Sunday, December 5, 2010

T!m Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas--Days 3 & 4

Well, I've been having fun creating all day! I was two days behind today, and since I'm also doing tags Wendy Vecchi style, I only completed 4 out of the 6 I needed to do to get caught up. Oh well, tomorrow's another day!


For the Day 3 tag, T!m used a tree image and stamped it sideways so it looked like a branch. I didn't have that tree, but I wanted to do the same technique, so I thought I'd be creative and I used the pine trees sideways. Silly, but at least I'll remember the technique in the future!
Then, he used his seasonal tissue tape to create a collage on some grunge paper before running it through his machine to cut out his bird ... the only bird die-cut I had was this raven. It works about as well as the pine trees.
I didn't have any moss for under the birds' feet, until I remembered that T!m gave us some on the ship for our boxes. I stole a little snippet, and nobody's the wiser. I also added some brown tinselly stuff behind it.
In lieu of the garland T!m used along the bottom, I used some green tinselly stuff, and instead of one of his buttons, I used a globe charm after I cut the link off.
I don't know why, but I seem to like all my Wendy tags better. Maybe it's because I'm not doing them with a Christmas theme--just trying to do the techniques.
Since I used a butterfly instead of a bird, I didn't want to put some moss on the 'branches', so I put some wire down with some Glossy Accents.
And, instead of the Seasonal Salvage Sticker, I created my own little sign on grunge paper using Wendy's stamps. I also used a rose I made instead of a tissue tape flower.


For Day 4 tag, T!m used a vintage picture of Santa to make the background on the tag. I didn't have any paper like that, so I used some snowflake scrapbook paper.
The rest is pretty much like what T!m did, but I gotta say, that fragment charm gave me so much trouble! First of all, I didn't have any faceted charms--no problem, I just used a fragment charm. I put my alcohol inks on the back and stamped the snowflakes with Black Archival ink like T!m did, and when I dabbed the ink off (it also removes the color so you're left with clear where the snowflakes are), either I couldn't get all the black off, or it took off too much alcohol ink! So, I'd clean it off with Blending Solution and start over. After about 10 freakin' tries, it was getting worse, not better. I decided that maybe the blending solution might be giving me additional trouble, so I washed the fragment and got a clean towel. Still wasn't working, but now, every time I cleaned it off with blending solution, I washed it. I finally got something I could live with and you can hardly see it! Ha! Go figure!


For Wendy's charm, I wanted to use her face stamp in lieu of the Santa face, so I covered the tag with some light pink patterned paper and began stamping. I used the Distress inks & Q-Tips to color her face.
By the time I got to her fragment, I used the small butterfly stamp and just settled for what I got after the first try.
I must say, my table got the messiest after the tags I did today. I had out all my Distress Inks, Alcohol Inks, Ideal-ology, beading supplies, Big Shot, Tim stamps and Wendy stamps, plus numerous other supplies. I didn't put anything away, just re-organized for tomorrow's session. I don't know how people do these when they have full-time jobs!


Friday, December 3, 2010

Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas

Wednesday, Dec. 1st was the first day of Mr. T!m Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. This is his fourth year doing them, and I'm finally able to play along! And, not only am I recreating T!m's tags, but I'm also doing a 2nd version with a Wendy Vecchi twist! So much fun! You can check out T!m's tags on his blog at http://timholtz.typepad.com/. Below is a pic of my version of his Day 1 tag:

I thought I had alot of Ranger stuff, but realized I was missing about half the stuff he used, so I improvised! I made my own picket fence by cutting little strips of grunge paper and painting them with Picket Fence paint dabber. When dry, I put them together with mini glue dots, and added extra insurance with Glossy Accents. I didn't have his sugary fluff stuff, so I made my own with some white dollar flocking from Michaels mixed with some Dazzling Diamonds. It worked OK, but now I really NEED some of that stuff he used!

I also created my own tree by cutting 5 pieces of wire. I wrapped them all together with tissue tape to form the trunk and about halfway up, I started wrapping each wire individually. I twisted up the wires and then painted the whole tree with a paint dabber. When dry, I hit it with a white paint dabber and some more Glossy Accents/sparkly flocking mixture to create snow.

And, finally, I made the little wreath by punching a 3/4" circle from a piece of cardstock. I then punch a 1-1/4" circle around that hole to form a little donut shape. I had some green tinsely stuff leftover from my Treasure Box club days and pressed it into hot glue on the donut (Ouch!). First boo-boo of the day!

