Merry Christmas

We'll be spending the day with the in laws. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Day.

Be

So guess how long this project has been half done! I started it back in March, I think it was. But it was for me, so it kept getting put on the back burner for other people's projects. I decided it was NOT gonna stay half finished into 2012 and in a matter of about an hour, I had it completed.

I found the idea in a catalog. What they were selling was almost $50 and I knew I could make one cheaper. I bought a canvas and painted it black. Then I sanded it and used some Vintage Photo Distress Ink and White CTMH ink and made the canvas look old. I used all sorts of different CTMH alphabets since I am an alphabet ho of sorts and can never have enough! I used pigment ink and wasn't real concerned about getting complete coverage since I wanted it to look old and worn. I added a couple of different "be's" that really pertain to me and left out some that were on the original that didn't. So this one is uniqely mine. Now...where to hang it in my room! And yes, I know Be Bold is on there twice. As I stamped the second "b" in bold, I realized it was the very first "be." Oh well!

Noel

Went to Hobby Lobby the other day. They have all of their Christmas schtuff marked down 50% already. I picked up some things for projects for next  Christmas and I found these little gems! Course I couldn't wait to get paper on them! Kept them pretty simple. I was afraid if I tried to embellish them too much, the letters wouldn't fit on the blocks straight. I used CTMH Wonderland paper pack and distressed the edges with CTMH Chocolate ink.

School Days

Unka John got pics of the kids in his birthday card last month. I never got last years pics scrapped til this year, so decided I was gonna get this years scrapped before the end of the year!

I basically took the same layout and flipped it side to side. Joy's uses CTMH Roxy and Jacob's uses CTMH Elemental. The canvas is the Compliments Shapes that are supposed to go with Typeset, but I thought they worked well with both of the pp's I used.

12 Tags of Christmas-the leftovers

As is the case with most of my projects, I had some flotsam and jetsam left on my table when I finished the 12 Tags of Christmas. So I decided I'd put them together and see what I came up with.

The first one is a mish-mash of all the days! I used CTMH Create-A-Shade paint on a tag and it clouded up the pattern too much for my liking, so I did a different tag for that day and threw this one to the side. I did one flower too many another day. Added it to my pile. Made too many gears and one too many houses. Bits and pieces of ribbon and one of the  mirrored facets from another day and a token from another, all in the pile. Add in a couple of "pearls" and a "diamond" and there you go! The sentiment (if you can call it that!) is one I found while rooting around in my stash for something else entirely and realized it had NEVER seen ink. The horrors! So combine all of that and you have Leftover Tag 1.

The second one is all pretty much from the Metal Embossing day. I had the BINGO card embossed, painted, sanded, Distress Inked and embossed and decided to go in a different direction. I'ma woman...I'm allowed to change my mind!! So I threw it over in the pile. I had cut the heart and crown out of metal for another day and ended up not using it, so into the pile. And the BINGO mirror facet was done at the same time as the one of the first use-it-up tag so what better place to use it than on the BINGO card?! Added a couple of t!m's BINGO chips and I'm calling this one done. I think my favorite part of this tag is on the bottom border, when I went to emboss it, part of the purple paint peeled away from the right hand end. I left it. It kinda curled back on itself and once the embossing powder melted it stuck there. A happy accident that I'm glad I didn't do anything to.

Now I have to go and clean up the embossing powder that is alllllllll over my scrap table and move on to other things. Like the ginormous pile of pictures I found when we were cleaning and rearranging my room. Need to get those puppies IN a scrapbook! Stay tuned.............

