Tim Holtz Xmas lantern ornament #2

I have been trying to figure out what to get a certain friend for Xmas and I know she loves ornaments for her tree.  She has the most beautiful amazing tree in black and white ornaments.  It's so elegant and stunningly beautiful.  So, I'm going to surprise her with a couple of these homemade rustic lantern ornaments that I made myself this weekend but do them in her colors!  :)  I really hope she likes them.  I think they turned out really well.... so I really hope that she will adorn her gorgeous tree with these!  I honestly, can't wait to give them to her.  We are getting together the end of the week for some Christmas cheer... I'll give them to her then.  If I can contain myself and wait that long.  LOL

So, these are the same techniques that I used for my red lantern ornaments but I used different colors.  So first I cut all my pieces.  I used the rustic lantern, the pine cone and branches and the scrolls.  Other supplies used were Krylon Silver leafing pen, white fabric flowers, Distress paints in white picket fence and scattered straw, distress embossing ink, distress emboss powder black soot, Recollections opaque white sparkle embossing powder, Distress Crackle in Clear rock candy, Aleene's True snow, distress ink black soot, Viva Gold platinum cream and graphite cream, archival ink black, liquid glass (glossy accents), and a silver bow. 

For the lantern, I first heat embossed the white embossing powder.  It has a nice light shimmery effect to it.  Nothing too glittery cause she's not a really glittery kind of girl.  I then re-inked random areas and used my fingers to pinch some distress black soot powder in some areas but not cover the whole lantern.  Re heat to emboss set the powder.  Rub the crystals off to distress.   Then I took my Viva creams and with my finger lightly rubbed some platinum around the edges of the darker parts and the graphite around the edges of the lighter areas.  It's hard to see the difference it makes in the photo but it really makes a difference when you look at it.  It just adds another dimension of texture and color to the tag. 

 

Time to paint and crackle the globe.  Paint scattered straw in the center for the yellow glow and white picket fence for around the glow.  I did two coats and let it dry before adding the crackle.  Let the crackle air dry while you work on other parts.  :) 

 

 

Next, time to color some of the branches.  I had some of my branches left over from yesterday's lantern so I used them, but they were green and I needed black so I colored them with black ink and let them dry.  I also cut a few in white cardstock so I had some variation.  I used 3 black branches and 1 white branch for each tag. 

 

 

Time to make the dreaded pinecones again!  I really didn't think I'd be making more of these so soon.  LOL  Only 4, that's all I needed this time.  Phew.  I wanted winter white pinecones and I used some True snow on the edges of the leaves.  Can't really see it but it adds some texture to the paper and makes it more authentic looking.  :)

 

 

My fabric flowers were white and I didn't want a white flower next to my white pinecones so I took my Silver leafing pen and silver leafed my flowers.  Perfect! 

 

 

The scrolls were colored with the same Silver leafing pen for a really cool metallic look.  Once it dried which doesn't take too long, I used an archival ink in black and stamped a sentiment on it.  My parts are all ready now to assemble.  The crackle should be dry soon, and if it's already started to crackle you can help it by lightly blow some heat onto it to speed it up, but I prefer to just let it air dry completely.   Once dry, glue the globe with liquid glass in behind.  I love the look of the crackle.   Next, you can glue on the scroll.

 

 

 

 

Time for the branches, pinecone and flower to be glued on.  On the right side of the lantern I staggered the black and white branches to offset the look.  It makes them POP to the eye better.  You can attach the silver bow above the globe now too.  I used a hot glue gun to glue down the bow, the pinecones and the flower.  I find it holds better than other glues. 

 

 

I made two of them for her!  I used a different sentiment for each one so it would be just slightly different.  I think they are really pretty, so I really hope she likes them as much as I do.  If not, they are going home with me again, and onto my tree!  lol  Just kidding.  :)  I'm sure she'll love them.  Here are my finished lanterns. 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping in.  I am so thrilled that my red lantern project this weekend was picked by Tim Holtz as a blogworthy link to me.  I can't even explain how much that means to me and how excited that made me.  In a year of so much sadness in my life, this has really brought some real joy and happiness!  :)   Starting my blog and doing my tags and taking the Creative Chemistry courses and following Tim's monthly tags and also following so many of my crafty peeps that have so truly inspired me has really brought me into such a happy place.  I'm blessed by all of you who have helped inspire me and even though you don't know what has been going on in my personal life, you're all helping me heal. 

