Sixth Tag - Foiled again

Day 6  took some thinking.  It turned out kinda goofy -  since I improvised.  I tried to make it look like the jalopy was driving into the woods, but adding that embossed piece turned out to be more tricky than I thought - and since I didin't get the logic gene - I didn't realize how it was going to affect the trees I embossed first.  Oh well.  The technique was fun, loved the effect of painting on the foil, and then adding the high gloss of clear embossing powder.

Fifth Tag - Merry Christmas

Day 5 - Never ever throw away the plastic packaging all those fun embellishments come in.  That is what I used to cut out todays tag.  The technique today is really fun. It's like 'magic'. I used all the red colors of alcohol inks I had to make this gorgeous colored tag.  THEN - you stamp on the ink with black archival ink.  I used the trio of trees.  After you stamp, while the ink is still wet - you blot it off.  Amazing the way it takes the color away and leaves you with a clear image.  Pretty cool right?

Fourth Tag - Frosty the Snowman

Day 4 was my favorite so far.  The colors, the techniques,  all very fun.  There are so many layers of color and texture, you have to really look closely.  You start by painting the grunge board white.  After cutting out the snowflake and snowman (I used some pieces from the old holiday grungeboard cutout packs), you paint them with rock candy crackle paint - real thick so it gets great crackles in it.  After the pieces dry - i used two different colors of  distress stains (weathered wood and tumbled glass) to get that gorgeous blue color.  The tag was created using the same blue stains along with the new white picket fence distress stain.  Don't you just love that color!  I also stamped some snowflakes on the tag, and attached an 'on the side' snowflake border I cut out of old packaging materials.  I had not tried using the movers and shapers to cut out a design in a die cut yet - so that was fun to play with.  I really like the way it turned out.  It is backed with old music paper from my piano books, and topped with glossy accents to make it shine.  This tag reminds me of a cold winter day in Minnesota!

Third Tag - Holiday Greetings

Day 3 was a bit of a challenge.  I didn't have the 2 main items - the stamp and embossing folder.  SO - I pulled out all the holiday saying stamps I had, and built a collage.  I don't know if you can see the shimmer or not - but I used biscotti perfect pearls.  One of my favorite ways to add a little pizazz to a project.  I love all the different pieces in the festive greenery die.  It's one of the 12" long ones and has holly, ferns, flourish, and other 2 other types of greenery.  Very fun to put together.

2nd Tag - Leaping Reindeer

Day 2 provided a few challenges.  I didn't have a few of the items, but was able to improvise.  I really liked the way the Picket Fence Distress Stain muted the kraft resist paper and created a perfect background for the reindeer as he flies through the skies.  I didn't have the die cut, but was able to use a mask I had leftover from an old grunge board seasons set of cutouts to trace the reindeer.  I found some fabulous tinsel made by Webster Pages. I tried dying it green with alcohol inks, but it didn't work quite as well as I had hoped.  I must admit - this is really fun.  I haven't participated in the challenges the last few months due to other commitments and it is really fun using some of the items that have been sorely neglected in my collection of Tim Holtz/Ranger Products.

First Tag - Pine cones and foliage

Day 1 was packed with ideas and new techniques.  I love love love flowers, foliage, and all things outdoors - so was thrilled to have already picked up the 2 new dies that Tim used in todays tag.  I was however intimidated by the complexity of the pine cone.  How cool that he included a video to show us all the tips and tricks to success.

I used the new kraft Coordinations paper, it is colored on the outside, kraft color on the inside.  After I used the sizzix snowflake embossing folder, I sanded off the the tops of the snowflakes, exposing the craft color.  Really nice effect.  A fun technique to use with the embossing folder, is to use embossing ink on the inside of the folder before you emboss.  It embeds the ink on the indented parts, allowing you to emboss just the background, not the raised pattern.  WAY too cool!  Check out the link above for more details.

12 Tags of Christmas Marathon

Wow,  2 days in my wonderful craft room, creating the 12 tags of Christmas!  It was a blast!!  Here is a photo of all of them...then I'll post the details one by one.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about...Check this out - Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas.

This was an amazing 2 days.  I didn't have all the tools, stamps, embellishments, colors, etc.  BUT - I did have all that I needed to make the tags as close to the original as possible.  I know some folks like to mix it up, and make their tags very different - not me.  I follow everything as close as possible, learning the technique so I can use these tags as reference all year long to spark creativity, and generate new ideas.

I challenge all of you to check out the Duke of Distress, and his magical talent.  Also,  feel free to check out my blog entries detailing each tag.  let me know what you think!