12 Tags! Day 4 and 5

Blustery Winds

Yes! My  Day 4 Snowman Tag and Day 5 Alcohol Ink Acetate Tag are completed and posted! Just Day 6 to go before I can be back working in order and back on track to complete Tim's 12 Tags for 2011.

December 4th it was snowing all day in Arizona where Tim lives and he was "Dreaming of a White Christmas" and it showed on his tag.  I love Tim's snowman tag and tried to follow it as close as possible. I love the look of the music paper with glossy accents showing through where the 25 is cut out from the snowman. The shiny, glossy white with blue tones and cracks is such a wonderful contrast with the aged paper. I can't imagine Christmas without images of snowmen and sounds of Christmas Carols filling the air.

I had learned the rock candy crackle and stains technique when Tim was a guest instructor in Jennifer McGuire's Inspiration Showcase class and I wrote a post about it here. I was so happy to see it used on this tag with the added step of using the white paint dabber first. During Inspiration Showcase, we did not paint the grunge before applying the rock candy. I must say I really love this look. I do not have the snowflake border die so I used the flourish die to cut out acetate. It looks to me like gusty swirls of wind.

Texture!

Acetate and Alcohol Inks

The Acetate Tag proved to be a challenge for me. I use one of the stamps from Tim's Stampers Anonymous Reflections CMS111. This one is a lighter font and while it works great for other techniques the ink dries a little fast in this lighter face and it is not quite bold enough for the full effect when stamping with the Archival Jet Black to remove the Alcohol Ink. I decided to stamp over the text with Tim's harlequin stamp from Creative Textures CMS 004 also from Stampers Anonymous. You can still see the texture of the writing where the alcohol ink was not removed by the second stamp and the added texture of the layers of alcohol ink and the distressed harlequin pattern. Tim backed his acetate tag with a pure white tag but I blended some light layers of distress ink in Evergreen Bough, Shabby Shutters, Antique Paper and Vintage Photo on mine. It gives it a wonderful watercolor effect. The tree is from Tim's Seasonal Grungeboard pack and thouroughly inked with Shabby Shutters then embossed with Peeled Paint Distress embossing powder. The star is from his elements shape grungeboard pack. The German Paper at the bottom is diecut from his new Victorian Lace die. Both are heat embossed with silver empossing powder. the tree trunk is just a little snip of twine ribbon.

Of course Tim Holtz has completed all Twelve Tags and it has been a fantastic 12 days. Every day for the last 12 days I have been following Tim's and Mario's adventures with The 12 Tags of Christmas and Behind The Scenes. Even with all kinds of internet problems they both worked diligently to make sure they shared with us the joys of inking, stamping, exploring, creating, sharing and giving and the posting of The 12 Tags of Christmas. They are amazing.

12 Tags! Day 7

Alcohol Ink Glassine and Ghost Stamping

You may be asking "Where are 4, 5 and 6?" If you are, I admit they are not done yet. I am working on several of the tags but wanted to finish this one today because it is nearing the deadline for Grungy Monday 29. Yes, It's back! Linda has been faithfully completing all the tags in order and hers are beautiful. I on the other hand, have gotten behind. I had planned on completing several tags today but decided to concentrate on finishing my favorite Tim Tag to post for the challenge. This is it. I love these techniques. It has distress ink , alcohol inks, grungeboard, ghost stamping and embossing. I don't know which technique I like best, the alcohol inks on glassine or the ghost stamping. I have never heard of this technique before and loved the effect. Check out the techniques here on Tim's blog day 7. Check out Grungy Monday 29 here.

One more reason I enjoyed working on this tag today is that my daughter Valerie was home and she was my consultant while I was working on the tag. Valerie also enjoys scrapbooking and cardmaking. She helped me me with placement on a few items. When I decided that my leaves were just too big she helped me by scrunching them up for me and she also came up with the branch idea when I couldn't get the two muse tokens to hang where I wanted them too. And she always gives me plenty of encouragement.  Thanks Valerie!

Tim's 12 Tags Blinkie!

I'm so excited because now there is a blinkie you can add a to your blog to let everyone know you are participating in 12 tags! OK, I am getting a little behind but I am participating. I will be getting together with some friends on Thursday at my local Archiver's to work on Tim's 12 tags. We will be pooling our supplies to see if we might have a more complete selection to work with and having fun creating our versions of Tim's 12 tags. I know Carolyn has the Snowman die which is what I need for my next tag. I have the Mini Reindeer and 25 and the Tag and Bookplates die and the Alcohol Inks and packaging for the next tag. Mary Jane has ALL the distress inks (except the Fall Seasonal but I think she's working on that). You know the "Whole is greater than the sum of its parts" type thing. So right now I am gathering up my supplies, cutting  pieces and getting ready for Thursday while daily checking out Tim's 12 tags.

