Theme Thursday - Children ATCs

A quickie for the Theme Thursday challenge. The image of the children is from Oxford Impressions' Season of Giving stamp collection. Speaking of Oxford Impressions - did you know that the deadline for their Design Competition has been extended? You have until December 15th to get your artwork in! Check out all the details here.

Tim's Tag Day 4

Well, today's Tim Tag was another challenging one! I didn't have a similar picture or the sticky canvas. If I had, I would have taken some regular canvas, fused it to a piece of cardstock and run in thru my printer. My printer hates strange things tho, so it might not have worked anyway!

Instead, I was lucky enough to have this stamp from Oxford Impressions' Season of Giving plate. Since I didn't have the same kind of coverage as the canvas would have given, I used Fired Brick Distress crackle paint to cover the top half of my tag. The bottom is Frayed Burlap dtp'd onto the tag, followed by Black Soot.

I bought a Dymo label maker at an estate sale awhile ago, once I spotted it, I couldn't pass it up. It's an awesomely awesome 60s-70s lime green edition. Check it out!



Dang! How cool is that? I love that it says 'Peace'. Anyone who grew up in the 70s remembers writing/putting 'Peace' on everything! I'm thinking Candy did not excel at Spelling however.....

Ok, back to the tag. I found my label maker, but thought it was out of black tape. I had red and green, but really wanted the black. I was all set to improvise - there is a free font that looks exactly like a label maker tape. I downloaded it, typed out my words, and then glanced at my label maker and realized it was loaded with black tape. Arrrrgh! But, now I have a nice font and maybe you need this font too! We all win.

Just one wee MacGyver moment today. Instead of the washer that Tim uses, I punched (again) a small circle from aluminum tape. Punch another hole in the middle and you have yourself a washer! Ink, etc like the Philosophy tag I did in my last post.

Oh, and the calendar page is from Oxford Impressions' Winter Snow stamp set. Perfect!

Wednesday Stamper - Metal + Tim Tag #3 + Tutorial!

Whew! Lots of stuff going on in this one little post! The Wednesday Stamper theme this week is metal. Ordinarily that would mean me digging out some crusty piece of junk and making something, but I really wanted to do my Tim tag and didn't have time for both. So, I decided that wee bit of metal on his tag would work for WS too!

Most of the stamps on my tag are from Artistic Outpost's Snowy Woods sheet. Really perfect stamps for this tag! Here is my MacGyver moment for today's tag. I have no Philosophy tags. :( But, I do have aluminum tape from my friends at RockCandy Studios and metal stamps! So, faux Phi (Fo fi?) tags was born. Here is a quick tut in case you have the same problem!

First, punch out circles from aluminum tape and chipboard. Sand aluminum circle lightly horizontally and vertically. Peel off the backing and apply aluminum circle to chipboard circle.

Next, apply India ink to darken.

Using a metal stamp set, stamp JOY into circle.

Finally, cover with white paint, making sure it gets caught in the letters. Wipe off. Add more ink if necessary and punch hole in top.

Hope that helps some of you who might be like me - wanting to do the tag, but lacking the materials!

Created By Hand Challenge - Red & Green

I got so caught up in my Tim tag that I almost forgot about the Created By Hand Challenge! This week the theme is Red & Green. I kinda wanted to cheat and use the tag I made yesterday, but I decided I would give myself a quick hour to get something made.

I chose a Christmas collage image from Lisa's Altered Art as my focal point. Isn't she a cutie? I thought about doing a 4 x 4, then came across a rectangular wood plank that I thought would be fun to use. Inspired by Audrey Hernandez's article in the latest Somerset Studio, I created a long skinny plaque. I need to add some eye screws and ribbon to the top for a hanger and then it will be done!

Tim's Tag Day 2

Here is my version of Tim's Day 2 Tag. This was very challenging since I had very little of what he used. I will give you my version just in case you are having the same problems, but want to achieve a look similar to his.

First, Tim uses various shades of alcohol inks for his background. I only had Denim and Eggplant. I tried it with those, but really wanted the lighter blue look. I tried it again, but this time I sponged Broken China Distress ink on my paper before I did the AI 'smoosh'. AHA! That did the trick! I sponged more on after it was dry until I got the color I wanted. I really wish I had the tree stamp he used, but I had nothing remotely close to it - I thought this feathery plant stamp from Oxford Impressions would be a great substitute and it was! Ok, next problem - I had no white flourish rub ons. But, I did have a pretty awesome flourish stamp and white embossing powder! It worked perfectly.

Then I was faced with one of my biggest problems - no bird charm. No charm at all that would work! Well, again, necessity is the mother of invention. To make my own 'charm' I stamp a bird from Oxford Impression on Grungeboard and embossed it with silver ep. I cut it out and sponged Black Soot Distress ink all over and then wiped it off. The scan isn't the best....it came out so great! Very close to the real thing. Finally, I had no Grungeboard book plate, but one from my Stampin' Up hardware set worked just fine. It even matched my bird!

I'm thinking I should change my blog name to Hillbilly Stamping or something. ;-) I do love the challenge of using what I have on hand instead of buying more stuff (not that I don't love buying the stuff!). Sometimes it just brings out the MacGyver in me I guess.

Tim's Tag + Cyber Monday Sale!!

I'm sure everyone knows by now that Tim Holtz is doing another 12 Tags of Christmas this year. Yay! I love all the ideas I get from these tutorials - it's probably the closest I'll ever get to taking a class with him!

I had to improvise a bit since I didn't have everything to duplicate his. Plus, how is it really mine if I just copy him, right? Also, when you live in the boonies, you have to be a pro at making things work. The closest stamp store is 40 minutes away and I when I see something I want to try, I want to do it NOW (yes, I'm just like Veruca in Willy Wonka)!

For my tag I used stamps from Lasting Impression with Panache. They are having a HUGE Cyber Monday sale today. 30% off all their stamps. What a deal! I used one of my favorite stamps - the Eiffel Tower - as a substitute for the lamp post that Tim used on his tag. Since it's a smaller dimension I had to downsize my tag, so I had to do everything on a smaller scale. I used a flourish mask from Tattered Angels and Grungeboard letters. I really wanted the red Distress Stickles (I need to just order the whole set!), but my LSS was out of them when I was there. I devised a fairly decent workaround for it - I inked the letters with Fired Brick Distress Ink and then covered them with Martha Stewart fine crystal glitter. After it dried, I sponged more ink over the top which colored the glitter perfectly! I found the perfect color of vintage rayon bias tape to tie it with in my big box 'o sewing stuff.

Don't forget to head over to Lasting Impressions with Panache and load up while the sale is going on! Here is a list of the stamps I used for my tag:
Moon Writing 879-102J
Paris Postage 841-102C
Eiffel Tower 004-005I