Tim’s Tags for 2013 – December

I am just managing to squeeze in the last tag for 2013 inspired by the amazing Tim Holtz. What a year of inspiration he has given us again and lots more fabulous products, techniques and ideas, don’t you just luv him?

I have used frosted film a couple of times on my Christmas creations – the frosted rustic lantern was one of them so it was great to see it appear on Tim's tag being used with Wendy Vecchi’s ‘clearly for art’ and what a marriage they have made, I just love my frosted flower.

I have followed Tim’s techniques but used different colours, dies and stamp.

The background was made using iced spruce and dusty concord distress stains with shaded lilac DI blended through the harlequin mask.

The sentiment stamp was stamped in embossing ink and covered with fine black EP.

The flower was made using the tattered florals die and I also cut a couple of petals and the leaves from the tattered flower garland strip die and also used some of the flourishes in Bazill cardstock from the same die.

I covered the flower petals with blue violet, watering can and plum archival inks and used watering can with olive on the leaves.

Can you see my special little touch on the leaves? So easy to create a bit of texture on the film when it has the harder base behind it, all I did was run my scalpel over it to create the veins before I heated them and then rubbed them over with the inks, neat eh?

A pretty brad and some scrumpled ribbon finish it off.

Thanks Tim for sharing your wonderful unique ideas and for your continual encouragement and inspiration. I am looking forward to seeing what you create for us in 2014.

New Year's Eve on Tuesday and we are hosting a small party as usual, but this year I wanted to do something different. I trawled the internet for a NYE Murder Mystery game but to no avail, so what have I been doing the past 10 days inbetween family, presents and meals? Yes I have written my own and produced all the invites, character profiles, instruction sheets and the secret booklet to play from on the night. I just hope it works!!!

Don't forget there’s a new challenge over at Country View Crafts on Wednesday with a new theme for you to join in with – oh and by the way my workshop class is filling up, if you want to come and have a fun filled inky day with me don't miss out, book soon. It will be a day inspired by Tim’s fabulous products, lots of idea-ology and creating a fabulous mini tag book. I live near Camberley in Surrey and I can get to the venue in just over the hour, so take a look and see if you can make it too. I would love to see you there.

Have a great week.

“For last year's words belong to last year's language 

And next year's words await another voice.” 

― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

hugs {brenda} x0x

Tim’s November Tag of 2013 and reverse chalkboard effect

Having learnt this chalkboard technique on the Creative Chemistry 102 course I was pleased to see Tim use it this month for his tag. He gets great effects, but this time I wanted to play a little more.

This is my tag using the Sizzix Framelets Snowman Blueprint set. I followed Tim’s steps except I used pastels including coloured ones and black.

The die-cut layers give fabulous dimension and there are so many pieces that can be cut easily.

The hat, holly, nose and scarf were cut and layered and you can see where I used red, orange and green pastels. The berries are coloured with red stickles.

The ice skate charm was painted with a dab of picket fence distress paint to make it look snowy and the snowflakes were inked with pumice stone DI and covered with frosted lace stickles. You can clearly see here how I added more contrast by using the black pastel.

On this next snowman I used good old children’s chalk.

He came out quite well on the frosted crystal although some of the first ones I made I didn’t heat the EP enough and was too cautious with Tim’s warning.

I used some of the bought embellishments I have in my Christmas box and Tim’s Merriment papers.

This last piece shows a snowman in reverse, he is black and was as a result of playing with PanPastels rather than chalks. The pans are so fine they wouldn’t ‘stick’ to the tooth of the EP.

You can see that they left a white residue on the black card and to get more of a chalkboard effect I added some lines using the white pastel again.

Using more bought embellishments and Merriment paper I made another quick card with him.

Tim showed the sizzix magnetic platform for cutting thin dies on his post, I thoroughly recommend it if you use a Big Shot or Vagabond, cutting all and especially small thin dies are so easy now, no taping them down. Susan has them in stock at Country View Crafts. 

Off to link this to Tim’s November tag, I can’t believe there is only one more for the year.

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”

Franklin D Roosevelt

 

Hope you are having a great weekend.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Tim’s Tags of 2013 – October

Got my October tag done and loved making this Halloween one using distress glitter, for the details how to apply it pop over to Tim’s blog to see his great tags and the instructions for distress glittering and distress paint marbling, which is what I used for the background on my tag.

I also used the tarnished silver technique learnt on the Creative Chemistry 102 course, just love the effects on bottles. makes them look like old mercury.

I used The Chemist stamp set for the text in the background ……

…. and Simple Sayings for the sentiment ……

……and  the woodgrain embossing folder for texture on the shelf,

Distress glitter was used on the inkwell,

quill, bottle top,

skull and pediment, which are all from TH dies except the skull which is from tando creative.

Entering this to Tim’s collection for October.

We are off to Birmingham today for a long weekend, I hope you enjoy whatever you have planned. Take care and have fun.

Thanks for stopping by to see my Tim tag.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Tim’s September tag and more .....

Gosh I am right on the wire this month with my contribution to the September tags of 2013. All the details of how Tim made his tag can be found on his BLOG and I have used the same steps but made three projects - one just like Tim’s, one the same but with different colours, masks and stamps and my third a Halloween card and with it being almost October that seemed to fit nicely.