 

So thank you!  With that bit of sappy insight, I would like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday if you don't follow Xmas. 

 



 





 







 

 





Xmas lantern ornaments

Pajama party/crafting party with my GF resulted in some pretty fun stuff!  I had so much fun, but now I am exhausted.  LOL  I started off making placement names tags for my table via inspiration from Nicole @ Canadian Nickel Scrap'n but loved the red colors that, Thatcrazychick did for her lantern.  My house is in reds and so is my Christmas tree, so RED was justing singing to me.  So, while I waited for my guest to arrive for our full day and night of scrapping bliss, I got started cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting some more to get all my pieces ready to go for assembly.  OMG... so much cutting!!! 

I cut out scrolls and inked the edges and added a sentiment, those were ready. 

I cut out a ton of pinecones (in brown card stock) and branches (in 2 different tones of green cardstock), and then inked my branches.  OMG, if I have to roll another pinecone this year it might be too soon!  Wow... Love the look after the fact, but have to honestly say, they weren't the most fun to roll up.  LOL 

  

Next up, all the lanterns.  I cut out a dozen from grundge paper, to make 6 name tags.  Once they were cut I took and heat embossed them with first, a Recollection Red glitter embossing powder.  I rub some of it off and in the exposed areas I inked with Walnut stain ink and then re-embossed with Distress walnut stain embossing powder to give that rustic look to it in those exposed areas.  It turned out soooooo good!  I took the light globe and Distress painted the inner part with Scattered Straw and the outside rim in Antique linen.  I let it dry and then repainted the same overtop for a second coat.  Once dry I crackled the globes with clear rock candy crackle.  I distress embossed in Walnut ink the little knob. 

 

 

Now, I found that the grunge paper warped from the heat gun and it wasn't as sturdy as I would have liked so I grabbed a pile of plastic packaging I had and cut out sheets so that I could diecut 12 more lanterns out of the plastic to adhere to the back of the grunge paper lantern to add a bit more stability.  It worked really well.  :)  I adhered the plastic lantern to the back using my tape runner.  :) 

 

Next up!  Add some Aleene's True Snow to the pinecones for a wintery look.  I used a fine paint brush and brushed the snow around the edges of the leaves. 

 

 

Next up, time to start assembling all my pieces.  I used liquid glass to glue down the branches and the scroll at the top.  I added some amber colored rhinestones up top too for some bling.  I hot glued the pinecones into place and added a pretty gold fabric flower to each tag as well.  I found the flowers at a little fabric store.  :)  I've had them for years and never found a use for them until now.  It was like they were meant to be on this lantern.  ;)

                                               
 

As I'm assembling my pieces, my girlfriend suggested instead of just having 6 name tags that I won't be able to use except for a Xmas dinner party, to keep them individual and make tree ornaments from them!  Now I have 12!  Brilliant!  OK.  I needed some heavy gauge wire for the hanger so off we went to Michael's this afternoon to purchase some and I cut and attached the wire to look like a traditional wire handle/hanger for my lanterns. 

 





  

I think they turned out fabulous!  I am so pleased with them.  They took so many hours to make, a full day and half to cut, emboss, ink, roll, stamp, snow, paint, crackle.... ohhhhh the steps,  but in the end so worth it.    Here are all my tree ornaments and a few in my tree.  :)

 

  

 

I want to THANK my gf Sherry for giving me some Xmas spirit this year and spending the last day and half with me doing crafts and laughing and talking and enjoying some yummy wine and allowing me to treat her because she does so much for me.  :)  It's been a great weekend.  :)   Hope you all enjoy my ornaments.  I know I sure do and my tree looks fab with them.    Thanks Canadian Nickel Scrap'n and Thatcrazychick for the inspiration.  :)  Merry Hohoho.... 

