12 Tags of 2015 - Tim Holtz Style

Fist pumps!!  I did it!  I finished my 12 'tags'!  As mentioned before, I decided to go the ATC route instead.  When I did tags in the past I didn't know what to do with them after I finished them.  They just ended up stashed in a box somewhere.  I'll trade these with some fellow ATC fanatics.

A yearful of ATCs!  (Except June...that one was traded back in June.)

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

January and December were shared in THIS POST.

Schwoo.  Can't believe I pulled it off and just in the nick of time.  If you see Tim's tags you will definitely have to really stretch your creative brain to see where I got my inspiration in some cases.  I STRUGGLED with the August tag for instance.  I did adhere to his techniques as much as possible though and improvised at times with materials and subject matter.

You can see info on all of Tim's tags HERE on his blog.  But here is peek at his tags:

Now off to go take care of all that household stuff I've been putting on hold while I toiled away...

Wishing you all the best in 2016!!

Catching Up with the 12 Tags of 2015

I've set an ambitious goal for myself.  Every month Tim Holtz throws out a challenge to create a tag using some of his techniques.  Every year, I start out all ready to roll with the intention of creating along with him.  In 2015, I was a slacker and only participated in June.  The past few months, with my Mom's unexpected illness and sudden passing, I haven't felt the urge to create much.  The last few days however The Muse has been shouting in my ear and I've been on a bit of role.  My tendency to be over-confident in my abilities (or at least the number of hours in my day) has resulted in my goal, between now and Jan. 1st, of finishing up all of the 2015 tags (although I've decided to roll with ATCs instead).  So far I've got January and December done.

You can see Tim's January tag here.

I used tissue paper and Distress paints and stain like he did.  My tissue paper came from my daughter's Christmas present last year - Doc Marten boots.  Of course I saved it - cool pattern!  I had purchased the die cut 'snowflakes' from Etsy years ago and never used them.  These started out as a deep purple but I covered them with some Salted Ocean, Brushed Pewter and Picket Fence Distress paint to make them wintery. Last I added some chunky silver glitter to them to mimic Tim's blingy number.

Here is Tim's December 2015 tag.  I borrowed a lot from him again.  Texturey background, wreath, bow, spraying through a stencil.  I opted not to add any words - didn't think it needed it. 

 I tore off the top layer of a piece of cardboard to expose the corrugated inside.  Then I sprayed through a star stencil using the new Candied Apple Distress stain.  I added a smidge of Picket Fence paint on the bottom before putting on my (new!) die cut wreaths. A little Copic coloring on the metallic border tied that in with the wreath.

Only 9 tags to go!

Abandoned Art

Several years ago a friend introduced me to the concept of abandoned art.  I loved the idea of creating some art and casually leaving it in a public place for someone to find and enjoy.  Life got busy and I forgot all about it though.  I'm not sure how I happened upon it again, but the other day I decided to join a Facebook group dedicated to the abandoning of art. These little dudes will be my first (temporary, I hope!) orphans.

I left one in the church bathroom yesterday morning.  Couldn't help myself and went back and checked before I left.  It was gone!  I love that.  Here's how I packaged them.

I meant to abandon one at the grocery store yesterday but quickly forgot.  I'm looking forward to dropping these two off somewhere on my travels today.

Have a great Monday!

New Stamps = Happy Day!

I'm a lucky lass indeed.  I was the random winner at Stampotique in October.  It took me a while to pick my stamps - so many 'wants'! - but I finally did and they arrived just before Christmas.

Feeling the need to get some artsy business going on I went back and watched a couple of episodes from Marjie Kemper's Inventive Ink class over at craftsy.com.  It helped get my mojo kick-started.  Then I realized that I needed a challenge for a little extra nudge (I think I over-indulged in the prime rib, yorkshire pudding and creamed spinach last night.  Feeling a little sluggish..but in a good way...)  I headed over to the Rubber Dance Art Stamps blog and got just the nudge I needed with their color challenge for December.

