Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Live in the Moment

My cats are a great joy in my life. Gidget has been really wanting attention this week. She loves to sleep on my chest or next to me and is always begging for her back to be scratched so I could not resist taking these pictures this morning.




Today, after reading Tim Holtz blog post, I decided I would spend my desk/crafting time working on a February tag for the 12 Tags of 2012. I was not sure I wanted to commit to a tag every month, but it's just one tag right? For most, that would be true, but being that I am unsure day to day if I can craft or set at my desk, then it becomes more challenging for me. So, I saw all of the tags posted on Tim's blog and was truly inspired. Wonderful tags, all so pretty, I wanted to play with my Tim products. Now, I do not have all of the products he used in his example, but I tried to use as many Tim products as possible. So, I hope you enjoy the pictures below.


The tag is a #8 sized tag that I made from watercolor paper. I clear embossed the tag first with the words and images. Then I colored the tag with Distress Ink Festive Berries. The edges of the tag was distressed with Tim Holtz distressing tool, then inked with Distress Ink Aged Mahogany. I then took a damp paper towel and wiped the embossed areas to clear off the ink. Then the tag was lightly sprayed with water to get a more distressed look.
The fragment charm I pounced Liquid Pearl Pink on the back and stamped the saying in StazOn Black on the front. The butterfly was stamped with StazOn Black on the Ranger Shrink Plastic. Cut out, punched a hole in the wing and shrunk with my heat gun. I then colored the back with Alcohol Inks Stream & Wild Plum. I then dabbed Liquid Pearl White over the Alcohol Inks. These are both attached with a Tim charm clip & jump rings to the ribbon.

The heart was cut from watercolor paper, stamped and clear embossed. Then I inked with Distress Ink Spun Sugar and edged with Festive Berries. I lightly spread Pink Stickles over the non-embossed areas on the heart. Another heart was cut from cardstock (any color you won't see it). I stuck Tim's Tissue Tape around the edge of the cardstock as Tim shows in his video. Due to tissue tape being sticky, I used my embossing buddy on the exposed part of the back of the tape. This takes care of the stickiness and lets the tissue tape stay fluffy. I rubbed some of the Festice Berries over the top of the tissue tape. I then attached the pink heart over the tissue tape heart and glued it to the tag.

The key and locket charms were really fun to make. I used one of the small keys from the grunge board elements and then the locket was hand drawn on watercolor paper and cut out. I colored both of these charms with Distress Ink Black Soot. Using a Versamark Pen I colored the entire top and dipped it in the UTEE Black. Both were heat embossed. I ended up covering both charms, front and back, with two layers of UTEE. Once cooled, I spread a thin layer of Platinum Stickles, then dabbed on Alcohol Ink Copper. I then re-heated the charms slightly to embed the stickles and copper ink in the black embossing. Both charms are attached to the tag with a charm clip, brad and jump rings. The hearts at the bottom of the tag were punched with a Martha Stewart Edge Punch on Tim Holtz paper and glued to the back of the tag.

I hope all the instruction is clear enough. If you have any questions about any of the process, please let me know. Until next time......Enjoy!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Encourage Your Hopes not Your Fears

Okay, so it's been a long while since I have posted. I have been hanging at home basically due to my disability now. I have been able to do a little each day at a desk or crafting. I always choose crafting over the computer. It's only been about year now since I have been able to craft for about 2 hours a day a couple times a week, so I am so thankful that I am able again.

Well, I want to share a page that I created for a journal I made in January. The journal was for Marion Smith's 31 Day Challenge 2012. We were to make a daily page for a journal and take a picture about our life or whatever we wanted. So this is one of the pages that I made from white card stock and stamps. Hope you enjoy.
So my goal is to do more blogging this year. I have also been hanging out on Pinterest, which is the best find this year so far. I have just posted my first video tutorial on Youtube and plan on continuing the videos too. Hope everyone has had a wonderful start to 2012 with more blessings coming. Enjoy!