Curious?

Inspired by Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge # 4

Are you curious?

I have to admit I can be. However, I can also be a procrastinator. That's why the Compendium of Curiosities 3 challenge #4 was perfect for me.

This challenge is hosted by Linda Ledbetter. Every other week there is a new challenge inspired by a technique Linda selects from Tim Holtz's "A Compendium of Curiosities III". She and her Curiosity Crew create and post amazing projects. Then they invite everyone to play along.

The sponsor for the even challenges, which includes this one, is The Funkie Junkie Boutique. The prize is a $25 Funkie Junkie Boutique gift certificate. You can visit their online store at www.thefunkiejunkie.com. Participants also have a chance to win another great prize too (from Tim and Mario!) so check out the rules for the CC3 here.

Are you curious as to why challenge #4 was perfect for me? It features page 49 of "A Compendium of Curiosities III". Layering Stencils-Texture Paste. Here is where the procrastinator part comes in. Ages ago I bought some Dreamweaver Stencils Embossing Paste and never really used it. When I saw Challenge #4 used texture paste, I found my jar, checked it out and it was still good. I already had some of Tim's layering stencils so I was ready to go.

So far I have 5 of Tim's layering stencils and I used every one on my tag. Not only with embossing paste, but also inking, misting, paint and even Distress Embossing Powders. Once I got started I just couldn't stop. His stencils are fun to work with and his book is full of techniques.

Add A Bevel Edge

After making the background tag using the Layering Stencil-Texture Paste technique from page 49 in Tim's book (Can't post instructions for that part here, you really need the book), I die cut the hanging tag with Tim Holtz Alterations Styled Labels die from Sizzix out of the 3x4 prints from the Wallflower Paper Stash. With the brush tip of my Distress Markers I added the bevel look. I lightly sketched a line around the tag about 1/8" from the edge and inked around the side edge with Gathered Twigs, then used Frayed Burlap to blend it in. The colors in the Wallflowers papers didn't quite coordinate with the background tag. It needed a little of the blue so I used the Broken China Distress Marker to outline the flowers and a waterbrush to wash the color out into the background. I like the way it makes the flowers stand out. I also used a little Broken China on the right side of the tag along the inside of the bevel and to add a little color the leaves blending it out with the waterbrush.

One of my favorite quotes, "Life isn't about finding yourself Life is about creating yourself.", is from the Mini Classics CMS062 from Stampers Anonymous. After cutting apart the tiny words, I ran them through my Xyron (X) create-a-sticher, making it easier to ink them up. I used Distress Markers and a water brush. It also made it easir to place them on the tag where I wanted them.

When posting his May tag Tim mentioned that we all have "that stash of things we collect just to admire and cherish the fact that we simply have them". At least for me he's correct.  To finish off my tag I dipped into my stash of Idea-ology and played. After tying his paper string to the top of the tag I inked it a little with Frayed Burlap and a blending tool, then unraveled it and used a few of the strands to add the pearls. I decided on the "Inspire" Philosophy tag but the brass finish didn't quite go with my tag.  Distress Paints work great on the metal tags so I was able to pick up some of the colors from the tag. I even mixed in a little Brushed Pewter Distress Stain with the paint layers. Dab, wipe, heat, dab some more, even used a fine tip paint brush to add specs of color here and there and touch up Inspire.

So are you curious? Challenge #4 is open until Friday June 20th MST so you still have time to create something and enter or you can just hop on over and see what the Curiosity Crew made that inspired me. Let me know if you decide to join in the fun!

P.S. Just in case you're wondering the hinge really does work. The hanging tag lifts up to reveal another layer created using Tim's tissue wrap. Curious? I think I'll save that for another post.

UPDATE Sun Aug 10, 2014 - When I originally created and posted my tag Ranger didn't make a texture paste. Now they do! The Dreamweavers Embossing Paste I used here is resistant to ink once it is dry so unless  you want subtle color you have to mix the color in before you apply it. Ranger has just released their new Texture Paste and it is really easy to ink or color, even after it dries.

June's 12 Tags of 2014

If you follow my blog, you know I am a big fan of Tim Holtz, love to visit his blog and check out his 12 Tags of 2014 challenges. Every month he has a new tag, step by step tutorial and has a challenge. I missed March and April. I just barely made the deadline for May. When I saw how beautiful it was and how easy it would be I decided to get busy having fun. Here it is.

