Christmas Tags 11 & 12

Tag 11: I have found my new love to play with. . . Shrink Plastic!  I have had some of this product for quite some time and never played with it.  I knew how it worked but just hadn’t found and excuse to give it a go.

I don’t have a melting pot and Utee so I simply did it without.  My Silhouette was not able to cut through the shrink plastic completely but it was enough for me to either pop the shape out or cut it cleanly with scissors. I did experiment with adding the colour before and after shrinking so that I could see what difference it would make.  I much before to add the colour first so that it become much more vibrant after shrinking.  I used my heat gun to do the deed – it was so much fun to watch the shape shrink, shrivel and then flatten.

Well – here it is.  The last of the tags for this year.  I have taken a couple of days to complete this one but I am pleased with end result.

You cant really see the script stamp under the tissue so that step was probably pointless foe me.  I stamped my own tissue ( I didn’t even know about Tim’s tissue on a roll), Cut my own house shape from grungeboard and used Broken China crackle paint followed by a glitter nail polish, would you believe!

I don’t really like the look of the doll that Tim Holtz  used so I used something uniquely Kiwi.

 

Merry Christmas!

Cheers, Esther

Christmas Tags 9 & 10

I love the vibrancy of Tag 9 from Tim Holtz this year.  I had fun doing this one but did manage to get embossing powder simply everywhere!

My background stamp is from Stamp-It (I think) and I used a variety of Silhouette cut files that I “fiddled” with to create the candle and the greenery.  The letters are also cut on the Silhouette, from cardstock covered with vinyl.

All in all, I am really loving this one!

Tag 10 looked easy to re-create, and it was . . . . until it came to finding a substitute for the fragments! I had several attempts at fake ones but in the end I found two frames.  I chose to use the same image but in different sizes.

For the banner, I ran some double sided tape over a book page and inked it, popping the middle on foam tape.  Again, the letters were cut on the Silhouette (a bit too big, I admit).  How did I ever craft without this amazing machine?

Thanks for popping in to take a wee look-see.  I hope your weekend has gone well and you have managed to avoid the crowds at the malls.

Cheers, Esther

Christmas Tags 7 & 8

Day 7: Yes!  This is much more like it!  I have struggled to get excited about the first 6 tags and it seems that Tim Holtz did too.  Day 7 is much more his style.

I don’t have the distress stains in the same colours that Tim used so I used re-inkers instead.  The tag came out a little darker than I would have liked but I think it still looks good. I stamped my crackle background stamp with Stazon Dove Grey that I find is an awesome colour for ghost stamping.

I was excited that I had the Craft Glassine!  Yay me!! I don’t have the die but with my Silhouette, who needs it.  I cut the leaves (from a Kerri Bradford kit) before colouring and crushing.  I found my last little bit of branch with crystals attached and decided it looked heaps nicer than the branches I had cut and “snowed”on. I used a tinsel pipe cleaner to make up the lace bow and added some red bead drops that I took off cheap and, quite frankly, nasty earrings from the $$ shop.

My sentiment is actually a Dingbat font that I sketched and then cut on the Silhouette.  I filled in the font with metallic gel pens and inked around the edge.

Day 8:  How cool was the Steampunk tag that Tim Holtz came up with? Very!

I love Steampunk but I am not so flash at putting it together from scratch so having Tim’s tag as a guide was awesome.

Again, the Silhouette came to the rescue for cutting out the clock and the cogs.  I can’t remember where I got the cogs from but the clock is a file from the very talented Penny Duncan.

I have the Steampunk stamp set from Crafty Secrets so it was perfect for this tag. I used the lightbulb and cog stamps from that set, heat embossing them with white.  I was chuffed that my Winter Edition distress inks arrived a week or so ago (thanks Art of Craft!) so I set to and coloured my tag – loving the combo!

My gentleman are part of an art stamp from Crafty Individuals that I bought on-line maybe a year ago.

I thinks this one just may be my new favourite one so far.

Thanks for stopping in to take a look.  If you are doing the tags too and live in NZ, check out Dianne’s versions at Art of Craft. Leave comments and send her photos of your tags – she has a giveaway up for grabs.

Cheers, Esther

Tags 5 & 6

Day 5’s tag from Tim Holtz had me flummoxed for a while.  Why would anyone buy a “backwards” stamp? For this very purpose, I guess, lol.

I got myself hung up on the whole using “words” thing until Shell reminded me that I didn’t need to use a word stamp at all! Duh!  I knew that (silly me).

So I cut a tag from acetate and set to colouring it red with alcohol ink. For goodness know what reason it wasn’t keen on drying in a hurry so I did give it a wee push with my heat gun.  I found a great stamp to use but do you think I could get the archival ink to lift off the red?  No way!!!  I gave up trying after half a bottle of alcohol ink and simply stamped on top with white.  I cut the wreath with a Silhouette Studio file and popped on the pearls.

 

Day 6’s tag was fun to make.  I covered a cardstock tag with metal tape from the $$ shop, cut it into various pieces and embossed them with various embossing folders.  I then stuck all the pieces onto a tag base and set about playing with paints. When the paint was dry, I followed Tim’s tutorial for the sanding, inking and embossing.  I added a small wooden ornament in place of the metal frame that Tim used.

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments you have left me!  It gives me such a buzz and keeps the old mojo in place.

Lets catch up again after Day 8.

Cheers, Esther xoxo

Christmas Tags 3 & 4

Day three’s tag is total improvisation! I don’t have the Tim Holtz stamp or the embossing folder so I was stumped for a while.

I was going to make my own embossing folder using both the negative and the cut outs of the words, using several layers made with the Silhouette but I decided it was too much like hard work.  Maybe another time.  I just layered 2 copies of the letters and inked them to suit.

Day four’s tag is very, well, Blue!  My crackle paint has seen better days so Mr Snowman is more textured than crackled.  I don’t have this die either (actually, I don’t have any of Tim’s dies) but I do have my Silhouette so I played around with a purchased file of the snowman and a snowflake border.  The acetate snowflake border seems a bit pointless to me – you can’t see it at all on my tag :(

 

Thanks for stopping in to take a look.  See you after Day 6.

Cheers, Esther

12 Tags of Christmas

Like many other paper crafters I love following along with Tim Holtz as he produces his 12 Tags of Christmas.

I got myself organised early this year, cutting all my tags and making them into a book.  I made a cover and waited for Tim’s 1st post.  It shows up in my time zone about 9pm each day.

I cut extra reinforcing tabs and added them to the left-hand side of my tags.  Not at all keen on the colour of the book rings!!!  That will have to change but they were all I had at the time.

Day 1:

The only things I have that Tim used are the inks so I improvised for everything else.  The “pine cones” are actually seed pods from my Liquid Amber tree.  I usually curse the thing because they are really prickly and hurt like the billy-oh if you stand on them with bare feet!!!

I created the Noel on my Silhouette from glitter cardstock and used cutting files from Penny Duncan Creations for the leaves and the flourish.

Day 2:

I used some of the regular Kraft Resist as I don’t have the holiday ones and tore/inked some cardstock for along the bottom.  Once the brads were in place I dented them using an eyelet-setter. The reindeer was one of several that I had cut out while up in Rotorua visiting Shell after the Scrapbook Dreams retreat. Bless you for sharing you die with me Shell!!  A star brad and some green pipe cleaner finished him off nicely.

Roll on day 3, I say!!

Thanks for popping in to see what I have been up to.

Cheers, Esther