Tag Tuesday - Shaped Tag

Here is a snowflake tag for this week's challenge at Tag Tuesday. The base is a Maya Road sheer snowflake. One side is alcohol inked and the other side is stamped with one of my new favorite flourish stamps (how can I ever pick just ONE favorite flourish stamp?) by Stampers Anonymous, and I've found that you can heat emboss the sheer base if you're very careful. The other stamped images are from Oxford Impressions. I don't think I've ever been able to post an entry to this challenge so early - it's so good to take a day off!! Merry Christmas to all!!!!!

Projects using the St. Nicholas stamps

In between all my other getting ready for Christmas activities I took some time to play with the new Christmas stamps from Oxford Impressions called "St. Nicholas". The first picture is of 3 gift tags using a distress inked background flicked with water droplets then overstamped with images from the sheet. Very quick and simple to do. I added some star garland bits to the top.

The other piece is a canvas that I've layered with various things. The background started with weathered wood crackle paint rubbed with faded jeans distress ink then toned down with some sponged on white paint. It looks really wintery. The next part is the St. Nicholas stamp embossed onto stampbord then colored with watercolors - most were Twinkling H2O's - wonderfully shimmery in real life. I used black dresden scrap, but covered it with a silver paint dabber creating more of a pewter look. I really liked this method better than coloring it with a Krylon pen. The final element is the acetate snowflakes that have picket fence Stickles on them - another part of this piece that is really shimmery in real life.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and I hope you're doing better than I am at getting things done for Christmas - I still have a tree to decorate.....I've still got 5 days left, right?

Ready-Steady-STAMP! Christmas banner

Here is the 4th and final banner for the RSS Christmas banner challenge. The ingredients are: 1: Santa, 2:your colours, 3: self-adhesive pearls, 4:torn paper, and 5: music score. My stamped images are from Oxford Impressions and Stampers Anonymous. While working on this entire project, I was worried that the four wouldn't all fit together, and even though there are parts I would've done differently had I done them all at once and tried for a unified look, I think their eclectic kind of vintage-y look is ok. What do you think of the entire group?

Sunday Postcard Art - Christmas

Here is my postcard for the Christmas theme at Sunday Postcard Art. My stamps used are all from Oxford Impressions - the main images stamped and cut out on grungeboard are from the newest set "St. Nicholas".

The Artistic Stamper Tagtastic Blog Candy

I've been having so much fun visiting sites where people have posted their versions of the Tim Holtz 12 Tags and I kept seeing this picture for 12 giveaways of cool Ranger products from Jennie of the Artistic Stamper. You can enter her contest by emailing a picture of your tags or posting a comment with a link to your blog where you've posted your pictures. All the details are HERE.

The 12 Tags of Christmas (part 4)

I got all 12 tags finished and just wanted to share the results- what fun to play with all those different techniques!

Day 10: Love using metal foil tape over cardstock and adding alcohol ink. I've done it with cardstock and chipboard shapes and letters, but with the thickness of grungeboard you really get a nice, deep embossed look.

Day 11: I don't have an i-top, but I achieved the same effect by cutting out the sticky back canvas into the same flower-like shape achieved by their punches and templates and using it to cover buttons. I remember using that to make coordinating fabric buttons for a dress a long time ago. I have not liked the look of paper folded over a button or brad - even with the i-top, because the edges don't look smooth, but with the sticky back canvas you can really mold it into your circle shape. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous and Oxford Impressions.

Day 12: I really like making the grungepaper roses. I didn't vary too much from Tim's tag - those flowers are just so impressive - and kind of addicting to make!

The 12 Tags of Christmas (part 3)

Here are days 7, 8 and 9 of the 12 Tags of Christmas and I think these are some of my favorites.

Day 7: This tag had a cool stamped grungeboard truck and christmas tree on the example, but I didn't have the right stamps. My version uses more stamps from the St. Nicholas set from Oxford Impressions, and I stamped the girls and sleigh on grungeboard. Halfway through cutting out all the open space between the runners with an x-acto knife I thought I could've left it uncut, but I couldn't stop halfway. I think cutting out 3 square windows on the truck in the example would've been MUCH easier! This background was also a favorite: dictionary paper adhered with multi-medium, masking tape adhered then slowly pulled off making the words less prominent, then distress inking the whole thing. Stamps: Oxford Impressions, Stampers Anonymous, and Inkadinkado.

Day 8: This is another where I didn't have a lightpost stamp so I chose to go with a collage using my husband's photo of a lightpost outside of one of the mansions in Newport, RI. I also used a piece of a vintage french postcard from French Kissed for the building/house - seemed ornate enough to go with that gorgeous lightpost. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous and Stampabilities.

