Monday, December 29, 2014

Tim Holtz Tags of 2014 - December

After all of the holiday hoopla, I had to make sure I didn't forget to do this month's Tim Holtz tag. As usual, I am barely sneaking in before the end of the month... and this time, just before the end of the year!


I got out what I thought I might need for this month's piece.


Here's what I ended up using from that pile:

Distress Inks: Faded Jeans, Peeled Paint, Weathered Wood and Walnut Stain
Distress Markers: Stormy Sky and Vintage Photo
Distress Stain: Brushed Pewter
Distress Paint: Picket Fence and Antique Linen
Distress Stickle Dry Glitter Clear Rock Candy
Frosted Film
Kraft-Core cardstock
Industrious Stickers
Green Jute String
Grungeboard
Bigz Bookplates and Tags die
Festive Greenery Sizzlits Strip die
Shadowpress Authentic Set Debossing Folders
Philosophy tag
Ribbon
Mini brass bell
Scribbles 3D Paint

I began by cutting out the tags and chipboard backers (for stability). I swiped the cardstock with white paint and Distress Inks. I also used an old paint brush to splatter more Distress Paint for a snowy effect.


After cutting out the reindeer in Grungeboard, I painted it with Antique Linen and sanded it down. Using the Walnut Stain Distress Ink I shaded the edges,


painted Multi-Matte medium on top, then sprinkled it with Distress Dry Glitter.


I also outlined the shape with a Distress Marker. Here is a before & after of how nicely this small step improves the look (I have two of everything since I am making a duplicate tag for The Scrapbook Cottage again).


I also added Frosted Film to the top of the tags after embossing them with small dots.


For the wording, I decided to use Tim's Shadowpress Authentic Set Debossing Folder "Wonderful"


cutting off the "ful" to just have "Wonder". Then I tore the bottom of the cardstock, sanded it down, inked and painted it with Picket Fence.


For the pine needles, I used Tim's Festive Greenery die, cut from his Kraft-Core cardstock then inked and painted them for a snowy effect.


So here is my finished tag after putting it all together and adding a ribbon coloured with Distress Ink and a Philosophy Tag hung from it. I also used a thick 3D white paint to add "snow" here and there.


The reindeer is popped up on foam dimensionals and jute string was used around his neck holding a small brass bell. I also added a strip of Industrious stickers to the bottom as Tim had done.


I do hope Tim continues to inspire and teach us new techniques with Tags of 2015 - it sure was fun to participate each month.

Here's wishing you all a wonderful time ringing in the New Year!


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick post to share some holiday decor around our home this year. I can't believe the big day is nearly here!


Christmas Eve I will be hosting a family dinner, then off to my sister's for Christmas Day and another family gathering.


It's supposed to snow tomorrow: perfect for December 24th here in The Christmas Capital of Canada.


The gifts are bought and wrapped. The baking is done. Just a few more fresh groceries to buy and a good cleaning to do.


Then I'll be ready.



I hope each and every one has a wonderful holiday - and that you find time to relax and enjoy it with family and friends.


Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Christmas Cards 2014

Now that my holiday cards have been received, I can share them with you here.

This year I decided to go a simpler route... just a few elements to create a layered white greeting.

I had forgotten I purchased Tim Holtz' "Tree Line" On The Edge Die over the summer... I thought it would make a neat card element. I found it while recently re-arranging all my dies into one cabinet drawer; good thing I did!

At first I had intended to use just one layer of trees per card; then when I saw them all stacked up as I cut them out on my Cuttlebug, I thought the effect of multiple layers was even better! So I cut out about 40 from white cardstock - or two per card. On half of the tree sets, I embossed "Peace" using a rubber stamp, embossing ink and heat setting the metallic embossing powder.


I used a swirl design stamp on each card base with Hampton Art's Glue pad. Before it dried, I sprinkled Tim's Distress Clear Rock Candy Dry Glitter over top and set them aside (and away from curious feline paws) to dry.

My Cricut and a great holiday cartridge called "Winter Wonderland" was used to cut out some prancing deer, adjusting the size of the cut image to a perfect size.

It didn't take long at all to combine all the elements onto the cards. I only glued the bottom of the tree layers so the tree tops lift away from the card back. The deer are popped up with dimensional foam.

Here's the result:


I made twenty cards this year; each holiday I seem to be making less and less. Well, I guess a few is better than none at all! I am so glad I got these done and in the mail before it was too late!



Thursday, December 11, 2014

Pay It Forward Projects

As promised last Spring, I finally got moving on my Pay It Forward projects a few weeks back (good thing the deadline was the end of this year eh?) This was an art swap with Kathy at Kluless, Karen at Winton Rose Paper Creations and Sylvia at SMD Paper Arts.

Now that each one has received my creations, I can share them here with you. I will do another post on what wonderful goodies they sent me!

I wanted to make similar, yet personalized items these artists could use - so I created flip style note pads in a Steampunk format. I am constantly making To Do lists when I create, so I hope they can utilize these pads in their studios too!

