Happy New Year

     As we ring in the New Year I would like to thank all of you who have stopped by and left such wonderful comments. I hope your visit here has been inspiring, insightful and at times, left you with a smile on your face. With that said, I thought I would leave you with the December "kids" who sometimes feel lost in the spirit of the holidays around their birthday but who really warm our hearts with their presence. Before I share the pics of the birthday celebration I also want to let you know there were 2 more birthdays this December: our grandson Nicholas who turned 5 years and our oldest son Michael who turned 38. Although they live in Florida we think of them always. Here are the birthday honorees:

Ben hiding!

Just in time to blow out the candles. Ben turned 5!!!

Steve (my baby) turned 23 years

Ok, so it wasn't Sammy's birthday. His party was on the only day we have had snow; October Halloween Storm. What the heck, we can sing Happy Birthday again!

Cece turns 2 years December 28th.

Last but not least, Steve's girlfriend Renee whose birthday is today! Happy New Year and Birthday Renee.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year.

Merry Christmas, Tag #11

     I only wish this season I had more time to try out these awesome techniques Tim Holtz showed for the 12 Tags of Christmas...2011. Although I only had time to complete 4 I know I will continue to try some of the other tags and the great projects he shared.
     This tag by far is my favorite. I always loved this angel image yet for some reason I just hadn't found the right project. I started with Art Philosophy cartridge by ProvoCraft and cut the tag @ 6.25". The background is so easy to make. I used cream glossy card stock and some alcohol inks. The Salt Boat Blue and Stream alcohol inks go together perfectly.
     Next I used a piece of craft plastic and stamped this beautiful sentiment: The most precious Gift of Christmas arrived in a very small bundle with no bow." You have to use Stazon ink or one that can be used on slick surfaces.

     The stars are really cool to make. Unfortunately I only had Shrinky Dink material in white. Tim had used the clear one and the effects are so stunning. Don't worry, I will be getting some to try the other techniques.Any way I like how these stars turned out. First, when working with shrinky dink material you need to cut your images 3x the size you want the shrunken article to be. I cut my stars from "Tis The Season" cartridge @ 2.25", 2.50", 2.75" and 3". this yields finished stars at 1" or less. Here's the fun part. You need to heat UTEE, Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel in a melting pot. Ranger sells these and they are great. All you do is heat the utee, drop your shrinky dink material in the pot and watch it shrivel and squirm! Once it flattens out (in seconds really) gently remove from pot with tweezers and place on a craft mat or another non stick surface to cool. It really is that easy. I finished it off with some Creative Charms rhinestones and also used a gold detail heat embossing to the horn and halo. Add a bow and you are done. Whew, I can't wait to try some more tags.

Believe Tag With Tim Holtz

     I am so excited how this tag came out! This was tag #10 in Tim Holtz 12 Tags Of Christmas. The main technique for this one centered around making a transparency with packing tape! I'll explain more about this later. First I'll begin with the basics for this tag.
     I made my own tag using the  Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge.The tag was cut @ 6.25" but, where did that beautiful sheet music come from you ask. Well the Imagine More cart and my Imagine. I have big plans for this machine in the new year. There is a beautiful gold sheen on this tag which the picture does not do it justice. This is accomplished with a mist of Tattered Angels Heirloom Gold. The corners also have a heat embossed filigree design using distressed ink in peeled paint and a gold embossing powder. To complete the tag I used Tim's paper distresser and then inked the sides with Antique Linen distress ink by Ranger.
     I am fortunate enough to have the Expression 2 by Provo Craft but must admit with the holidays I haven't had much of a chance to use it, that is, until now. The machine comes preloaded with the Cricut Alphabet so I decided this font was perfect for the letters in "Believe". I used a scrap piece of paper from DCWV because the colors were just perfect. I ran the letters through my Xyron "X" which made it so easy to attach the letters.

