Tim Holtz style Christmas Tags

Firstly, apologies for being such a bad blogger last month: Made lots of things, just didn't get time to blog them. I did however raise 60€ for the Téléthon charity by selling my cards last Saturday, despite the terrible weather! Also grateful to have received 2 stamps and some crinkled ribbon from Kristine: Her own creations! The ribbon could not have been better timed as you'll spot below!
So, on to the thing I have been waiting for...Tim Holtz' Christmas Tags. From 1st-12th December Tim gives full instructions for a new tag each day on his blog but, of course, few people have everything he has and that's good as it forces you to be creative. I have been working on several tags at once as they have various drying stages, etc and I've only been able to snatch a few minutes here and there to work on them but I have now finished the first three:
Tag #1 : I don't have the 'Rickety House' or the fence dies so I sketched these on to grungepaper and cut them out by hand. I have tried on all the tags to follow the techniques so used the Cuttlebug 'Distressed Stripes' folder to emboss a second layer of grungepaper and use as instructed on the house. I mixed white flock and glitter together to make the 'snow' and coloured plastic with a yellow permanent pen to line the windows.
My 'tree' is made of wool hardened with glossy accents, white paint dabber and my 'snow' mixture.

Tag #2 : Couldn't follow the technique as I don't have any felt but I went ahead and inked my stamp with different colors of distress (forest moss and walnut stain) and just stamped 3 times without re-inking the stamp to get the impression of lots of trees. I embossed this and then inked and stamped the tag using Tim's Mini Holidays 2 stamps.

Tag #3 : I substituted in a grungeboard bird from the 'Nature' pack and covered this with tissue tape, alcohol inks and Rock Candy Stickles. Loved making the tissue tape flower and I added a fringe and 'nest' of silk paper with the branch from Tim's 'Urban Grunge' stamps and a PaperMania vintage die-cut mounted on grungepaper. With the Rock Candy Distress Stickles used on this tag, I'm also submitting it to Linda's great 'Compendium of Curiosities' challenge #24.

I have a lot of catching up to do but the next three are nearly done so I will be back with the next installment...

Mes premiers trois étiquettes des Noël chez Tim Holtz : Depuis le 1 décembre, toutes les instructions sont sur son blog avec une nouvelle étiquette chaque jour pour les 12 jours. Le but n'est pas à copier mais pour essayer les techniques et prendre l'inspiration de ses modèles.

Tim Holtz - inspired scrap page

My entry for the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #19, hosted by the lovely and talented Linda, using Tim Holtz's 'Extreme Masking' technique on the base page.

I didn't get any pictures on my son's birthday earlier in the month so was pleased at getting these photos and I've written on the main one the things he loves best at his age now. Doesn't show well in the picture here but it is legible without overpowering the photo, which was exactly what I was hoping for.

In creating the page, I have not only used Tim's technique, I have also used his 'Lost and Found' papers, Distress Inks (Walnut Stain and Black Soot), Glossy Accents, the Sizzix Alterations 'Filmstrip' die plus lots from Tim's idea-ology line: Film strip transparency, sprocket gears, Corner, Salvage Stickers, and, of course, the Timeworks Mask (both the positive and negative pieces). Also used some dark brown Bazzill, Hampton Art stamps and recycled some cardboard and string, also coloured with Walnut Stain Distress Ink!

Une page inspirée par Tim Holtz : J’ai utilisé ses papiers ‘Lost and Found’, sa matrice ‘Filmstrip’ chez Sizzix, embellissements de sa gamme ‘idea-ology’, inclut la masque ‘Timeworks’, et beaucoup de l’encre Distress (Walnut Stain et Black Soot). En plus, j’ai utilisé sa technique ‘Extreme Masking’ de sa livre ‘Compendium of Curiosities’ pour le défi chez Linda.

Sunday Stamper & CCC #18 - Paint Resist

There are so many things you can do with Distress Inks: I love this technique: Paint resist. And all you need to do is look at p37 of Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities and you can love it too! So, this card is for the CC challenge hosted by Linda. And, because I've gone green, it is also for Hels Sunday Stampers challenge: A good reason for leaving the CCC until the last day!  In case you're wondering, after the paint resist technique I flicked water on to the paper to get the spots - I mean deliberately ! - Another technique I love.

Used: Snow Cap Paint Dabber; Hampton Art stamp; Distress Inks (Shabby Shutters, Frayed Burlap).

Twins

Here's one scrapbook page I think I've finished! First photo of the latest grandchildren: Love the woolly hats!
Might tone down the pink...some white acrylic round the edges? What do you think? Did most of the page at the Tourc'h assocation over a week ago using a sketch by Snoopie then added/changed little bits.
I certainly love the papers: They are all from 'Homespun Chic' pack by GCD Studios: All double-sided so there's lots of choice.

Une page fait à l'association Tourc'h2Scrap: Nous avons utilisé un modèle de Snoopie.
J'ai utilisé les papiers 'Homespun Chic' de GCD Studios (toutes sont recto-verso).

CCC #17 Charm Fragment Bookmark

I've made a few charm fragments this week as per p64 of Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities for the 17th challenge over at Linda's blog but this bookmark is the only piece I've finished using one of them. My scraproom is nearing completion and I'm struggling to get anything made as I have bits and pieces everywhere! Even with this I had to shape some wire for the final fixing: Can't find a jump ring. Ho hum. I'll be all organised one day soon: Can't wait to get everything together in one place.

I used one of the 2" squares from Tim Holtz 'Lost and Found' paper stack and an Idea-ology Charm Fragment with bits and pieces of stash to finish.