Next, is the picture of Day 1 tag with a Wendy Vecchi twist:


I made the same house and fence as in Tim's tag, but for the background, I used Dusty Concord with the blues for a prettier background and added the face stamp on the right.

For the tree, I used one of her fern-type leaves stamp and cut out 3 of them to make a dimensional bush--love the way it came out!

For the wreath, I used one of her flower stamps and cut out the center so it was a ring shape. I added 3 brad 'berries' and waa-la! A wreath!

I added a ticket-tag with Wendy's stamps and that was that. Now, on to the Day 2 tag:




For T!m's tag, I basically did everything the same, but had to substitute the stamps. I also made my own baubles. And, since I didn't have any of his new charms, I decided to make my own silver bird by stamping one on SU's brushed silver cs and embossing with silver EP. Don't ask me how, but I ended up bleeding after this tag and had to search out a band-aid.

Below is the Wendy version, which I prefer:


I used some cool leaves instead of a pine sprig, made my own baubles again, and did the same silver technique with Wendy's butterfly stamp. I made some antennae with wire and hot-glued it to the back. I popped up the wings with Dimensionals and hot-glued the whole thing to the tag.
While washing up, I was wondering where the red paint was coming from and realized I had another cut! What?! Off to find band-aid #2, plus a new one to replace soggy #1. Hopefully, the rest of the tags won't be as hazardous!
Today was Day 3, so I'm still one tag behind. Had to stop for dinner, and now, since I haven't posted on here in almost a year (I know, I can't believe it myself), I had to reaquaint myself with Blogger, so I'm kind of frazzled. I'll be doing a 6-hour card demo tomorrow at AC Moore in Paramus, so hopefully, if I'm not burned out when I get home, I'll make Days 3 & 4 tomorrow night. Till then ...


Saturday, February 27, 2010

Mono Die Technique


I recently subscribed to the Technique Junkies newsletter, and this is the first technique I tried out! This was the card we all made at the shoebox swap I organized for my upline's Winter Wonderlude event this past weekend (more on that in the next post). We used Sage Shadow for the background on a piece of Whisper White card base. We used the small scallop circle from SU's scallop circle die and then embossed them with the polka dot embossing folder. The inks used were Brocade Blue and Bravo Burgundy. Oh, and the stamp set is SU's Simple Friendship.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Winter Wonderlude

This weekend, my fabulous upline, Tina, is hosting another wonderful event for us, and I'm really looking forward to it. We're going to have an entire weekend at a beautiful hotel to meet with good friends, do swapping, make 'n takes, classes and workshop WOWs, among other things.

One of the other things is a shoebox swap that I'm hosting! A shoebox swap is where you design a project, cut up all your supplies, and gather everything needed into a 'shoebox' type box. There are 19 ladies in this swap, so I needed to design a card and cut up the supplies so the other 18 people can make my project. Then, at the swap tomorrow night (we wear pajamas!), the participants get a goody bag, and each project is placed on different tables, and you go around the room from one project to the next until you've made them all! Soooo much fun, and being a demonstrator, it's nice to make other people's projects for a change.

Another job I'm doing is make 'n take helper. I went up to Tina's house in Sparta earlier this week and made my big project early. Then, when the large group is making the project, we have my sample as well as instructions and Tina's sample, and I can assist anyone when help is needed. It keeps everyone on track and things running smoothly.

And, lastly, my most important job ... I'm demoing one of the workshop WOWs! I'm so excited to be showing everyone how to make Wendy Vecchi's roses! Of course, I had to modify a few things, like using the #5 flower die instead of Wendy's stamp, and using our Designer Series paper & cardstock instead of Tim's Grungepaper, but the results are still fabulous. I only have until noon, and it's almost 10am already, but the last thing I have to do before going is to prepare for this demo which I have to perform 3Xs!

So, I've got to get working on it, and I promise to post photos when I return after Sunday! I'm soooooo excited! Can't wait!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Stamp-a-Stack

Well, I guess all this snow was too much for everyone cause I only had one student come to my Stamp-a-Stack class on Friday. Luckily, it was Frances, who missed last month's stack class, so I just repeated the projects!

This was one of the cards we made at Stampin' Up!'s Regional Convention last month in Arizona. I just love this new Vintage Vogue set (we got it for free!).



She also made four of the little Valentine love notes that we made at the kids class (see my last post).
And, for the 3rd card, I had to dig up an oldie but goodie ...

