Twelve Tags of 2014 - November

Time for a Timmy Tag.  Tim's November tag features a beautiful embossed leaf which unfortunately I don't have, so it's another month of improvisation.  Here's Tim's version:

I managed to get most of the techniques in, apart from the embossed image.  I thought I did well to get a die-cut of the flower - not easy when there are three other images on the die!

Halloween - Or Not. 12 Tags of 2014

Well, I nearly didn't make this month's tag.  Halloween doesn't feature in my life.  So: no Halloween stamps, stencils or stickers, no bones but also no Distress Spray Stains, no monocle, no tinsel twine, no swivel clasp.   Time to improvise.

Here's Tim's inspiration:

Here's my improvisation.

Tim's Halloween stencil: I used the alphabet stencil.
Tim's mask material: I masked with copy paper.
Tim's texture paste: I used Polyfilla (spackle).
Tim's Distress Spray Stains: I smudged on Distress Ink minis and spritzed.
Tim's Distress Spray Metallic Stain: I diluted Brushed Pewter Distress Paint into a water mister.
Tim's alpha chips: I stamped the 13 red.
Tim's tinsel twine: I used black velvet ribbon.
Tim's monocle: I stamped a clock.
Tim's swivel clasp: I dyed some chain-looking ribbon with Black Soot.
Tim's bones: pass!

I'm quite pleased that I managed to use most of the techniques and got the overall effect, even though it's not necessarily Halloween.  But that's fine by me ;)

I'm also entering this into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Tags and Stamps and Stencils

I'm playing along with Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of 2014 - September.  Here's Tim's version:

You can just about make out the blender stencilling with the burlap stencil:

Also entering into Simon Says Monday Challenge - Stencils and Stamps

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Don't forget, there's still time to enter the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge, stamping on tissue.  You could win two washi tape rings and 13 rolls of washi tape.  I liked them so much I treated myself to three washi rings.  Here's one of them:

So neat!

Before - washi tape on a cling film tube with ribbon through it ;)

The winner also gets to be printed in a future edition of the magazine, and invited to be a guest designer for a future challenge.  Get in there!

12 Tags of 2014, Tag You're It

Two tags for you today. The first one is my offering for the 12 Tags of 2014 for July.  The umbrella man was a spare from making this card.  I performed a little surgery on him by turning him into a barefoot paddler.  (I drew his bare feet and rolled up pant legs on the reverse and trimmed them.)

I made the wet sand from Walnut Stain Distress Stickles and sprinkled some copper embossing powder onto it and let it dry naturally.  I don't have a bubble embossing folder so I just used a stylus and a soft mat to draw bubbles in a piece of acetate.  I bought the stylus over 40 years ago to use on stencils for a Roneo Gestetner duplicating machine at work.  See, that's how long I've been using stencils!  And more remarkable is the fact that I kept the stylus, through relocating to Australia for six years and re-relocating back to the UK.  Never throw anything away, you never know when you might need it ;))

Anyway, back to the tag.  Here's Tim's:

Sand, tick.  Bubble layer, tick.  Watery background, tick.  Starts going pear-shaped after that!  I'm also entering this into Simon Says Monday - A mid-Summer Challenge

The next tag is for the new Tag, You're It challenge with guest designer Laura Bassen:

I used an embossing folder as a paint palette to take a print.  There was too much white space so I sponged over the white with the same colours.  Rather than a vellum leaf layer, I used a branch from my stash, left over from making this card.  The black ribbon was pre-stamped with the sentiment.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 - June, Virginia's View

Oooh, Tim's tag for June is using my favourite (for now...) technique - watercolour monoprinting with stencils, and I couldn't wait to play along!  I used the tailor's dummy stamp, but this one is no dummy, she's fashion savvy and into recycling.  She's wearing a leather belt made from a luggage tag, just so that she can enter Virginia's View Challenge - Tags or Scraplings incorporating a Recycled Item.

Here's a close-up of her belt, specially adjusted to fit her tiny waist.

And here's Tim's tag:

I cut some of his sentiment stamps up so that I could use the individual words.  I'm sure he won't mind...

Fun Birthday and Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 - May

You won't be surprised to read that I've been playing with Distress Inks again.  I inked the cloud stencil (TCW) with Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Stormy Sky, spritzed and laid onto my card base, with the lower portion masked off so that I could add some Salty Ocean and Antique linen for sea and sand.  Added some splashes of water for a ..erm, water effect, and some stamped images from a magazine freebie set.  The sentiment is from the new release at Winnie & Walter.  I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Just Add Ink - watercolour

Winnie & Walter - Join In To Win

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

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Continuing with Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014, here's his tag for May:

The idea is to use all those bits of TH ephemera that you're holding on to (which assumes that you bought some in the first place).  Actually I have some of those genuine nibs somewhere in my attic from my pen and ink drawing days.  But they're in my attic.  So I used what I had to hand.  I love the shadowpress panels but the sales blurb mentions that they are specifically for use in just about every machine bar Cuttlebug.  Anybody tried them in a Cuttlebug?

A pale imitation of the master's, but it's all about having a go.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 - April

I'm scraping in with a day to spare in the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 challenge for April.  Mainly because I don't have most of the supplies Tim used, so inspiration wasn't forthcoming for most of the month.  But I'm determined to complete all 12 tags, so it's a case of using what I've got, and substituting with the nearest thing.

Here's Tim's tag:

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Monday Challenge Mellow Yellow.

I'm eating out tonight with the girls, so DH is cooking Chinese fried rice for himself.  The smell is driving me mad.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 - March and Orange Jalfrezi Verdict

I'm playing along with Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of 2014.  This month it's all about smudge stamping and second generation stamping.  And using an airbrush which I haven't got, so I substituted that for sponging through a stencil.  The idea is that you stamp the image on one tag, huff on the stamp and stamp onto the second tag, getting a lighter image, then take a clean sponge to them to blur the images.  All went well until I added the wording stamp on the left-hand side of the tag as an afterthought.  By that time, I'd been moving the tags around, and stamped them the wrong way, so the first generation tag has the paler wording stamp, and the second generation tag has the stronger wording.  Oh, well.

Here is Tim's pair of tags:-

And the verdict on the previously untried orange and jalfrezi milk chocolate - fabulous!!  I won't be asking or my money back!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 - February

I'm playing along with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2014, and February's theme is making something for a loved one.  Here's Tim's tag:

I used what I had in my stash to make a similar tag.  I made the heart sometime last year by colouring some grungepaper with distress ink (probably Fired Brick), dry embossed it with a bubble embossing folder, then swiped it with a Versamark pad and clear embossed it.  For this tag, I cut the heart down to the same size as the one on the sentiment.  The sentiment is stamped with Brilliance Moonlight White, and the stars are stencilled with Worn Lipstick.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 - January

I've decided to join in with Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of 2014, and here is my effort for January.  And below is Tim's.  The theme is "time".  I don't have any clock parts so I went for gears for the imagery, but added a clock rub-on and appropriate sentiment.  I sponged the gears with Distress Inks, then decided to paint them with Brushed Pewter Distress Paint and it dried a bit bubbly, but it made the gears look rusted and blistered, so it was a happy accident.

I'm entering it into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes with Twine or String, and I'll be back in a few with another entry for this challenge.