Sunday 13 April 2014

12 Tags of 2014 April

Hello everyone

Hope you are doing well. Time certainly flies and I do apologise for my absence over the last month. Things have been a little bit hectic and I have been running workshops for 3 weekends in a row. This is my first weekend "off" and also time to clean up the scraproom and get organised again. It's surprising how quickly order turns into chaos if you just go from one project to another, without cleaning up properly...

I am however happy that even though the chaos, I managed to squeeze a few hours in for Tim's monthly tag challenge.This is my definitely my favourite challenge each month. The anticipation to see what he creates every time, is a huge creative boost and a kickstart for the mojo. Then comes the exciting part to come up with a tag using the same techniques he did. And what a lovely tag he created this month, it's almost impossible to resist the urge to give it a go yourself. Check out his tag below, or click here to see how exactly he's done it.


So again, my tag does not look anything like his. Surprize?, Not... Okay, I did not have any of the framelits dies or pinecone die. That's not to say that they aren't on my wishlist, I want them all lol...


So here is my version:





So without the essentials I had to view my stash in a different light - how could I come up with something similar? Well, I thought, I do have the Tim Holtz Vintage Market Alphabet, I have all the paints and washi tape and quite a few of the Distress Ink Pads, so let's see.

At first I tried my very best to cut through grunge board, but the Sizzlit dies are just not made for that sort of thing, but it's a Tim Holtz die, so I gave it my best shot. I ended up squeezing the foam a bit, but like with all of the products in the range, the quality is outstanding and as result it still works without fail. I really believe if it's a Tim Holtz product, you may try and do the impossible and if the idea occasionally don't work, the product will withstain your efforts. So in the end I cut through white card and which I painted, sanded lightly and inked. To add the 3D dimension to it, I carefully stuck it to my tag by using mounting tape and did the same with all my number and letters, which I cut from coloured foil and a Tim Holtz patterned paper.

The flowers was created by stamping my coloured foil with a Kaszazz newsprint stamp, using the black Archival ink. Once I heatsetted it, it cut out the flowers using 2 of My Favourite Things, Dynamic Dies.
Curling the foil is not hard but the unraveling to form the flowers is a tiny bit different than doing it with paper. On the positive side you do not need any glue or sticky dots at the bottom, as the metal holds it's shape once bended. I then created leaves by cutting a trinket into 4 different bits.

The photo is a old photo of mom when she was still at school and to give it some dimention, I added loads of Glossy Accents and let it dry over night.


The pin I used was either a trinket I got from Scrap Matrix or something I found quite a while ago. Whilst playing with ideas and beads to include my "journaling" I found some Dome Stickers I bought many years ago. It just clicked and I realised that this little sticker was the perfect piece I needed to complete my tag. So there you go, go searching through old supplies, and you may be surprised at how many useful things you will find.


Hope you enjoyed this month's challenge as much as I had. Till next time, have fun and have a blessed Easter, whatever you are planning to do.

Product List:
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads, Tim Holtz Distress Paint, Tim Holtz Washi tape, Dome Stickers, Spellbinders Media Mixage Foil  MM1-002, Scrap Matrix Trinkets, Scrap Matrix Hessian Ribbon,  My Favourite Things Dynamic Dies, Kaszazz Newsprint Stamp, Cork, Glossy Accents, Helmar 450 Glue