Tim Holtz Tag - June

Having missed last month's tag on Tim Holtz's blog I thought I'd better get this month's done early. It's quite unusual in that it has no dangly bits or pieces - just stamping and colouring and almost C & S by Tim's standards. I used salty ocean, brushed corduroy and wild honey DIs on a craft sheet. I used various stamps from the Classic favourites set. I stamped a Paper Artsy dragonfly on some watercolour paper, masked it and stamped the Katzelkraft text stamp (I know I use this a lot but it always seems to fit - it's a fabulously useful stamp) and a B-line Design postmark . I used my Whisper markers to colour in the images according to Tim's instructions, highlighted the edges with brushed corduroy DI and stuck it on the tag.

Tim Holtz Tag - April

 

This is my take on Tim's April tag as seen on his blog. I started by laying down some distress ink on a craft sheet (broken china, peeled paint and wild honey). I don't have any distress metallic paint (actually I don't have any of the distress paints) so I used a bit of Brilliance reinker in cosmic copper. The dragonfly stamp is by Paper Artsy and I stamped it on the tag and onto a scrap of plastic (I think it was the cover of a company report originally). It looks quite blurry above because the plastic image has been stapled over the image on the tag. I used a chipboard number, an ornate corner and some die cut cogs and used some paint dabbers to give them a slightly distressed look. The tape measure is a leftover scrap from here and I used a piece of tissue tape. I stamped a Tim Holtz sentiment and cut it into a small tag which I stapled to the tag. I do like the effect of the BG and would probably spread the Brilliance reinker a little more sparingly next time.



Tim Holtz Tag - March

I LOVED making this tag! It was such fun! Some months I look at Tim's tag and spend most of the month thinking about it but I saw this and started straight away. You can see the original tag here.
Instead of Easter BG paper I decided to use the spring seasonal DIs, applied randomly and spritzed with water and a gold shimmer spray. I cut a styled label in kraft card, distressed the edges and applied brushed corduroy DI. The banner (cut from the regal crest die) was given the same treatment and stamped with a homemade stamp. I don't have the bunny die but I do have the Crafty Individuals Alice Palace crowned bunnies stamp which I cut out and covered with blue glitter (and gold for the crown). Now for the grass - I sponged Adirondack meadow and Impress spring green onto some card and scored it with my Martha Stewart scoreboard. That gave me a perfect cutting guide for my strips of grass. I didn't cut the grass in a straight line to give it a more natural appearance (it usually looks like that when I cut my lawn!). The flowers and leaves were cut from a variety of  dies and punches I have and coloured with DIs - I wasn't looking for realism here more a whimsical feel. I attached them to brads and toothpick stems and anchored them in with glossy accents. Some lilac organza and blue ribbon completed the tag with a sun-shaped brad in the hole at the top. Hello Spring!

Tim Holtz Tag February

So it's February and inevitably the theme for Tim Holtz's tag is Love (am I getting too old and cynical?). I used barn door and fired brick DIs on the tag and splattered some water over, then distressed the edges and added some Adirondack black. The BG was stamped with a KTZ and a Stampington stamp. The queen of hearts is a stamp from the Non Sequitur plate every woman is a star. I stamped it with Adirondack red pepper and an extra body in Impress cerulean blue. The hearts were sprinkled with glitter and her face coloured with coloursoft pencils. I used some black colour core cardstock to emboss the hearts and the word love and sanded them. The charm is a CB die cut in silver card with a punched circle, computer generated text and a dome sticker. I didn't have any baker's twine so I made my own by wrapping some plain twine around a ruler and then drawing lines along it with a marker pen (I saw this idea on the net somewhere but can't remember where). The tissue tape ribbon is about the only thing that I could do according to Tim's instructions.

