Christmas In August

Hello blogging world!  Bet you're surprised to hear from me, huh?  It's hard to believe that I haven't updated this blog in so long, but sometimes real life just gets in the way of the virtual one.  In my case, it's been REALLY in the way.  But that's a story for another day.

Today, I want to talk about tags. Specifically Tim Holtz and his 12 tags annual project.  Those of you who know me know that I embarked on the journey of finishing all five years of the Christmas tags, and while I'm not done yet (close though) - it occurred to me that it might be fun to see if I could put a Christmas spin on his tag of the month for this month.  Here's the link to Tim's project … 

Tim Holtz - 12 tags of 2015 – August…

And here's my spin on it.  

I love Tim's creative brain, and I really love how simple he makes everything seem.  His techniques aren't really complicated, his instructions are super easy to follow, and he encourages you to use the supplies you have and gives you an opportunity each month to try out a new product or technique. 

I used my Christmas Holiday Words Die to create the die cut background, and then backed it with some Merry Christmas word paper that I had lying around in my stash.  I think I may have found a new favorite product - this Multi-Matte Medium is pretty amazing stuff!  It was a snap to use and the drying time was really amazing.  I expected to have to wait for it to set up for hours,  but just a matter of minutes and it was ready to go.  

I inked up with Forest Moss, Peeled Paint, and Pine Needles Distress Inks.  The Distress Ink palettes are really such a super line - the colors are rich and vibrant and so vintage it's hard to pick a favorite!  

I am blessed to have a whole stack of vintage Christmas cards dating back to the 60's - thanks to my grandparents' saving habits.  I used the multi-matte medium to adhere the Santa image from one of those cards to some white card stock, then fussy cut and adhered him to the tag with more medium.   The Book came from and old K&Co Yuletide package that's in my 12-tags stash drawer - adhered with more Multi-Matte Medium.  Same with the cut out words.  

I went with Walnut Stain Distress Pen and Ink instead of the Black Soot to finish the edges.  The brown just seemed a bit softer for what I was trying to accomplish here.  

The holly is an old Kaisercraft product, the red buttons are from my vintage button box, and the alphabet stamp is from StampinUp.

I'm really happy with how this little tag turned out.  I'm planning to add it to my Christmas Tag Garland - which is probably going to have to have another panel put in this year.   Thanks for peeking in on my little project.  This was kind of fun, this getting back to my virtual world.  Maybe I'll do this again soon.   I'm going to finish the Christmas Tag project this year for sure!  I'm on a roll!   

Sunrise Series - Updating!

It's not QUITE an epic fail.  The photos have been happening, but the posting has been neglected.  I swear going back to work full time has been a bigger adjustment than I realized.  I'm still struggling with figuring out how to get everything done in a day...and the school year is almost over, so it's almost a moot point! 


Anyway - I finally slogged through my photo disks and made my selections, so here they are - oldest at the bottom, newest at the top.  

And I promise to try to do better!  




Sunrise Week 15
April 12, 2013


Sunrise Week 14
March 31, 2013














Sunrise Week 13
March 27, 2013






Sunrise Week 12
March 19, 2013


Sunrise Week 11
March 12, 2013

Song Of Spring

It's April 15 - which is tax day, but more importantly it's The Paper Mixing Bowl's reveal day!  I've been sitting on this project for a few weeks, and I'm so excited to get to finally show it to you! 

First off, some background.  

At PMB, every challenge includes a recipe card, which has the challenge specs, a sketch, and some journaling or topic ideas.  Here's this month's card : 

As you can see, it's all about spring and pastels this month, which was really tough for me.  People who know me well know that I love working in the fall color palettes.  For me, any color, as long as it is rich and dark is a winner.  Pastels - man - not so much.  But I'm all about the challenge of stretching myself and working outside my creative box, so I went rummaging through my paper stacks and found a piece from the Webster's Pages "A Sweet Life" collection, another from the Graphic45 "Once Upon a Springtime, a third from the DCWV "Mariposa" collection, and finally, I found one of my beloved polkadot patterns in a stack of MME "Wild Asparagus" collection.  I'm just not ready to START unless I have a polka dot pattern in the mix! 

Papers in hand, I grabbed the gesso and dressed up a chipboard birdcage, fussy cut the little bird out of the Websters paper, and used my Tim Holtz WordPlay die to cut some title letters.  I strung the title on a piece of cotton string, then went rummaging through my flower box to see what might be lurking and waiting to play with my papers.  

I hit pay dirt with some old Prima Camelot roses in pale peach and pink tones.  I grabbed some mini roses that I'd found in the $1 bin at Michaels and dressed those up with some peach tone stickles.  Finally I used some music paper (not sure what the manufacturer was), sprayed it with some sunflower glimmer mist, and cut myself out some 3-d wind up roses.  I love making those.  They all have individual personalities, and it's so fun to see flat paper become a three dimensional piece of floral wonder!  

All that was left to do was ASSEMBLE.   I did a decorative corner punch with a Martha Stewart Wild Flowers deep edge punch, and then I added some final touches.  I dressed the raspberries with some Glossy Accents, created a hanger for the birdcage with some dimensional paint, gave some life to my florals with some wired jewel stems and silk leaves, and used a couple of pop dots to get that bird up in the air.  I even STAMPED on this project!  It's a creative miracle!  

Here's what ended up coming out of my fingers.  

The photo of the robins doesn't even begin to capture the event.  There were literally hundreds of them in my back pasture.  The ground was damp from a fresh rain (Thank You, God), and the birds were having a grand time scratching for bugs.    

I love Spring - the sun is warm, the breeze is cool, hope is alive, and anything is possible.  

Thanks for stopping by, and if you get some time this month, you should try your hand at the Paper Mixing Bowl Challenge for this month.  Grab the link over on the right side of my blog and it'll take you right there!