Tim's Tattered Floral Challenge

 Tim's had this Tattered Floral Challenge on his blog for a month now, and he's choosing the winners tomorrow.  As always, I've waiting until the last minute, and to make matters worse, I've had a sinus infection all week!  Even though my head is stuffed up, I can't stop thinking about this challenge!

I decided to get out of bed and play a little.  I found this printed burlap when I went to JoAnns to find some crinoline (Tammy Tutterow made some beautiful flowers for this challenge using this stuff).  I wanted something between the layers, so I took some used dryer sheets and sprayed them with Black Marble Dylusions Spray Ink.  I ran that through my Vagabond w/copy paper between each layer.  I held it all together with an Antique Brad from Stampin' Up!

I'm thinking this would make a beautiful pin on a black sweater, or a nice embellishment on a black/kraft card.  I'll have to work on that another day when I'm feeling better.

Britta Swiderski Creative

I was introduced to Britta Swiderski Creative blog today, and her tutorial was so inspiring, I had to try it out!  The video was quick and clear ... I hate when I click on a tutorial and the person stammers, blathers on endlessly, doesn't have their supplies on hand, camera angles are off, and they take 15 minutes to do a 2 minute technique.

Here's the card I created using her techniques:

The base of the card is Stampin' Up!s Crumb Cake cardstock with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges.  The background was done using Wendy Vecchi's polka dot background and Aqua Adirondack ink from Ranger on white cardstock.

I used Britta's technique of painting on some white scrap with two colors and blending them together with my finger.  Beautiful!

Black Staz-On ink was used for all the black stamping.  Britta had a fabulous tip when paper-piecing:  use a black brush tip marker around the edges of your cut piece so it looks like you cut it out perfectly.  Simple magic!

I love these techniques, and I can't wait to teach this card at this week's Technique class!

Tim's Tags of 2013--March

 So far, Grace and I are 3 for 3 this year.  I enjoy the Tags of the Year much better than the Tags of Christmas.  Not only do we get different themes throughout the year, we also have 4 weeks to get each tag done!  lol  My tag is above with the leaf, and the Master's is below with the bunny.

My colors are more muted then Tim's, but we had a ball doing the techniques, and that's what counts.  We worked on these tags about 2 weeks ago, so I figured I better post it before April rolls around.

As always, I didn't have everything Tim used, so I substituted.  I used green metallic pipe cleaners for under my leaf.  I had silver pipe cleaners, but not enough for both Grace & I, so I gave them to her so she could color hers pink (she used a flower die).

 I like the extra texture I get on my paper from my (very) used cutting plates.  If you click on the picture of the banner below, you can see the lines from previous cuts.

We made our own grass by cutting long slender triangles out of a strip of Bundled Sage Co'ordinations cardstock.  I then added some Vintage Photo Distress Ink with my ink blending tool.

These flower stick pins were alot of fun to create.  Can't wait for Ranger to release the rest of the Distress color palette for the new Distress Paints.

Tim's Feb. 2013 Tag

I finished this tag a couple of weeks ago, but haven't been in the blogging mood.  Considering it's the end of the month, I figured I'd better get my butt in gear!

For some reason, my blog doesn't want to cooperate and post a copy of the pic of Tim's actual tag, so you can check it out here with all the step by step instructions.

I am married to the love of my life for almost 23 years now, but I'm really not into the pink/red heart-y stuff that goes with Valentine's Day.  I had no problem substituting things out for this tag!  lol

My friend, Grace, who has become my Tim tag buddy, joined me once again to make tags.

The Queen of Hearts stamp that Tim used on his tag has three 'layers' to it.  There's the blueprint lines, then the outline & details of the playing card, and then the actual Queen.  He stamped the blueprint background directly onto his tag, then stamped the card twice onto watercolor paper--the full card and then he cut out the Queen.

Although I used one of his (the actual artist of this line is Mario's son) blueprint stamps, there are only 2 layers, so I stamped a background on my tag before using the 2 layers that I stamped & colored on watercolor paper.

I also used Dimensionals behind the pear to give it shape.

I used some Black Soot Distress Co'ordinations paper and embossed with Tim's Alterations Bubbles embossing folder and sanded before adhering at the top of my tag.

I used Tim's Damask embossing folder to run more of the same paper through my Vagabond and sanded & distressed that as well for the bottom of my tag.

I used some Mustard Seed Distress Co'ordinations paper for inside my charm and put in a couple words from Tim's Chit Chat stickers.  I also wrapped some Stampin' Up! Bakers Twine around the tag and this held my charm.

Tim must really love this pointing finger stamp, because this is the 2nd tag in a row he used in on, and in the same way!  OMG!  lol  I do love it tho!  I still didn't have his Vial Labels yet, so I created my own again using the back of an Adage Ticket and drawing my own lines.

The final touch was this fabulous idea by Tim ... using Tissue Tape as a ribbon!  Kind of a 'duh' moment for me.  lol  You just fold a length of tissue tape onto itself, crumple it up, and put it through the hole like a regular piece of ribbon.  It's a little trickier, but I love the look!

Tim's Tags--April 2012

My son's girlfriend, Tanya, spent a few days with us while Brendan was home from college during the holidays.  Every time he had to work, Tanya would ask to do "arts & crafts".  We decided to make a couple of Tim tags.  I already posted about the extra Dec. tag (poinsettia) we did, and here is the April tag (2012 obviously).  You can get complete instructions on Tim's blog, and they'll always be archived.

