Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags

The last day, and losts of new techniques learnt, and hopefully a few new friends made.
I didn't have anything for this one, so first of all cut out the bauble from grungepaper, as my hands can't cope with grungboard. I did have the distress inks and crackle paint. I then used the only Christmas backing paper that I had, and it's very dull, so put a few extra things on. I used one of Tims paper stack Decembers, and reduced it in size. I took the foliage and cones from a Christmas decoration. I have put the wrong coloured green ribbon on the bauble, but it's stuck, so it stays.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 11

Nearly there, the penultimate tag. I did have the pine tree die today, but that was all. The rest I had to improvise, but hey, that's all the more fun. Just think of all the h...........k I would have felt compelled to do if the tags had only taken me a short time, if I had had all the right bits. Not very chuffed with this one

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 10

Although I only had the snowflake embossing folder (confession, it only came yesterday, I must have had a premonition) todays tag wasn't too complicated. I cut out the snowman by hand on card, having enlarged an image of it from the embossing folder. Put it all together, embossed the top acrylic layer, and fastened it with snowflake brads. I gave the snowman some snow to sit in, as he seemed to be floating.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 9

Once again I had none of the required bits, so mine isn't like Tim's. First of all I photocopied some carol music, stuck it to my tag and inked it up ith my prefered colours. I cut out some letters with one of my alphabet dies and stuck them on, and put glossy accents on as instructed. I used a flower that had been kicking around my workroom for ages and put a heart in the middle, didn't like the crown as well. I used some old buttons to decorate the side. hung some bits at the top, and that was it finished. That's the quickest one so far. Didn't start it until 8 pm-ish.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 8

Oh, didn't like this one at all. I had to draw and make my own mask, and in paper is was very difficult to ink it up properly. The whole thing ended up with a halo round it. Good technique, but only with the right stuff. I used a Crafty Individuals flourish stamp, and cut out some houses on card. Inked them up, and painted some puff paint on the top for snow. I didn't like the clock or photo corners so left them out, and put on a wooden Christmas tree instead. Not my favourite tag.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 7

All I had today were the alphabets for the Joyful bit at the bottom. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder for the background, but had to use it twice as my tag is too big. The join is hidden under the flower. I glued some canvas to the grungepaper with great difficulty, the only glue that worked was UHU. The flower I cut out with a sizzix flower die, which seemed to work. I didn't have the rock candy stickles, so used diamond instead. Not as good as it has gold in it. I had a grungeboard flourish,which I painted silver. I used a coin with a ring on the top, and used 3D glaze over the top.
It has taken me ages with frequent interuptions from the men folk who were trying to defrost the pipes in the roof, and that's with leaving the heating on all night.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 6

I just knew that flipping reindeer would appear before too long. Not a good start, I didn't have anything, so had to be devious. I used the fir tree die ( only bought it last week) for the trees on the left, and one of my flourish collection to stamp the background Used a ribbon at the bottom, and made a greetings thingy. Now comes the devious bit. I scanned in the reindeer from the picture on the sale packet and enlarged it. Cut it out of grungepaper and embossed with a circle embossing folder, only because I couldn't find my scroll one. I found it after I had finished. I had to mix a blue paint for the deer, and am not very pleased with the result. The embossing folder wasn't as deep as Tim's so it is not as effective.. I don't have any metal word things either so hung some bells on instead.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 5

The only thing I had this time was a styled label that I had cut from a friends die. I do have the ATC size of the Santa stamp plus background, so I just cut the edge and postcard script off it. Oh, I did have all the right colour distress inks, but that's because I have all of them. I had to draw the holly at the top. My numbers are grungeboard. Why do these take me all day to do, I have done nothing else all day.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 4

Well, I didn't have any of the things Tim used, so really had a struggle with this one, especially as I don't really do bling. I covered the tag with some wintery looking trees, and with the lack of facets, tried his technique on some acrylic tags. It worked, so off I went. I alcohol inked around some round acrylic tags as well, and stuck on two angel pictures. These were instead of the Santa picture on Tim's. I inked up a largish glass drop (thank you Sherry),
I hung the tag and glass thingy at the top, and stuck on the two angel tags. I blinged up the bottom of the tag with some gems and a wire Christmas.
I must now clean the house and prepare dinner for our friends

Altered board book

I stripped all the plastic coating from the pages and painted them with gesso. I then covered them with various papers. The cover is sprayed with Glimmer mists, and I ripped up some corrugated card, which I also sprayed. I stamped some script and clocks on the flat bits.
Every set of pages has a different theme: Vintage , vintage children, black and white, clocks, and not forgetting silly bird. Some of the pages have shrink plastic clocks on, some purchased ones, and some of Tim's cogs. I really enjoyed doing this, and am now going to do an altered book on time, so that I can include a few ATCs that I have collected from various crafting friends.

