12 Tags of 2014- October

I love Halloween so I couldn't wait to have some crafty fun with this October tag for Tim's 12 Tags of 2014!  I don't have the Carved Halloween stamp set that Tim used so I used my favorite image from the new Halloween Blueprints 3 set.  I love any type of check, diamond or dot print so the black cat from this set is my favorite!

I first stamped and watercolored the cat image with the front half purple and the back half green.  After I finished I decided it would look better the opposite way so that is what you see here.  I had to put my spider on the other side of the tag because of the shape of the cat.  I don't have any of the new distress sprays so I created my own using the Distress reinkers and water in the Ranger Mini Mister bottles.  It worked great!  I'm sure the concentration might be different but that's the beauty of making your own distress sprays!  They can be as intense or subtle as you like!  I spritzed the tag with Perfect Pearls Bronze as a substitute for the bronze distress spray.

I used the Idea-ology Alpha Tiles to spell out "EEK".  The "monocle" that I used is actually an optical lens that I've had in my stash FOREVER!  It's larger than the Idea-ology monocles so I had to take remove the hinge clasp from the Idea-ology watch chain to shorten it so that the monocle wouldn't cover the spider!  I noticed that the picket fence distress paint was rubbing off the backside of the monocle after it dried so I coated it with a thin layer of Ranger glossy accents.  That seemed to do the trick and seal it from rubbing off any further.

Love this tag!  And, as usual, I made a second one to share!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you'll take the time to play along and make a tag as well!

12 Tags of 2013 - October

I finally took the time to participate in this month's 12 Tags of 2013!  I've only made one other tag this year.  Since I love Halloween I couldn't pass up making one for this theme.  As a matter of fact...I made three!  The first and second followed along with Tim's techniques and design.  The distress paint colors that he used were fabulous!

I also love the larger tags so I used one of those to create the third tag.  I added the apothecary bottles at the bottom which I cut from plastic packaging, colored with alcohol inks and then a layer of frosted film.  Three tags means I have some to share so I gave the first one below to a friend!

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping to take a look!  Have a great day!

Hello Again!

I hope that all is well with all of you!  It's been a long time since I've posted.  Time just seems to slip away and I haven't quite figured out where it goes yet!  I did a much needed clean-out of  my craft room.  Donated bags and bags of goods and supplies to schools/churches and I still have way too much stuff.  But, like everything else, it's a work in progress.  I'm also doing a little remodeling...not built-in (I wish!)...but my brother-in-law helped me put together a new work table and I'm adding some bookcases from Ikea for storage.  I'll share photos once it all comes together but right now things are scattered about the room and the house.

In the midst of it all I managed to create this Apothecary Tag Book which I'll be teaching this Saturday, October 12, from 10am-2pm at Whim So Doodle in St. Petersburg, FL.

 

We'll be using some of the new Tim Holtz Halloween stamp sets including The Chemist and the new Halloween Blueprints.  The tags will cover techniques from both of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities books.  I believe there are still a few spots left in the class so if you live in the area I'd love to meet you!

Wish me luck as this is my first foray into teaching and I'm getting a little nervous about the whole thing.  As long as everyone has fun and learns something I'll consider it a success!!

12 Tags of 2012-October

Wow, two posts in one day!  That hardly ever happens for me.  I had time this weekend to work on my October tag, for the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2012, just before the deadline.  I've been mulling over what I wanted to do with my tag but I liked Tim's version so much that I pretty much followed the same design but with a few changes.  I decided to use the #10 tag so that I could add some more Halloween elements.  And I also wanted to try some other colors.  But I couldn't make up my mind which colors so I made three different tags!!

My first tag is the same color base as Tim's tag but I decided to tint the Distress Stickles Rock Candy Dry Glitter using Adirondack Sunset Orange alcohol ink.  I like how vibrant it turned out but wish I had thought to paint and glitter the spider web portion of the TH Sizzix Alterations Gothic Boo die cut black instead of orange.  The bats are from the Bewitching Hour die.  The spider is from the Candlelight Fright die.

On the second tag I added bright green to the base colors of purple and orange.  I LOVE the color you get using the Pitch Black alcohol ink on the dry glitter!!  It almost has a slight purple hue.  Love how this came out!  The cat is from the TH Sizzix Alterations Raven and Scaredy Cat die.

This last tag is my favorite color combination!  I love the pink, silver and black together and it's much prettier in person!  I used Picked Raspberry Distress Ink to brighten it.  The glitter is from my stash as I didn't have a bright pink alcohol ink to use with the dry glitter.  Using the larger tag allowed me to add the TH Sizzix Alterations On The Edge Graveyard die cut along the bottom.  This was the perfect touch!

I really had a lot of fun with these.  I had to stop myself from making several more in other color combinations!

Thanks for stopping by.  Now go make something !

Halloween Flight



Today I have my entry for the Compendium of Curiosities 2 weekly challenge hosted by Linda on the Studio L3 blog.  I can't believe that this is week 24!  The technique chosen for this week is Alcohol Ink Resist and it can be found on page 59 of Tim Holtz's book titled A Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2. If you buy it through the link you can get it autographed by Tim!  You need this book! Trust me.

