12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-December

I hope You all had a wonderful Christmas!   Our's was very quiet, this year we didn't have any of our Kids or Grands here and I almost didn't even decorate. Tim's December Tag actually got me into the mood to put a tree up and decorate a bit...I'd say his tag was a double inspiration for me this month!

I was anxious to use Tim's "Shatter" Layering Stencil and I love it! I need more practice with the Clearly For Art from Wendy Vecchi..my Poinsettia didn't turn out quite the way I was wanting it to.

I stained my Tag with Iced Spruce Distress Stain, then laid the stencil on top and pounced Picket Fence Distress Paint all over (I just can't stress how much I LOVE these Distress Paints!). Once dry I stamped some of Tim's small snowflake stamps with Salty Ocean and Broken China Distress inks, while the inks were still wet I sprinkled some Sticky Powder on the stamped area, dried it then added some gorgeous Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter.  I stamped the phrase "A Joyful Christmas" using Tim's stamp and Black Archival Ink. I used the movers and shapers Poinsettia and Holly Leaf Dies to cut the white Clearly For Art (I must invest in some of the clear!), I painted the cut shapes with Distress Paints in Bundled Sage and Victorian Velvet. I used Glossy Accents to adhere the poinsettia and holly leaves and finished the tag off with some of Tim's lovely seam binding.  I'm thinking this would have made a lovely gift Tag so I hope I remember to make a bunch of them up next year for the gifts. 

I absolutely love Tim's Tag but I'll need to order some of the Clear CFA , the Frosted Film and the larger Poinsettia Die first. Be sure to check Tim's Blog to see his masterpiece!!!

Thank you for looking :-)

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-November

I was so thrilled to see Tim's tag this month. I took his CC102 class and this was one of my favorite techniques.  Now I don't own the stamp and die set so I had to stamp twice and do some fussy cutting. I still love this technique to bits!  You can see Tim's Tag on his blog .  Here is my version:

The products I used are:
Tim's Tag and Bookplate Die
Tim's Oak Leaf Rubber Stamp
Ranger's Antiquities Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder
Distress Embossing Ink
White Chalk

Thank you for looking!

SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Challenge-Keep it Simple

I still struggle with Cards but enjoy making them. This week's challenge on the SSS Challenge Blog is "Keep it Simple" ... I'm not sure if I managed to do that or not LOL  I worked with 4 ingredients, which are:
 1.Paper
2. Distress Inks
3. Tim's Snowman Blueprint Stamp
4. water
I stamped the snowman blueprint image on White Cardstock then lightly colored him in using Distress Inks and Water with Tim's fine detail waterbrush. I then laid a piece of cardstock over the image and inked the edges of the card front with Distress Ink. I admit I wanted to go in and add more color and some embellishments but held myself back ;-)  My Best Friend is crazy about Tim (who isn't, right?) and crazy about Snowmen so this card will be going to her.

Go check out the SimonSaysStamp Challenge Blog and join in on the fun!

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-October

Woohooo, Fall is finally here! I was beginning think that it was never coming to the southeast!  I love Tim's background technique for his Oct. tag and had fun creating my own. I still haven't got any Distress Glitter so had to improvise there. I can't wait to get my hands on some of that Distress Glitter!  For this Tag I used Distress Paints, Distress Ink, Tim's Framed Silhouettes Stamps and Dies, Tim's cool Tinsel and Tim's chit chat stickers. You can see Tim's gorgeous Tags for this month on his Blog.

Playing with Birdcage CC102 with Tim Holtz Day 5

I couldn't wait to use the Tarnished Birdcage, I added some ribbon that I partially painted with Distress Paint and stamped the word imagine at the bottom.

CC102 with Tim Holtz-Day5 Shabby Chic

I just adore this technique! I've got some ideas for tags, cards and home decor using this one. 

Because of the weather I can't get a photo yet that shows the colors, this piece is a muted pink and blue believe it or not :-)  Want to learn this? Check out CC102 at OnlineCardClasses!