 

PS... sorry about the watermark photo in the middle of the blog.  I have no idea how that got there or how to get rid of it, so it's there.... :(   What's a girl to do when she's technically challenged.  LOL 

 

 







Live and Dream

Do you find yourself sometimes thinking Christmas tags and then you end up doing something totally opposite?  Yup, that was me today.  I had full intentions of getting into my room and do something with my rustic lantern but for some reason... my fingers and brain collaborated behind my back and I ended up with something so not Christmassy at all.  :)

I started my afternoon getting busy and coloring some tags so they would be ready to go.   My attention span must have been really short today because I didn't even get many of those done.  LOL  Yup, it's one of those days. 

So, for my tag I took a black tag.  Wasn't really sure what I was going to do so I grabbed my Harlequin stencil and Tarnished brass distress paint and dabbed some paint thru the stencil.  I should have used my blending tool because I oozed underneath and didn't give a clear defined image.  But... Ok... lets work with it.  Let's say it has character!  ;)  I'm refusing to throw out the tag.  LOL  I'm frugal that way. 

I rummaged thru my stash of Kaiser stamps and settled on using 36 and Confidence.  I stamped them on using my CTMH dye ink in Whispering white.  I then took some embellishments from CTMH with the flowers and the rhinestones and placed them on the tag. I inked around the edges with my Viva Gold cream.  I found some of my dollar store find butterflies which I adore and glued them on.  I think I'm done!  Here is my tag:

 

 

 

I really wish I had me some Christmas cookies right now!  A part of me sooooo wants some yummy Christmas goodies and the other part of me is grateful that there is none in my house to cheat on.  LOL  Ohhhh, that darn good angel/bad angel battle happening right now.  :)   Maybe I'll go pick some up at the bakery tomorrow so I have some around the house to offer guests when they come for some Xmas cheer.  And for me!  ;)  I'm such a bad girl.  

 

If you like my stuff please follow me so I can find and follow you to.  I love getting inspired by other crafty creators.   Have a wonderful festive season and enjoy the love around you.  :)   Merry Christmas!

 

 

 



12 Tags of 2013: December

I'm done December's tag!!!  I have to admit this was pretty challenging for me.  I didn't have a poinsettia die or a die that I thought would work sufficiently for the task at hand.  So, I hit the stores today looking for something, anything, that I could make work for this technique.  I found the frosted film with no problem.  But no where could I find the Alterations dies or the clearly for art plastic.  I thought well... let me try normal packaging plastic!  It worked but it definitely shrinks differently than what the blog photo's look like with the clearly for art.  In my feverish search, I found a die from spellbinders for the Aster flower.  It had that tattered kind of edge like a poinsettia so I thought, hmmmm lets try this.  After a few passes thru my Cricut it cut thru the plastic.  Phew!  Ok, step one.  But I had to apply the frosted film afterwards and then trim the film around the die cut to make it work.  A bit more work than I had anticipated but I got the end result of some frosted flowers that when assembled resembled a poinsettia.  :)  So, I got out some dye inks and colored up my flowers and I was ready to attack it with my heat gun!!!  Or.... oh oh.... because it shrinks differently, my frosted side ended up on the bottom rather than the top.  :(  Oh well.... carry on and see what we can make of it!  :)  I cut out my branches but instead of using dye ink to color them, I wanted a bit more shimmer so I used my alcohol ink in a green and the gold mixative for some glam shimmer!  :) 

 

 

 

