12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 11

Well, I'm getting there. Tag 11. I don't have the pines die, but I do have the embossing folder, so I ran it through the Big Shot with a piece of grungeboard and then cut out three of the trees. I decided I wanted to use ink and embossing powder on the trunks too. I used Walnut Stain DI and as I only have one brown Distress EP the choice of Tea Dye was made for me. I mixed some White Opal Liquid Pearls with some fine white glitter and painted it on as snow on the branches. Unfortunately the DIs bled into my mixture and we had green snow, so I ended up painting it over with white acrylic paint. Otherwise the rest of the tag is more or less what Lord Tim prescribed.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 10

Loved making this tag. Don't have the snowman die but had a grungeboard snowman still in a pack of shapes. He's not quite the same but he fits on the tag. I only have a few dabbers, but I do have a range of acrylic paints so can mix them to get a range of colours. I made the holly sprig by stamping a Paper Artsy stamp on grungepaper, cutting it out and colouring it. Didn't have the embossing folder either, but I do have another snowflake one which I used here. I chose to use the big white brads as I thought they suggested snowballs. The tartan of the scarf is MacDonald !

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 9

Still trying to catch up. It's Day 12 and I'm still on Day 9. I managed to make this one much as per the description except for the stamps, embellishments and letters.

My set of alphabet dies is in a less chunky font. I think I sanded them a bit more than on Tim's version. Instead of the long fasteners, I used little gold embellishments called Dewdrops. I raided the button box to get something to put with the piece of net. The 'ribbon' is some white cotton tape coloured with Brushed Corduroy and Heirloom Gold. Stamps are Bladerubber and Crafty Individuals.

Another tag that's been lots of fun to do. To see hundreds of tags made by people from all over, go to Artyjen's blog.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 8

Not much of this one is like Tim's original. I'd used the mask set for Hallowe'en, so it was good to use it again for Christmas, and I loved the intensity of the Fired Brick colour. Stamps were Bladerubber, Crafty Individuals, and Tim. I do have some of these metal corners, but wanted to save them for a bigger project, so I used Tim's corner stamp. Didn't have any of the stuff for embellishments so decided to add a few bits of my own and keep it simple.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 7

I have certainly well and truly fallen behind with these tags. All the extra things we have to do pre-Christmas have got in the way. However, here is Tag number 7. I must confess that initially this didn't enthuse me too much as I have been rather put off poinsettias by seeing them by the hundreds in supermarkets - each plant factory-reared in conditions that no one could replicate at home, and destined to drop their leaves within days.

However, I soon got absorbed in the tag-creating process and thoroughly enjoyed making this one. The woodgrain background technique is fab. I do love Rock Candy Stickles. They should sell it in pint bottles ! Didn't have the Sizzix leaves, so instead used the Paper Artsy leaf die. It doesn't cut through grungepaper, but it embosses an impression which looks good, and you can cut out the shape. I only have two Adirondack Colour Wash sprays, and one of these happens to be Lettuce, so I used that with Shabby Shutters re-inker and Honeydew Glimmer Mist for the leaves; and Fired Brick and Barn Door re-inkers with Lava Red Cosmic Shimmer Mist for the flower. At the centre of the flower is a shirt button which I've painted with gold acrylic.

I had a rummage around among my remaining grungeboard letters but couldn't find the right ones to spell out an appropriate word, so scrabbled (!) in my box of chipboard letters and found four festive letters that would fit along the bottom of the tag. These are painted with white acrylic, coloured with Cranberry and Red Pepper alcohol inks and stamped upon with a Crafty Individuals stamp.

I found some toning green velvet ribbon which is flecked and edged with gold tinsel, and some gold twine and little bells to finish off the tag. And I have to say, I am so glad I did this tag. It was such fun.

WOYWW 79

Last Wednesday we had five inches of snow. As the week wore on I found the snow up over my wellies. The thaw came at the weekend, but for some reason the rail company still couldn't manage to run a train service, so I missed out on my planned trip to London. Since then it' s been freezing, and this morning we had the most stunning hoar frost the likes of which I have not seen for a long time. The trees, bushes, fields .... everything was covered in a magical frosting until well into the afternoon. I'm kicking myself now that too many distractions meant I didn't get any photos.

Anyway. It's Wednesday. The early hours of. And I'm still trying to catch up, and have a busy day ahead tomorrow. So here's my desk. There will be a full explanation at Julia's Stamping Ground blog as to why I am showing my work space.

There's lots of stuff on the shelves , on the table and in the baskets. Much of this relates to my attempts at the 12 Tags of Christmas, the annual Tim Holtz project. My card making is being neglected while I do the tags. However, I will use some of the tags as gift tags. One of the benefits of taking part in the project is getting the opportunity to try out new ideas. For me this leads to a lot of improvisation on the materials front, and I have been rooting in every cupboard, drawer and box, and, another benefit, finding stuff I didn't even remember I had, and using it.

As I've been doing the tags, I've been debating with myself on why and how I'm taking part. If I do something that is a copy, I feel a certain dissatisfaction. My instinct would be to produce whatever I am moved to produce. Then I reason that if I'm following someone else's directions, it is because I am learning from that person - about materials, about techniques. Yet when I am following someone else's ideas, I often end up producing something I'm not really happy with. So my conclusion? Just keep inking and painting and whatever. Seeing what others do can be inspirational, and from that inspiration I can produce something that is me.

Other stuff I am doing? I am using the gold spray on some Christmas decs which are hanging up to dry in the kitchen at the moment. Hope to post the finished items before too long.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 6

Tag number six already ! Improvisation as usual. I started off this one using a grungeboard reindeer shape and mixing turquoise and white acrylic paints to get a soft colour, but otherwise keeping pretty much to the instructions. I really liked the combination of the DI and acrylic colours, and decided I didn't want to introduce the Christmassy green and red, so the rest of the decor is white, gold, soft turquoise, crystal and pearl.