Day 9: Because you could download the photos used in this tag from Tim's blog, mine looks very similar to his this time. I had not had a chance to use the filmstrip ribbon, so this was a fun trial with it. The photos made me think of the movie "A Christmas Story" and all the kids standing in line at the department store to sit on Santa's lap (quite a few of them crying when they did) and the kid behind Ralphie says "I like Santa". I'm sure the kid on Santa's lap actually thought that BEFORE he sat down. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous.

Hope all of your Christmas projects are going well - and stay tuned for the final 3 tags!

The 12 Tags of Christmas (part 2)

More of my tags from the 12 Tags of Christmas - these are days 4,5 and 6.

Day 4: This was a fun one to make! I loved the little house charm made with memory glass and a memory frame. I used the 1x3 size in order to fit the metal corner used as a roof. I didn't have any of the memory capsules so I used a piece of plastic packaging - one side was slightly open so I just had to be careful while the glossy accents dried that I didn't pour out the glitter, but once in the frame, the frame edge covered the gap. I also really liked creating the collage-look background with various stamps - great vintage look. Stamps: Oxford Impressions, Tin Can Mail, and Sugar Lump Studios.

Day 5: I just loved his idea to use fragment charms for Christmas balls! That little bit of foil tape for the top just makes it perfect. I loved this idea so much I used it in the RSS Christmas banner a couple posts back. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous, Penny Black, Inkadinkado.

Day 6: This tag allowed me to try out the new St. Nicholas stamps from Oxford Impressions. Such a great Santa stamp in that set! I also really liked the paint resist with the flourish - have used that technique many times. I did find that when you overstamp the snowflakes in distress ink it's really important to just blot the ink from the paint rather than lightly rub - it will smear with rubbing. Stamps: Oxford Impressions and Stampers Anonymous.

The 12 Tags of Christmas (part 1)

How many of you are playing along with Tim Holtz and his 12 Tags of Christmas? I've wanted to with the previous two years but didn't, so I thought I'd try this time. Making a tag following his examples has been fun stress relief after work...although I'm not really getting any of my Christmas CARDS that I need to send out done........maybe I should sent out Christmas TAGS? Hmmmm........ Anyways, I think the great thing about his tutorials on his blog are the techniques he shows - it's always fun to learn something that you can use in other projects, and it can also be fun to come up with a suitable substitute when you don't have what he's using. These are the tags I made for days 1,2 and 3.

Day 1: Stamps are from Stampers Anonymous. This was my first time using Rock Candy Distress Crackle - I seemed to get a fine crackle that's not real obvious even with inking. Has anyone tried a really thick application? Did it give a better crackle?

Day 2: I loved the flecks from the gold Perfect Pearls and water mix, and his idea with the dimensional metal rose was so cool. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous and Inkadinkado.

Day 3: I ended up with this subtle plaid background using alcohol inks on glossy cardstock. Some of the colors I tried were way to vibrant for my tastes. I thought the overall look with the with paint stamped splatters was like a snowy woods scene. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous and Stampin' Up.

I hope if you're playing along that you'll leave comments about how the various techniques are working out for you. Have fun with your Christmas creating!

Ready-Steady-STAMP christmas banner #3

Here is part 3 of 4 for the RSS Christmas banner challenge. Ingredients are 1:Christmas baubles, 2: your colours, 3:organza, 4:dry embossing, and 5:cord. My favorite part of this one is a Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Cristmas technique for my Christmas baubles using fragment charms with another line of Joy To The World music attached to the back, rub-ons spelling NOEL on the top, and then the silver foil tape to create the tops. I think it's a cool look for the fragments. I stamped a Stampers Anonymous scroll onto the organza/sheer ribbon at the top, and I think you can see the texture on the dark red middle piece from a cuttlebug embossing folder. I can't wait to know what the ingredients will be for the final banner - each one has made me worry a bit that I won't have pieces that go well together at the end, so we'll just have to see........

Sunday Postcard Art

It's been a little more challenging recently to participate with blog challenges - all my stuff to get ready for Christmas keeps piling up as I'm sure it is at your house too this time of year - but St. Nicholas is the challenge at Sunday Postcard Art and it gave me a perfect opportunity to start to play with the newest stamps from Oxford Impressions titled "St. Nicholas". My background is a technique demonstrated in the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas this year using multi-medium to attach a dictionary page, masking tape to subtly remove some of it, and then distress inking the whole background. I added a Stampers Anonymous swirl and white gel pen accents.