Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 February Tag

Hello!

Swooping in for an insanely speedy post (we are currently having fun with chicken pox... :-/ ) so last minute posting of a tag I finished a while ago. Actually there are two tags. Yup. I loved doing this so much I did it twice ;-)

So without further ado,here are both of February 12 Tags of 2014

The first is a classic take on Tims tag (seen here),using the same colours etc. I wanted to have the chalkboard as tickets-I love how popped these turned out,with their crazy broken arrows-here have a closer look...

 The next tag I wanted to be sepia's and old romantic film style. I used one of my favourite Paper Artsy stamps and a My Favourite Things die to get the dreamy Hollywood look. I think the chalkboard effect makes them look slightly creepy-which I LOVE,so I went ahead and used the sander to scratch out some parts of the stamp

A bit of Tim's film ribbon,quote and heart and arrow complete the tag and draws it back to its muse

Well,thats all folks! Back to smothering itchy children with aloe vera,see you next time :-)

Lou x

Raining wisdom

Hello from a wildly wet and windy Cambridge :-)

 Wow,we are being blown into March this month! So without further ado, this is what I have been up to today. Its a tag inspired by our recent weather and the lush Waltzingmouse Fanatics colour challenge over here. I luuurve these shades,so rummaged through my inks only to find I ONLY HAVE 3 PURPLES!!! Shock horror! That needs to be rectified with a shopping trip I think :-)

I used Waltzingmouse Asian Gardens Additions-a set I have never inked before,and an awful lot of various inks,ribbon and embossing powders...

The 'sparkly' cloud is embossed using Fran-tage AgedAqua,the other clouds are embossed in Distress Embossing powders Weathered Wood,then the outline embossed in WOW Brilliant White. The rain is embossed in a really old shimmer embossing powder. This is the colour pallet:

(No,I didnt hold back-I used EVERY colour on there!)

Well,thats all for me today,now to clear up all the mess I made,sigh... ;-)

Lou x

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 January

Hello!

Like any self respecting crafter,I love Tim Holtz. I love him very much indeed. Yet,unlike any self respecting Tim Holtz loving crafter I have never delved into the fabulousness that is the 12 Tags of ---- ... Why? Pure ignorance! I had no idea what it was all about (Plus I hadn't discovered the addiction of challenges yet ;-) ) But this has all been rectified now,so without further ado, here is my version of the January 2014 tag:

 I had SO much fun doing this! The background is a stencil my friend made me with her Cameo,I added some of the really cute teeny tiny watch cogs I have been hoarding like Smaug,added Tattered Wings with some painted burnt tulle between them for a bit of dimension,and then abandoning my original 'time flies' idea,went for a darker Edgar Allen Poe feel with my beloved Smeared Ink Quoth The Raven stamp set. A few bits and bobs from my Idea-ology stash got selected. The little 'January' taggy thingy is a 7Gypsies fabric sticker cut down,grubbied up and stapled on. And finally a sprinkling of Frantage aged silver and aged green was liberally applied...gotta learn some restraint with this stuff ;-)

How about a closer look...

This was the first time I have used Grungeboard,oh boy-I am addicted! (I had to try and stop myself from just stroking and sniffing it! That stuff is ah-mazing!) 
I LOVE LOVE LOVED making this-I cant wait for February's tag to be revealed!!! And the rest of the year!! Thank you Tim,you genius you ;-)

Lou x

A special Birthday blog hop

Hello!

Welcome to She's Birthday Blog Hop Bonanza! You should have got here from Keren's blog-as she is so deliciously humorous,I wont even attempt jokey banter ;-)

I started out thinking I would do a sort of monochrome homage to She's fave colour (Orange) but then this just sort of happened...and then I found my leftover Astro Turf....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHE!

Have an awesomely orange and happy day,we all miss you lots!

Lou x

Next stop,Lydia :-)

Blog hop order:

Make The Day Special

Emily

Jo

Jenny

Kate

Keren

                   Lou -Thats me!

Lydia

A distressing challenge

Hello!