Tim Holtz Tag - January

I really enjoyed doing Tim's tags last year but I wasn't sure whether to take up this year's challenge or not. I don't have many of his stamps, embellishments or even the newer dies but then I decided to give it a go and adapt as much as I could to what I have.  So here is January's tag. I've used a Papermania chronology embossing folder with antique linen, brushed corduroy and broken china DIs. The advantage of this folder is that it is upside down so you don't have to cut the top to allow the bottom of the tag to be embossed as instructed by Tim. The text stamp by Katzelkraft is an extract of Martin Luther King's famous speech with the edges distressed. I cut some cogs from a Papermania chronology die and sponged copper, galaxy gold, platinum planet and lightning black Brilliance inks over. The film strip is by TH and the arrow is a punched shape. I coloured the silver organza ribbon with ginger Adirondack ink and stamped the month January from a Studio G stamp set. I'm not a big fan of steampunk but I do like this embossing folder and the dies are a good size to be used on other projects.

Tim Holtz Tag - December

For the last month of the year on Tim Holtz's blog we have 2 tags to catch up with the tag we missed in January. Both are quite different to the originals in terms of things used but I have tried to keep as close to them as possible.

I made a spritzed DI BG with broken china and splattered some silver Krylon pen over it. I used a snowflake and Katzelkraft BG stamp randomly with Brilliance platinum planet. The musical score is a Katzelkraft stamp and the letters are a CB alpha called hippy chick. I don't have the TH snowman so I used my snowman punch and watercolour pencils to do the shading. The arms are cut from a Memory Box branch die and I drew in the face. I punched out an extra hat and scarf as instructed. The holly on the snowman's hat is punched from shrink plastic, shrunk and coloured in with a green Sharpie. I added red Stickles for the berries and rock candy Stickles on the snowman's body. The snowflake is a wooden embellishment painted with a silver dabber and rubbed with Stickles. I finished with some iridescent blue ribbon.
                                                        

The second tag's BG was done in the same way as above with fired brick DI. I also coloured some scraps of card for the flowers in the same way. The BG was spritzed with a homemade gold spray. The poinsettias were stamped with a Paper Artsy script and then I used a punch and a Marianne die. The flourish was cut with a TH die and painted gold. The text is from a Paula Pascual set stamped in Versafine spanish moss and habanero on a brushed corduroy DI BG. I used a paper distresser to rough up the edges.
I've really enjoyed making these tags all year. Although I've not had all of the items used it's been fun working around the missing items to still produce a similar tag to the original TH version. During the course of the year there are items that have definitely gone onto my wish list that I perhaps wouldn't have considered before. A big thank you to Mr Holtz for inspiring me through 2012 and I look forward to seeing what 2013 brings.
That completes my last challenge for 2012. I've really enjoyed them all and I hope to use some of the new techniques I've learned in my cards in 2013.

Tim Holtz Tag - November

I loved the tutorial for this tag on Tim Holtz's blog. I may not have had all the items but the colours and the stamp set are really 'me'. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to buy the required items but this is a stamp set that I feel I would use a lot and is on my wishlist now. Looking at my blog design you probably realise that Autumn is my kind of season. I've always felt an affinity for Autumn colours in my home & in the clothes I wear. I used a variety of DIs for the BG - some DTP, some smeared onto a craft sheet and spritzed with water and some sponged on for the gaps. I basically used the same colours that Tim used in Distress Stains (I don't have any of those) in DIs. The wheat is a stamp by My Paper World from a set called grasses & embellishments which I stamped and clear embossed. After colouring the BG I ironed off the embossing (the FT newspaper works well for this!). I randomly stamped an Elusive Images hessian stamp (is hessian the same as burlap?) and used an Xcut alpha for the text. The embellishments are a piece of hessian (from an old bag) and various leaf punches and diecuts. I drew the acorn and added glossy accents. A selection of autumnal coloured fibres and a knotted piece of hessian with a couple of alcohol inked, metallic leaves finished off this tag. In the 'which Tim Holtz tag are you?' game I am definitely November! 2 more tags to go and I'm thinking of ways to put my year's worth of tags together in a book. What are you doing with yours?