If you have some distress inks, any of Tim's stencils and some paper towels you are all set. The magic is in the Distress Inks and using the paper towels with the stencils to print your background. I had fun playing with my stencils, made several backgrounds and plan on playing some more. Really guys, quick and simple. Tim shows you step by step how to make a gorgeous watercolor background here. Tim even shows you how to make the Paula bow, also quick and simple. His tutorials are great with step by step photos, so no need in me repeating them, but if you have any questions about my tag leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

The watercolor stencil technique is also in his amazing book Compendium of Curiosities 3.

I hope you decide to check out Tim's blog and try this technique, if you do let me know, I'd love to see what you do.

May

Here's my tag for Tim Holtz's May 12 Tags of 2014. Hopefully I'll finish this post in time to link it. I'm running right up to the deadline so I'm keeping it short tonight.

Tim encouraged us to use our stash. Something I'll admit I have a hard time doing so this was a great challenge for me. I had recently purchased the Wallflower Paper Stash, the enamel tags were a surprise I received with my copy of Compendium of Curiosities III (Thanks Tim and Mario) but everything else I've had for a while. I even went through some tag backgrounds I had made when trying out different techniques and found this one. Not only did the colors go well with the Wallflower paper but I had used Perfect Pearl Mist when creating it so it has touches of pretty gold shimmer.

While working on my tag I decided to search Tim's blog for instructions for a flower he made with the idea-ology Foliage flowers. He has a search box so it is really easy to find his past projects. He created his for one of the 2009 12 Tags of Christimas. His instructions for the large flower are here.

I hope you like the tag, if you do you should see Tim's tag, check it out here.He always has step by step instructions. Now I can't wait to see what Tim has in store for us for the June tag.

My first 10K

OK, It's not what you think. Or if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, maybe it is. Saturday was a fun mother/daughter day for me as Valerie and I spent it scrapbooking. Since it was National Scrapbook Day we made plans to scrapbook at our dining room table just like I use to when I first got started years ago. We joined in the NSD10K sponsored by Big Picture Classes, I added a badge to my blog and we started scrapping. I completed 4 pages. Yes, completely finished 4 pages. That is a lot at one time for me. I enjoy taking my time building my scrapbook page. Lots of pictures and layers of pattern paper, die cuts and embellishments. I have quite a few pages that are still waiting for those final finishing touches. Valerie worked on her Chickamauga Scrapbook and completed 5. Valerie always completes her pages. I'm so proud of her.

I decide it was time to start scrapping my pictures of Jasper, my new grandson. He's 9 months old now and it's about time I got started. Of course, since he's my first grandson,  I have tons of pictures to choose from. I used "Baby Steps" by Simple Stories. This 12x12 collection includes double sided pattern paper, card stock stickers and 30 double side cut apart element pieces, and even 6 photo overlays, perfect to make my first pocket page album.

Valerie and I also made sure to check out the inspirational videos Big Picture Classes posted every hour. They were short and sweet. Lots of inspiration. They also had some great giveaways, even some from my favorite designer, Tim Holtz. Tim also created and posted a page. It was gorgeous. Every page posted to Instagram with #NSD10K @bigpictureclasses was counted. We didn't quite make the goal of 10K but Big Picture Classes is still accepting pages toward the 10K goal. It was a fun, free event and I'll probably check to see if they host it again next year.

Valerie and I enrolled in Online Card Classes' Watercolor for Card Makers so I'll be posting some more projects soon. I'm also working on a project for CC3C, which is Linda Ledbetter's Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge and  and if that's not enough after being away from crafting for so long I also plan on getting caught up on Tim Holtz's monthly tag challenge. His May tag, as usual, is gorgeous. You can check it out here. Wish me luck!

#12tagsof2014 - My Tim inspired February Tag!