The Tale of the Squirrel Eviction

We had a squirrel in our small shed. Guess it decided that it would make a good winter home. Skeered the bejeebies out of me one day when I went out to put feed in the bird feeders. So I told John and we've been putting off evicting it and making repairs. Well, it couldn't be put off any more. We knew it had at least one nest and if there's a nest, that is ultimately gonna mean babiez. And we don't need no squirrel fambly in our shed. It'd be like the Waltons! We'd have Jim-Bob and John-Boy and MaryEllen all raising their broods in there. So today was eviction day. We started pulling stuff out and eventually we found the kritter. And it was none too happy to see us, lemme tell you. Oh the racket! Tail a'twichin and squirrel cussing up a storm! John went inside to get his pistol and I was standing there with the camera at the ready. Well squirrel decided to high-tail it outta there and went out at the tippy-top of the roof where it had chewed a hole the size of Texas thru the shingles AND plywood. So we finished taking stuff out at a faster pace since we now knew that squirrel was gone. Or was it? All of a sudden, there it is at the DOOR! Almost as if it were saying, "Well if you're gonna leave the front door open, I'll use IT!" So we scared it off. And thank goodness, there were no babiez in the nest, but "she" (?) had done a nice job of pulling her soft fur out to line it with, so babiez were gonna be coming eventually. John then cut some new plywood and braces and fixed the hole in the roof. We have shingles but no roofing nails, so when we go out later today, we'll stop and get some so the plywood doesn't get wet and rot and give them access once again. Squirrel sat in a nearby tree and let us know how unhappy it was with us. I'm sure as soon as it feels the coast is clear, it will be trying to figure a new way in.

                                              squirrel nest

                       up in the rafters where the nest originally was. We think it fell to where we found it.

                                                   Texas size hole

                                                    John up the ladder fixing the hole

Update: Just got back from running errands only to find our PO'd squirrel standing on the front walkway! Like it's waiting for us to get home and open the front door. Beings how we've closed off the custom entrance it had made into the shed. Ummm...I don't think so! Keep it up and you'll be dinner!

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 12

t!m pulled out all the stops for the final tag of 2011. His tag is totally amazing and you can see it here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-12.html

I have Tissue Tape, but not his new Tissue Paper, so I made do! I used some old
K & Co word paper, then covered it in Caludine Helmuth Studio Multi-Medium and attached some of my Tissue Tape, scrunching it as I went along. I also don't have t!m's house dies (I KNOW!!! Need to fix that!) but I know how to cut a house out of GrungePaper, so that's what I did! Then ran them thru the Vagabond with a couple of different embossing folders. Used my Sakura White Pen to highlight the embossed bits and used my Fiskars Threading Water punch for the "roofs." I used Wild Honey and Broken China Distress Stains and water to color them, then attached them to the houses. Used some Liquid Applique and some glitter on top of it then used the heat gun to dry and puff it up. I used
t!m's method for the cutting of the flower, but I used an old dictionary page. Added a bit of Diamond Stickles to the ends once I'd gotten it the way I liked it.

I'm so thankful to t!m, Mario, Ted and Michelle and  inlinkz who made it possible for all of us from all corners of the globe to share our work on t!m's blog. Thank all of you who have visited my blog and left such heartfult and wonderful comments. It truly means so much to me. I hope you'll come back and visit, because I'll be coming to visit you! Until we meet again...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 11

I'm sad that tonight ends the 12 Tags for 2011. But I'm sure t!m and Mario are glad once again to see it come to an end. I am so appreciative of all of their hard work and efforts to get the Tags posted by midnight each night. Hope Santa is very good to both of them and their families.

t!m did another new-to-me technique last night. He used Shrink Plastic. Something I don't have (but will remedy quickly!) You can see his quite bright example here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-11.html

Since I DO have the melt pot and UTEE, I decided I'd see how an image printed on cardstock and dipped in the UTEE would work. And while the end results may not be as bright and vibrant as t!m's example using the Shrink Plastic and Alcohol Inks, I rather like my muted, old-world girl. One of the blogs I read, she gave all of her readers a free download of the girl last week. So I used it! The Sentiment is from a CTMH stamp set called Father Christmas. The enameled pieces are from t!m's Christmas collection. I used his painting with Ink Daubbers and then Distress Inking them and adding clear embossing powder and melting method on both. The tape  measure is also from tIm's collection. I inked it with China Glaze and folded it til I was happy with the way it looked, then stapled it in place. I used three different Distress Inks on my tag; Glazed China, Weathered Wood and Iced Spruce.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 10

t!m outdid himself once again with a totally off the hook technique which you can see here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-10.html
Ted and Michelle Cutts (aka Mr & Mrs Stampers Anonymous) also played along again last night. LOVED Michelle's take on the tag using the  "you'll shoot your eye out" quote from A Christmas Story. I can't cook the Christmas feast unless it's on going in the background on the TV! John makes fun of me every year but I don't care. If there's a John Wayne movie on, he'll find it, so once a year for me to watch A Christmas Story isn't too awful bad!