CC102 with Tim Holtz-Day 4 Faded Layers

Forgive me for jumping from day to day but I'm just having fun and going with the flow that has taken over me :-)   Here's my homework for day 4 Faded Layers:

I like this look but am not totally happy with my play however I'm taking some advice from Tim and "embracing the imperfections"...on that note, the area to the far right of the tag is what we shouldn't do..want to know what we should and shouldn't do? Head to OnlineCardClasses and take the class :-)

CC102 with Tim Holtz-Day5 Tarnished Silver

OH boy, here's another technique that I will be using quite often!  I love the look!!

and a little close up:

If you want to know how to do this, run to OnlineCardClasses and sign up for CC102 with Tim!

Haunted House Tag

I woke up to a stormy fall day, ready to do some homework for my Tim Holtz CC102 Class.  For this Tag I decided to use 3 of the techniques we've just learned.  I used the Distress Paint Marbling and Colored Crackle from Day 1 along with the Faux Cracked Glass from Day 3. 

Happy Hallowe'en!

CC102 with Tim Holtz-Day3

I'm still waiting on some supplies to come in for Day 3, 4, and 5 classes but was able to complete three of the day 3 techniques without those supplies. I've been stalking my mailbox and it sure doesn't make the orders come in any quicker LOL

Here is my tag for the Smudge Stamping Technique:

I enjoyed it so much I tried another:

Here is the Brayered Stains Technique:

Here is the Faux Cracked Glass Technique (can't wait to try this on a larger scale!):

Here's hoping my orders show up tomorrow so I can do the rest of the techniques :-)

Thanks for looking!

CC102 with Tim Holtz-Day2

WOW! I just can't tell Ya'll how exciting this class is!  Like many others I didn't have all of the supplies on hand that Tim used so I'm a wee bit behind on my homework...but I'm staying at it and hopefully tomorrow my other supplies will be here so I can catch up. Here is a group shot of what I've done for day 2 so far:

1. Mixed Media
2.Embossing through
3.Stencil Sketching
4.Ink Monoprint
5.Paint Monoprint
6.oops, this is Faux Cracked Glass and it's actually for Day 3 (stay tuned for the rest of day 3)

If you want to learn how to really get the most out of your Distress Products, you really need to check out this class. You have lifetime access to these excellent lessons from Tim. Check it out at OnlineCardClasses .

Thank you for looking!

Tim Holtz CC102 Class-Day1

I am beyond thrilled to be taking Tim's CC102 Class!! I've always wanted to take a class with Tim but sadly I live in an area with NO LSS or Craft Stores so you can imagine how happy it makes me that I'm able to take an online class with him :-)  If you haven't checked it out, go to OnlineCardClasses and see what all the excitement is about!

Yesterday was day one and Tim taught us six different techniques, I had a blast doing them! Here are some pics:

Distress Paint Marbling:

Colored Crackle:

Altered Surface:

Eroded Metallic:

Stamping Resist:

Industrial (I'm calling this Tag Industrial Chic)

And a group shot:

Soooo if you've ever wanted to take a class with Tim or if you want to be able to make the most out of the wonderful Tim products out there, then by all means you WANT to take this class! Tim is an amazing teacher! 

Thanks for looking :-)

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-Sept

Hello Fellow Crafters!
I've been away from crafting for a while, well actually from blogging about crafting.  During July and August I was making some altered items for my Sons because in August I went to Canada for my Family Reunion! I got to spend 3 weeks with my Mom, my Siblings, my Sons and my Grandkids...it was wonderful!!!  While there I also got to sit down with 2 of my GrandDaughters and teach them some paper crafting techniques...they were so adorable and had so much fun! I'm proud to say my GrandDaughters are naturals and I got them hooked on Tim Holtz, especially his Tattered Floral Die :-)   Here is a photo of them , left to right are Macki, Krystyn and my Niece Carys.

I also taught my GrandDaughters and my youngest Son how to make homemade bread, they all did an awesome job and had fun doing it. Here's a pic of my youngest Son, Brandon's first loaf of bread

ok, one more photo if ya'll don't mind...many of you know my favorite pets are my ducks, many of my friends (and family) call me the Duck Lady LOL  With that said, I just have to share this pic of my youngest Son feeding a wild Mallard Hen at the beach :-)

I have Pekins, Muscovies and Mallards...I've had my Mallard Gals for 5 yrs and they still won't eat out of my hand, this wild gal actually ate right out of my Son's hand..**proud Momma smile**

Ok enough personal stuff for now...on to the main reason for today's post...
If you haven't been to Tim's blog to see his September Tag, go check it out HERE
Don't you just love it?!!!!  I was so tickled that he used my favorite Distress color  Peacock Feathers!

