Merry Christmas! We woke to a lovely Christmas morning. We even got a dusting of snow overnight for a white Christmas! The clouds are moving out so we won’t get any more snow but it is incredibly windy but will make for a good day to stay inside and spend a lovely day with my beloved and our kittens. Soon the kitchen will be smelling divine as Christmas dinner will be put in the oven. […]
READ MOREHello! As we head into the Thanksgiving weekend our house smells of apple pie! I’ve been baking and making pastry for the last couple of days. I have a couple more pies to make for family friends and one for my beloved and then I turn the kitchen over to him so he can start making the savory dishes. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. […]
READ MOREHappy October! The leaves here have all turned yellow and red. The height of the aspen changing is finished and the furnace has started to come on when we get those cooler mornings. As we head toward Halloween, the tag for this month’s Tim Holtz Tech Remix Challenge involves using the Distress Collage Medium (Crazing) and the Sizzix Mask Thinlits. I really liked working with the crazing collage medium – its texture and effect are pretty fun to work with especially with the Distress Crayons. I chose the Zombie Thinlit for this month’s tag. And, as zombies love to eat brains, I figured I would go with it! […]
READ MOREOkay, sometimes you just have to work with your shortcomings and do your best to improve… […]
READ MOREI know it’s only August but I went to October for this tag! The two techniques that are part of the August version of the 12 Tags of 2016 involve Brayered Stains and Frameworks. This month’s tag was inspired by some of the new Tim Holtz Halloween goodies that I ordered and arrived earlier this week. There are some lovely papers in the new paper stash – I love the woodgrain and the orange/black flourish papers. When I started this tag I really wasn’t sure where it was going to go. I started with my crosshatch and then made by background to match what I used for the crosshatch. Of course I then felt like – now what? And, that’s when I noticed it had a bit of a darker feel – reminding me of Halloween. So, that’s the direction I went. And, more hand stitching! I also decided to outline the crosshatch with a Distress Marker to give it a bit more of a defined edge but nothing too thick. I also pulled out the Marker Spritzer to get some small spritzes in there which I think added to the background and gave some additional unintended grunginess to the mirrored crosshatches. […]
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Time for the latest in the 12 tags of 2016 – a mix of Layered Words and Watercolor Resist. I had a hard time deciding which stamp to use for this one but I finally chose the bunch of roses from the Lady Rose set. Pulled out my distress pens and watercolor pen/brush and away I went. I wound up stamping twice having used a lighter color for the initial stamping and then a darker color after the watercolor dried. I decided I wanted the whole thing to look a little more vintage and so I hand-stitched the watercolor to the tag and used several strands of DMC thread. Even using the Tim Holtz ruler it’s still a bit hard to get the lines exactly straight but it is far better than me eyeballing it! […]
This month’s Tim Holtz tag (12 tags of 2016: June) involved two techniques – tissue wrap and plaid. I tried to create two plaids for one image in an attempt to create the color difference and depth. I used the dress form die cut and then utilized a combination of Wilted Violet and Worn Lipstick for the “body” part of the dress form and a combination of Walnut Stain and Wild Honey for the “wooden pieces” of the dress form. With some creative masking involving the 3M Masking Tape Post-It roll I managed it after a couple of tries. As Tim suggested we should try some sewing, I whipped out my high tech needle and thread and hand-stitched the thread and then left the needle in the bottom part since the point of the tag is handmade clothing. I think I will ask Santa for a sewing machine for Christmas! […]
The Tim Holtz tag for this month combined techniques using tissue tape resist and tattered florals. In my experiments with this tag I wound up with color choices I would not normally use but seeing as spring has finally sprung around here it is appropriate! I even used some of the absolutely amazing lace we bought when we visited Belgium in April. We found a lovely little shop in Bruges near the lace museum and I bought some small pieces to use on projects. This little shop was well off the main streets and the owner is a skilled bobbin lace maker. I didn’t realize that I would be able to use my little “real” lace so soon! So here is my tech remix for May... […]
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This weekend the weather was very wintry despite it being springtime. Lots of wind, snow, and cold. Thursday was a beautiful high 60’s and Friday started the downturn. By Saturday it was full on winter. As the clouds started to clear today I decided to work on my tag for Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2016 – Tech Remix. Last weekend I played around a bit with the new woodgrain cardstock – it’s a lot of fun (that tag can be seen here)! Several weeks ago, I completed my first ever paper collage with the Distress Paper Mosaic Kit (that tag can be viewed here). Today’s tag is a combination of the two. I stayed with Tim Holtz’s version with a few minor changes and color choices. I would have loved to added some stitching but since I don’t have a sewing machine I opted not to since I wouldn’t be able to get the finer detail I wanted. […]
Well, I’m closing in on my first year of papercrafting! I’m at month 11 and this is my 11th Tim Holtz tag! More on my journey into the papercrafting world soon! Since I’m still rather new at all of these techniques, the remix is a great way for me to learn new things or work on the techniques I’ve learned in the past 11 months and try to make it better than the last time (or first time) I tried the technique. This month’s tag with Tim was a combination of both a redo technique and a new technique. […]
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