Isn't she pretty?  I've been wanting this stamp for so long.  I also used my Rubber Dance hotel receipt stamp for the background.  I think it might be the first time that baby has been inked up too.  Good day!

12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist Wrap-up

 This was my first year participating in Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas With a Feminine Touch.  I'm so glad I did - lots of pretty, non-storebought, tags to add to my gifts this year.

 A few of my tags weren't posted here on my blog.  Here they are:

Day 7: Theme - Santa

Day 9: Theme - Sketch

Day 10: Theme - Sketch

Day 11: Theme - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Day 12: Theme - Ornament

And just for fun, here is a piece of mail art I made this morning.  Merry Christmas!

It's a Stampotique Christmas

"It's the MOST wonderful time...of the year..."  

Having the chance to combine my love of the freakier side of Stampotique with Christmas makes me happy.  I don't typically turn to the more saccharine side of the holidays (although I do love me some Andy Williams Christmas tunes), but I did debate going that route with ATCs I made for one of my regular swapping groups whose theme this month is Christmas oddly enough.  BUT, the Stampotique Designers Challenge this week is 'alphabets' and, inspired by Sue Davies, I whipped out my ornaments cube to make this:

Once my Stampotique goodies were out of the bag, so to speak, it seemed that I should just go with it and make them all Stampotique-y.

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist - Day 7

Yikes.  I had to go out of town for a few days and I really got behind on my tags.  Here is Day 8 (which I accidentally tagged as Day 7 on the Linkup - oops).  Theme: Non-traditional Colors & Texture.

I tried to add lots of different types of texture: dry embossing, gold texture paste, fuzzy bits, perforated border...and I'm feeling pretty comfortable with grey, gold and red being non-traditional.  :)

 This close up shows the gold crackle paste and kind of the fuzzy bits on my little friend's hat (Fun Flock).

Merry Christmas!

Technique: Extreme Masking

I have to chuckle to myself every time I see the name of this technique in print.  It's the "extreme" that gets me.  ;)

I was reintroduced to this technique just a few days ago when I saw this post by Anne aka Redanne.  The man himself, Tim Holtz, also created a Christmas tag in 2010 using the technique, which I'm sure I saw but I don't think I ever tried it.  No time like the present so I made a couple of ATCs to trade with Anne herself (thanks, Anne!).

A couple of years ago Ranger came out with mask sheets that you can use to create your own masks.  TOO COOL.  Of course, I leapt on the mask sheet bandwagon back then too and made exactly ONE itty bitty mask using a stamp and fussy cutting.  Then the package got buried and I forgot about it. With the plethora of dies out there now (and we all know I'm a sucker for dies) it is awesome to have another way to use them.  I pulled out my package of mask sheets and got busy.

 

Stuff I used:
Distress Inks: Barn Door, Hickory Smoke, Broken China (Greetings from Seattle) and Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Mustard Seed, Black Soot (Change)
Dies: Memory Box (butterfly), My Favorite Things (umbrella)
Other ink: Adirondack Archival, Memento
Stamps: Designs by Ryn, Unity, Impress, Studio G, 7 Gypsies
Other stuff: washi, tissue tape, metallic red cardstock, Signo uniball white pen, Pitt pen

Wow.  I didn't realize I used so much stuff until I listed it here.

I hope Ann likes her ATCs as I sure enjoyed making them.

Cheers!

12 Tags of 2015 with a Feminine Twist - Day 6

I was definitely inspired by Jennifer's tag.  The first time I looked at the post I bypassed the video.  Don't be tempted to do that!  I'm so glad I went back and watched it as she shared some really great tips.

Here's my snowflake tag:

(Ignore the spotty sentiment stamping - yikes!).  I used three colors of glitter like Jennifer did but instead of her purple/pink palette I used royal blue, Blueberry (kind of lt. blue, lavender color) and silver.  I didn't have the sheet of sticky adhesive that she used so I put strips of 1/2" Scor-Tape on the back instead.  Worked like a charm.

Looking forward to this adorning a gift under the tree soon...

