I WON!

Hi Fellow bloggers and Happy Labor Day Weekend!  I'm getting in kind of late on this one but sometimes that's how I roll.

I'm using this Tim Holtz tag for the 12 tags of 2014 challenge for the month of August.  When I first took a look at Tim's example tag (TimHoltz.com) I thought, oh my, how am I going to do this and put my own spin on it.  But, as soon as I got started, it just went like a snowball down a hill.  Everything just fell into place.  Honestly, Tim's products are "goof proof".

I started with a plain manilla tag, adding a little tissue tape to the right side.  I stamped the bursting heart image from the City Central stamp set (one of my absolute faves) in Archival ink over the tissue tape.  Archival ink is very important as this ink will not fade while working with water. I then stamped the tickets from the Life's Possibilities stamp set down the left side of the tag, also in archival.  I then added more tissue tape to the top for symmetry.

OK, here comes the fun part, and also something I've never done before!  Isn't it always fun to try new things?  I used Tim's heart stencil and Texture Paste!!  I placed the smaller hearts of the stencil at the top of the tag. Using a craft knife, I spread paste over the heart stencil and lifted carefully.  I then repeated the same procedure at the botton of the tag with the smaller stars in the star stencil.  At this point, it was late so I let the tag dry overnight.

The next morning I had a very cool heart and star texture on the tag, so exciting!
Mmmmm, now, time for color.  I spread a little mustard seed, bundled sage and faded jeans stains on my craft sheet and misted with a little water. I have to admit, I also added a little gold stain to the mustard seed line cause I just cannot resist a little tiny bit of sparkle. I lightly misted the tag with water then turned the tag over to pull through the color on the craft sheet.  I pressed down fairly hard so that the stain would also reach the crevices between the hearts and stars.  When I flipped it over, I was happy with the color so I then dried with a heat gun.  I colored the bursting heart with a red alcohol pen and put a light coat of clear crackle over it and set it aside to dry. 

I always like to have a cohesive theme for my tags, so, since I had the bursting heart, I chose shine brightly from the rub ons and applied them to a vial label.  I distressed the vial tag a bit with the vintage photo ink and coloured it lightly with mustard seed ink.

This was a great time to go back to the tag a do a little distressing.  I distressed the edges a little with Tim's distresser tool, and added a little (my cat is trying to chew on my fingers as I type this) rusty hinge ink around the edges. I cut the film strip and adhered with a few glue dots so that I could sew it onto the tag with a zig zag pattern.  I also sewed the vial label on.  I noticed Tim's stars embellishments one day at the store so I pick them up not knowing what I would do with them but simply had to have them because of the sparkle.  I glued three of these in different sizes to the bottom left of the tag beside the textured stars. I also had a heart embellishment in my stash so I glued it to one of the textured hearts on the top right. 

Ok, so far so fun right?  Well, even more fun to come...embossing.  You know I love my sparkle, so I mixed copper and black soot embossing powder with antique linen glitter and embossed the bottom right and top left of the tag. I love the result, it is sparkly and rustic looking.  I also use this mixture for adding color and texture to Tim's precut grunge keys.  It makes them look sparkly and rusty and old all at the same time.  (Can you tell I'm a Tim Holtz girl?)

I then took the word band of "Live the life you've imagined" and rubbed wild honey paint into it to make the sentiment pop.  I tied the word band with yellow craft string to the bottom of the tag.  I used the faded jeans, bundeled sage, and mustard seed stain for the ribbon and then saftey pinned a Forevermore muse token to the ribbon.

So, Forevermore shine brightly and live the life you've imagined.  I'd love to hear your comments!

Have a wonderfully happy and safe Labor Day.

Happy Crafting!

Check out this fabulous July Tim Holtz tag! It was phenomenally fun to make.

There is a tutorial on Tim's blog with detailed instructions and supplies needed.

I didn't have the mini sand dollar and starfish dies, so I made templates of my own and then painted them up.

Try it! It's beyond fun, and the best part is, you simply cannot mess it up!

Where in the world is this going?

OK, so my Sister and I got together yesterday and I decided to design a Tim Holtz tag, with her help of course (check out her blog at papercraftgoddess.blogspot.com).  I honestly did not have a clue where in the world this project was going, but, I had soooo much fun! I started with a plain manilla tag. I began covering it with Tim's tissue tape in a criss cross pattern.

To add definition to the criss-crosses, I blended aged mahogany ink over the entire tag and then wiped away the excess. This really enhanced the tape lines.

I then dabbed broken china and seedless preserves and blotted with a paper towel.  I continued to add the paint until the colour depth was satisfactory.

My Sis had this gorgeous swallowtail stamp, so I stamped the swallowtail in archival black (very important, you don't want those lines to go away while working with your distress inks which are reactive with water).

I then painted the swallowtail with the same two colours used for the base tag.  And, to add interest, I smudged it a bit with the tarnished brass paint dabber.  I also applied aged mahogany  with a blending tool around the edge of the stamped image and fussy cut the swallowtail.  The stamped image was adhered to the tag with dimension tape and cut along the back edge to follow along with the edge of the tag so as not to over hang the edge.

The left edge of the tag was then de bossed with the word "beautiful" (one of Tim's fabulous new texture fades) and filled in with a black soot paint dabber. The excess was wiped away and the word came to life!

A bit of Lindy's craft spray was used on the tag for a little pearlized look.

Taking a bit of Sissy's burlap wire-edged ribbon, I paint dabbed it and tied it to the top of the tag. Voilà!

Greetings fellow crafters!

I've been on the paper crafting scene for about twelve years. I decided it was high time I got off my duff and join all of you other fabulous bloggers in order to "share the love".  It really is quite a sub-culture isn't it?