Christmas 2011 Tag 5 - Alcohol ink resist on acetate

What a fabulous technique on Tim Holtz' tag 5! My good friend Lee sent me some white card diecut tags to play with (thanks Lee!!), and I was able to use one here.

"Tag 5"

Adirondack alcohol inks were applied to the back of a piece of Simpla-Film I found in our stationery cupboard (must have been there for 20 years - I've been using it for acetate windows, but it took the inks beautifully). I didn't have Tim's reverse sentiment stamps, so instead went for a blue colour palette and used snowflake and reindeer stamps for the background. I did try using the brayer method to reverse a normal sentiment, but couldn't keep the archival ink wet long enough for the resist to be entirely successful. (You can just make out "Merry" near the top of the tag behind the tree).

"Silver embossed reindeer"

This reindeer was diecut from cat-food box covered in silver embossed card. The two were just stuck together with PVA and allowed to dry before diecutting. After mounting on the tag with a piece of foam tape, an eye & nose were added with tiny drops of glitter glue (well, it just had to be Rudolph!).

"Corner"

This corner decoration was a piece of silver card diecut with one of the Spellbinders Elegant Post dies and trimmed to fit a corner. After fixing to the card with glossy accents, it was edged with holographic glitter glue for an icy, sparkly finish.

"Ribbon and tree charm)

A piece of matching blue organza ribbon was threaded through a tree charm and tied to the top of the tag as a finishing touch.

Entered for the following challenge:
Cupcake Craft Challenge - DIY (make your own backing paper)
Lawnscaping Challenge - Tags
Ribbon Reel Challenge - Anything goes & use ribbon

Christmas 2011 - Tag 4 - Crackle

I love that crackle effect in Tag 4, but don't have any crackle paint, and don't seem to be able to reproduce the effect well enough with the PVA & acrylic method. However, there is another way!

"Tag 4"

The background for this tag was made by swooshing the tag through picket fence distress stain and Tumbled Glass & Weathered Wood  inkpad ink on a craft sheet (picket fence is the only distress stain I have!), then I stamped snowflakes & little deer from a Kanban stamp.

"Joy Bauble"

The bauble ornament, joy & snowflakes were diecut from empty cat food box, then stained with Picket Fence 2 or 3 times, drying with a heat tool between applications to get a good coverage. The crackle effect? Well I have discovered this fantastic crackle stamp on the Alice 1 set from Indigo Blu stamps. It was inked separately with Tumbled Glass and Weathered Wood ink, and the stamps heat-embossed with clear embossing powder on each application of ink. The great thing about crackling like this is that the effect you get is much more controllable.

After crackling, the bauble was backed with some music card and the gaps filled in with Glossy Accents for that resin effect.

"Snowflake"

Two snowflakes were cut from a Sizzix Snowflakes die, crackled, then layered and fixed to the card with Pinflair, adding a small blue pearl to the centre just to finish it off.

"Buttons"

My button box was raided again. There wasn't any tuille in the stash, but I did find some enviromesh in the greenhouse! The enviromesh was cut into strips and used to decorate the buttons, bauble and tag.

"Acetate snowflakes"

No snowflake edge die available here, so a couple of snowflakes were diecut from acetate and a couple more punched. These were fixed to the card with some holographic glitter glue to add a little sparkle and simultaneously disguise the fixing.

"Snowflakes"

The edges of the snowflakes were accentuated with a little Picket Fence distress stain.

"Ribbon"

Some white satin ribbon was added to the bauble along with the tuille.

"Side view of tag showing dimension""

The snowflakes, bauble & buttons were all fixed to the tag with Pinflair glue.

Entered for the following challenge:
Let's Ink it Up - Christmas Projects
Stampalot Challenge - bingo (punch, tags, ribbon)

Christmas 2011 - Tag 3 - Custom Stamp Pad

The main technique for today's tag from Tim Holtz is to make and use a custom stamp pad from felt. Now the only felt I have is in small pieces for the Adirondack ink applicator. So, being somewhat limited in the size of stamp pad I could make and hence the size of stamp I could use, I opted to make a card background with multiple stamped images.

