Monday, November 15, 2010

Gift Tags - Inspired by Tim Holtz


My friend Kim is hosting a booth at a local fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Clubs in our area. She is selling hand made gift tags and paper crafts in her booth. A few weeks ago, some of us who tried to do all 12 of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas LAST year, decided to get together and try to make as many gift tags as we could for Kim's booth.

I decided to make mine in sets of 5 and to try and do simpler versions of some tags I have seen Tim do, or just using his stamps and other Ranger supplies.



These Merry Christmas tags used a very old Walnut Ink from Tsunieko as the base. The edges are dry embossed with a Quickutz Goosebump die, then the edges and embossing, and tree were stamped with Forest Moss Distress Ink. The tree was clear embossed, then I went over the branches with an embossing pen and added white embossing powder. The Merry Christmas was stamped in Barn Door Distress Ink and clear embossed.

This was inspired by a tag I saw on Tim's blog that he created at the Carson Stamp show this weekend. I wanted to leave room for someone to write their To and From message. The background writing stamp was stamped in Pumice Distress Ink, Postcard and the holly were stamped in Forest Moss. The holly was then covered with Peeled Paint Distress Stickles and holly berries are Fired Brick Distress Stickles. The edges are colored with Aged Mahogany and Vintage Photo.


This Tag is also one that was inspired by a tag Tim made at the Carson Show this weekend.
The base of the tag is colored with Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans. The Flourish is stamped with Weathered Wood. The Seasons Greetings was stamped with Faded Jeans and then clear embossed. The snowflakes were stamped with clear embossing gel and then I used white embossing powder. To finish it off, I spritzed it liberally with Pearl perfect pearls mist.


This tag is one of my favorites and was a lot of work! I didn't really follow any of Tim's tags for this one, just kind of used inspiration for several of his past tags.


First I stamped the back music notes with Pumice Stone Distress Ink, then colored the entire tag with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. I added some Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges. I stamped the Christmas Carols in Vintage Photo and then embossed with Copper Embossing Powder. Cut it out and then inked it with Bundled Sage Distress Ink and a little Forest Moss Distress Ink. The Prima leaves and flowers were colored using Color Wash. The leaves were colored with Pesto and the flowers with Cranberry. After they were adhered, I went over each flower and leaf with Rock Candy Distress Stickles.


I stamped this tag with a large background stamp (not Tims :-0 ) in Vintage Photo, then edged it lightly with the same color. Stamped the tree with Forest Moss and clear embossed it. I stamped the Merry Christmas in Fired Brick and clear embossed, then colored the background with Forest Moss.


This background is made using Faded Jeans and Broken China. Then I stamped the snowflakes using Faded Jeans, but spritzed the stamp with water first so the ink would bleed. The snowman was stamped with clear embossing gel and then white embossing powder. The title is stamped with Faded Jeans and clear embossing powder.


This was made by putting Scatter Straw, Fired Brick and Pine Needles ink on the Nonstick Craft Mat, then spritzing the mat with water and laying the tag in it to get the watercolor background. The whimsical Dr. Seuss type stamps are from Inque Boutique and were designed by my friend Susan Stringfellow. (Sorry Susan!! I totally screwed up and stamped the tear drop ones upside down so I tried to make the best of it.) I added a little bling with one of the crystal pens.


What fun it was to create some pretty tags and actually put some of my stash to good use!

ADDITION:
After I made these tags, I decided to make a set of small gift tags for each of my colleagues in the department where I work. So here are the pictures of those gift tags.

The funny thing about this is that I made each one with a particular person in mind, so I bundled them into little pockets I had made out of green velvet ribbon, but when I got to work, they each selected a packet and then all decided to swap so that they had at least one of each tag. I just hope that they used them on packages to special friends and family.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Daily Window Designer Challenge

My friend and constant source of paper crafting inspiration, Susan Stringfellow, posted this contest Daily Window Designer Challenge on her blog. I thought it would be a really fun thing to try and come up with something and try to enter.

This is my first entry. I say first because I want to try a couple of different backgrounds if I get the chance. As you can see, there is room for someone to put a picture, their name or even a quote on this and then slip it into the window pocket of one of the bags.


I used some older MME scraps and some velvet ribbon from Cosmo Cricket.


This is the second background I made using some cream burlap and some Scrap Within Reach paper.

I really love the big bag with the window. She says it is the perfect size for taking to a crop. I'd love to win, or at least have one of my friends win, so you have until the end of the month to turn something in. Give it a try!