As usual I had to do some improvising, as much as I wish I owned everything put out by Tim, it's just not possible (until I win a lottery LOL), I had also just ran out of embossing paste, YIKES!

I used lightweight spackle instead of embossing paste...in a pinch it does work, however it's not as good as embossing paste. I also don't have Tim's stencils...YET, so I used a Craft Companion stencil, a couple of Dyllusion stencils and a couple of Tim's rubber stamps instead.  The chit chat stickers I used are from his Seasonal line, I chose to use Forever Friends and this tag is going to my best friend. I used Distress Ink in Walnut Stain, Black Soot and Picked Raspberry. I used Distress Stains in Wild Honey, Peacock Feathers. I used Picket Fence Distress Paint.  The stamps I used are Tim's Papillon set and his honeycomb stamp from the Mixed Media Set. I also used the heart from his Idea-ology Classics Adornments set. 

Thank you so much for looking,
Happy Crafting!
Michelle

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-June

Hello Crafty Friends!!

I'm running a bit behind this month because I've been preparing for a trip to Ontario, Canada to see my Mom, Siblings, my Sons and my Grandbabies :-)  I don't leave until the first week of August but I've been scanning Family Photos for my Sons, making gifts to carry with me and well honestly just spinning in circles with excitement :-) 

I'm glad I was able to get my scatterbrain in gear and finish my June Tag, I love doing the 12 Tags along with Tim and would have been upset if I'd missed out on one.   You can follow along with Tim too!  You can see his June Tag HERE on his blog.  I have to say Tim's June tag is my favorite so far...I wish I had those Blueprint stamps but it's just not in the cards for me at this time so once again I had to improvise.  Of course my favorite set of his stamps that I do have so far is the Papillon set...I adore this set!!!!!!!  I did a lot of heat embossing with Distress Inks and with Archival Ink along with lots of Ranger Embossing Powders.  I really wanted to try Tim's painted metal technique that he used HERE on his April Tag , I have all of the Distress Paints except the Metallics so I cheated/improvised again LOL   I dabbed Distress Paints in Greens and Blues with my finger as Tim did, and zapped them with the heat gun to dry the paint.

Then I took some Tarnished Brass Distress Stain and dabbed it on, again zapping it to dry it.  The Distress Stain adhered perfectly to the Distress Paint, woohooooooo!

I then colored some of Tim's wonderful seam binding with Distress Stain in Iced Spruce and Gathered Twigs (2 of my favorite Stains!!)  and added my metal pieces with one of Tim's long fasteners.  

I was tempted to take a black sharpie and add my own blueprint doodles to it but was worried I'd mess it all up and I've run out of time :-) 

Thank you for looking!

Prima Sneak Peek: Everyday Vintage by IOD

Be still my heart!!!  I adore Prima products and am a huge fan of IOD...so I was thrilled to see the post on the Prima Blog this morning !  Those papers are gorgeous, the Washi tape looks fabulous and the Paintables...swoon!!! Go check it out!!

We got rid of our Verizon Wireless Accounts...SO thrilled with Republic!!!

Heads up to my U.S. Family and Friends, if you're sick and tired of paying an arm and a leg for cell service you seriously need to read this. 
In a nutshell: 
If you're tired of the big contract bills...this is for you.
If you have Verizon or Sprint tower service in your area...this is for you.
If you want real UNLIMITED Talk , Text, Web on a smartphone..this is for you.

Jim and I switched from Verizon a little over a month ago to Republic.  We paid 99.00 for each of our phones and our monthly fee is $29.00  for absolute UNLIMITED Talk, Text and Web.  I can even call my Family and Friends in Canada with NO extra charges!!!!  Republic gives you too options, you can buy the phone for 249.00 and only pay 19.00 a month for your service or go the route we did, pay 99 for the phone and 29.00 a month for your service. NO Contracts, NO throttling of speed  EVER!!  I wish I'd found Republic a couple of years ago.
At the moment they only offer one phone which is the Motorola Defy XT however they will be offering other phones near fall.  The other cool thing about Republic is the phones also work via wifi...for calling as well...how cool is that?!!!  The only thing these phones can't do at this time is send photo msgs, so we downloaded Voxer and WhatsAp...both of them allow us to send photo msgs...Voxer is my favorite because you can also do real time walkie talkie msgs with your contacts :-) 
Once you get your phone (we had our phones within 3 days of ordering) you can go to Kingsland (or wherever the Sprint Tower service area is near you) to access the Sprint tower and activate the phone..after that you just work off of wifi and/or the Verizon and/or Sprint towers. 
I can honestly say I am 100 % happy with this service. I love being able to talk to my Canadian Family and Friends at no extra cost, love having a smart phone, and love being able to finally watch Youtube stuff that I couldn't watch before because of the bandwidth limits on our home internet. 

