more t!m inspired playtime!

two more t!m tags today! these are SO much fun!! this first one is Tag #8 from last years 12 tags of christmas tutorials:

this next one was the november technique challenge on t!m's blog:i will be hanging out with a couple of my stamping friends tomorrow,melissa, suzanne and christine - can't wait! it's always fun!

don't forget to enter my blog tart drawing for a bracket grungeboard book.

more of t!m's 12 tags......6 & 7 today!

i have been having so much fun working my way through t!m's 12 tags of christmas. today i have 2 using tag 6 tutorial and on using tag 7! i do not have ribbons on them yet because they are the front covers of tag book ornaments.


i made my own masks with transparency sheets, my cricut and the new christmas solutions cart. after cutting i ran it thru my xyron with repositionable adhesive. i attached the mask to my coaster tag (cut from a coaster using a sizzix die in my cuttlebug) and then sprayed lightly with perfect pearls mist. i also sprayed some grungeboard pieces from the seasonal set and minis set. once the tags were dry i peeled up the mask and then rubbed more distress inks on. stamped my sentiments in black soot, distressed and inked the tag edges, attached my grungeboard and highlighted several pieces with distress stickles. i also added a bit of the german scrap i now carry to the reindeer card - i inked it with copper mixative to change it from silver.

these close ups show the glimmer and the distress stickles a bit better....

tag 7 is one of my fave techniques tho i have not used it in quite awhile. i inked up my tag with distress ink, poured on clear embossing powder and then flicked the back hard to make the powder come off in spots. melted it and then smooshed in some darker distress ink. the sentiment is inked in several different colors of distress inks and then clear embossed. the key is painted with copper paint dabber and i added more german scrap.

remember these tag kits are available to purchase in my webstore!

and now i am off to do some cleaning because boy do we need it!!!!!!!

have a fun day!!

More cuppies!!!!!!!!! and an alcohol mixative did-you-know....

hi!!

a little business first:
the first of three huge ranger orders arrived yesterday - i expect the others in a few days. so i have most of the back orders EXCEPT distress stickles packed and shipping today!!!! if you love tim holtz's projects and challenges be sure to check out the kits i have been putting together for last years 12 tags of christmas

distress stickles should be here friday.

i have all three sets of studio G inks in stock if anyone missed those!

ok now some more adorable little cuppies - 2 more gift sets this time all acetate!!

i LOVE making acetate cards!!! they just look so cool!!!
here are some close ups for you:







the images are all stamped with black memento ink (full size pads are FINALLY back in stock now) and colored with copics. accented with liquid pearls and stickles. the aqua set has snowflakes (from the cuppies set) stamped in white stazon on the acetate. the dark blue set led me to a cool "discovery" - i use that term loosely since i doubt i am the first to do this.....i wanted silver snowflakes but there is no silver staxon. it occurred to me that maybe i could use alcohol ink mixative to stamp with......so after a few trial and error attempts here is what i came up with - try it!!


supplies - alcohol ink mixative, alcohol ink, craft sheet. stamp and acetate.

make a small puddle of mixative on your craft sheet. ad a bit of colored ink to if you want.

now take your stampand sort of stamp it around to sprea and thin out the puddle. to stamp on the acetate a few tips to prevent the ink from doing it's natural "spread":

• stamp off on the side of your puddle a couple times so you don't have too much ink on your stamp
• let the stamp dry a few seconds and get sticky before stamping onto the acetate.
• helps if your thin puddle starts getting sticky too
• you can also stamp and quickly blow to dry it fast

the mixatives seem to work better than the alcohol inks themselves since they are thicker.

i hope you like my little tip!

and now off for more coffee!!!!

hugs and happy stamping!!!

gift set using tag 5 (t!m holtz)

ok so i skipped tag 4 for now.....but here is tag 5 with a tutorial and all done up in a gift set based on last weeks Technostamper sketch->



and the finished tag:

and the gift set with close ups:

here's the how-tos:


Gather supplies: from Pezadoodles - 2-3 colors alcohol ink, pearl mixative,blending solution, glossy cardstock, felt and applicator tool, black brilliance ink (memento is pictured but i found brilliance to be better...)