Tim is giving us until December 31st to post our tags and Linda Ledbetter at StudioL3 is giving us until December 11th to participate in Grungy Monday 29 and post our favorite tag from this years tags. So given my deadlines I am not behind at all. I'm just pacing myself.

Thanks for stopping bye.

12 Tags! Day 3

Really Different

Sometimes it's best not to have ALL of Tim's great products. Really? No, but if I can't have them all at least I am learning from the experience. It does help that I have been following 12 Tags since they started in 2007 and that I do have a lot of Tim's Stuff.

I love the Tag Tim created for day 3. Not having everything and wanting to follow his tag as closely as I could had me rumbling through my stash and coming up with some new ideas, drawing on things I have learned from Tim and a few other sources and mixing them all up and coming up with what you see here.

I did have the embossing folder Tim used but not the stamp. I did have some  Cut-n-Dry Stamp Pad Felt and reinkers but not the colors he used. I did have the alcohol inks and clear gem stones and pearls but not the Festive Greenery Sizzix die.

German Paper from Tim

What I did have was a mini stamp version of the stamp he used in year 1 when he created a tag on Day 4 using this technique and some german paper I won from him that year.

I inked my embossing folder on the side that had the recessed images with Iced Spruce and embossed my tag. This gave me the embossed image with the background inked.  Then I cleaned off the folder an inked it with Evergreen Bough turning a second  tag in the direction Tim used when stamping to get the bottom section of the tag. I pieced the two together and added the German Paper to cover the seam. Now I had my Tim inspired but different background for my tag.

Inspired from 2007

I decided for the Cut-n-Dry technique to use a stamp from Mini Holidays CMS 066 that was the mini version of the stamp that Tim used the first year when using this technique on Day 4. I didn't have the same color reinkers he used that year but I think the colors I had to choose from go well with the Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough. Since I had my Cut-n-Dry custom ink pad, I was able to stamp the image several times and layer them just like Tim did way back in 2007.

Just a snip between waves and wavy twine

The silver bells I used were really old and a little brassy looking. I quickly transformed them to a beautiful silver using the Silver Mixative Alcohol Ink. The pine sprig is from the pinecone die and the holly leaves are hand cut. The twine was ribbon. The heat tool made it curly but it was too bulky for the tag so I clipped the stitching between the waves and pulled it loose. I liked the effect.

12 Tags! Day 2

When I saw Tim's tag this morning all I could do was sigh and think "Beautiful". To me, it reminded me of a peaceful Christmas scene where the forest animals are looking up into the sky. Check out Day 2 of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas here.

I started my tag following Tim's instructions best I could using the supplies and products I already have. Like yesterday, I'll just tell you what I did different and you can check Tim's blog for detailed instructions complete with step by step pictures. Of course if you leave a comment on Tim's blog, you'll be entered in a random drawing for a prize!

I do have a Tim Holtz deer die but it is the mini deer that came in a set with a 25. His is much larger. He only used one deer. I have used two. I adhered the sticky back canvas to some grungeboard and cut one out, but I also cut out the second one just from just the canvas. After inking them up, I adhered the single layer of canvas to the tag first and then added the second one that was canvas on grungeboard a little lower and to the right. I used glossy accents to sketch in the outline of a snow bank around their feet and sprinkled on some sparkly flock. I had made my own from Martha's white flock and Hero Arts Prisma Glitter when Tim Used Sparkly Fluff Day 6 2009. It gives just a hint of a snowbank.

The edging at the bottom of the tag is cut out of gold shimmer paper using Tim's Vintage Lace Sizzlits Decorative Edge. The top strip is acutally a piece above the laces.

On the "listen" metal tag I used The alcohol ink mixative Snowcap with bottle, lettuce and stream. I also spritz a little perfect pearl mist on the tag. The brads came in the color shown. The star is hand cut from Grungeboard then embossed with several layers of silver embossing powder and then a little glossy accents and prisma glitter. Such Fun!

I was going for a peaceful scene with the deers gazing up at the star, listening.

12 Tags! Day 1! Yea!

Finally finished my tag for the First Day of Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas. I got together with some friends today to get started. We met at Archiver's and had a blast. Next time I'm taking my camera and getting some pictures. Carolyn had cooked the most amazing potato soup and Mary Jane said next time she's bringing ziti.

Most of the things I did on my tag are following Tim's instructions. He has such wonderful step by step instructions and a fantastic video showing how to make the pine cones and tea roses. Since you really need to go to his site to see how he made his tag, I'll just share what I did different. None of us had the Noel die. The letters I used are from one of Tim's grungeboard sets but I still used glue and glitter. The Santa is from Tim's seasonal stash paper pack. I covered it with Distress Rock Candy Stickles after matting him. The music note banner paper is also from the seasonal stash. I cut a strip about 3/4 of an inch and distress it and folded it and cut the dovetail ends. I also used some perfect pearl mist on the flourish and holly leaves. Thanks for stopping by. If you don't have Tim bookmarked already just click here for Day 1.