Winter Freeze?

Winter weather in Georgia is usually mild. However occasionally we have weather that makes the news 24/7. The weather has been the breaking news in Georgia yesterday, today and probably will be tomorrow too. 1 to 3 inches hit the metro area at mid day. Not that it wasn't expected, but the impact it made caught many by surprise. Expressways were quickly jammed, with some people unable to make it home at all. School closings varied by county. Where some were closed all day or closed early, some did not close at all. Some parents flooded the schools when they found out their school was staying open. In some areas, school buses could not complete their routes, becoming stranded or returning to the schools. Some parents had trouble finding out where their children were and some children did not make it home until today, staying in schools overnight. Governor Dale declared a State Emergency and everyone is urged to stay off the roads. Me and my family were fortunate enough to make it home before things got bad.

What that really means to me now, is I've watched the news much more than I usually do and I finally spent some time in my studio with my Distress Inks, Grungeboard, Big Shot and Tim's blog post for the January 12 tags of 2014. This is a really good thing because I decided this is going to be the year I was going to finally create a tag for each month and I was quickly running out of time. Once I got started I had a wonderful time.

Tim used his Pocket Watch die with a Circle movers and shapers to create a really amazing multi-medium focal point for his tag along with several other great techniques that I did not include in my tag. He does a fantastic job with step by step photos so generally I just post a picture of my tag and tell what I did different. You should check out his tag here. Like everyone else, I usually don't have the everything Tim has, so a few things had to be substituted.

You may wonder why my January tag has big red, white and blue letters that say DAR. My tag is a gift to my daughter Valerie. She is in the process of being accepted as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her lineage is through her Dad's side of the family. Her 6x great-grandfather, Private John Cash of the Virginia Militia. (Yes, the same 3-x great grandfather of my hero, Johnny Cash.)

The DAR letters are from a Grungeboard alphabet pack, the tag at the bottom is die-cut from the larger of Tim's mover and shaper tags but I folded it in half to give Valerie a hidden journaling spot. I used the larger hole punch on the crop-a-dile to punch the holes on the cover of the tag where the brads are. They are the same diameter of the Tim's small brads and work like fasteners. "Journal Explore Life" and the small words are from the same Remnant Rubs, WORDS. For the background I used the STARS stencil blending with Shaded Lilac. I had used Brush Pewter Distress Stain for the background color, loved the shimmer.

Thanks for stopping by, and stay warm!