Tim Holtz 12 Christmas tags Day 2 & 3

Can anybody tell me why I made my tags so big, the second day one took some filling. Day 2 I had not a thing that was used by Tim, but day 3, wow I had the bird cutter. I found the second one quite difficult, as I have very few Christmas stamps. Pine trees yes, but no other useful ones. The bird is a wooden one that I have made into a robin, and as the top right hand corner looked bare I made a tissue flower .
The third one I enjoyed making as I love birds, and I could use my fav branch stamp. The lichen fell off a tree in the garden, and it was in and dried. No digging under the snow to find some. I didn't have tissue tape, so used stamped repair tissue, and an old button. The greetings thingy is stamped with two stamps, and attached with a paper clip, as I don't have any of the funny pin things Tim used.
I suppose I had better go and feed the men, they will be getting fed up with me being in here all day, making tags.. Tomorrow we have friends here for dinner, so I will make the next one on Sunday.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags

I've never attempted these before, but thought the challenge would do me good. Like I needed something else to do. I don't have that many of Tim's fabulous dies or stamps, but will try to make do with what I have. I might even use up some of my stash.
For the first one I had a house die, but not his. I cut offf the spooky bits, and used grungboard, with a different embossing folder (distressed lines) Cut it up as instructed and there was my house. I put a heap of white acrylic paint at the bottom and on the roof and fence for snow, sprinkled glitter on it and waited for it to dry. I actually had some mica that I had been too mean to use, so in the windows that went. I made a ticket and stamped the only stamp I had that fitted on it.
I would like his fence edge die, well I would actually like all of them. I hope Santa is listening. My tags I cut out, so I have no idea what size his are (tags that is)
The garland I made with great difficulty by gluing together tiny holly leaves ( I have a tiny holly leaf punch) The easy bit was putting the ink on the background.
Watch this space for day 2, I have no stamps for this, so brain working overtime.

Margaret Beal course

Leaving the house with a soldering iron, and a load of flimsy fabrics, had my menfolk wondering what on earth I would do next. I spent a fabulous weekend on a Margaret Beal course. She is a brilliant teacher, and we all learnt a lot. I haven't finished anything yet, but they are on the list of things to do on cold winter evenings. Here are some of my samples. some with machine stitching, but the rest still in their early stages. Only the two at the bottom have any stitching on at all, the others are held together by the soldering iron fusing the organza togther. All the cutting is done with the soldering iron as well, it's great fun.

Chunky alphabet G H I

The next stage of the chunky book, G H & I. As this is my second alphabet book, I now make two of each letter, so that I have one of my own work. It's surprising how quickly you forget what you did, and looking at the scan on the computer is never the same. I am doing a black and white one in the New Year, so that should be a challenge, as I like to work in bright colours.

Row houses

Once again, I don't seem to be able to make just the required number of things for a swap, and went a bit over the top with the row house swap. I love making house shaped cards, so really enjoyed doing these.

Art qulits

For a swap using fabric paper, I decided to make an art quilt. While I was at it I thought I might as well make three. One of my daughters went off with one, which left me with the two turquoise ones. The backgrounds are made from baby wipes which I had used to clean my stamps. They went nowhere near my new grandson, honest. The fabric paper birds and squares were then sewn on with my sewing machine, or attached with beads. Some beads were also added to the finished quilt.

Alice board bag

A caravan weekend in the Cotswolds with Jan and Maureen, not only produced a lot of laughter, but some crafting as well. Maureen had bought some board bags, and I decide to make mine an Alice in Wonderland one. I collaged a napkin on as the main background, and then added images of Alice and chums on top of that. There are some shrink plastic images as well. This is my forth Alice project, so I might have got it out of my system now.
The photographs are not very good.

Heat it up ATC's

I've been having fun painting, and heating up various fabrics to make some ATCs. They are all backed with pelmet vilene, which I painted. Then fabrics like tyvek, lutrador, organza, and nappy liners were all painted, and added to the vilene, machine embroidered, and heated with the heat gun, until they either melted, warped or holed. Some of them have silk and angellina fibres under the organza to give a bit of sparkle.

Large tag

This is a large tag measuring 8 1/2" x 4" for a swap. I love time so used that as my main subject. I sprayed the tag with glimmer sprays and stamped the images. The bird is made from metal, his tiny wings from German scrap.