In addition - stamps, bead trim, acetate die cuts (i did mine with my cricut)

add alcohol ink to the felt pplicator along with the mixative.

i cut my glossy cardstock into tags with a sizzix die and my cuttlebug. Dab the ink applicator randomly around on the glossy cardstock.

next add blending solution to the same piece of felt. dab tags again to blend the alcohol inks:

next step will add an interesting effect. hold your heat gun in one hand and blending solution in the other. drip a bit of blending solution onto tags and immediately dry. repeat until happy with the effect.

stamp tags - i used black brilliance for the tree and orchid brilliance for the sentiments. this is when i love allmy studio Gs - the tree and larger sentiment came from the costco inkadinkado set. the smaller sentiments for the smaller tags are studio Gs and i easily found matching sentiments!

now for the "ghost embellishments" - rather than buy them i prefer making mine with my cricut and transparency sheets. here i have snowflakes.

i added more pearl mixative and blending solution to the same piece of felt and pounced it onto the snowflakes to give them just a bit of color

and here is my three completed tags

i hope y'all try some of these! alcohol inks are a super easy way to get dramatic results quickly. once again I will have the kit for 10% off!

don't forget to enter to win my blog tart -a t!m holtz bracket grungeboard book!!

gift bag ala t!m holtz - tag #3

my project uses Julee's mojo monday sketch ->

and is my take on T!m's tag #3 from last years 12 tags of christmas:

the stamps are from inkadinkado - Holiday Classics available now. i stamped them with versamark and carefully covered them with different colors of distress embossing powders. i inked the edges with matching distress inks. grungeboard pieces are painted using espresso & gold paint dabbers. Buttons are SEI and along the bottom one of those beautiful pieces of german scrap i mentioned before.......a little distress stickles just because....

remember i have the kit available to order at 10% off!!

i used it for a gift bag - i love the way it turned out!

now how about a little giveaway today???????? can you guess where i used some alcohol ink to "color match" something to my liking??? leave me a post and tell me where you think it is. up for grabs.........hhhmmmmmm

how about a grungeboard bracket book!!!!!

i will take entries ALL WEEK and announce a winner next saturday morning 11/15 at 8 am so spread the word!

t!m Holtz 12 tags of Christmas 2007 - tag #1 & 2

i have been re-visiting these lately and having a great time! if you missed them last year i encourage you to go have a look on t!m's blog and try some out!

These first two are done as a part of two pages in a heritage album I am doing for my brother for Christmas:

Tag #1 - uses crackle paint, distress inks and grungeboard - pic is my grandma in 1920s Cuba

Tag #2 - wrinkle free distress technique - uses distress inks, snow cap paint dabber, ghost shapes (cut from transparencies with my cricut, bling and distress stickles.

I am gradually putting together kits on my website for each of the tags - get all of the supplies at 10% off!!! plus this way you know you have what you need to complete it!
I also added some gorgeous German Scrap in small bits - just in time to jazz up your christmas projects vintage style!

SFYTT and Cupcake challenges (from last week...EEK!)

WOW!!! have i really gone all week without posting!??!?!?!? i hope y'all missed me - hee heee! i have some cute stuff to share today - both are based VEEEEEERRRY loosley on these two sketches - the first from Jen over at i{heart}2stamp and the second one from Taylor over at Taylored Expressions. Taylor recently launched her own stamp line and oh how i ADORE them - well christmas cupcakes were released and i just couldn't WAIT to ink them up and play!!! here are two projects done with more to come - i URGE you to run over a take a peek at them - talk about FUN!!!


I am making gift sets for my mom's open house right after Thanksgiving so these are my first two installments.









i apologize for the poor pic quality - not sure what happened........

Images are colored with copics and accented with LOTS of liquid pearls...

Again images colored with copics and highlighted with LOADS of stickles!

Close ups of both are below. i have a TON of these acrylic boxes - more than i could probably use - if you want to purchase just a few instead of the full packs like i found contact me...

SOOOOO in love with the Cuppies!!!!

Sorry for such a short post but I am runnin'ragged these days!! stay tuned tomorrow for a really cool T!m holtz inspired gift bag and new product announcement!