Tags #9 and #10

I finally have them done.  Yay!  It has been a bit of a busy last few days; so I am afraid that I hadn't had a chance to work on the tags until last night.  We had our office Christmas lunch on Thursday.  I am the one who was responsible for arranging it and making sure everyone had a good time.  And, I must say everyone had a good time, myself included; although, I was paying for it later in the day.  After numerous burnt martinis and glasses of red wine, I was a happy camper and quite the chatterbox my husband tells me.  Needless to say, the tags became a low priority.

Last night I decided I would buckle down and try to get at least two done and if I could. maybe even a third.  Well at 3 am last night, I realized that getting three done was wishful thinking but at least I did get two completed.

The film strip ribbon used on Tim's Tag #9 was not in my stash.  I had thought I would try to find some clip art that I could use to make the same idea.  After a few hours of searching on line for something that I could use, I finally gave up and headed over to The Scrapbox.  Luckily, Jenn had just gotten in a shipment of Tim Holtz products which included the ribbon.

Getting my printer to print images small enough to use in the film strip took an hour or so.  It just didn't seem to like the size.  Another thing I realized making this tag was that Glossy Accents and ink jet printed photographs don't really like each other very much.  The emulsion on the photo paper fogged once they were glued to the ribbon.  Oh well...it gives it a distressed look.

I did not have the metal numbers so I used grungeboard numbers and painted them with a gold paint dauber.  (Note to self -- you need to buy a silver paint dauber).  I can't seem to locate my dymo anywhere in this house.  I am sure I have one.  It is a really old one but for the life of me I have no idea where it is hiding so I used Making Memories adhesive letters to make something similiar on black cardstock.  I also do not have any of the letter charms but I did have some typewritter letters from Making Memories.  They worked as a replacement.

Tag #10 is my favourite.  I love working with metal embossing and I stalk the TenSecond Studios blog and website to see what wonderful new creations they come up with.  I did not have any of the adhesive metal sheets but I did have some craft metal that would be a reasonable subsititute even if it is a bit thicker and a little harder to work.

I used Copic Markers for my colouring.  The metal snow flake I have had in my stash for years so I have no clue who the manufacturer is.  I seem to remember that I either picked it up at the dollar store or at Micheal's in their $1.50 bins.  I seem to be leaning more towards Micheal's at the moment since the snowflakes are a reasonably heavy metal.

I am going to attempt to get the last two tags completed today.  I don't have any grunge paper for Tag #12 so I am off to see if I can get my hands on some.

Happy Saturday. =)

Tag #8 is all done...

I had to dig around for my vellum sheets.  It took a while to find them.  I have so many boxes of craft supplies stored in the basement and in my upstairs closet.  After all that digging around, I have come to the conclusion that I either have to edit them or I, at least, need to label the boxes with their contents.

So with out much further ado...here is Tag #8:

Another fairly close representation with a few differences, I was missing the key but I had some of the Delish keys so I used it instead.  For the bells, I found them at the dollar store all made up into decorations.  I pulled them apart and then made my own grouping for the lamp post.  I am missing some of the colours of Distress ink that Tim used so I used what I had lying around here.  Instead of pine needles, I used peel paint and to darken it a bit I embossed it.  For dark brown, I ended up using pinecone Versacolor instead.  I think pine needles and walnut stain are going on my Xmas wish list.

We are under a bit of a snow storm here today.  I think they are calling for anywhere between 15 to 25 cms of snow depending on which news station that you listen too.  Not a horrible amount of snow really but it is the first snow fall of the season so it take a bit for the drivers here to adjust their driving.  Keeping that in mind, I took the day off so I wouldn't have to make that east-west commute too many times.  My lovely son has an eye appointment this afternoon that he can't miss so it is just easier for me to be in the east end. 

It worked out well since the school board cancelled the school buses today so I have ended up playing chauffeur for the kiddos.  I picked up my darling daughter from school this morning and dropped her off at daycare.  I have to pick up my son in another 45 minutes to take him to his eye appointment and this is what it looks like outside my window at the moment...still no sighting of a snow plow.

Ah the joys of winter driving....thankfully, I have my snow tires on and lots of time to get to where I am going today.

