T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 8

Here is my Day 8 creation (for lack of a better term)...it's certainly not a tag!

This is a lovely votive lantern thingamajig. The base of this is started life as a zen garden from Dollar Tree...to which i added 3 battery powered votive candles from dollar tree. the lantern shade is made from the most beautiful sheet of pearly white paper from the newest Club Scrap collection called Vogue which has been stamped with Brilliance Starlite Silver and Club Scrap's own white pigment ink pad in swirls (unknown) and sparkles (Club scrap).

The row of houses and sleigh & reindeer were cut with my Silhouette out of an old piece of Club Scrap paper from the Bugs collection and inked with Pine Needles & Barn Door. The reindeer are stamped with the poem "twas the night before Christmas". The Sky's The Limit! is a stencil from the Club Scrap kit called wings. The houses are topped with White Opal perfect pearl and sprinkled with ultra fine glitter and also sprayed with English Ivy glimmer mist.

The clock/moon is exactly that. Both images were downloaded from the internet and overlaid in photoshop. I printed the combined image onto transparency and adhered to another piece of the pearly paper which was inked with Mustard Seed DI.

I think it took me longer to type this description than it did to do the actual piece. Onto day 9!

Merry Grinchmas

Spontaneous Art

This piece evolved and took on a life of it's own. It demanded to be made, and so I obliged!

While perusing Dollar Tree the other day, I spotted this gift bag and knew I had to have it. I was thinking I would just frame the two cardinals together or decoupage to a tray or something. Being from Kentucky, I've always been fond of Cardinals (although it is the state bird for 7 states!) and I just knew I had to have this image and do something with it.

I rummaged through my collection of thrift store frames and found this gem I got for $5. I separated the pair of Cardinals but then I needed something for the center opening. I thought I would easily find a poem about cardinals and Christmas, or cardinals and winter or something online, but I did not.....so I wrote my own. Yes, I wrote my very first poem, or at least my first in more years than I could possibly imagine. So, here is it is (be gentle with your feedback, lol), and my final wall hanging.

Cardinals always seem to me,

The ornaments of winter’s tree.

A shock of red against the snow,

Joyfully singing wherever they go.

True gifts of winter are the cardinal pair,

Flying about without a care.

Great giveaway of T!m goodness

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T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 7

I did another door hanger. I've said it before, but I have a tough time doing art, just for the sake of art, so I always feel like it has to have a function. Also, I've slowed waaaaaay down on my production due to getting ready for a final exam and prepping a final paper/presentation.

This shape is slightly different from the last and I've used paper from Club Scrap's Arts 'N Crafts collection for the base. For the JOYFUL letters, i've used a combination of thickers and grunge board letters which I inked with DI's and stamped with the Dreamy Collage wood mount stamp from Club Scrap's Expressions kit.

I made my own sticky back canvas...works like a charm. I just used some inexpensive duck/canvas (you can also just buy a drop cloth from the hardware store) cut it into manageable lengths and run it thru the xyron.Additionally, I don't have the color wash, but I just mixed some of my distress ink re-inkers into my mini mister with water and it sprayed beautifully on the homemade sticky back canvas....probably could add a little perfect pearl and you'd have it all in one mister, but I opted to then spray with a glimmer mist. I then hand cut my poinsettia petals and leaves. I've used the rays embossing folder and covered that area with Rock Candy Stickles which caused some of the red to bleed off onto the paper, but oh well, there are no mistakes in art, right?

T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 6

In case you can't tell, i'm using up any white Club Scrap paper that I have. For this I've used the back of Key to My heart ( i hate doing that, but a girl must do, what a girl must do). Inked it up with dusty concord, chipped sapphire & vintage photo distress inks. Not sure where the purple satin ribbon came from...could be Club Scrap as well, but I know the gemstone brads are from the Solstice collection. I colored one of the clear gems purple with my bic marker. All elements cut on my Silhouette from designs made within the software. Stamp is Inkadinkadoo (Artistic Holiday)

T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 5

I didn't love this design as it was coming together, but it's growing on me and I like how (from a distance with your eyes squinted a bit, lol) this almost looks like santa's body shape.