Two posts in one day,eh? Why not!

So the other thing I did today,which I have been excited about doing since the challenge arose,is a tag for the current Lawnscaping challenge #64 called Distress Maniacs :-D The challenge?

To use Distress Inks (I LOVE Distress Inks!!) . This had me very excited what with not being very zen with CAS,so this is what I made:

And a close up...

I used watercolour paper and built up the background slowly using Worn Lipstick and Milled Lavender. Then I dragged the tag along the Worn Lipstick to give the edges some definition. I always mop up my Distress inks with seam binding,so used those on my tag,riveting holes and lacing up the bottom bit like a bodice. Lastly I sewed the sentiment on-I love sewing paper-it is very satisfyingly crunchy ;-)

I hope you like it-Lawnscaping challenges always produce to die for entries,so pop over and have a look...

Lou

A very individual Birthday tag card...thing

Hello! 

It was my little sisters birthday a few days ago (she is not that little anymore,but she will always be my little sis :-)) and I scratched my head trying to think of something she would like. She loves all the shabby chic vintagey things I make,so I was all set to do something along those lines...and then we had a girls night in and watched the movie 'Snatch',which was so utterly hilarious we did not stop laughing. Now,we have a lot of inside jokes anyway,but this film has given us a whole lot of new ones,so I made her this....

Can you spot the films characters in it?

She LOVED it! 

Hope it gave you a giggle too ;-)

A Shabby little Star

Hello!

Back today with a tag that is for a friend's Birthday. She is quite alternative,so something fitting had to be done! I started out thinking I would do some hot air balloons covered in itty bitty skulls (see-alternative!) but after stamping one,it just didnt seem to fit right on this gorgeous new die I have from here. So I tried something different and came up with this:

Not a skull in sight ;-) but the little bluebirds emulate a few of her tattoos,and the sentiment,although not a traditional one for a birthday card,is because she is not enjoying her work at the moment and considering her options. 

I have two poorly girls at the moment,and we are swimming in tissues (nice) but I'm hoping to get a little flower making done this evening as I found a rather awesome vintage dolls dress in a yard sale today,too tatty for dolls,but perfect for cutting up and re-purposing :-)

Have a great week!

A shabby Prim swap catch up

Bonjour!

I am slightly rubbish at remembering to blog-I'm sure I will get better (I AM getting better-my new job is ensuring that :-))So,I found these pics on my computer from a swap I took part in over at Your Paper Pantry,waaaay back in March. I signed up for the Shabby Chic Grab Bag Embellie swap and also,as I am completely obsessed with all things Primitive and Folk Art-y,I joined the new Prim swap over there. 

I took the stamped tags and flowers spots,which require five of each. I had seen a flower technique a while ago (I cant remember where)using strips of scalloped fabric to make shabby flowers. I LOVE the way these look! For mine I used bits of vintage linen,tulle,vintage pillowcases,burlap,antique doilies,and some very old Cath Kidston PJ's I had in my fabric stash forever,paper...I got so into it I just grabbed anything that I thought would look good,lol. I made the centers from some pearl earrings I picked up at a broken jewellery sale  

 This is how my five came out...

And a couple closer up

I had good feed back from the girls that received them,so I think they went down well :-)

Next up was the Stamped Tag swap-I always struggle with this one,as I find it very hard to JUST do stamping,lol. I used a few stamps from my fresh-through-the-door Unity KOTM and the script from a stamp I have had for a long time. I embossed the script over the rose stamp with clear semi mat powder,which I like the effect of on here and finished the tags using some of the seam binding I dyed whilst on a seam binding dying frenzy(I get gripped by these occasionally, frequently) and put some vintage glass beads onto the ends to add some weight.

And finally,onto the Primitive Swap. This was a one-on-one for a candle mat and we had to use thick felt and Prim colours,leaving a 4x4" space in the center for the candle to go on. I love embroidering,so jumped on this to use some of the designs buzzing around my head that I had seen on a Google search. It is made from a very old woolen blanket that had got felted,and again,has been loitering in my rather ominous looking fabric stash cupboard. I backed it with coarse burlap,for a truly feed-sack rustic look ;-)

The lovely Alease got mine,and sent me such a lovely message of gratitude :-) 

And I got a gorgeous one from Linda :-)

Back for more catch-ups soon!