     Here is the best part of this tag, the acrylic charms! I used the seasonal stack from Tim Holtz for the images. This is by far the easiest transfer I have ever made. First, you cut out the image you are going to use and then place a piece of clear packing tape over the image.Next place the image in a bowl of luke warm water for about 30 sec or until the paper begins to separate from the back.You want to gently rub the back to remove the paper leaving the image affixed to the tape. Once it is dry you want to lay it down on the sticky side of a piece of foil tape. Just a word about this.I used foil tape I had on hand from Home Depot. This is not a good choice. The reason is that by removing the paper from the image, it should allow the metal to show thru for a wonderful vintage look. Be sure you purchase one that when you  remove the paper on the foil   it has a metal colored backing. The foil tape I have was white on the back once the paper was removed. This still looks good but would have been great had I used the right foil. Since I made this tag I have noticed the type Tim used where the Tim Holtz line is located in my Michaels. I think it is by Essentials.
     To adhere the image to the front of the charm you will need to apply a small amount of glossy accents to the charm and then burnish the image to the charm. After this dries you just trim it with either scissors or an Exacto knife. I finished the edges off with a gold foil pen.

     As you can see I attached these to the tag with small brads and some twine. In order to complete the look I used some small gold bells that I attached with some raffia. However it some how did not look complete. I rummaged through my supplies and found this twig of red berries and they just seemed to go perfect. Guess I will be doing a lot more transparencies this year, lol. You should really give this a try.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas #6

     Ok you are not missing the other tags. I watched Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas and played along when I had the supplies or time. (You know what I am talking about in regards to time at Christmas time, lol). Anyways this tag REALLY intrigued me because of the drill punch.
     I am always looking at Tim's section in my local craft store and saw this thing that looked like a huge hinge. I thought, what in the world does he use this for? (Guess I should have looked at the header to see what it was, lol). You can only imagine how thrilled I was when I saw Tim use it on the video for Tag#6! You use it to drill holes in soft metal. How cool is that!

     I decided to use this on an ornament. The wonderful thing about Tim's Tags is the inspiration he gives you. I had this glass ball hanging around and although I thought it would be nice, it didn't have the glitter I was looking for. I held onto it and decided it would be perfect for this technique of Tim's. Boy was I right!
     Thank goodness I had Tim's adornment with the wreath. I thought I could use it for something and then, along came Tim's 12 tags.First I started to drill the hole using the hand drill. The wreath was then painted with green acrylic paint and then distressed with Tim's sanding grip. After, I added some red berries also with acrylic paint. I used Ranger embossing ink to the whole wreath and covered with Kaleidoscope transparent embossing powder by Stamp N Stuff and heated the wreath to set the powder. The colors are just gorgeous!

     The inside image is from Tim's Seasonal Stack that I covered with paper glaze then cut to fit inside the wreath.You can tell from the top photo the image is of a wonderful winter countryside.I finished off the ornament by tying a red cording and a small jingle bell. After adding a white sheer bow to the top it is ready to hang. Thanks Tim for being the inspiration behind this ornament.

Tag 1 Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas

  Ok, so now I get to play and share a few of the projects I learned from Tim Holtz fabulous 12 Tags of Christmas! I just love all the techniques he shared this season and it's the first time I have been able to play around.
     This first tag had some great techniques including some new ones as well as some I always love to use. I cut my own tag using Art Philosophy @ 6.25" which is the equivalent to the manilla tag Tim sells.The first part is to emboss the tag first with a dry embossing and then to add some embossing ink and white opaque embossing powder. The effect is a nice pearled sort of background. Of course that is followed by distressed inking Antique Linen) after a little distressing. I love Tim's sanding grip. It seems to give you nice control and is easy to apply just the right amount of pressure without sanding away too much of the paper. Oh I forgot to mention I used the snowflake embossing folder from the cuttlebug.
     I thought I would use the "Let It Snow" phrase from Winter Frolic so I cut it @2.25 from some glittered card stock I had. I also cut the shadow from a metallic silver card stock from my stash, lol.The snowflakes are also from the Frolic cart.
     The challenging part about this cart is the pinecones. I searched all over to find this die of Tim's but to no avail. So I searched my cartridge "library" and settled on a cut from the gypsy font. I need a LOT more practice,lol. After some distressing inks and shaping, I added some Martha Stewart crystal glitter and some of Tim Holtz' snow cap paint to the edges. Although I am not too happy with the finished product, I know with some practice I will do better.
   I forgot to mention I used a strip of Tim's Seasonal Pack for the music sheet and also distressed the edges with Vintage Photo ink. The final touches were a few leaves cut with martha's leaf punch and some bling and pearls to jazz it up!
     I completed the tag with a nice ribbon and a snowflake brad. I can't wait to do more of his tags!