Tim Holtz Tag - October

I have to own up that I am NOT a fan of Halloween. I suppose if I lived in The States I would have grown up with it as a festive occasion but here in the UK, except for a few small areas where it has been traditional to celebrate it, I feel it's an occasion manufactured by stores in order to sell pumpkin shaped lollipops, witches hats and other ghoul related stuff. Halloween is definitely my bah humbug moment and I wasn't looking forward to this month's tag but I have to say I enjoyed making it and I'm happy with the end result.
For this month's Tim Holtz tag I used a crumpled book page and stuck it down with creases as instructed. Not having the correct dabbers I used Stazon in pumpkin and imperial purple DTP and then sponged extra colour to fill in any gaps. I thought the Sizzix embossing folder cracked would give a good approximation of a spider's web and highlighted that with Memento London fog and a good spritz of gold spray.  The skeleton and the 'boo' are 2 picks that I think I saved from some cupcakes a few years ago. The calendar and text were computer generated and coloured with spiced marmalade and brushed corduroy DI. I edged the calendar with black Stickles and added an eyelet and some co-ordinating ribbons. I'm really pleased with the texture and the look of this background.

Tim Holtz Tag - September

This month's tag on Tim Holtz's blog features an interesting technique using bits of sticky foil and embossing with various items such as a biro. I reproduced as much as I could but I do not have many Ideology embellishments so I improvised with what I had. The current trend for steampunk leaves me cold - I do admire the art that others create but it doesn't really inspire me to create anything similar. I have no cog embellishments so improvised with a Cuttlebug asterisk which I cut from grunge paper,  painted with silver acrylic paint and stippled some black ink over.  The metal embellishment is an earring (I lost the other one). I used a 'v' for vintage and added the number 42 in the lightbulb because as everyone knows 42 is the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

Tim Holtz Tag - August

I've spent most of this month thinking about how to create Tim Holtz's August tag. This is what I came up with. The embossed BG is a Cuttlebug textile texture folder. I highlighted the embossing with broken china DI, used the On The Edge plaque die and brushed corduroy DI on the distressed edges. The silhouette is an image I found online and the frame is a Marianne die which I heat embossed with clear powder. The branch (cardstock) and flowers (grunge paper) are Memory Box dies coloured with broken china, barn door and wild honey DI. The leaves are Marianne dies coloured with peeled paint & shabby shutters DI. I finished the tag off with some ribbon, lace and a few beads. The text is a stamp I had made a while back. I'm pleased with this tag. I like the look of the vintage silhouette in the embossed diecut frame and it was good to use the On The Edge die which I don't use enough. Only 5 more tags to go (January is still outstanding).

Tim Holtz Tag - July

This month's tag on Tim Holtz's blog has proved to be yet another challenge! I wasn't really inspired by the 4th of July theme so I decided to go in my own direction. I didn't have any canned air so I improvised with a Blitzer (a spongy, puffy thing you use to get a sort of airbrushed effect with pens). I had the sailboat blue & watermelon inks that he used but only had gold mixative (& a bit of an odd, mouldy looking gold at that). Instead of Independence Day I decided to focus on something closer to home so I used my Scottish Border Stamp image of Big Ben (a pretty iconic London structure) and used the slogan 'reach for the stars' to give my version of  the Olympic motto of  'citius, altius, fortius' with the Xcut numerals '2012'. The image was mounted onto blue & red card and the edges were distressed. I didn't have any red baker's twine so I made my own with plain twine and added some red chequered ribbon. A couple of diecut & embossed shapes replaced the ideology pieces. Well 7 months in and I'm still managing to hang in there - quite an achievement!

Tim Holtz Tag June

June's tag on Tim Holtz's blog features a photo of this cute girl with a teddy which is available to download on his blog. I made the BG with picket fence distress stain, worn lipstick, milled lavender & frayed burlap DI. I randomly stamped TH photographic memoirs. The photo was tinted with fired brick and tea dye. Instead of ideology pieces I used metallic silver card. The rose is a memory box die with leaves punched & coloured with alcohol ink.

Tim Holtz Tags - May

This month's tag on Tim Holtz's blog has been another exercise in inventiveness. I had none of the required elements so have had to wing it. I stamped the lady image (from a grab bag so I have no idea where it's from), added the fake cross stitches and covered them with an old paper pattern I found at the charity shop. It had a yellowed, vintage tinge to it already but I highlighted it with frayed burlap DI. I found the cotton reel images online and stuck one onto a flattened bottlecap with a covering of glossy accents. The dummy is a template from Lisa Vollrath's Go Make Something site embossed with a houndstooth folder and the stand has been fashioned from part of TH's hanging sign die. I made the hanger out of wire and used a Cuttlebug embossing border for the tape measure which I highlighted with black ink. The cotton reel is hand drawn with kitchen twine wrapped around and I made a little square box to mount it on to give it some dimension. I don't have a melt pot so I rubbed pigment ink onto the flowers and dunked them into UTEE several times. Some red & black ribbon finished off the tag. Roll on June!