 

I had to try multiple stamps before I found ones that didn't have too much negative space.  My first attempt was barely visible!  But once I got the first stamp to work I was hooked!  Originally I thought I'd use just one or two images with the technique and then add the rest of my embellishing to the front but this technique is so cool I just kept adding images to see how it looked!  I'll definitely be trying this again!

 

 

 

The images used are from the Tim Holtz SA cling sets: Mini Halloween 3, Trick or Treat, Halloween Silhouettes and Halloween Cutouts.  The moon is from Rubber Stamps of America.  There wasn't much room for embellishing, since I added so many images, so I stamped the sentiment using an Adirondack Paint Dabber in Silver.  I cut "31" from Grungeboard using the new Alterations Movers and Shapers mini 31 die and painted that silver.  I added ribbon and an Idealogy Halloween Muse Token that I colored with Adirondack Sunset Orange alcohol ink.

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Now go make something!

Bad Hair Day

Today I have my entry for the Compendium of Curiosities 2 weekly challenge hosted by Linda on the Studio L3 blog.  The technique chosen for this week is Distress Markers and it can be found on page 50 of Tim Holtz's book titled A Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2.  If you buy it through the link you can get it autographed by Tim!  One lucky participant in this week's challenge will receive something from Mario's prize box!

I was out of town over the weekend and didn't have time to get anything started.  So I pulled out a few things, and my Distress Markers of course, and this is the result!  I don't have time to provide many details since I'm posting this close to the deadline.  I'll come back and add those later.

Thanks for stopping by!

CC2C - Week 20

Happy Wednesday!  Below is my submission for this week's CC2C challenge, hosted by Linda at Studio L3.  The technique for week 20 of the challenge is Enameled Stamping.  The details for the technique can be found on page 44 of Tim Holtz's awesome book A Compendium of Curiosities Vol 2.  If you don't already have the book, please get it. You'll be glad you did!  I'm also submitting this to the Simon Says Stamp weekly challenge We're So Trendy for including neon color.

The base is a Ranger Inkssentials #10 manila tag.  The Halloween stamps are from TH Stampers Anonymous Trick-or-Treat and Mini Halloween 2 cling sets.  The chandelier stamp is from Stampendous.  I used Ranger Distress Ink in Black Soot, Picked Raspberry and Walnut Stain.  The trim on the bottom is from the Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Vintage Lace strip die.  The quote is from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Thanks for visiting!

CC2C - Week 15

The technique for this week, chosen by Linda at Studio L3, is Enameled Metals.  The technique details can be found on page 56 of A Compendium of Curiosities Vol 2 by Tim Holtz.

Over at the Simon Says Stamp blog the theme is "What do you say?".  My little witch has something to say so I'm entering this there as well!

Since I'm still stuck on Halloween...this is what I came up with:

I was originally going to decorate the tag with die cuts but they didn't show up very well against the tag background.  So I turned to some clip art that I have and found this little witch with an attitude!  I think she pairs perfectly with the words!  The numbers are from Tim's Sizzix Alterations Wordplay die and the border is Tim's Sizzix Alterations Vintage Lace strip die.  I added an Idea-ology Trinket Pin and Halloween Muse Token to the ribbon.

I just received my order yesterday from Simon Says Stamp containing some of Tim's new Halloween stamps!  So, no, I'm not finished with Halloween yet.  But I bet by the time Halloween actually does comes around I will have moved on to Christmas!!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Compendium of Curiosities-Configurations Crypt!

Whew~say that three times fast!!

The CC2C weekly challenge over at Studio L3 is Configurations Part 1 & 2 on pages 33 and 34 of that wonderful book A Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2 from the masterful Tim Holtz.  If you don't already have a copy of this book, get one!  Then you can play along with the rest of us!

There is a FAB-U-LOUS (do your best Jo Anne Worley impersonation while saying that!) prize package of Tim Holtz goodness, provided by Mario, up for grabs.  I think I just dated myself by mentioning Jo Anne Worley but whenever I hear the word "Fabulous" I hear her singing it out in my head!  Must be all of those TV game shows I watched in the 70's!

I knew I wanted to do something with a Halloween theme.  So I put the small configurations box on my craft counter along with some assorted Halloween themed things that I picked up at Michael's last year and just let it sit there.  After looking at it a few times it hit me...the configurations box was going to become a crypt!  So here it is...

 

For the box I used Tim's Seasonal paper stash: Distress Inks in Dusty Concord, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, and Walnut ink; Distress Embossing powder in Peeled Paint and Ideaology Hobgoblin tissue tape.  The creepy contents are from Lemax and Michael's Celebrate It line.  I added a couple of glass vials, colored with Adirondack alcohol ink, with 7 Gypsies apothecary labels.  The "31" plaquette and "Haunted" muse token are Ideaology.  And, of course, no crypt would be complete without spider webs and some spiders (from Jolee's Boutique)!

That's one big bottle of arsenic our friend is guardiing!  Anyone care to join them??!!  There's always room for more! Bwahahahaha!