Hello Honey!

Hello again,Im back already!

I have a confession...

I am a tag freak. I love tags. I love making them,I love getting them and I especially love looking at ones other people make. Today's blog is for a tag I have just finished,using the super duper cute Paper Smooches Loopy Leaf Die,which as soon as it arrived,I had an almost uncontrollable urge to use it with felt. I cuts it beautifully. I cut so many little green fronds,the craft room floor looks like a forest! They are so clean and pleasing. So anyway,I found a use for two of them (just another 3488 to go! ;-) )I put them on a simple white cardstock tag,originally with the idea of using them in a sort of Spring bouquet,but then I saw my Lawn Fawn Dewey Decimal petite pad peeping out under the piles of leaves I had just cut,and it was open on the honeycomb page. It looked so perfect it gave me a new idea. I used the gorgeous versatile new Paper Smooches Flag Tags set to create a fish tail flag and cut it out and stamped the cute stitching around the inside (what a great idea that is! Love Paper Smooches),set the leaves on the fish tail and coloured in the hive from beautiful Bee Mine set,and put it on pop dots. Stamped a little heart in the set,and my sentiment. I coloured the big bee and fussy cut her out. She looked too plain just on the card so I pinked off some burlap (another obsession of mine) and mounted her onto that. I cut a teeny tiny bit of tulle for her wings and glued the edge on,so that they flap. Then just added a little of the ever useful Lawn Fawn Triple Twine set in mustard. Voila!

Hope you like it!

Lou x

Aaaaaannd I'm back!

Whew! What a lot to happen over the last few months. Moving is never easy or straightforward but we have now reached a sort of equilibrium and routine around the remaining boxes.

What have you missed make wise? Quite a bit really! I can't seem to go a single day without skulking up to my craft room to have a tinker,swiftly followed by the children :-/ And I can't seem to pass up the challenge of a swap,so I usually sign up for far too many,and then I was chosen to be a part of a design team with a weekly blog post. It is a wonder we haven't all starved and the house lays dusty and forgotten while I remain a hive of activity up in my eerie! I feel a photo montage moment is called for,starting with the annoying glitch way back with the Halloween bits I had been feverishly working on. So,without further ado and blabbering on,here is what I have been up to over the last few months....

HALLOWEEN

Yup,its THOSE hands! These were for a stickpin swap...

The tags for the bags....

One of the stickpins (I should have used longer pins-these babies just kept on growing down the shaft!)

The whole package :-) I hope customs liked them,hehehe

A stamped tag swap

AUTUMN  MAIL-ART SWAP

Front....
using Autumn Nights Glimmer Mist,the leaves are from a PTI set,the moon is a print from Retro Art Cafe and the old lady on a goose stamp is a random from a grab bag-I would love to know what set she is from!

And backs...
Using TCW Birch mask,Tim H Falling Leaves and feathers from a Stampendous set.

CHRISTMAS TAGS

A couple of Christmas tags for various family members...

These tags are made using the cutest Molly Blooms stamp EVER!

POSTCARD SWAP...

MINI ALBUM SWAP
These are my pages for a chunky mini album page swap(we had to do 9 pages)....I do not want to cut another snowflake for at least 8 months! ;-)

I made my first ever junk journal for a swap too (woah,that thing took OVER!) I will do a separate post for that,as there are loads of pages!
And then I was chosen to be a part of a Design Team over at Make The Day Special
which was a dream come true! I had been shopping there for a loooong time,saw the DT call and entered. And in a strange twist of fate,Emily the owner,asked me to stay on until the shop moved ownership in March,which I gladly accepted,and now..... I am the new owner! Whoop whoop! :-D 
So thats me all up to date. Big changes,lots of happy dances and great new beginnings :-)