CCC #16 - Wrinkle-free Distress!

Having spent last weekend on a crop selling lots of stock and giving a 2-hour workshop on techniques using Distress Inks, I'd be kicking myself if I didn't get something in for this week's CCC - The challenge is hosted by the lovely Linda at Studio L3 so if you don't know what I'm rattling on about hurry over there to find out.
My entry is another page in my technique's sampler book: I did the background in the workshop last weekend and just finished it off today:

Wrinkle-free Distress with Fired Brick, Frayed Burlap and Stormy Sky (if memory serves me right); Tim Holtz 'Flights of Fancy' stamps with Sepia Archival ink; Glossy Accents; Prima flower; gems. The little wierd crown I made reminded me of King Julian in the film Madagascar, which made me giggle: I like to move it, move it...

I currently have 2 more of these pages in progress plus 3 scrapbook pages, 4 mini-albums and 2 other projects in varying stages of 'work in progress': I'm hoping to blog lots as I get these finished. Fingers crossed...

CCC #15 - Alcohol ink agate

I haven't managed to finish the middle section of this frame yet but wanted to show the butterfly I made while it's within this week's 'Compendium of Curiosity' Challenge. I used this week's technique from p53 of Tim Holtz's book - Alcohol ink agate on grunge - to colour the grungeboard butterfly wings. I used White metallic paint, alcohol inks (Watermelon, Terra Cotta, Citrus), copper alcohol ink mixative, blending solution and then over-stamped with Sepia Archival ink and one of Tim's Flights of Fancy stamps: Doesn't show well but the effect reminded me of printed velvet. The rose center is grungepaper coloured with Wild Honey Distress Ink and finished with a pearly brad.

Les ailes de papillon sont colorés avec une technique utilisant des encres à alcool et la peinture sur 'grungeboard'. Chaque semaine, le "Compendium of Curiosities" Challenge utilise une technique différente du livre de Tim Holtz. La rose de 'grungepaper' est coloré avec de l'encre Distress 'Wild Honey'.

Distress samplers

After having shown the cover, here are 2 of the pages I have made for my 7x5" sampler book.
I will be teaching these techniques next month so wanted to get a few examples of what can be done with them.
The Simon Says Stamp joint challenge team hop asks for a Holiday themed something so I made the first one with that in mind using the Water-stamping technique with Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Stormy Sky and Broken China Distress Inks and a Hampton Art swirl stamp. Then raided my draw for a few bits: Alcohol-inked an old peel-off and metal snowman, who then got stuck on to white-core card and sanded and scraped within an inch of his life. Used more peel-offs as masks to the Distress inks and then slopped a lot of glitter glue over it (More than intended as the nozzle shot out at one point!) and pressed a piece of hessian in to that before sticking the snowman on 3D foam.

Water-stamping was the first Compendium of Curiosities challenge on Linda's L3 blog so this is a bit of a catch-up too. And this week's challenge - #14 already ! - is Masking as per p58 of Tim Holtz's book so there's a bit of that there and even more here:

This time I used Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and Scattered Straw Distress Inks over Tim's Idea-ology mini-mask 'Florets'. I then over-stamped with Tim's 'Flights of Fancy' stamps and Archival Sepia ink.

AND, I have a place on Tim's workshop at the UK PaperArtsy event in February: I shall be learning from the master himself and meeting lots of blogging buddies: I am sooooooo excited!

Grungepaper Flowers - CCC#13

I have started making a sampler of distress ink techniques that I will photograph more of  later. For now, here is the cover which I am entering for this week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #13 - Grungepaper Flowers as per Tim Holtz's technique. I shaped the grungepaper with Spellbinders 'Floral Creation 3' in the Cuttlebug: They didn't cut through but gave me an outline to work with and then I coloured the parts with Distress Inks (wild honey, frayed burlap and spiced marmalade). Just occurred to me that they look like dried orange peel !

I used Zutter chipboard covers which are very smooth and easy to colour with Distress Inks (shabby shutters, wild honey, spiced marmalade) but not so easy to stamp on to. I wanted to give it some texture too so I stamped with Stazon on to scrunched tissue paper then used a glue-varnish to stick that over the coloured surface. I had already stamped the marmalade butterflies underneath as I wanted to give a 3D kind of effect: They show through but the plants that I stamped along the bottom disappeared once I brushed the glue over. Once it was all dry on that side, I glued the tissue over the edges and on to the back, left to dry and coloured these parts with alcohol ink. I then added the flowers and accent pieces and used nibs with the Distress to add a bit more colour to the bird and butterflies.

 (dreadful lighting on this photo - sorry)

Supplies: Zutter covers and wire; Distress Inks; Stazon black ink; white tissue paper; grungepaper; Idea-ology Ornate Corners, Foliage and Bookplates; Glossy Accents; Stamps: Tim Holtz 'Flights of Fancy', Ranger Alcohol ink (Bottle green); Colle-vernis (glue-varnish).
I fancy adding some rock candy too but still waiting to get some...

Fête Déguisée (masked ball)

Wow, have I been busy! Had to hit the ground running this week: 4 different scrapbooking events in 5 days! More of that and other things I've been up to soon...but here's the only thing from this week that I've managed to finish so far!

Used scraps of paper; the Cuttlebug with D'vine Swirls and Spiderweb embossing folders; 'Not the Boss' alphabet and Spellbinders 'Flower Creations 3'; Making Memories buttons and Hampton Art 'Love Circles' stamps.