Next, I colored my tag.  Again, I wanted more shimmer on my tag so I got creative and applied iced spruce and picket fence distress stain to my craft sheet, and then instead of misting my tag with just water I used Perfect Pearls spray in Kiwi!  :)   Once my tag was misted in the shimmering yumminess I lay my tag into the stains and pulled it thru.  I went back and blotted up the extra onto my tag which gave it a real blotchy shimmery look.  I LOVE it!  Next, I took brushed corduroy ink and inked the edges.    I then used the same ink and the Harlequin stencil and randomly inked the design onto the tag.  In the second photo, I angled my camera so that you could see the shimmer on the tag from the perfect pearls spray mixed with the stains. 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a festive sentiment from my stash of Christmas stamps and inked with archival ink onto the tag.  I glued my poinsettia and my branches in place.  Now it was time to splatter some Picket Fence paint onto the tag, but all I had was a toothbrush from the dollar store.  I splattered some paint onto the tag but I found that with the toothbrush it was more of a fine mist than a spotted splatter that I was hoping for.  So, time to improvise a bit again, and I took my smallest stylist pen and lightly dotted some bigger spots randomly on the tag making it look like I had splattered it on with a splatter brush.  Wink wink... hahahaha... clever I know!  LOL   The tag seemed a little bare to me so I took some twine and wrapped it around the middle a couple of times and tied a bow slightly to the right side.  :)  Yup, ok now I am liking it.  It added just that little bit of rustic vintage look to the tag.  :)   I used twine as well as the hanger up to too so that it would tie the whole tag together. 

 

Here is my finished tag:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for popping in to see me.  I've only started making Tim's 12 tags of 2013 in September, so I think I might have to go back and do the rest of the year so I have all 12 in my collection.  :)  Definitely had so much fun following Tim and his tags these past few months, I really look forward to doing all 12 next year.  :)  Keep up the great work Tim, and passing on your inspiring tags for us to recreate and learn from!  It's been a blast and I am officially addicted and in need of a 12 step program to wean me off of my addiction.  Or maybe not!  I could be addicted to a lot worse things!  Right?  My husband might not agree to that statement, but I'll stick to it!  Teehee 

 

Have a great night and see you in a while...





Tim Holtz snowman

I'm back!  I managed to do another tag before shutting it down for the night.  I really like this one.  I used Tim's Alterations Snowman die again for this one.  I love the snowman.  First I got my tag ready.  I used Broken china, Tumbled glass and picket fence distress stains then used the corresponding inks around the edges to intensify the color.  I then stamped a Kaiser stamp called Rock with distress picket fence paint onto the tag once it was dry. 

The snowman was cut out of some plastic and I then used alcohol inks in two different blues and the white mixative and blended it onto the snowman.  Once dry I spread some liquid glass (or glossy accents) with my finger to cover the snowman and then sprinkled some clear glass beads overtop.  Once it dried I added a thick coat of liquid glass overtop and added more clear glass beads and left it to dry. 

 

 

 

I then cut a pine needle border with a thin metal die from Memory Box.  I colored the pine needles with distress inks in iced spruce, evergreen bough and peeled paint.   I put down a strip of glue along the side and attached the border. 

 

 

 I found a whole stash of Xmas elements that I forgot I had.  LOL  Oops.  So, I found these cute little pinecones and glued them down.  I attached a glitter bow to the snowman.

 

 

 

In my stash I found some white poinsettia's and cut them apart and glued them to the bottom corner and added some gold stickles for the centers. 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed this tag as much as I did.   I'm going to snuggle in front of my little fire and enjoy my tree for a bit before going to bed.   Goodnight!  :)  

 





A Tim Holtz kinda Xmas...

Well, with a wind chill of -35C/-31F outside today, I'm staying in this weekend and working on my tags.  However, it is warmer right now than last night when it said our wind chill temps were at -47C/-53F.  Brrrrr.....  I bit too cold for my liking.  So, with that cold in mind I made a Tim Holtz tag from one of his 12 days of Christmas a few years ago with the snowman in the icy blues.  :)  Suitable tag considering don't you think?

My first tag I wanted to use some of my new Alteration dies I got.  The stars, the movers and shapers 25 and mini reindeer.  I also picked up the stencil in the new Holly branches.  Yehhhhh...  