I am NOT being paid to share this info, I am just a very satisfied customer.   But if you decide this is for you then by all means use my referral link because it will give YOU and ME a 19.00 credit on our accounts...can't beat that!
Check it out here: Republic

I will NEVER go back to the big name wireless companies again!!!!!!!

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim -May

I have always loved the look of collage stamping, however I never felt that I was "getting it"  , until now!  When I saw Tim's May Tag I fell in love with it! If you haven't seen it...here it is.  I was inspired by the collage look and jumped in to give it a try. I used a bunch of stamps from Tim's sets, along with Distress Stains, Distress Inks and some acrylic paints. The Butterfly is a chipboard butterfly from my stash that I used acrylic paints on to get the enamel look. The word "Believe" is from Tim's chit chat stickers ***I love his chit chat stickers!!***   I used Distress Stains to color some of Tim's seam binding and tied it off with one of his swivel clasps and pearls. And last but not least, a piece of Tim's Photo Frame Ribbon...love that stuff!!! I also used a couple of Graphic 45 Steampunk Stamps.  I believe this is my favorite Tag of 2013 :-) 

If you haven't already gone, please go to Tim's Blog and check out his Tag..you won't be sorry!!
Thank you for looking :-)

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-April

I can't believe that April is almost over! Spring is here in Southeast Arkansas, the Tulip Magnolia, Roses and Blackberry bushes in the yard are all in bloom and my Plum Trees have itty bitty plums all over them!  I love this time of year :-)  I also love Tim's April Tag...if you haven't seen it, check it out HERE

Aren't his Blueprint stamps awesome?!!  I don't own any of them yet so I chose to go with his Butterflies from the Papillon set. This is still one of my all time favorite Tim Holtz stamp sets. This was my first time using Tim's Distress Paints and I am hooked big time! The colors are amazing, they blend beautifully and they don't leave your surface feeling chalky or rough...Tim nailed it with these paints!

As soon as my set of Distress Paints came in I had to take a photo of them...love Instagram!  I still need to get the 3 Metallic Distress Paints and my collection will be complete.

I laid some distress paint down on my craft mat, spritzed some water onto the pain then pulled my Tag through the paint. I used my heat gun to dry the tag then laid some metallic distress stain on my mat and pulled the tag through it.  Once it was all dry I used a blending tool and applied some distress ink over the tag in blues, greens and browns, spritzed with water, let the water drips flow down the tag and applied the heat gun again.  I stamped the tag with Tim's Grid stamp from the Mixed Media stamp set then stamped the Butterflies from his Papillon set.  I stamped the Butterflies again onto some Wendy Vecchi Clearly For Art Whiteout (I don't have the Clear one yet), cut the Butterflies out and colored the Butterfly in with Aged Mahogany Distress Marker. I applied the heat gun to the Butterfly to help dry the ink and marker, as well as to help bend the wings. I then glued the body portion of the butterfly to the tag using glossy accents.  I took some of Tim's trim, applied distress paint and distress stain to it and looped it through the tag. 

I was going to add a bunch of embellishments but changed my mind, I love the colorful simplicity of this Tag.

Thank you for looking!

Scrappy Girl Tribute Canvas

I hatched Scrappy Duck in the house 4 yrs ago, she was born with a limp and had a condition called Angel Wing however she didn't let any of that stop her from living happily and keeping up with the rest of the flock.  She spent her first 3 months in the house with me then moved to the duck pen with the flock but never stopped being my "lap duck". Scrappy was unusual for a Pekin, she loved to go broody and hatch babies, this year I kept one of her babies and am so glad I did. This project took a couple of weeks to complete because it's many layers of Molding Paste, Gesso, and embellishments of plastic, metal, fabric and paper.  The Canvas is 16x20 and it took MANY embellishments to fill it. I also used some of Scrappy's feathers that I had collected over the years and some shell from one of her eggs that I had blown with the intention of painting.