Tim Holtz Tag - April

NOTICE: No extra products were purchased in the making of this tag! Well this was an interesting challenge as I had none of the elements required for the Tim Holtz April tag but I have tried to keep as true to the original as possible. The bird & branch die - nope didn't have that but I do have some tando chipboard birds and branches which I coloured with broken china and brushed corduroy DI and a felt pen for the beak. I used some Viva Croco clear crackling colour over the chipboard to add a bit of texture. His crown was hand drawn and cut out of gold card. The background was coloured with wild honey, broken china & brushed corduroy DI and stamped with Adirondack archival sepia. I got the script stamp in a grab bag so have no idea who makes it. The oval frame is a Nellie Snellen die which I embossed with the Cuttlebug textile texture folder. I masked the Crafty Individuals journey stamp in order to stamp the quote (yes my inner proof reader is telling me realise is spelt the American way and til should have either an extra l or an apostrophe before it but this tag is one big compromise) and rounded the corners to make a tag. The twine was coloured with more brushed corduroy (this is a colour I only recently invested in but it has been used a lot) and attached with a stapler. The yarn is a small piece from a charity shop find and the key is an original from our old 1930s doors. Thank you Mr Holtz - I enjoyed thinking my way around this.

Tim Holtz Tag - March

This month's Tim tag IMO is quite minimalistic and seemed a departure from his usual style. That's not to say I didn't enjoy making it - the mosaic technique is fiddly but I liked the effect. There are quite a lot of substitutions but I've tried to be true to the original which you can see here.
I used tea dye & brushed corduroy DIs as I didn't have walnut stain or vintage photo. Instead of the woodgrain stamp I used a woodgrain embossing folder by Craft Concepts. Unfortunately this meant I couldn't stamp straight onto the tag so I stamped onto a scrap of card. I spritzed a homemade perfect pearls spray. The text is from TH's life's possibilities set. The butterflies are a die from Sizzix/ Hero Arts. The papers are from DCWV flower stack. Not having any wonder tape I used my usual carpet DST which turned out not to be heatproof. When I tried to heat the verdigris embossing powder all my carefully stuck on mosaic bits lifted and moved into a lump as the DST melted. What you see is my 2nd attempt. The melting DST left a sticky residue on the diecuts which was enough to stick the new mosaic pieces and the embossing powder. Then I put glossy accents over the mosaic pieces. I didn't have any foliage pieces so I used some punches to complete the tag.

Tim Holtz Tag - Feb

Although I have followed Tim Holtz's 12 tags of Christmas every year I've never actually played along. This is the first Timmy Tag I've ever done. This year he has decided to move on from just Christmas themed tags and to feature a tag every month (January's will come next month). You can see his original version here. I tried to use all the techniques he had but was determined to use what I had rather than buy something new. I used my CB heart blocks embossing folder which I brayered with spun sugar CI first. I distressed the edges and added worn lipstick DI. I do not have the dies he used but I had a set of chipboard shapes which had a heart so I used tissue tape on that. I cut out another heart from red holographic paper and stuck it over the top but it was just a bit to OTT for my tastes so I covered it with a red card heart (you can just see a bit of the holographic heart around the edges which actually looks quite nice).I added rock candy distress stickles but as my heart was much larger than TH's it looked too prominent. I have a very old booklet of ATC sized papers on a love theme and it had a little music print heart which was perfect to cover up some of the red. The booklet also had the LOVE text which I punched out & added glossy accents. The cherubs are punched out of gold card (I had a bit of a glossy accents explosion on them trying to squeeze my last bit of GA out to stick them down). The frilly lace is cut with the TH die and coloured with worn lipstick DI. I don't have any TH ideology stuff so I cut a gold charm with a CB die and added some beads from my collection. The ribbon was coloured with worn lipstick DI. I enjoyed the challenge of making do with what I had and I'm looking forward to next month.