So first I inked my tag with distress stains in antique linen, tattered rose and old paper.  Then took distress inks antique linen, Victorian velvet and old paper and inked around the edges and blended them inwards a bit to intensify the colors.  Next, I took the Holly stencil and layed it overtop of the tag and used embossing ink thru the stencil.  I removed the stencil and poured Stampendous Aged green embossing enamel that I just purchased as well and heat embossed it.  Love the look, it gives a real textured effect with gold flecks throughout.  Awesome.  Now when I poured the powder on, it collected a bunch around the edges and instead of brushing it away I thought it would add a neat border so I left it and it embossed it to the tag as well.  :)

Now it's time to work on the embellishments.  I cut out the stars using grunge paper from the Alterations die as well as the 25, and the mini reindeer was cut onto kraft paper cardstock.  I colored the stars with Viva Inka-Gold metallic creams and also the #25. Once the metallic were dry I inked around the edges to distress.  The Reindeer I just inked the edges in walnut stain. 

 

 

 

I took one of my Michael's dollar bin stamps that said Deck the Halls and stamped it in walnut stain and cut the pieces apart so I could stagger and place the words where I wanted them.  I inked the paper with antique linen to give it an aged look.  Next, I took a long strip of white cardstock and randomly inked with distress inks in mowed grass, peeled paint and walnut stain to blend all the colors onto the paper.  Then I took my Martha punch and cut out a pile of pine branches.  I found this much easier to ink before punching than to try to ink the small pieces after the fact.  I glued the branches down along the bottom edge of the tag.  Next, I added the reindeer with a pop dot.  I layed out the rest of the elements and glued them down as well.  The center sentiment paper I adhered with a pop dot as well to give another raised element to the page.  Once it was all in place and glued down I took some amber colored rhinestones and placed them randomly in the branches and one on the sentiment as well. 

 

 

 

 

Here is the finished tag.  

 



 

 

 

My next tag, well I have to admit I kind of screwed up on this so I improvised and found a way to make it work.   Note to self, and I should have remembered this from Creative Chemistry... crackle does not stick to plastic!!!  And I forgot to prime the plastic first so my crackle on my snowman was flaking off.  :(  However, I managed to save it from total disaster and it turned out ok I guess. 

 

Let me take you thru this tag.  I took my tag and colored my tag with distress stains using broken china, picket fence and tumbled glass.  Once dry, I coated the inside of the embossing folder with embossing ink and then embossed the tag with the Snowflakes folder.  Once removed I used one of my new fave embossing powders in Vintage blue glitter from Recollections... the diamond sparkle is amazing! 

 

 

 

I cut the snowman and the snowflake using some plastic from packaging that I had saved.  The snowflake is colored with alcohol inks.  And the snowman.... well here is how I managed to save my screw up.  I first, not thinking obviously, smothered my snowman with distress crackle in clear rock candy and patiently waited for it to dry.  As it was drying, little pieces literally started to snap and pop up in the air and come off of the plastic!  Hmmmm, not good.  So once it was dry and the majority of the crackle was still sitting on the plastic I decided to proceed.  I took distress stain in pewter and inked overtop, very gently blotting it on and not rubbing.  BUT realizing that the minute I move this snowman all the little shards of crackle would start to pop off, soooooo.... I took Glue and Seal and glazed overtop and let it dry.  Now... it worked.  It sealed it on the plastic but my Glue and Seal was Matte!  Ugh...  That's ok, don't panic... no one will ever know that it wasn't supposed to look like this.  Ok well, no one but those who read this blog!  LOL  It didn't have the color pop that I was wanting so once my sealant was dry, I turned it over and took alcohol inks in blue and the white and blended it on the back side of the snowman to reflect some color thru from the back.  Ok, that worked out well!  Ahhhhh....  I tied some fluffy yarn around his neck for a scarf. 

 

 

 

 

Next up, I cut out the number 25 die and embossed it with Stampendous Aged Gold embossing powder and glued him to the snowman.  Next up, I wanted to add some snow.  It is winter after all!  ;)  I used Aleene's Glitter snow and smeared some along the bottom to mimic a snow covered ground and some along the top for some snow filled clouds. 

