Pat and Teri.

Good thing we are all able to create in chaos.  So many supplies, so little room.  We weren't making cards for ourselves, but Cards for the Troops.  Even with plenty of gabbing, coffee breaks and lunch out, we managed to get close to 30 cards done.

I was so inspired, I continued my card making over the next few days.  When I want to produce a quantity of cards that are not quite identical, what I'll do is cut a bunch of embellishments and other card elements (mats, borders, etc), lay them out in front of me and then do a mix and match thing.  Here are some cards from my "reindeer series" and all feature die cuts from Tim's Reindeer Flight Sizzix die.

I discovered that I didn't have any Christmas paper left, but I'm going to show you that doesn't really matter.  I took some scrapbook paper with colors that work for the season and stamped and embossed right over the patterns.  I then used a Stampin' Up ornament punch to create these cards.  I have a bag full of the ornaments, and tried different color embossing powders, so I'm ready to make at least a dozen or more of this style of card.

I only did one with Tim's snowman folder, but I'm sure I'll do more.

This week's challenge at Simon Says is to "show us a house."  Still in the holiday mind set, but wanting to do more than a card, I created this little decor item using Tim's Artful Dwellings Sizzix die, and a whole bunch of embossing folders to give each house a different look.  It stands up nicely by itself because I attached Tim's small easel die cut to the back.  By the way, the easel is way taller than my little village, but just so you know, you can really trim it a lot (I did!) and it still works perfectly.

First a photo of it lying on my table (so you can actually see the houses), then a darker photo of it standing up, and then a side shot so you can see the easel.

The snow is a combination of Liquid Pearls and glitter glass.  The smoke from the chimney is some twisted wire.  And I think I know someone who is going to receive it as a gift.

Now, back to card making......

Perfectly Distressed

This week's Grungy Monday challenge takes us to a cool video Tim did some time ago on what he calls perfect distress......the wonderful pairing of distress inks and perfect pearls.....click HERE to check it out; it's an oldie but goodie, and well worth re-visiting.  I think this technique will add great sparkle to your holiday projects.  Speaking of which, I'm still meeting my own personal challenge, and my entry for GM is also a Christmas card.

I originally thought I'd just use the technique as an accent, but got totally carried away, and used it EVERYWHERE.  I know that the sparkle of mica powders does not show up well in (my) photographs, so I also took some angle shots.

You can see the effect of the perfect pearls a little better there.  And here's a closeup of Santa.

I stamped Santa (from Tim's Letter to Santa set) on white cardstock with black soot distress ink, and then used several perfect pearls on him:  green patina on the holly, perfect pearl on the hair, biscotti on the face, and raspberry sparkle on the hat and coat.

The Happy Holidays stamp is from Tim's Holiday Wishes set, and I used pine needles distress ink and green patina perfect pearls.  

The last thing I did with this technique was to add both peeled paint and forest moss distress inks all around the card, using a blending tool.  This too, got the perfect pearls treatment; this time I used heirloom gold.

The piece was mounted on a red card base, and at the last minute I decided to add a bit more bling, covering the holly with forest moss distress stickles and adding some barn door distress stickles berries.

So, here it is, still October, and I've already gotten three holiday cards under my belt.  Bring on the next challenge!







Two Hearts, One Color

This morning I worked on two challenges, the current Making Art challenge at the Wendy Vecchi yahoo group, and the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.

Lori, the EWV list mom, inspired us with a card Wendy did in her second book, and the only requirement was that we use two hearts.  Well, I interpreted this rather loosely to mean AT LEAST two hearts, not ONLY two hearts.  If that's not OK I'm sure Lori will send the challenge police to my house.  NOT!!   At Simon Says, we're to stamp and show......only one color.

I have a third challenge in mind, a personal one.  And that is to start cranking out some holiday cards.  So, from now on, whenever I decide to enter a challenge, my piece will be such a card.  And here it is:

My one color, obviously, is green.  The background paper (7 Gypsies, by the way) seems to have photographed somewhat brown, but green it is.

Do you recognize that I created a wreath?  I hope so, LOL.  I just stamped a bunch of hearts in every distress ink shade of green around a circle.  The heart is from Wendy's In Love With Art set, and I added a bunch of dots with patina Stickles.   The sentiment is from Card Art Essentials, stamped on white cardstock with olive archival ink.  Peeled Paint distress ink was blended over top, and it is mounted with pop dots to give it some lift. 

Oh, and in the center of the wreath, some dark green ribbon from my stash.

Don't tell the folks at Simon Says, but I think before I actually send out the card I'll add just a bit of red.  :)



Totally Configured

The configurations tray I started on the cruise is finished.....I think.  There are a few little spots with room for more, just in case I should find something that absolutely needs to be there.  But I feel satisfied with saying that I am done.  And that everything on the tray reminds me in some way of the wonderful experience it was to cruise the Caribbean with Tim and company.

Some closer looks at the compartments:

A shaker box full of sand, shells and sea glass

(but no one better shake it!):

The flip-up photo album, and under that,

some nautical looking flags I had

in my stash at home:





 

A compass, a bird, and a thimble:



A pirate ship....I finally did find one online.  And

next to it, pieces of a pirate skeleton:

I found this guy in the gift shop on the ship

and couldn't resist:



The tiara Pat made for me, that I regally

wore on our last night onboard:

A silly doll I found in St. Maarten, and dangling

next to her, many of the charms I received

as swaps or gifts:

This compartment is full of goodies that

were in our class kit:

We received a piece of adhesive backed cork that

fit perfectly in one of the compartments, and I used

it to display some pins and one special charm:



 Beach souvineers:

"cruise" spelled out with grunge blocks, and check out

Mario and Tim on the "round trip" ticket:



I had the skull and crossbones charm at home.

The cork is from wine at dinner, and you

know what the cocktail umbrellas represent:

A very special photo deserves its own

place:

Now, all that's left to do is decide where to display this great memento.