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!

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 ...