"Tag 3"

A custom stamp pad was made for a snowflake stamp using distress reinkers in three colours (Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans). A piece of card was coloured with the same distress inks (using the matching pads), then the custom stamp pad used to stamp snowflakes all over the inked card. This background was fixed to a dark blue card blank, leaving a small border.

"Main image"

The main image is a very recent freebie from the Graphics Fairy (thanks Karen!). Four copies were printed and cut into decoupage layers, then stuck together with dimensional glue.

A few snowflakes were diecut & punched from spare inked card, and these were also stamped using the custom stamp pad and snowflake stamp. Small pale blue pearls were added to the centres.

"Lace & pearls"

Some lace and a gorgeous blingy string of pearls (thanks Lee!) were added to the bottom of the card for an icy finish. Finally, holographic glitter glue was used to highlight areas of the image, and the centres of the remaining snowflakes.

Entered for the following challenges:
Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge Week 84 - Use Your Favourite Embellie
Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Snow
Sugar Creek Hollow - Non-Traditional Christmas Cards

Christmas 2011 - Tag 2 - Kraft Resist

Well today's tag from Tim Holtz used kraft resist paper and I don't have any, but I do have all the ingredients and have been meaning to have a go at making my own for ages. (Ingredients: Kraft paper, Graphics Fairy vintage music image, Christmas stamps & acrylic block, archival ink, clear embossing powder, clear embossing ink & heat gun). Just print the music image on the kraft paper, cut to size, add any stamping with archival ink, allow to dry thoroughly, then stamp & emboss other images in clear (including a Christmas sentiment down the right hand side).

"Tag 2"

The kraft resist paper was then stained opaque white with picket fence stain and decorated with distress inks & Perfect Pearls. Since I was embossing anyway, I added a few embossed snowflakes over the white stain before colouring.

"Iron Fence edge"

In place of canvas & grungepaper, a piece of embossed white card was stuck to empty cat food box and used to diecut both the reindeer and the only "On the Edge" die I have. The edge was then coloured with distress inks and, in place of gold paint, was given a rub over with gold Perfect Pearls. Some gold flower brads were added.

"Wreath"

A length of lace was coloured with distress inks, twisted and glued into a circle with glossy accents, then slipped over Rudolph's neck (sorry, I just couldn't resist the red nose which is just a tiny blob of red glitter glue! I'm a sucker for Rudolph :))

"Lace and charm"

Some more lace was coloured to match the card and tied into the top of the tag. A Christmas tree charm was threaded through a small length of mini-gold tinsel (thanks Linda) and tied to the lace. The tree was decorated with tiny blobs of glitter glue for baubles.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings :)

Entered for the following challenge:
Fairy Tale Challenge - Christmas

Christmas 2011 Tag 1 - Double Embossing

I hope you haven't had enough of Tim Holtz yet. This tag was inspired by his first tag of Christmas posted today.

"Tag 1"

The susbstitutions are as follows:
Tree embossing folder (in place of snowflakes)
Textured card (in place of co-ordinations)
Flower spiral die (in place of pinecone)
MS punch, Papermania branch die & handcut holly leaves (in place of festive greenery)
Papermania glitter glue & Liquid Pearls (in place of distress stickles)
Blue satin ribbon (in place of seam binding)
Reindeer die (in place of Noel die)
Empty cat food box (in place of grungepaper)
Silver tree charm (in place of jewellery)
Large Elegant flourish cut into pieces (in place of mini elegant flourish)

"Tree embossing"

I love this tree embossing folder that I got for free with a mag last year, but it isn't really large enough for the theat embossing technique used on the tag for the snowy background, so I added some twiddly bits with a versamerk pen & white embossing powder. It looks to me like ice on a lake, so the reindeer was positioned as if on an island of greenery in the foreground.