Another winter storm just hit Georgia and the southeast. Since I was iced in AGAIN I took advantage of the time to work on my tag for Tim Holtz's  12 tags of 2014. Tim's February tag is a real beauty. It features a beautiful stamp using Tim's blackboard chalk technique. Unlike any other chalk board techniques I've seen so far, Tim uses real chalk along with Ranger's Frosted Crystal Antiquities Embossing Powder. If you love the chalk board look you really should give this a try. You can see Tim's step by step instructions and look at his amazing technique by clicking here.

I have been wanting to try this technique every since I first saw it in Tim's Creative Chemistry 102 online class. I'm happy with my tag but I still need to work on my technique. I think the problem that I am having is my chalk is just too hard. I am using "dustless" chalk. That's what Office Depot had. The Frosted Crystal has a tooth to it that grabs the chalk dust so I will be on the look-out for a softer chalk. In the meantime I used a little sandpaper to soften mine up some. It seemed to help.

The W is from the Swirls Alphas grungeboard set and inked with pumice stone distress ink. Pumice stone distress glitter is added using glossy accents, and the edges inked with a touch of vintage photo.

Tim's tag uses the Hearts stencil but I used the Cargo THS001 stencil, being inspired by the way my 6 month old Grandson loves it when I sing "My ABC's" and tries to sing along. I don't have any of the industrious stickers yet so I used Ranger's Inkssentials Foil tape sheets on cardstock and then die cut it with Tim's Vintage Lace Alterations 657481 die. Love this die! I used my trusty alcohol ink palette and my Alcohol refillable pen (filled with blending solution) to color the foil. As you can see I have hand sewn the foil lace on with distress twine.

I wanted to use a piece of the chalk as an embellishment but it was just too white.  So to tone it down, I distressed the piece of chalk by sanding it all over and spritzing it with some Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls mist. Just enough distress to make it look like it belongs on my tag. I used the distress twine to tie it using glue dots so it appears to be sitting on the top of the blackboard.

One last thing before I go. If you have a die that has fold lines, you may discover tearing along the fold marks after die cutting. I wanted to show you the difference between using the Big Shot Premium Crease Pad and just the standard Clear pads with your Big Shot. The picture shows the easel back die cut from chipboard, first with just the standard pads and then again with the Crease Pad. Replace the top (clear) pad of your die cut sandwich (the side you cut into) with the Crease Pad and still use the second clear pad for the bottom of your sandwich. The Crease Pad is designed to create fold lines when used with these dies. You still get the beautiful cuts along the lines that are suppose to cut through, but the Crease Pad has just enough give to make those fold lines fold-able instead of tearing when you fold them.

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!

Another Month Another Tag

I can really relate to this quote and wanted to use it for my tag, inspired by Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 - August.

This month Tim Holtz created his August tag using masks. Now Tim has mask designs and he has sheets for making masks. This month he used the Masking Sheets to create masks for the stamps he was using on his project. He made 3 beautifully nostalgic travel tags and you can check them out here. Tim gives lots of detailed instructions, well written with photos each step of the way and for the most part most of the techniques I used to start my tag were from this post so I'll only be writing here on the additional supplies I used.

I selected stamps from a variety of Tim's sets to illustrate the quote. While the clocks were a fairly obvious choice the Mona Lisa was selected simply because it is the first time I used her. I love the way she is peeking over the quote. By masking the clocks, they remain lighter than the background and although they were stamped first the other stamped images appear to be behind them. I used a VersaMark pen and Fired Brick Distress Embossing Powder for the hands on the larger clock which added just enough pop to help it stand out. I enjoyed layering all of the different stamps for texture without worrying if the whole image would be visible. While not obvious,  I can see them and know they are there. The idea-ology flowers and leaves were altered by running them through my BigShot with Tim's embossing folders and then painted with Distress Paints. Fun, Fun, Fun!

As you can see, the quote was just a little too long for the width of the tag so I stamped it a few times in different colors and cut some of the words and inked the edges. I hung "when" off the edge of the tag to start the quote. I also used this technique for "first" then added some Fired Brick Distress embossing powder to the word "last". 

The Mask Sheets were first released at CHA 2009, Tim had made a beautiful Christmas tag with them in Day 7 of 12 Tags of Christmas 2009 and I had a lot of fun playing around with them at the time so I stocked up on them. They've been in my stash so I was happy to break them out and play with them again.

Remember you have until the end of August to participate in the 12 Tags of 2013 August.