We began by stamping one of Tim's Reflections stamps right onto the embossing folder.  The tags are taller than the folders, so the whole thing doesn't fit.  I wasn't thinking when I put it in, and my text came out upside down.  Tim suggests that you carefully cut a slit in the embossing folder (only in the center, not all the way to the ends) where it folds.  Then, you can stick the top of the tag out through the slit.  It's a little unnerving, but once you've done it, it's really no big deal.

After inking and coloring the base tag, we got out the grungepaper.  We cut out the bird & branch, and used the colored distress embossing powders to color the branch.  I didn't have the green he used, and the closest I could come to it was the Wild Wasabi Stampin' Up! embossing powder.

We colored the bird with Distress Inks and adhered it to the tag.  I only had two crown charms left, so I gave Tanya the smaller crown.  I like the way this one balances on his head ... reminds me of the old commercials for the butter where someone would take a bite, and a huge crown would appear on their head.

  

We colored the ribbon with Distress Stain and I adhered one of Tim's Trinket Pins and a key.

At the bottom, we used one of Tim's Word Bands and attached it with string adhered using the Tiny Attacher.  We wrapped the strings to the back, and I held them down with some heavy duty packaging tape.

And, here is the master's version:

Tim's Tag January 2013

This may very well have been my most favorite tag yet!  I really like the steampunk style, and I also love the color pallet Tim chose for this--Iced Spruce, Stormy Sky, Rusty Hinge & Walnut Stain.  I just love how the Rusty Hinge makes it all pop!

I didn't have Tim's Steampunk texture fade (gasp!), so I used a Cuttlebug folder that was similar.  I applied the colors with an ink blending tool, distressed the edges and added Walnut Stain to the edges.

I used his Gadget Gears bigz die to cut the 3 gears, and colored them with the 3 metallic distress stain colors ... I didn't have these *yet* ... my sister bought them for my gift (my whole family celebrated Jan. 5th), but my husband had them.  I wasn't supposed to know about them, so I snuck them out of the bag, used them for this tag and replaced them.  No one was the wiser.  *giggle*  Good thing no one in my family actually reads my blog!  lol

The gears got distressed, inked, and added to the tag base.

This saying was just perfect for this tag!  I thought I didn't have it, so I was looking through all my Tim stamps for a substitute and thought this one would work very well.  lol  Silly me.

Inked it, distressed, added Walnut around the edges, added a clip, and popped it up on the tag.

I didn't have any of Tim's Vial Labels, so I made my own using the back of one of Tim's Adage Tickets.  I stamped the hand, then carefully drew the line using the Black Soot Distress Marker.  I adhered it to the bottom left side and wrapped it around to the back.

I slipped a piece of Filmstrip Ribbon behind one of the gears near the top.

The ribbon was fun to make.  I colored the ribbon first, and since I didn't have Tim's January stamp, I used the months from a calendar set I had.  I used Archival Ink, but Tim suggested to heat dry the image immediately to avoid bleeding.  It was a little tricky stamping on the ribbon.  It wanted to fold like it was on the card.  I got out my ribbon iron (are you surprised I have an iron specifically for ribbon?  lol), and ironed it best I could (too impatient for the iron to heat up sufficiently).  I decided to use Tombow Temporary Adhesive to stick the ribbon to my craft sheet, and it worked like a charm!  I think the ribbon looks fun!

Finished!

I took pics of all the details, and when I took a pic of Tim's tag to post, I realized I never added gears!  lol  

Back to work!

Here's a look at Tim's version.  Remember, he makes these tag challenges every month, and they're great for learning new techniques.  He gives excellent step out instructions with pics, and they're ALWAYS on his blog.  I can't tell you how much I learned just from doing his tags alone.  My favorite part is finding things to substitute.  So much fun!

More Tim Tags

My son's girlfriend, Tanya, stayed with us for a few days. Since she graduated college, they don't get to see each other as much these days. *Sigh* Anyway, on the days Brendan had to work, Tanya wanted to do "arts & crafts". The first day we played, we made the extra tag Tim posted on his website to catch up for January (he didn't start the 12 Tags of 2012 until February, and he always said he'd give us an extra to make up for January).  You can check out Tim's blog to see instructions to make these tags on your own.

Tim's tag is on the left, and mine is on the right.

I thought I had the little Christmas Idea-ology charms, but I couldn't find them, so we decided to use the numbers instead.  Not crazy about the gold flourish underneath them, but hey, it's all about learning and doing the techniques.

 

I also didn't have the die he used for the saying.  I had a long banner Sizzlit from Stampin' Up!  That says Cheer & Peace & Love & Joy (something like that).  We used it on some Co'ordinations cardstock and cuts the words apart.  I really liked the ampersand, so I decided to take a scrap of Black Co'ordinations cardstock for that.  We sanded everything, and glued the ampersand directly to the tag and popped up the words.

 

I just received the poinsettia set in my big box of Ranger goodies Rick bought me for Christmas!  I just love how this turned out!

 

 

We covered the grungepaper with Tim's Tissue Wrap before die cutting the pieces out.  Then we inked 3 leaves green and the rest red (sorry, don't remember the colors, but we used whatever Tim used in his tutorial).  I know we used Brushed Corduroy on the center piece.  I also added some Glossy Accents to the center piece when I was finished assembling.

 

We took a break for dinner, and went back down to the classroom for more fun.  I'll have to post about that tomorrow because my desktop is giving me trouble, and I'm finishing this post on my laptop.