tims 12 tags of christmas tag #9

only three more to go ! I used a Chocolate Baroque peacock background stamp for this one and the same colours of distress ink as Tim used - evergreen bough and festive berries. I felt this technique gave the impression of antique wallpaper , quite aged and distressed. I will be trying it again definately. I embossed my baubles, also from Chocolate Baroque on green and red card with gold embossing powder. I cut then out and used gold thread to hang them. Quite a quick and simple tag, this one. x Lavinia

tims 12 tags of christmas tag #8

well here we are with tag 8 - only four more to go. Tag 8 had a definate steampunk theme which was tricky when you have no steampunk stamps Lol. Still I did have the gaget gears die which helped a great deal. I used reproduction cigarette cards as well as a oxford impressions stamp of my moustachioed gentleman. I gave him a party hat to make him more festive but he still looked like he didn`t approve hence the phrase bah humbug. This one was fun to do I have to say dispite being much more `busy` than something I would normally do. Thanks for looking x Lavinia

tims 12 tags of christmas tag #7

Well I am still playing catch up but have managed tag no 7. Do you ever have one of those days where you just seem to end up faffing about with bits, have to wait for that bit to dry, not sure about that bit ?. This was one of those days, one card and one tag attempted but only the tag finished. Now I`ve put it together, it looks nothing like Tims Lol but I suppose really that is the whole idea. I used Paper Artsy stamps with distress inks in tea dye and antique linen. I also used a bronze shimmer spray on my background. Tims tag had glassine leaves with net and all sorts of bits. I`ve just used two glassine leaves coloured with alcohol inks and a tarten ribbon, oh and a crochet trim. Really need to get a wriggle on now to finish the other five plus I have yet to send out any Christmas cards. Oh well x Lavinia

tims 12 tags of christmas tag#6

I can`t believe I`m posting this as this tag was such a disaster !! Now this is not sour grapes because mine went wrong but sorry Tim, I wasn`t very keen on this idea to start with. The technique of using glossy card under the self adhesive foil to emboss with worked brilliantly - I would definately do this again. It was adding the colouring that it all went pete tong. I don`t have acrylic paints and note to self, before attempting Tims tags again, please invest in some Lol. I used a liquid pearl paint at first. To start with, it went all streaky, then having left it to dry, I sanded over the snowflakes to find it all peeled off. However, I couldn`t remove every trace of it. At this point I really should have started again but decided to try adding alcohol inks in shades of blue to try to rescue it. It did look a bit better, I then went over the whole thing with a versamark pad and then a turquoise sparkle embossing powder which is slightly holographic. I quite liked the effect so finished it off with some ribbon trim and epoxy stickers. So there you have it tag 6 which I won`t be attempting again. Hope others are having more luck with that one x Lavinia

white christmas challenge

Am taking a bit of a break from tags for the mo. Over here on Glendas blog who runs Chocolate Baroque you can find a challenge with the theme of white Christmas. Now white is just not my colour but icy wintery blues and turquoises are so thats the colour scheme I went with. I used Chocolate Baroque stamps, the tree, and two different sized snowflake stamps from the stained glass stamp set. My background has stormy sky, weathered wood and iced spruce distress inks oversprayed with a pale blue glimmer mist. I then used weathered wood to stamp the snowflakes. My tree was stamped and embossed with a white snowflake tinsel embossing powder. My backing paper is also from Chocolate Baroque. A few sequins, ribbon trim and snowflakes punched from silver card finished things off. Hope I`ve inspired a few of you to join in with this challenge. The more people that enter, the more the prize fund will be. Have fun x Lavinia

tims 12 tags of christmas tag #5

Hmmm really not sure about my take on this one. It took two attempts to get this ghosting technique with the alcohol inks on acetate to work. I`ve used a Chocolate Baroque stamp on the acetate and alcohol inks in cranberry, butterscotch and red pepper. This tag just didn`t really come together for me but I have so much that I should be getting on with I don`t think I am going to redo it unless I finish all 12. Not at all sure how to tackle tag 6 so off to have a big think Lol x Lavinia