Tag 1

The same steps and supplies Tim used

Tag 2

Distress stains - salty ocean, crushed olive, tarnished brass, mustard seed and peeled paint.

Masks used – splatter, bubble, honeycomb, schoolhouse, dot fade, cargo and measured.

Stamps – Haberdashery set

Distress inks – walnut stain, crushed olive, salty ocean, vintage photo and black soot.

Halloween card

I enjoyed making this in the  same style, using the same techniques as on the tags and was pleased with the colour combination.

I used a leftover frame from my workshop project this week (a post for that soon) …..

and added embellishments from the stamp sets.

The 31 was cut out and covered with glossy accents to give it some shine and make it ‘pop’ more.

Distress stains – pumice stone, antiqued bronze, antique linen, picket fence, brushed corduroy

Masks – stripes, clockwork, eye chart, burlap, schoolhouse

Distress inks – weathered wood. iced spruce, victorian velvet, black soot, walnut stain

Stamps – mini halloween, mini halloween 2, curiosities

My favourite has to be the card I just love the colours and textures.

I hope your weekend went well and that you have a great week ahead. Cimmie is off to the vets tomorrow morning (see my last post for photos). He has been so good bless him, lets hope he can have that collar off and go out to play tomorrow.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Tim’s Tag for August

You know I definitely work better under pressure of time limits which is why I am often on the line for getting projects made. Of course that’s difficult when you have workshop samples to get done. But for today I am showing you my take on the Tim Holtz tag for August and all his instructions and inspiration can be found on his blog HERE.

I have used his techniques for masking and stamping but rather than a tag I have made a tag book. I used a giant size 12 tag and stamped both sides so that both the outside and inside of the covers were decorated.

The colours of distress paints I used for the background are – salty ocean, victorian velvet, walnut stain, picket fence and antique linen. And for the background stamping I used both distress inks and distress markers in aged mahogany, weathered wood, pumice stone and frayed burlap and also used coffee archival for the main images. At first I thought this background was far too busy, but once I had got used to it I really quite like it.

These show how the tag forms the front and back covers and I used tissue tape coloured with distress satins and distress inks to tie the little book up. The pages were sewn in using the sewing machine.

I dipped some of the pages in DI and added some little butterfly stamps and some tissue tape.

Hope you like my variation of Tim’s tag. Now having got back into masking again I can see me using it a lot again in the future.

Today Tim is due to land in England. ready for the two days he has booked at PI. Welcome to the UK Tim and Mario. Wednesday is the retail day training and Thursday is the workshop day. I am so looking forward to meeting up with Jenny – Pushing the Right Buttons -  again, we are doing the Thursday morning workshop together, but I will also get to meet Rita – RMG Creations, Annie – Curious and Crafty Treasures  and Alison – Words and Pictures - in person which will be a real treat. I think Sue – Stamping Sue Style -is also doing the morning session. Anyone else out there I know going to be at either days?

I hope you have had a good bank holiday weekend in the UK, enjoy the rest of it today.

Thanks as always for your visits and your comments, it is amazing how we can make such lovely on-line friends and then to meet some in person is one of life’s treasures.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Cabinet Card for Tim’s Tag July 2013

This is my representation for Tim’s tag this month and it really challenged me. I think my creative thought processes are slowing down as I spent two weeks on both playing and creating till I am now happy with this version.

I love the brayered background, but this is my third go at it. I think I have mastered it as I have started a tag too and this layer went on first time. Here I have used the cabinet die and layered over the cabinet die frame made with the small cabinet card movers and shapers die.

I considered all the elements in Tim’s tag, the theme, the techniques, the colours, the materials, the design etc., etc. and included them in my creative processes.

I also used the small easel die to ensure it stood up well and I used greyboard for all the elements so that it is sturdy.

Here you can see the baked porcelain on the frame, the red and blue which is synonymous of both the Union Jack and American flag and therefore the close links between our two countries. The stars stamped alongside the tissue tape, the ‘thank you’ sentiment for all people who serve our country both here and abroad and also for Tim who provides constant inspiration in my now totally creative life, the stencil clip depicting number one for that’s what he is and the Union Jack stamps to represent our wonderful country.

But having taken the photos (many more than are here) I really felt something was missing and I added two more things to it.

The crown, although slightly larger than I wanted, but again as a representation of Tim but more-so a thank you for our hard working Queen and family and a congratulatory symbol for the birth of our new royal baby George Alexander Louis born to Prince William and Kate on Monday 22nd July.

The other addition is the gold (Treasure Gold) added to the metal pieces and around the edge of the cabinet card.

Here you can see the glorious mix of red, white and blue.

Thanks Tim for another awesome tag, now I am looking forward to seeing the one for August and meeting you too. I have been so lucky as not only am I doing the Thursday workshop I have also been given a place on the Wednesday of that week which is the retail day. At last my opportunity to be taught by the king of grunge and then I will definitely have met my goals for this year. 
If you would like to see Tim's tag it is on his blog in all it's glory, or click the link from my sidebar.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. 

hugs {brenda} x0x