The 12 Tags of Christmas 2011 - Day Three

I'm lagging a bit behind with the Tags already, but here is my copycat version of number 3. Great fun to make, and it looks a lot better than the picture shows. Can't get the light right. Didn't have the card that Tim used for the foliage, but have some of the Distress Collection which substituted OK. In fact these sheets were extra distressed. I bought them last summer from a local shop which also has a garden centre, and the wind blew them out of my basket and into a puddle. They dried off a bit buckled, but perfectly serviceable for this ! The beads came from the January sales as I knew they'd be perfect come 12 Tags time. I don't have the recommended felt to make the ink pad, but as last year, I used the kind of synthetic felt sold at our local patchwork shop. I got it to cut up for my alcohol ink applicator. I've done lots more stamping with this pad, so I can use the pieces for backgrounds for Christmas cards. Have just realised I've forgotten to add the bell, and I think I'll put a little frosting on the foliage !

I enjoyed the techniques on Tag 2 so much that I decided to make some cards using the same materials, and am pleased with the results. They are only small 4" x 4"s.

A photo of Tag 3 and full illustrated step-by-step instructions can be found here at Tim's blog.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 2

Loved making this tag. I used a piece of the music page from the original Kraft Resist pad and am so impressed with the soft effect of the Picket Fence distress stain on the paper with a little Peeled Paint, Festive Berries, Iced Spruce and Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist smudged on top. In fact I've decided to make the background for a batch of cards in the same way. I die-cut the snowflake, snowflake edge and mini reindeer from grungeboard and canvas, smooched with Picket Fence distress stain and dabbed on Diamond Stickles. Was quite pleased to find a piece of spotty grungeboard which was ideal for the snowflake edge. A rummage in my brads box produced some white sparkly ones.

To see Tim's inspirational tag and instructions, and lots of other takes on the tags from people the world over, visit Tim's blog.

The 12 Tags of Christmas 2011 - Day One

Well, here we are on the first of December, and one of the pleasures of the run up to Christmas is the chance to join in with Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of Christmas project. A tag from Tim each day from 1 to 12 December. Last year I managed to complete them all and hope to do the same this year although various commitments may mean that I will lag a bit behind, but I will try to do the full set this year too. Tim's 2011 tags can be seen on his blog together with full instructions. My approach is to use these as an inspiration, and to enjoy new and old ideas and techniques. I suppose I tend to end up doing a fairly similar version, but not always; and of course there is always a fair degree of improvisation required when I don't have the suggested tools and materials.

So for tag number one I had the foliage die and the Iced Spruce ink and a similar embossing folder and the rest was improvisation ! I have discovered that I can probably make quite a respectable pine cone using my Sizzix rose die - two die cuts joined together and with lots of extra indentations cut into the petals; but for this tag I really wanted to use the lovely little cones that I picked up on a walk in the woods last winter and squirrelled away in the Christmas embellishments box. I discovered that I have nearly run out of Rock Candy Stickles (Ranger, please pack this in half pint bottles !), so I have used Frosted Lace.

Would have produced a better photo if I had waited till morning, but by then I hope to be concentrating on Tag Number 2. Now I'm off to hoover up the glitter which I have managed to spread everywhere !

WOYWW 130

Plenty on the go on the workdesk this fine Wednesday morning. At the back on the right are two maze books folded and glued and ready to be decorated as 2012 memory books. At the front is another along with various die cuts that I am going to use in the decoration. I recently enjoyed a workshop at the Craft Barn where we made an Advent maze book, so this is the inspiration for the ones I'm now working on. On the right is the makings of a calendar. The shape I believe is called a dodecahedron. I started it at Stamping Club, so will now get busy inking, stamping and gluing to finish it. In the middle is some Stampbord. Two pieces are inked, stamped and clear embossed ready to go on a Christmas card, and the third piece is stamped ready to be coloured with the little Versacolour pads and stamped again.

If you fancy a snoop at some more desks, pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground to collect the keys to work rooms the world over.

