Day 3- 12 Tags of Christmas with Tim Holtz!

And again Sir Tim amazes us all! I drooled over his tag, read the blog and then sat here and thought hmmm I don't have that stamp, I don't have the cut and dry felt or foam, no re-inkers either. BUT, I do have that Christmas Embossing Folder! I embossed the upper portion of my tag, then cut another identical tag so I could emboss the lower portion. I then used my waterbrush and waterpainted each letter with my Distress Inks..I've decided I will get that stamp before trying one like this again...it was hard to paint each raised letter LOL  Next I went over the whole tag with the blender tool and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, the tag was too bright for my liking. Once this was done I sprayed the tag with Perfect Copper Perfect Pearls Mist..WOW! This was the first time I ever used PPMist and I love the stuff!  I added a band of twine where I had to adhere the bottom portion of the tag, added my greenery and holly berries then topped it off with Tim's Believe token and some red tulle.
Thank you for looking!

Day 2- 12 Tags of Christmas with Tim Holtz

Don't you just love Tim's day 2 Tag? So elegant looking! Because I used a Reindeer in my day 1 tag I decided to use a snowman on my day 2 Tag.  Again I didn't have all of the supplies Tim used so I improvised..it did my brain good to sit and figure out how to make my own "resist" paper and it worked out quite well I think.  For my snowman I used Tim's Snowman Texture Fade, simply cutting him out of the cardstock after embossing. I was very inspired by Tim's use of twine on the tree truck today and just HAD to do it!  I used rusty jingle bells for my embellishments along with twine, a homespun bow and a wee mulberry paper flower.
Here it is:

I finished my tag this evening while following Mario on facebook for his BTS thread, if you haven't checked it out, you might want to. It's a blast!

12 Tags of Christmas with Tim Holtz!

It's my favorite time of year again!  I just love Tim's day one tag, don't you?  I didn't have all of the dies and goodies he used on his but that's all part of the fun..seeing just how much improvising we can do. I just finished mine ten minutes ago. 

Thank you for looking!

WOW! Check out the Graphic 45 Blog Hop!

You must check out the Handmade Holidays BlogHop 2011 over at Graphic45! There is so much gorgeous art to drool over, so much inspiration. If you are having troubles with your creative Mojo this BlogHop should fix you right up!

Special Memory Board for my Mother

This past month has been so hard. I miss my Dad terribly and my heart aches so damn bad.  We are having a "Celebration of Life" gathering for Dad in a week and I wanted to give my Mother something special that day. The night Daddy passed away Mom told me how the photo of them on a sailboat was one of her most favorites, my printer is running out of ink so the photo didn't print up well but I'm heading to Walmart to get a good copy printed up.  I also made a photo collage consisting of photos of Mom and Dad over the years, it will nest inside the photo section behind the sailboat photo. 
My very very dear friend Gloria sent me a pile of the Tattered Time papers which I used on this project.  I'm also making a Guestbook and Memory books for my Siblings and I with the rest of the TT papers.  I used Tim Holtz metal Corners, and Metal Bookplate. Inside the bookplate is the word "Cherish".  I made some Tim Holtz style roses using his Tattered Florals Die and cut some extra gears using his mini gears die.
The Club Scrap Clear Sticker phrase says "Life is measured not by minutes, but by Moments"

I wanted to use a Timepiece/Gear theme because my Dad and I are both crazy about old watches and watch parts. I wanted to add roses to represent Mom.  I'm tempted to make some smaller flowers in the brown tones but don't want this piece overpowered with elements...still debating. 
Thank you Gloria for helping me create what was in my mind and heart!!

Feeling broken and lost

On July 6th my Father passed away after a brief 3 day stay in the hospital.  I feel so lost without his daily phone calls and our fun chats on Facebook together. I'm trying to find my mojo and get back into my crafting because it's been such great therapy over the years. 

I love you Daddy and I miss you so much!

Steampunk ATB

I recently started seeing ATB's {Altered Trading Blocks} online and decided I wanted to give it a try myself.  I knew I wanted my first one to have a "steampunk" theme and had so much fun making this! It was fun combining my wood working tools with my paper crafting tools and I think I'm hooked!  I cut a 2x4 down into chunks, sanded and sanded all of the edges.  I adhered my Tim Holtz Papers using Claudine Helmuth Studio Multi-Medium and covered all of the edges with Tim Holtz Tissue Tape. I printed some Digital Steampunk Images on heavy cardstock and cut them out, and cut the Lady and Little Girl from a sheet of images I bought years ago.  I cut out my gears and Lock using Grungeboard and Tim's Dies, then inked them up to look like rusty metal. I cut the butterfly from a sheet of metal, painted it black and colored it up with Perfect Pearls Copper. The metal key is from my stash and the Word Token is from Tim Holtz line. The clock face is another image I printed up, then I coated it with Tim's Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint. The metal corner is from my stash.  The bottom of the block is only covered with paper so I didn't include it in the photo.


I'm entering this Steampunk ATB in the Simonsaysstampandshow  Metal Challenge.

Thanks for looking!