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.  :)