I ventured just a little off track with this one. Surprise, surprise! But there's a reason for it! I have all the stuff to do the tag like t!m demo'd but I wanted to go in a different direction. Favorite Weird Unkle Grumpz (dad's brother) had emailed me some pics of dad, Nana Sara, Aunt Eloise and me a few weeks ago and I was going to scrap them,  and still will, but decided I'd make a couple of them the focal points of my tag. So they are printed on photo paper and I was afraid they would not lend themselves to the scraping off of the paper like t!m did. So I just attached them to the Fragments and Facets with Glossy Accents. The pic in the Facet is my dad in early 1931, the year he was born. It was taken on my Great-Grandparents Thompson's front porch. I didn't have a Fragment or Facet big enough for the other pic, so I combined two Fragments! Where there's a will, there's a way, right?! In the large square is dad and my Great-Aunt Eloise. And in the smaller rectangle is Nana Sara and me! I was 4  in this pic (and NO, I'm NOT telling what the year was! Longer ago than yesterday, that's for sure!). Nana Sara was dad's mom and Aunt Eloise was her sister.

The lace at the top of the tag is some that we found when we were going thru Aunt Eloise's stuff after she died. I use it on very special things, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to use a piece. I just "aged" it a bit more than it was with Vintage Photo. The buttons at the bottom are more of the ones mom's friend Ruth gave me. They are old, as they were her mother's so I thought they went well with the overall look I was going for on this tag.

The sentiment is on Sticky Back Canvas. I painted some Gesso on the canvas and hit it with the heat gun to dry, then embossed the sentiment. Aged the edges a bit with Vintage Photo and used t!m's "picker" tool to fray the edges a bit.  

Dad, Nana Sara and Aunt Eloise are all gone now. So this is my tribute to them during the holiday season.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 9

You can see t!m's example (and Mr & Mrs Stampers Anonymous too!) here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-9.html

I'm back to flying to the beat of my own drummer! Or should that be marching?! 

 I used a CTMH Flourish stamp and random stamped my tag using the Limited Edition Evergreen Bough Distress Ink. Then clear embossed it and used the Limited Edition Iced Spruce to cover the rest of the tag and clear embossed the whole thing again. The flourishes really do look like they are raised after you do this technique! The bird is from one of t!m's GrungeBoard collection and I first embossed it in Denim and then came back with Pearl Blue embossing powder to give it some shimmer and shine. "Fly" is from one of the GrungeBoard alphabet collections which I embossed with black and then used Glossy Accents over the top. I used Pitch Black Alcohol Ink to color the wings then sanded them and used some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to "age" them a bit and covered the whole thing in clear embossing powder. The flowers are from my stash and I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age them a bit. Buttons and pearls also from my stash.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 8

We're into the home stretch now. And I'd like to say Thank You to everyone from all over the world who has taken the time to comment on my tags. It means so much to me. I wonder if t!m realizes how much smaller he's made our world just by doing these tags.

t!m went to his Steampunk/Grungy roots with this tag! You can see his sample here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-8.html

For the first time in 8 tags, I decided to stay pretty close to his sample! Shocking, I know!! I don't know why I bothered with the background stamping since you can only see a peek of it! I used a brick stamp at the bottom and all you can see is just a teeny bit of it. And I used a Stampers Anonymous stamp with various suns on it along the right side and again, you can only see little flecks of white. Then I went in with the Limited Edition Holiday Distress Inks and colored the whole tag. The mini Artkeepers piece is from my stash. (I always knew I'd find a use for that baby someday!) I used some Christmas music paper I had and a "better not pout" rub-on again from my stash. I enameled the bells and holly as t!m demo-ed in Day 6's tag, but I didn't distress this one. I did three layers of Embossing Powder on this one to make it really shine. The "three wise men" have Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint on their hats and jackets and there's a little bit spread pretty thin on the upper left corner of the tag. I used a CTMH Stamp of the Month (that's no longer available) for my number tag. On the little arrow inside the stamp I used some Diamond Stickles. Used some white grosgrain ribbon from my stash and used the dampen a puddle of Festive Berries Distress Ink with a spritz of water method and colored the ribbon. This one comes in a close second as my favorite behind Day 4!