Off to start Tag #9 before I have to head out to pick up the little man.  I am going to have to do some creative thinking for that one...not sure what I will use as a subsitution for the photo ribbon yet.  Hmm...I do have some transparencies I can print out on if I can find an image of a film strip.....that might work...

Christmas Tag #7

I really like Tim Holtz Tag #7 and I finally dug out my mask sheets that I bought months ago.  I had bought them specifically to use with stamping.  I added them to my stash and completely forgot all about them.  So for the last few months, I have been using my handy dandy post-it notes instead.  I certainly have my ditsy moments.

This tag is pretty close to Tim's original.  I didn't have the Santa stamp that he used so I used one that I had.  I also don't have any of his metal charms/tags so I took a piece of holly grungeboard, inked it, covered it in distress stickles and clipped it to the side with a metal clip just to give it a bit of dimension.

Tonight I am going to tackle Tag #8 and I really need to get my Xmas cards done as well.  I have been putting it off for the last couple of weeks so now I have to buckle down.  I admit it.  I am a first class procrastinator.  I will find everything and anything else to do when there is something I am not in the mood to do.  The TV calls, I suddenly notice a book I haven't read....I will even *gasp* clean the kitchen to get out of doing that dreaded task.  You can proceed to faint.

And why, do you ask is getting my Xmas cards done such a dreaded task...well, it is because it is so repetitive.  The same design over and over again.  I am not much for repetitive tasks.  I become bored pretty quickly.  So why don't I do a different one for everyone....well, it would take me too long to design that many Xmas cards.  I know..complain, complain, complain.  I am getting tired of hearing myself too.  So I will shut up now and I swear I am going to put my nose to the grindstone tonight and get a prototype done that I can mass produce in the next couple of days.  So if you are reading this and are expecting a Xmas card, they might be a little late. ;-)

Tag #6 is finished....

Yay...I finished just before the sun went down so I was able to get a pic.  But because I was rushing, I stuck my fingers in to the fake snow too many times and mucked it up a bit.  Oh well...it could be better but it is not bad.

Since I didn't have any of the Sparkly Fluff, I used some styrofoam...yep, that's right styrofoam.  I had seen a post over at Splitcoast a while back of someone making their own Flowersoft using two styrofoam balls.  She rubbed them together to get them to grate off bits.  I used the styrofoam and some diamond Stickles to make it glittery.  I had inked the background a bit of my trees and the styrofoam picked up a bit of the colour.  Next time...no inking.

Since I didn't have either the car or the tree, I used the grouping of three trees stamped multiple times to make a forest and the little deer from the Mini Holiday set.  I kept thinking I didn't have the Seasons Greetings stamp so I used the Merry Christmas instead.  To my embarrasment, I discovered my Seasons Greetings stamp buried under all the junk at the end of the table.  That is what I get for shoving everything down to the end of the table so that we can eat instead of putting it away properly.

I didn't have any dictionary paper and I can't bring myself to take a page out of a book.  I was thinking I would just stamp the background instead.  Then I remembered that I had an old Norton's Anthology buried downstairs that was falling apart and missing pages.  Its pages are the same weight as dictionary pages.  Perfect.  Even more so, since I could use a page of John Milton's "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity".

I can't wait to see what Tag #7 is going to look like.

Christmas Tag #5

After finishing two tags on Friday night, I took a break last night but I dug back in this morning.  I am hoping to get the two tags done today before I loose the light but it looks like I might only get this one done.

I did not have the fragment tags that were used for Tim Holtz Tag #5 but I did have the plain fragments.  I altered the plain fragments by adding a jump ring to the back to make them "ornaments".  I also did not have any of the German scrap.  I would love to get my hands on some but instead I used my handy dandy Cuttlebug.  Man...I really love that thing.  I cut out my own using some craft metal from Spellbinders and a Cuttlebug border die.  Not a bad compromise.  I used Making Memories rubons in black.  As I was digging through my stash I realized I have very little in the ways of Christmas themed rubons which surprised me.

I am currently working on Tag #6.  I am going to have to modify it again since I don't have the stamp set with the car nor do I think I have that tree....I have already figured out a substitute for the Sparkly Fluff but I will be keeping my eyes open for it in my travels to the various local scrapbooking stores in the neighbourhood.  I think I need a second job to support this habit of mine.