12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Touch 2015 - Day 2

Well, I have totally discombobulated my days for this challenge.  For Day 2 the inspiration was a Christmasy color palette.  The two tags created by the Kittie and Dina are gorgeous.  I borrowed mostly from Kittie, using her woodgrain and foliage elements.

This is the palette we used.

Ho ho ho!

12 Tags of 2015 with a Feminine Twist - Days 3 & 4

Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Let it snow!

I've been busy this afternoon playing catch-up with The CLASSroom's 12 Tags of 2015 with a Feminine Twist challenges.


The challenge for Day 3 was a mix-up challenge using Memory Box dies and a light blue, red and white color palette.  (One of my favorites - love that color combo!)  I haven't used my Snowy Tree die from MB nearly enough, but happily discovered that it makes a delightful tag.

On Day 4, the inspiration was Snowflakes.  I was completely inspired by Julia Stainton's tag here and initially thought I would do something similar, but oddly enough, the die cut circle was as far as it went.  :)  I actually used the negative from the stitched circle die and then a snowflake die (also Memory Box) over that.  Here's the tag I came up with:

Bonus discovery:  The snowflake die I used is pretty big, about 4" across.  When I cut it out of the circle, not only does it look like a beautiful, rounded snowflake, but it would also make a fancy sand dollar.  I love it when I can use a supply in a way that is totally different than how it was intended.

Yay, to a successful day!

12 Tags of Christma with a Feminine Twist - Day 5

(Yes, I'm going out of order.  It's just the way I roll...)

Glitz and glamour (aka glittery and sprarkly) is the name of the game for today's tags over at The CLASSroom.

I borrowed the pine boughs and sparkly word from Carissa's tag to create my tag.

Ho ho ho!

Wicked Wednesday Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge

Ho-ho-ho!  I haven't participated in the Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge in a while so decided to go for it this week.

I went with the left column.  A while back I found the cute Santa's Belt washi tape at my LSS and *had* to buy it.  Originally I was thinking gift tags, but it sat there unused until I pulled it out for this ATC (Christmas is still coming though!).

I also had some fancy tags that I'd purchased so I slathered some red paint on one of them for Santa's body.

I finished this up with a quick, hand-cut beard, Stickles 'buttons' and an embossed green background.

Merry Christmas!

Feeling Sparkly and Festive - SDC 224

Valerie, over at the SDC blog, has suggested we pull out the sequins this week.  Gettin' crazy here, another card AND sparkly sequins.  I also attempted to add some white flocking around her hat and shirt, but it looks rather odd and gray.  Kind of fitting, I guess, given her wonderful weirdness.

Cheers!

12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist - Day 1

The tag train left this station quite a while ago, but apparently it's a circular route because I think I'm hopping on it again.  At least for the short term.  I saw the post on the Ellen Hutson blog that they're doing the 12 tags in 12 days again this year.  Yep, I'm playing along.  Here's my take on Day 1 inspiration.

The tag I used for inspiration is the one by Carolyn Peeler. I borrowed her white embossing on kraft, embossing resist with watercolor panel, use of vellum and bow on top.  

The bow die is a relatively new purchase (I have visions of a Christmas garland with bright red bows over the mantle) from Memory Box.  Just for fun I'm going to enter this in their 'Season's Greetings' challenge too.

Stay tuned for Day 2...

Feeling Festive? SDC 223

It's been SO long since I've made a greeting card!  I decided to give it a whirl for the Stampotique Designers Challenge this week: Quick & Easy Christmas Cards.

Happy Holidays!

The Hiatus is over...

Greetings!

It seems like it's been a very long while since I've attended to my blog.  I haven't arted much in the last month and half.  My sisters and I were ushering my mom out of this world after unexpected complications from surgery left her in a coma.  I will miss her terribly, of course.  She was my number one cheerleader and an all around wonderful and classy lady.

Enough of that.  Before I get all sappy, here are my attempts at getting back to some artiness.  I made these APCs for a trading group I'm involved with on Facebook.