Wednesday, October 17, 2012

12 Tags of 2012 - October

It's that time again - Timmy time!  No, not Shaun the Sheep Timmy but one of my favourite crafters - Tim Holtz. His tag for this month is a fabulous tribute to Halloween - which all of the US crafters have been showing off but which just doesn't fly here yet (see what I did there, wink wink).

So, I decided that since it is Spring here (well, I think it is although the weather doesn't seem to agree), that should be my theme.  Here is the finished tag:
I don't often use my own hand writing because like most of us, I don't like it!  But, I had a photo that I needed for Fat Mum Slim's October Photo a Day and I know that you should try to capture your own writing as often as possible, so I did.  I combined some Dyan Reaveley techniques here too and I am very happy with the out come.  So, how did I do it?

First, please make sure you go and show T!m some love.  His tutorials are always so well done and informative and I wouldn't be able to do half the stuff I do without watching his videos and following his blog.  My challenge this time was to create the tissue paper that he has in his line because I haven't gotten around to purchasing any (although as usual, I want to)!  I used two sheets of regular tissue paper that I stamped on with Archival Ink in Jet Black and glued together and this is the result:
I ended up choosing the script paper as I just wasn't happy with the memories stamped one.  So I adhered it to the tag as per T!m's instructions.
I glued it down with the wrinkles then painted it with acrylic paints in a pale green, yellow and blue, wiping with a baby wipe as I went along.  
Then I added the black acrylic paint around the edges, wiping with a baby wipe.  I did find here that the tissue paper was getting very fragile so I needed to be VERY gentle.
I added Tumbled Glass, Scattered Straw and Bundled Sage Distress Inks over the top.
Next, I stamped using Archival Ink in Jet Black.  The bottom stamp is a KaiserCraft Stamp and the stamp at the top is a Hero Arts.
To finish the background, I sprayed it with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist - I love that shimmer!
I die cut the bird (Caged Bird Bigz Die) from grunge paper using my Vagabond and painted it with Snow Cap paint dabber before I added glitter (see how to make your own coloured glitter with Ranger's Dry Glitter on T!m's blog - using my other favourite - Alcohol Ink!).
Here's the glittered bird.  I added the wing later (using the Alcohol Ink Gold Mixative to colour the glitter) and inked the branch and legs with Gathering Twigs Distress Ink.

Finally, I die cut some leaves using the Mini Branch and Leaf Movers and Shapers set and the sentiments shape from the Mini Labels Movers and Shapers.  I inked them with Distress Ink and wrote out the quote and adhered it with foam tape.  I traced around both the die cut and stamped leaves with and Inkssentials Opaque Pen in white too.  The bird was glued directly to the tag using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive.  My ribbon was a piece of cord from some clothes I bought the boys for summer!

And that folks, is my October Tag.  Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed the process!

xoxo

Kim

Monday, October 1, 2012

Hmmmm, That Didn't Go to Plan!

Truly.  This project was meant to be done yesterday - Saturday even!  But, I was enjoying family and friend time more.  All of this is a good thing.

Then, I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do with my butterfly!  So after struggling with my eCraft to cut three of them, I had to play.  These are what I came up with:
 The black one has been cut from glitter paper (although hard to see that in the photo) and I have edged it with Viva Pearl Pen in Ice White.  I don't know if I'm done with it yet but I kind of like it like this.  The bottom one was white card stock that had the wing pattern cut from blue mirror paper with the eCraft and glued on.  I sprayed it with water and then coloured with Distress Stain (Spiced Marmalade, Broken China and Spun Sugar).  I dried it with the heat tool and added Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) around the edges and then spritzed it with water again.  Once dried, I added Diamond Stickles to it.  I should have left it alone - because I like what it looks like in this picture.  But I have continued to play...more to come on that later.
This butterfly is a little larger and was cut from green glitter paper.  The wing decoration was then cut from red and blue mirror paper and gold glitter paper.  All of the cutting was done with the eCraft.  I glued some ball chain in the middle to make the body.  At this point, I'm not happy with it.  It's out of balance - it's the blue...I don't like it.  I may take it off and replace it with the gold.  Again, work in progress!

I am hoping to share a finished project using at least one of these soon.  I started all of this to join in on the final Simon Says Stamp Stamptember challenge but I just didn't get it done!  So now, it will just be a labour of love!

Thanks for looking and I hope to get lots of blogging done this month!

xoxo

Kim