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 7

I was wondering when t!m would get around to using Glassine and yesterday was the day! You can see his sample here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-7.html

I've been waiting on the opportunity to use some of my Oriental stamps and I thought this technique lended itself well to it. This is my homage to my mother-in-law, Yaeko. She's not been in the best of health the past couple of years, so I may just give her this one.

I pulled out my LuminArt water colors for the the coloring. I love the shimmer and shine it gives! Used Perfect Pearls to color my Glassine and heat-set it then used t!m's Autumn Gatherings leaf die to cut out a few leaves and branches. The finishing touch was one of my Oriental yen tokens.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 6

Hard to believe we're half way done with the tags. I bet t!m and Mario will be glad when it's over. They've been having major Internet issues the past few nights. Last night they ended up in a shopping center parking lot trying to get everything posted by midnight.

Here is t!m's version of Tag 6:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-6.html

And since I've had the "I don't have that particular item t!m used" theme going for my tags, I'll just stay with it. Using what I DO have, I embossed my metal in one of t!m's other embossing folders! And my metal is pre-cut 4 X 4 squares, so it didn't quite cover my tag. No worries! Grabbed a piece of scrapbook paper that looks like a measuring tape and used that at the top. Distressed the top edges and inked it up! Used a "Listen" muse token and painted it Copper. Tied a couple of pieces of jute on and wrapped them around a chopstick and held the heat gun to it for about 10 seconds and it stays curly!

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 5

Here's t!m's tag for today:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-5.html

And in staying with the trend, I don't have the seasonal Reflections stamp, but I DO have the original Reflections set, so I used that instead. I like the fancy script, so I used it with Denim and Stream Alcohol Inks. Then I cut the dressmakers form, spool and button out of some Striped GrungeBoard. Once I had them colored , I used my sanding grip to distress all the edges and the form a litle bit so the stripes would show up a bit more. I used the Rosette die to make  the skirt for the form. Grabbed a hanger out of my stash along with an "altered" muse token and used some Picket Fence Distress Stain to give it a bit of contrast. I used the negative from the On The Edge GrungeBoard piece I used earlier in the week and painted it silver with my Ink Daubber.

Two bits...four bits...

Do they even still do that cheer? Do they even know what a bit is?!

One more layout from the pics Jan brought. Jake skipped football this season to play baseball, but Joy was right there on the sidelines cheering on the Junior Falcons.

I took the idea from a layout I'd seen in Scrapbooks, Etc magazine. Used CTMH Roxie pp along with Canvas badges, white and natural buttons, and Sorbet Waxy Flax. Title uses CTMH Cork Alphabet.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 4

You can see t!m's tag for day 4 here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-4.html

I don't have his snowman die, so as has been my "routine", I used what I DO have! The flowers, butterflies and dragonfly are all from one of his GrungeBoard collections. The buttons I used are some of the vintage ones I got from my mother's friend Ruth. I used black embossing powder for the "dream" sentiment. A piece of dictionary page for the bottom and some ribbon from my stash that I used the Limited Edition Iced Spruce (My new fave!) Distress Ink to color. I think this one is my favorite tag so far!

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 3

You can find t!m's awesome tag here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-3.html

And here's my take on it. A little hard to see with the glare from the Stickles!!! Sentiment is "Kisses from Heaven"

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 2

You can see t!m's example of today's tag here: http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-2.html

And here's my take on it.

Tricks and Treats

Jan brought pics of Jake and Joy at Halloween when they were here for Thanksgiving. I used CTMH Mischief pp along with the felt and rub-ons for this paper.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 1

Playing along with t!m Holtz and his annual 12 Tags of Christmas. Your tags don't necessarily have to be Christmas related. t!m is more about the technique and you doing your own thing than to copy his example exactly. Here's a link to his blog if you'd like to check out his example.  http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/11/12-tags-of-christmastag-1.html

And here's what I came up with. I think I'm gonna take all 12 and string them up like a banner and add to the rest of my stuff that I've done in the various t!m classes I've taken.

A close-up of the roses, since that was the primary technique of today's tag.