"Pinecone greenery"

My pinecones aren't brilliant, but they are pretty! They look more like brown flowers to me. There wasn't a pinecone die available, so I made use of some spiral flower diecuts that my friend Lee sent me (thank you Lee!), and coloured them with distress inks. I am sadly lacking in any good leafy or tree dies or punches at the moment (but Father Christmas might bring me some if I'm a good girl LOL!), so made do with what I could find: a branch from a Papermania owl die, a MS punch, and an Elegant Flourish diecut. The pearls make good mistletoe berries :).

"Tree charm"

I used this little tree charm to balance the tag on the left and give something for the reindeer to be looking at. It's just a cheap one from China, but I love it - it reminds me of the tree of life.

Entered for the following challenge:

Totally Papercrafts - Let it Snow

A Tribute to Tim Holtz - 12 Cards of Christmas - Card 12

And now, the end is near...

Well this is the last card in the series, but expect to see some more Tim Holtz-inspired projects in the not too distant future. He started posting this year's tags today and I can feel my crafting fingers twitching already :)

"12 Cards of Christmas - Card 12"

No single tag inspired this card, but rather a mixture of tags and some techniques I've been meaning to try for ages and never got round to. The background was coloured with Antique Linen distress ink, then overstamped with a flourish in Tumbled Glass and script in Barn Door. The edges were further distressed with Walnut Stain.

"Packaging collage"

The packaging for the collage was from some Jewel Brads bought from Joanna Sheen's website. Six images were printed from the Graphics Fairy's blog, cut into inchies and stuck to a piece of white card cut to the shape of the packaging. A few embellishments were added (and the snowman charm has a tiny piece of orange card rolled into a nose if you look closely!), then the packaging stuck into place over the top.

"Stamping"

An A6 piece of white card was decorated with Antique Linen and Tumbled Glass distress ink & perfect pearl sprays, then stamped with Tumbled Glass. This bird & crown are my absolute favourite Tim Holtz stamps and I had to use them somewhere in this series. The Merry Christmas stamp is from Polkadoodles. Finally, a rectangle was cut into the top of the card to let in the packaging, which was fixed in place with PVA and allowed to set.

"Handmade flowers"

The flowers were all handmade from punched pieces of distress-inked card. After building up, I distressed the edges with barn door distress ink to match the red script background stamp. A flourish was added cut from the Elegant Flourishes die.

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Craft Room Challenge - Make Your Own Flowers
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Some Stars

A Tribute to Tim Holtz - 12 Cards of Christmas - Card 11

Card 11 was inspired by Tag 9 from 2009.  An A6 piece of white card was inked with distress inks and stamped with A Tim Holtz stamp in various orientations, leaving the word "Photographs" near the top of the card.

"12 Cards of Christmas - Card 11"

Tim's tag featured photos of real people, but I thought it would be great to have a strip of vintage Santa images from the Graphics Fairy.

"Filmstrip"

I've had this film strip stamp for a while and never used it. The filmstrip was stamped 3 times onto white card and again on acetate, joining the ends to make a longer strip. The centre rectangle of each cell was cut out from the card, and five Santa images printed onto white card, cut out, and stuck behind the holes. The card strip was then covered with the acetate strip (carefully lining up the stamps), using a strip of holographic glitter glue down each side to stick the acetate to the card (if, like me, you're old enough to remember film like this, you too may have marvelled at the way light shines through the holes, or was that just me?).

"Here's Santa!"

One of the "photographs" on the filmstrip was blown up to make this image (printed onto card and distressed around the edges with scissors and ink). The large "photo" was then pinned to the card with a large plastic clip, coloured to match the card by dabbing with blue & silver Adirondack inks, and fixed in place with a blue jewel brad.

"25"

A small rectangle of embossed, silver card was stuck to empty cat food box and die cut with an alphabet strip die to obtain the numbers "25". The numbers & filmstrip were stuck to the topper with PVA, then the topper glued to a blank blue pearlised card.

Entered for the following challenges:
City Crafter Challenge - Santa
Everybody Art - Nikolaus / Santa Claus