I just adore this card ... the Regal Rose ... tearing the vellum ... the beautiful, wide grosgrain ribbon ... everything!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Kids Class

My neighbor asked me to start up my Kids Class again for her twin girls (they're in 4th grade ... that makes them 10?) and a couple of their friends. These girls are very sweet and just as talented. We had a great time at class ... they brought along Esther, who I'd had in a class last year at the grammar school (also, very talented, and she's a whiz at following instructions), and Kristie. This was Kristie's first time stamping with me, and she did great! All the girls made wonderful projects, and the class went very well. So well, in fact, that I think we're going to make it a monthly event!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Fun Technique

Here's one of the cards we made at Friday night's technique class ... the card is based on one I saw on our new Stampin' Up! Connection site (for demonstrator's only--sorry) by Elizabeth Ann Rehn. I changed the cardstock color, and added different embellishments, but the basic design & technique I got from her.

I stamped the Medallion image on black cardstock using White Craft ink. Then, I dabbed color all over using Stampin' Up! Pastel Chalks & Sponge Daubers. After the whole image was basically covered, I went back over everything with more chalk, this time rubbing it in and blending the colors together. I used a spray fixative to set the colors.

For the brad in the center, I added a drop of Pixie Pink Craft reinker and wiped off the excess leaving the ink in just the recessed areas of the brad.

Finally, I used the Ticket corner punch on the black cs and added a Modern Label punched saying with silver brads popped up with Dimensionals. Beautiful, quick card!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Christmas Swap Gift


I can't believe it's the end of January already! Sheesh!

OK, so I just had to send someone a photo of my swap gift from my downline Christmas party, so I thought I'd post the photos here as well. It's decorated with flowers made from Tim Holtz's Grunge Paper, which I'd usually ink w/Distress Inks, but since it was a Stampin' Up! gift, I thought I'd try it with SU Classic inks & products. You've got to excuse my PJs ... I'm in them most of the morning! But, you can see my new camera my wonderful DH got me for Christmas! lol

The colors came out totally different than I expected ... the frame was colored using Bordering Blue ... I wanted it lighter, but I love the way it turned out! I stamped the roses using Studio 490's 6-petal flower and cut them out. Then, I embossed the flowers with the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folder in my Big Shot & inked with Pumpkin Pie (I know, it's looks like More Mustard). The leaves I cut out using the Little Leaves Sizzlit--the Sizzlits have wires instead of steel blades, so it didn't cut all the way through, but I just clipped it with my Paper Snips. I inked the leaves with Old Olive ink and then stamped with En Francais using Basic Black ink. I also distressed the edges of the frame & flowers using Close to Cocoa ink.

After creating & molding the flowers & leaves, I attached them to the frame using Aleene's Tacky Glue.



Friday, January 15, 2010

Project Order class was cancelled

Well, if you're looking for photos of the projects from last night's class, they aren't here ... in fact, I didn't even make the projects. I had my 2nd exercise class with this Nazi instructor, and I was sooo sore, that I notified all the "maybes" and decided to cancel. All I wanted to do yesterday was soak in a day long HOT bathtub!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

No Christmas cards this year

Sorry everyone, but I never got my Christmas cards made this year. I've been apologizing to everyone I've been talking to, and I feel soooo guilty. I thought I'd get them done this week after coming home from Arizona, but my house is a wreck, and I've just go so much to catch up on. Rick wants me to just save the supplies for Christmas 2010 (Ahhhhh! use old supplies?!). I do still have to get my little gifts out to the nieces & nephews who I don't get to see over the holidays, and I might have to actually *ack* buy *ugh* some cards to send the money in. All I know is, if I don't do it soon, they'll be Valentine's gifts!

Monday, January 11, 2010

I'm home

Just got back last night from a wonderful week in WARM Phoenix. Stampin' Up! held their Leadership convention and a Regional there, and not only did I finally qualify to go, but it was the perfect location ... warm weather and half my relatives live in Arizona! I went for a whole week and had a wonderful time visiting relatives in haven't seen in years (and I mean years ... some I haven't seen in about 30!). I finally got to meet my beautifully sweet great-niece Kaydence (wanted to put that one in my suitcase!), and got caught up with my big sis Karen. She was just the best hostess all week too! I can't believe how many relatives she contacted to come and visit me while I was in town! She's just the best!

Well, right now I've spent half the day trying to just catch up on emails ... guess I should get in the shower! Anyway, I'll post photos from Leadership and family soon as I get caught up!