I love you Scrappy Girl, thank you for short 4 yrs of joy you gave to me....

Below is a list of the supplies I used on this Canvas:
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Metal Embellishments
Tim Holtz Fractured Doll
Making Memories Hinges
Tim Holtz light bulbs
Chicken Wire
Feathers and pieces of egg shell
Petaloo Flowers
Prima Flowers and Vines
IamRoses Flowers
Old discarded keys
Vintage keys from the flea market
Metal bolts found in the garage (shhhhhhhh don't tell my husband)
Vintage Key plates from a dear friend (Thank you Donna!!)
Antique Frozen Charlotte from a dear friend (Thank you Donna!!!)
Tim Holtz Grungeboard Numbers and Alphas
Springs and metal scraps from the junk drawer
White Gesso from Ranger (3 jars of it!)
E6000 Glue
Ranger's Glue n Seal
Molding Paste
Perfect Pearls Mists from Ranger
Glimmer Mists from Prima

Thank  you for looking!

Michelle

12 Tags of 2013 with Tim Holtz-March

Here is my Tag for Tim's 12 Tags of 2013 March Challenge.  I've been out of town and wasn't sure I'd be able to finish it in time...call me the homestretch wonder LOL 

I don't have Tim's Bunny or Fringe Dies so I had to do some improvising.  I cut the fringe myself and it shows!  If you haven't been following Tim's 12 Tags of 2013 you should check it out on his Blog.

I'm not sure why my Bunny looks pink (perhaps the lighting in my craft room), because I colored him with Copper Distress Metallic Stain. 

The supplies I used are:
Tim's Tag and Bookplate Die
Tim's Styled Labels Die
Tim's Tattered Banners Die
Tim's Papillon Stamp
Tim's Seasonal Paper Stash
Tim's Trim
Distress Ink
Distress Stains

Thank you for looking!

Simon Says Choose a Sketch

Hello Everyone!  This week on the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog, Simon Says "Choose a Sketch!"   I chose sketch number 1 for my Card.  I haven't played with my Copic Markers in months and decided this was a good time to pull them out. I also used one of my favorite Magnolia Tilda Stamps...she's so stinkin' cute!

The Supplies I used for this Card are:

Prima Botanical Papers
http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/servlet/the-31467/842130-BOTANICAL-POLKA-DOT/Detail
Magnolia Tilda Stamp
http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/servlet/the-Unmounted-Magnolia-Stamps/Categories
Spellbinders Imperial Gold Labels Four Dies
http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/servlet/the-Spellbinders-Nestabilities/Categories
Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers
http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/servlet/the-Ranger-Tim-Holtz-Distress-Ink-Pads/Categories
Copic Markers
http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/servlet/the-17036/yg06-g17-bg09-b29/Detail

Want2Scrap Pearl Bling
WhimsyStamps Banner Die and Stamp

Thank you for looking!
Michelle

Tattered Floral Challenge with Tim Holtz!

I was SO excited to see this Challenge from Tim on his Blog!!  Have you seen it? Have you joined in on the fun? If not, run run RUN to his Blog and check it out!!

I love Tim's Tattered Florals Die, in fact it was my very first Tim Die, the first of many ;-)  I chose to decorate a very special hat for this challenge. The hat was my Daddy's and he wore it all the time. I have such fond memories of sitting on the deck with him joking and talking, of him on the lawn tractor (wearing his hat) and waving at all of us as he'd do another pass across the farm yard.  Daddy is gone now and his hat resides with me here in the craft room. It is now dressed up and looking pretty dang good I think :-)

I cut pink, black and white papers up using Tim's die, spritzed them all with quite a bit of water to make the paper a little mushy for manipulation...

While they were still wet I started putting them together in layers using glossy accents to adhere them to each other.  Once I was happy with them I spritzed them with Ranger's Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearl (my favorite!). 

I love the look of the flowers all scrunched up!  I tied white and pink tulle around the hat and glued the flowers on. Voila! 

Thank you for the Challenge Tim!


Thank you for looking!
Michelle