Artful Times DT piece -- Men

Where on earth has the last fortnight gone, all of a sudden it was time for the next challenge on Artful Times. This time the subject is men, and I have made a tag as I was a bit short of time.
First of all I covered the tag with embossed metal tape and then proceeded to cover most of it up with stamped images and some tissue tape. I then added some old measuring tape, an under construction piece of tape and some cogs and a spring. If I get desperate for a man card this will end up matted onto a card.

Tim Holtz style tag for January 2015

This is my take on Tim's tag for this month, a bit late as usual. Having only made four last year, I am trying to do better this time. I don't have all the things Tim used, but managed to substitute most of them. I used tissue wrap first of all and coloured it with distress paint and stains, I stuck on the words and covered the whole tag with glue and seal. I then added the word and the newly glitz no 5. Last of all I added some embellishments, and dabbed the twenty and one with gold paint.

Tag Along -- Think Pink

On Tag Along the theme is pink, not really my colour, but every now and then I like to go pink. For my tag I used some of Tim's paper, stamped a heart border on one side and edged the tag with a darker pink. I stamped and cut out one of my only Stampotique girls, coloured her in and stuck her on top of an image I had stamped directly on to the tag. She had quite  a lot of hair and bits that would have been impossible to cut out. I added a stamped saying and some flowers.

Tag Along -- Spots and dots

On Tag Along the theme is Spots and dots, and this tag that I had made for a swap seemed to fit the bill. First of all I used texture paste through a stencil for the first dots, and then painted the background  with fluid acrylic paints. I then stamped various dots and spots with black ink. I finished it off with some buttons.

Try it on Tuesday and Paperartsy Fabric and Shiny stuff

Try it on Tuesday and Paperartsy both have a challenge that made me want to make another page for my sewing book. TIOT's is use some fabric, and Paperartsy's is Shiny stuff. The paperartsy blog challenge can be found here The TIOT one here
I have used a distressed piece of corrugated card for the base, painted it with Fresco stone and mermaid paint. I then added some embossing powder in verdigris and gold to the edges and some of the ridges.
I stamped one of my most used Paperartsy stamps and a few stitch stamps. Added an embossed dress form with a very shiny blue fabric as the skirt, and a lace top. A couple of sewing pictures, and some embellishments added some more shiny stuff. There is also a homemade button, and a laser cut sewing machine.

Tag Tuesday -- Feathers

For Tag Tuesday this week I have made two tags, one bird shaped and the other the usual size 8 tag. For the tag I have used texture paste through a peacock feather stencil, and coloured it with distress inks and acrylic paint, I then added a peacock die cut, and a peacock feather.
For the bird shaped tag I covered it with paper and stamped some images on top. Added a die cut wing and some feathers and yarn. The other side is fairly similar, and these will be addded to, to make a tag book

Every Inchie Monday -- Talk

On Every Inchie Monday talk is the word. I found this one a bit of a problem, and in the end came up with a girl and her mobile phone for the stampbord one, and two talking silhouettes for the fabric one.
The fabric is leatherette and felt.

Fabric book of the sea Pages 12 & 13

I haven't made any pages for this since last August, as the house move and a dose of flu that I am now getting over haven't been very good for creativity.
The one with jelly fish has a felted wool and silk background with machine and hand embroidery. The jelly fish are made from crystal organza with various yarns for the tenticles.
The memories page consists of photos from 60 + years ago, and having been taken with old cameras, haven't printed very well onto the fabric. They are faded a bit like the memories. They are all family photos. The sea is a collection of yarns sewn down at random, and the sandy bits have French knots and a few shells added.

Tag Tuesday -- Texture Tuesday

It's texture on Tag Tuesday this week, one of my favourite things. I used texture paste, and puff paint through a stencil, and heated it to puff up the paint. I painted the whole tag with gesso to seal the surface. I then painted the tag with some new paints (Pebeo Moon) one of my daughters bought me for Christmas. This was their first outing, so I wasn't sure how they would react. They can be used on all surfaces, especially hard surfaces like metal, wood, ceramics, glass etc. As mine was card I wasn't sure they would work. The paint sort of mixes the colours itself, and gives an enamel like finish. Took ages to dry, so it was as well I made this last week. I hope the scan shows it up properly.
I added some friendly plastic butterflies to finish it off.

Every Inchie Monday -- Elephant

This week elephant is the word following giraffe, Trillian is using the last letter of the previous one to start the next.
My stampbord one has an alcohol background and a shrink plastic elephant. The sewn one is my good old soft leather again, and I gave it an Indian look

Artful Times DT piece for Time

Time is the theme on Artful Times, So I dragged a cog book out of my things to alter box,and put all the pages through embossing folders. (They are quite thick) I then coloured them with metal paints, and them rubbed them down to make them grungy. I added various painted cog die cuts, some of which I rusted.

Tag Tuesday -- Diva

This week on Tag Tuesday it's Diva.  The term Diva was originally used for opera singers, but I couldn't find a picture of one that I liked. The background is one of Tim's papers and the picture and quote of Marilyn Munroe from the internet. I added lace and flowers to finish it off. Just in case you can't read the quote it says: Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring

Every Inchie Monday -- Giraffe

This week the word  on every inchie Monday is Giraffe. The stampbord one has a shrink plastic giraffe, and on the sewn one I used black thread for the shape and markings. For those of you who don't know what stampbord is. it has a fabulous clay  hard surface which is wonderful for inking (especially alcohol ink) and stamping. The substrate is hard so it wont buckle.You can scratch the surface away to make extra marks. It can be made into brooches, pendants, boxes etc It is very versatile.

Tag Tuesday -- Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland is the first theme for this year on Tag Tuesday. I enjoyed doing the first one, so made another. They both have distress ink backgrounds, one has a photograph as the focus, and the other die cut pine trees with a stamped background. They both have textured foregrounds and stickles on top to make them glitter like ice. I added a white deer in front of the trees, and die cuts in white on the photo tag.

Every Inchie Monday -- Egg

Egg is the word that start's the new year off on Every Inchie Monday.
 This year I am going to do my usual sewn inchie, and the mixed media one I am going to do on Stampbord. I have a lot of inch stampbords, and it's time I stopped hoarding them, and used them up. My stampbord egg has a nest of lichen and twigs, and the egg is shrink plastic. The sewn one is a fried egg, with the yolk stuffed with wadding and sewn on to a faux silk fabric for the egg white.

Artful Times DT piece -- Make 6 inchies from Received Christmas cards.

On Artful Times we are asking for 6 inchies to be made from received Christmas cards.
For mine I have made one bird orientated and the other general Christmas. I have mounted both on dark blue card and added other bits from some cards to help set them off. I then made them into Christmas cards. A start on this years, I might as well get ahead while I can. Having said that they might be the only two I make before December,!!