Shapes: I've used a cut I drew in my Silhouette software based on T!m's Stylized Labels die and a cut I designed for the SC Belt buckle (did that last year for my christmas cards!). The poinsettia was also drawn in Silhouette and based on Outlines Posie stamp

Details: I don't have any green or red colored stickles, so I've used ultra fine glitter with my Sakura Quickie Glue pen. All the paper is Club Scrap (mostly from a very old kit called Key To My Heart although you can't tell since most of it has been inked over so much...there's a hint of it showing on the right side below his belt). The buckle was embossed several times with Silver embossing powder to get a thick layer of like UTEE. That big gawdy green gem has been hanging around my craft supplies for far too long and has now found a home!

Stamps: Inkadinkadoo

T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 4

For todays challenge, I recycled a Christmas card that I'd been holding onto for probably 10 years for just this type of purpose. I cut an ornament shape from the tres elegante black in Club Scrap's Vogue collection. I haven't gotten around to buying facets yet, so I used a fragment instead with red pepper and lettuce alcohol inks. Some of the baubles and beads come from Club scrap, and some come from some old jewelry i purchased at a vintage store, along with a couple of hat pins. Onto day 5!

T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 3

Ok...mine doesn't look much like T!m's, but it's deliberate! I tried to focus on the technique and i took that as the tissue tape. I don't have tissue tape, but i stamped and inked tissue, cut it into strips and applied atg tape to the back of it and made my own. The button center is from a CM kit. The paper (except the dove) is Club Scrap from a kit that I think is called Nature's Retreat. Ornament, bird & olive branch & text all cut on Silhouette. In addition to distress inks, I used Club Scrap's white pigment ink for the swirls on the dove. Oh, and i used my Position-it (bought thru Club scrap) to line up the background text stamp (works like a dream!)

Updating to also mention the red lace around the outside. I bet that has been in my craft stash for 20 years. So glad to be using up some of these things finally!

T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 2

Again focusing on the technique or just being inspired by T!m's example, I did actually make my own custom stamp pad out of a cushion shoe insert! I don't have cut n dry foam and this worked beautifully (see pic below so you believe me!) I'd love to take credit for this stroke of genius, but it was entirely my brilliant & talented Sister's suggestion.

I've chosen to do this "tag" on a inexpensive frame (from dollar tree!) which I stamped with alcohol ink (because the distress ink wouldn't dry on it). I added a seasonal salvage sticker onto a a yummy charcoal from Club Scrap's latest kit called Vogue. In the 3rd opening, I added a real pinecone and faux pine bough (also bought at dollar tree). The metal embellishment is a bottle cap from a Bud Light (i believe) and a circle cut from the Seasonal Salvage Sticker pack covered with crackle accents.

T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 1

December 1st finally arrived. I was so excited to see T!m's tag that i woke up in the middle of the night just to check it out and then had a hard time going back to sleep with visions of fences & houses dancing in my head!

For however many i'm able to follow along with, this year, I'm really going to try to force myself to think more artistically, and less literal (which is something i really struggle with), and avoid the temptation to copy exactly (although some i'm sure i will, lol). I sometimes lean more toward skittles than grunge (an ongoing battle between Jennifer McGuire & T!m), but I love the grunge look too, so I’m really not sure what my style is (still finding it I guess)

This one is created on a wood oval i found at Dollar Tree...the inking technique T!m outlines here worked perfectly on this surface after a base coat of paint. The rest of the elements (house, bird, fence, tree) are all cut on my Silhouette and in most cases were drawn right in the Silhouette software (the tree is the exception...it was a purchased shape). The limitation of the Silhouette is that I can’t cut grunge paper, so I turned to the next sturdiest paper I know….CLUB SCRAP! I’ve used the white paper from a very old kit called Key to my Heart and colored it with distress inks. For the house, I used a Fiskars texture plate (basketweave) to add embossing to my house. I cut that into strips and used dimensional foam pieces to create depth on my “siding”. I then sanded to reveal some of the white again. The bird is more white inked with barn door distress ink and accented with black enamel accents. The tree is inked with Walnut stain and accented with ultra fine glitter (for snow). Ultra fine glitter is also used on the fascia board pieces on the house. Tim’s crackle paint is applied to the Club Scrap paper fence, but I didn’t get much crackling. The 25 comes from T!m’s Seasonal Salvage stickers.