I had promised to use some of Tim's awesome products, so I gathered what I thought I might need:


I began by printing off 30 sheets of lined paper for each note pad. After cutting to size and punching three holes on top, I ran them through my sewing machine (without thread) to perforate so they will tear off after use. Then I cut two pieces of 9" x 4.5" chipboard for front and back covers, added a sheet of Grungeboard to each front panel textured with Tim's "Gears" Sizzix embossing folder, punched holes and painted them with black acrylic paint.

Using my Cuttlebug, I chose appropriate die cuts by Tim; "Weathered Clock", "Steampunk" On The Edge die, "Caged Bird" and "Gadget Gears" and punched them out from Tim's Grungeboard.


Metal gears were pulled from my stash - and various placements and layers were tested out using other embellishments I picked out.


Each book was designed with the recipient in mind:  of course Kathy at Kluless (The Button Queen) had to have buttons on hers - so I Steampunked them up by attaching them to metal gears and colouring them with Pitch Black Alcohol Ink.


Elements were adhered to the painted chipboard covers with both Glossy Accents and Scotch Quick Dry glue.


After attaching the various embellishments, a coat of flat black acrylic paint was laid down over everything.


And then using Inka Gold Metallic Rub in copper


I rubbed it lightly over the top to bring out the textures and shapes.


Each book also has a chain with charms and Tim's Philosophy Tags specific to each design. I used Glossy Accents to adhere a stamped image (from Tim's stamp sets) to the base of his Cash Keys. They were attached to the book using Ring Fasteners and all were rubbed with more copper metallic paste.


I finished them off with a few brads then laced them together with black ribbon.

So here they are:

First, for Kathy at Kluless, a design including the aforementioned buttons as well as Tim's "Caged Bird" birdcage and metal bird charm:

"Steampunk Buttons"

Karen in Australia loves Steampunk too so I added a Memory Box die called "Vintage Bicycle" to her clocks and gears.

"Steampunk Classic"

Sylvia at SMD Paper Creations has a lot of flowers in her artwork, so I thought she would like Tim's Trellis die and a metal flower spray from his metal charm set called "Nature Adornments".

"Steampunk Floral"

These three were mailed off, but of course I HAD to make one for myself too!

Do you recognize this shape? I am a recent "Whovian"... if you are too, you may know this as The Doctor's "Time And Relative Dimension In Space" ship... or TARDIS for short.


Yep. I Steampunked the Tardis. If you look closely, the button I used for my book says "London". Since The Doctor is a Time Lord, the addition of the vintage clock face was appropo.


I used Tim's Frosted Film for the windows and printed out the sign from the Police Box for my Cash Keys charm. I also used a clear gem for the light on the top of the box.


Once I was able to figure out just what the heck I was going to send out for my projects, it was great fun to create! I am so glad each and every one agreed to this Pay It Forward swap. I hope they liked them as much as I liked creating them!

"Steampunk Tardis"

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Lions and Tigers and Bears

...Oh My!

Since the beginning of October, I've been participating in "Knit-A-Longs" over at Ravelry. These are not really competitions per se, but rather fun opportunities to knit up something in a selected category and show your finished objects with the chance to win some awesome yarny prizes in random draws. The topic of three KALs I have entered are all "toys", as many knitters are making stuffies for Christmas giving.

I wanted to see if I could modify the bear pattern I used to make my Hudson the Polar Bear and Oreo the Panda into different animals - and came up with the idea of a set called "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" (if you don't know, a reference to The Wizard of Oz). I drew out schematics with ideas of adding nose pieces, paws and tails to transform the bears into more feline shapes.

I also wanted to knit all three toys from my very own handspun yarn, so step one was to shop for fibre. Luckily our local yarn shop sells 100% Corriedale wool fibre in numerous colours by weight! So I picked out butterscotch yellow, grey, black and white.


I started with the butterscotch and spun up a ball of single ply yarn using my Turkish spindle.


It knitted up so nicely - and it was great to be able to spin as much as I needed! Here are the arms getting stuffed and sewn together to make paws.


Then I thought the raw fibre would make the perfect mane and tail tuft... so I used a crochet hook to weave it into my knitting.


Here's my first toy - Butterscotch the Lion! He was so much fun to do and I love the way the mane turned out.


The next toy I wanted to make was a tiger from the same bear pattern - but I had to figure out how to make him the right colour with stripes! I found this fibre online called "Tigger" (how purrfect is that?).  I began to spin it up, but wanted more of an orange result than it first gave me...


So I pulled the fibre apart into separate colours and spun it up individually, using just the orange and brown. As I knitted, I added in a few stitches of brown yarn here and there to make the tiger's stripes.


So here is Raja! I also used the white fibre for inside his ears, behind his eyes, on his muzzle and paws. I also used the brown yarn for the tip of his tail and around the outside edge of his ears.


The last of my set need to simply be a bear so I spun up some lovely grey and more white wool fibre.



The result? Greyson the Bear; again heavily modified from the initial pattern with the addition of white inside his ears, white face, muzzle, tummy and paws. He also has a tiny little grey tail. All three toys also have movable limbs - something the pattern didn't feature.


So here they are together: My "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" set!


So much fun to create, and I love having them on display in my Studio knitting nook!


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