 

 

 

 

Those are my wintery Christmas tags that I have managed to finish today so far.  Hope you enjoy and I'll see you next time!  :)   Stay warm if you are in the frigid deep freeze called Alberta right now!  If not, maybe my tags will bring you a bit of a chill.  ;)   Thanks for stopping in.  Leave a comment and make my day.  :)  







Christmas glitter

Wow... Where has the time gone since my last post?  So much has been going on and spending time in my craft room has really taken a back seat to life.  I finally was able to get into my room and do some playing and get something back onto my site.  I can't believe how fast Christmas is approaching.  Have you started your shopping yet?  Not me... have a feeling I'll be doing that last minute.  Ugh... 

So, as per my typical scrapbook hoarding problem that I have, I headed out when my favorite little store got in more new fun stuff!  I just can't help myself, but I did get some really fun stuff to work with.  It absolutely excites me. 

So for my first tag I made, I had purchased the Mini Toy soldier die and also the Festive dies as well from Tim's Alterations.  Years ago I bought a ton of colors in the Ritz Glitz microfine glitter powders and haven't done much with them since my glitter craze back then.  So I decided, thanks to CanadianNickel Scrapn and her task of using products she hadn't used in a while, I took them out and made myself use them.  I also had a die cut of a rounded window that I got from a friend and was never really sure what to do with it so I also decided to incorporate it into my tag. 

 

 

 

The background I used several of the Distress Inks and randomly blended them onto the tag with my blending tools and then splattered water droplets onto the tag to give it that unique watermarked effect.  Love that technique. I used a stamp from a Xmas stamp set I had not yet used and took the pine branches and randomly stamped them all over the tag.  The Glitter Ritz was applied by spreading some Liquid Glass (or Glossy Accents) over the parts you want and then the glitter is sprinkled over top, shake the excess off and move to the next color.  I used four different colors.  The pinecone, I did a zigzag effect with the glue across the die to give it that dimensional look and it turned out exactly how I wanted it to.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

The soldier was colored in with my alcohol markers and then I used Xmas Red Stickles for the glitter.  Here is my finished Toy Soldier tag using products that I had on hand but not used in ages or at all.  :)  Thanks Nicole for the inspiration to get into my stash of neglected goodies.  :)

 

 

 

My second tag is all new stuff that I just had to get into. I got the Tim Holtz birdcage and bird die while ago.  I had some holly dies left over from the festive die cuts I did for the last tag and wanted to use them on this tag.  Wasting is not allowed!  ;)  I got another new stamp of pine branches in the mail last week, cause I didn't realize that I already had a stamp on hand.  Oops!  However, it is quite a bit different than the one I had.  :)  I started off with a black tag and used a white pigment ink to add the pine branches all over the tag randomly.  I love Perfect Pearl mists and just purchased a super beautiful green that just screamed Christmas.  It's impossible to see just how deliciously shimmery the tag looked after spraying the mist over it. 

 

 

 

 

I used this amazing new embossing powder from Stampendous for the birdcage called Vintage Blue Glitter embossing powder.  The sparkle is amazing!  I really wish I could get it to show in the photos.  When the light reflects off of it looks like little sparkles of diamonds dancing in the light.  Stunning.  I'm in love.  The bird was embossed with a red glitter embossing powder and the wing was done with Distress Glitter in Barn Door and then I used Viva Old Gold metallic creams and rubbed it overtop of the glitter on the wing.  I also used the same Old Gold and brushed some onto the holly leaves as well.  The branches were stamped out from Martha Stewarts punch.

 

 

 

 

 

The candy cane is a stamp I had bought in the dollar stamp pile at Michael's.  I inked it in Barn door and then used my Glitter Gel pens to color overtop of the red just to give it a bit of shimmer.  The bow was colored in with a marker and Stickles for glitter overtop.  This whole tag is all about different textures, shimmers, glitters and sparkles.  I used Tim's wrinkle ribbon and dampened it with my water mister and used Distress stains in picket fence, peeled paint and barn door. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for checking out the newest of my Christmas tags.  I am trying to find a way to display all my winter and Christmas tags, but I'm stumped as to how or where to do that.  Hmmmm... need to put my thinking cap on a bit tighter!  ;)   

 

Here is a peak of my Xmas tree.  I love my tree!