WOYWW 127

I'm afraid my desk is looking a bit dismal for all you WOYWW visitors. Not a lot to see at all, I'm afraid. On the top tier basket is a little exploding box that I made some years ago to contain some family photos. I searched it out to remind myself how it is made as we are doing more at our local stamping club.

However, fear not, the work space will not remain so dreary for long. That's because last night I unearthed the Christmas stuff. I've been in denial about the approach of the festive season, but if I'm to get any cards, tags, decs or crafty gifts made, I'd better get a wiggle on. It should be quite fun rediscovering the stamps and bits and bobs in these boxes.

The craft desk has been somewhat neglected these past few days as I've been busy with the autumn clearing up process in the garden, and doing creosoting and repairs to chicken sheds and runs to make sure they're sound and weatherproof for the winter.

I've been well and truly inspired in the gardening department by my latest visit to Sissinghurst. The gardens closed at the end of October, but I was lucky enough to be able to be part of a group who spent a day with the head gardener seeing the work that goes on at this time of year. A couple of gardeners were busy in the borders, cutting back, digging out, digging in compost, and in the picture below planting wallflowers and verbascum.

Another gardener was hedge cutting. The little box hedges are done, and they are now working on the yew. They work to specific measurements with spirit levels and plumb lines, and the results are stunning. The left hand side of the hedge had been done and you can see the crisp lines.

We also spent sometime with the gardener in charge of the lawns. A challenging responsibility with in excess of 185,000 visitors. You can see here that this lawn has been scarified and treated with selective herbicide. It will have new seed and fertiliser applied, so, come the new season, it should be vigorous and green.

In one of my summer visits I saw the cardiocrinum giganteum (Giant Himalayan Lily) that had flowered for the first time, and mentioned it in a WOYWW post. Here it is again in autumn with its enormous seed pods.



To visit more work desks, pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground blog. Happy Wednesday.

WOYWW 123

Another Wednesday morning. A cloudy sky, but enough sunshine and warmth to make it a pleasant day. Time to pop over to Julia's to collect the keys to a whole load of work rooms across the world.

This week sees my table remarkably clear. That's 'cos I had a tidy up after putting the finishing touches to the desk tidy which was the project at Neil Walker's most enjoyable Sunday workshop at the Craft Barn. I'm either going to have to have a bit of shuffle round to be able to accommodate it on my postage stamp desk top, or place it on the adjacent surface. Attached on the right hand side of the tidy is a little notebook with a new cover to fit in with the general look.

On the other side the flower and cat embellishments are made from clay cut with cookie cutters and coloured with Butternut Fresco paint. The cat's stripes are stamped with Venetian Orange archival ink.

The little clay cat is to remind me of my lovely Charlie who is missed so much. It's just over two weeks since it became clear that his medication was no longer dealing with his health problems. I always get so attached to these furry friends, so to lose one is very upsetting. Here he is in the garden where he loved to snooze in the sun, or stalk mice and shrews. A shy but very affectionate boy. I think his fifteen years were really happy ones.

WOYWW

The things at the front of the workdesk this morning were deposited there yesterday when I had a tidy up of the kitchen table. Periodically I set up there when I think I am going to be messier than usual. In this instance I was playing with various new goodies from the recent Ally Pally Big Stamp show, and having a go at a technique shown by Lin Brown of LB Crafts involving Viva Terra, the potentially messy bit. Love watching Lin's demos. Always so inspirational for me.

My favourite Ally Pally purchase was some Pan Pastels. Now I already have pastels in stick form in my Box of Colours, so I told myself I didn't need more, but these Pan ones seemed different, so I decided to dip my toe in the water with four colours. Trying out what Lin had shown us was lots of fun and I loved the effects achieved. The stick pastels in my box don't work for these techniques, but it did make me experiment with my neglected palettes of chalks which also produce some pleasing effects. And of course, as you can see I have added some new colours to my Pan Pastel stock.



For the chance to peek at workdesks across the world, call in at Julia's. Happy Wednesday.