tims 12 tags of christmas tag#4

well, still catching up but here we are with tag 4. Tims tag had a border of acetate along the side using one of the on the edge dies. I`ve left this bit out as I just don`t have a die suitable plus I loved my background so much I didn`t want to cover it all up. I used distress inks in weathered wood, iced spruce and evergreen bough from the winter set for my tag. I still haven`t yet purchased any distress stains so couldn`t use those. I then spayed a glimmer mist onto my fingers and flicked it onto the background - I was really pleased with the effect, splodges of glimmery loveliness. I then stamped arround in the edge with a Tim Holtz snowflake stamp in weathered wood. If I was really pleased with the background I have to say the reindeer has been less of a sucess. I don`t have any paint dabbers either or acrylic paint for that matter. I die cut my reindeer from grungepaper then painted over it with white watercolour paint but neat from the tube. I then covered that with the thick coat of rock candy. I left it overnight to dry, however, when I came back to it this morning some flakes have lifted off a bit. Don`t know if thats because I had used a layer of watercolour first ? Never mind, a few strategically placed sequins did the trick ! Now I just need to work out how to tackle the next day so see you soon x Lavinia

tims 12 tags of christmas tag #3

Here we are with tag day 3 which was the quickest to complete once I had decided how I was going to do this one. Tims tag used a custom made ink pad made with cut and dry felt and a matching embossing folder for his word stamp. Well I don`t have that stamp or that embossing folder and realised it said cut and dry FELT not foam doh !. I nearly gave up at this point as I don`t have kraft cardstock either. However, I found some very thin corragated card in a box so that made my card base. I used three different colours of brilliance ink to stamp the word celebrate along the bottom, and used a Hero Arts stamp with merry christmas in all different languages along the top. I then ran the whole tag through a Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder. A button, hero arts paper holly leaves, red ribbon and crochet lace trim finished things off. I am quite pleased with how it all turned out in the end, very rustic which I don`t normally do. Is there anyone else reading this who is also playing along ? let me know so I can pop over and visit. x Lavinia

tims 12 tags of christmas tag #2

oooh two posts in two days lol. Am still lagging behind though. Tag two caused me to improvise heavily. First problem was I had kraft resist card although not the christmas version but no method of getting it white. I would have used gesso if I had any, did think about using white watercolour paint which in hindsight think would have worked better. I ended up using Ranger white opal liquid pearls brushed over the whole tag. It does still show the resist through but I would not really recomend it, I ended up sanding some of it back and course had trouble sticking things to it !. I used velvet paper to die cut my deer and Ranger foil for my border at the bottom of the tag run through a cuttlebug embossing border then coloured with alcohol inks. The tag still looked really bare so I used epoxy stickers to spell Noel and added a Hero Arts ponissettia embellishment to the top left hand corner.The bell with red ribbon was recyled from one of those well known chocolate teddies !, knew it would come in useful. Now I just need to catch up with tags three to five so watch this space. x Lavinia

Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas tag #1

Hello everyone. My goodness I have been such a bad blogger/crafter again Lol. In my defence my husband is still off of work, sigh, so my odd mornings of peace are over for the time being. Anyway, enough of that, back to the crafting. As I have not even crafted anything for such a long time, I thought I would attempt to keep up with Tim Holtzs 12 tags of Christmas myself to get back into the swing of things. ( yes , I know he is already on day four and I`ve only just managed to make tag one !!!). I really enjoy looking at the tags every year as I`m sure thousands of others do too. There is always some new techniques and tips along the way. This is the first year that I have tried the tags myself though. With things being as they are at the moment I will not be running out to buy any new supplies so it will really be a case of improvising with what I already have. I do not possess the pinecone die but do have tattered leaves and florals so used them. I wanted to try the technique Tim had on his blog not so long ago of using alcohol inks with mixative on glassine paper. I used pearl mixative though as I wanted the effect of frost on my flower and leaves. I used lettace alcohol ink on the leaves with the pearl and stream on the flower again with the pearl. Stickles in icicle finished off my flower. I stamped the words onto a metal tag instead of die cutting a word. I really enjoyed creating this and hopefully tomorrow I can do a lot of catching up to finish tag two, three and four. If anyone wants to pop over to Tims blog and look for themselves you need to look here x Lavinia