12 Tags of 2013 - March Tag

Hello blog friends,

I hope you've all had a lovely Easter Day, you can see what I've been doing with mine, and there was no chocolate involved!
I'd like to say 'Hello' to my latest follower too.  Thank you so much for joining me.   I'm up to 92 now - whoo hoo!  When I reach the grand number of 100, I think a little Blog Giveaway may be in order, to say Thanks for putting up with me -  what do you think?
 
After a bit of a late start this morning (I'm blaming that on the clocks going forward and losing an hour) I thought it was time I made a start on my March Tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013.  Nothing like leaving it to the last minute eh!  Especially when I haven't got half the stuff on the shopping list. 

Here's Tim's ........

and this is mine .....

It's not quite the same, but it's not bad, seeing as I had none of the dies he'd used, the paper pads or the right colours of Distress Paints.  But that's part of the fun of doing these tags I think.  It makes you think about what's actually in your stash.

My little bunny is from a Cricut cartridge - Kate's ABCs, and, as I didn't have any white Kraft Core  cardstock I used a sheet of  Core-dinations Whitewash card, with a Kraft-ish core.  I cut the bunny first, then used one of the Nestabilities dies - Labels 18 to cut my fancy label around it.

I used the blue tinsel twine behind (I don't have the silver one!) so that cut out the need to add colour.  I was a little nervous about heating it though, but, if the master says it's ok then I'll give it a go.  It's quite cute how it curls with the heat.
I added a bit more ribbon to my tag - the little bow around the bunny's neck.  And, as I've run out of Tim's Crinkle ribbon, I found out this afternoon, I used coloured seam binding - looks just as pretty.

My tag's been covered with one of the new BoBunny papers from the C'est la Vie range.  I think the stripes go well with the spring colours, and it does have a bit of a vintage look.

As I didn't have the Tapered Fringe die (must get hold of that one), I cut my own grass strips and used the edge of a bone folder to curl the edges over.  (I found this easier to do before I attached them to my tag).
  

The metal flowers I did have, but, not the right colours of Distress paint (still building my collection of those).  However, like most of you out there, I have many bottles of various brands of acrylic paint so with a bit of searching I found the right shades (PaperArtsy Fresco Finish to the rescue!)  I love this technique of painting metal charms.  Like Tim says, they do look like vintage enamel.

I've just realised I lied (sorry!) I did have one of the dies for this tag (yeah!!) - the Tattered Banner.  I cut mine from a scrap of cardstock and used Tim's new stamps for the message.
 
And there you have it, my version of this months 12 Tags of 2013.  Finished, finally, with a few hours to go before the deadline (breathes a sigh of relief!).  I'd better get it uploaded to the site now.

Thanks for popping by today, it's always nice to see you.

Enjoy the rest of the long weekend, and I'll see you all again soon.

Cheerio for now

Linda

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January Blues

Morning everyone,

I can't believe January is nearly over with, and, my blog is a year old!  Where did that time go?!  Happy Birthday Blog (it was actually a few days ago - but who's counting!) 
This is post number 200 and I've enjoyed sharing every single one of them with you.  I still find it hard to believe that so many of you enjoy reading my little old blog.  I love reading all the comments you leave, and I really enjoy stalking following you guys too. Thank you so much for keeping me company on my crafty journey.

As usual I'm on the last minute with my entry for the current Penny Black Saturday Challenge.
This month's theme is ......

JANUARY BLUES!

Don't worry it's not about being all sad and miserable, it's just they want us to use mainly blue tones on our creations.

As always, rules apply ...... only Penny Black images can be used, large sentiments and Stickeroos included.

Here's mine ......

Tea for two ..... all in blue!

Well, it's definitely blue!  I must say, it's not a colour I tend to use a lot, not for the whole card anyway.  I do like how this turned out though.

The background paper is from Magnolia, and is called 'Something Blue'.  The band across the centre was done using the PB 'clique' stamp (3858E) and Stormy Sky Distress Ink.
The main image is PB 'Tea Cozy' (1680J), stamped and coloured using Copic pens.  It's then been cut out and layered using Nestabilities dies (what did we do before we had these!?)
The tiny little sentiment on the tag is an extra, I thought it went with the stamp.  It's from the Stampin Up! Tea Shoppe set.

To finish everything off I added a couple of  Memory Box die cut flourishes, some paper roses and a pretty organza bow.

The main sentiment on the large tag is also a PB stamp - ..... special treasures (3629E).

Well, only one more day to go before hubby is home - I have missed him!   I hope these strong winds die down a little before Friday though, otherwise he's going to have a bit of a BuMpY flight.

Off to put the kettle on now.  A nice cup of Earl Grey I think, before I head off to the old craft room.

Thanks for popping by again.  Enjoy the rest of your day.

Cheerio for now

Linda

x

A new challenge for me

Happy Friday everyone,

It doesn't seem five minutes since I said that last week!
It's another glorious day here on the Isle of Man.  The sun is shining even if it is still a little chilly out there.  Hope we get another nice weekend.  No doubt we'll be out and about at some point. Stephen will want to take his new toy out for a spin.  He's just bought his first 4x4, and he'll want to put it through it's paces (great!).  I suppose I'm going to have to drive it at some point, not looking forward to that. I don't really like driving that much and I'm certainly not used to driving something that big. Ah well, it's not a brand new one so it won't be that much of a disaster if I bump it!  It's going to be a challenge for me I can tell you.

Speaking of challenges, I'm entering a new one this week.  It's the Penny Black Saturday Challenge http://pennybfriendssaturdaychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/   I have loads of Penny Black stamps and I must say I haven't used them for ages. I was catching up with one of the Blogs that I follow and saw it, so thought I would give it a go.  It's a good excuse to use some well loved stamps.

This weeks challenge is NO PATTERNED PAPER.  The only rule is that you use at least one Penny Black image, large sentiment or stickeroo. Not a problem - I love Penny Black stamps, especially the cute images, and the one I've used this week is one of my favourties (however, I do have rather a lot of those!)
This is the card I came up with ........

no patterned paper

As you can see, I haven't used patterned paper, but I did make my own background, using another favourite PB stamp.  The little flower cluster was stamped with Versamark, randomly around the edges of the red and the black layers and then clear embossing powder was added over the over the top.
I wanted to use red card to bring out the little ladybug, and along with the black and white it's one of my favourite colour combos.
The sentiment is from a PB clear set of stamps, and was just stamped onto white card and then I added a fancy punched border to co-ordinate with the nestie that I'd used to mat my main image onto.
The cute hedgehog was coloured using Copic pens, and the clouds were added to the background using Distress ink.
To finish it off I added a few paper roses and a ribbon bow, and covered the ladybug with Glossy Accents to give her a nice shine. I also doodled faux stitches around each of the layers with fine black and white pens.

I love this little ladybug

Products used ....
Penny Black stamps   Garden Gossip (1448F)
                                  clique (3858E)
                                  salutations (clear set) (30-014)
Copic pens
Black, Red and White cardstock
White pearlescent 8x8 cardblank
Black Versafine ink
Clear embossing powder
Stormy Sky distress ink
Paper flowers
Ribbon
Glossy Accents


Thank you for popping by. 

Linda

x

Tagged!!

Hi everyone,

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.  As promised, although a day late, here's my latest Tag. There's a matching card too, so all I need now is someone special with a birthday!

I've used the Stampin Up! Spice Cake papers again, and one of my favourite SU stamp sets 'Vintage Vogue'. This is a beautiful set of stamps that can be used for so many occasions, well worth purchasing.

 The good thing about decorating Tags is that you can make use of all those little bits of paper and card that are left over from previous projects. So don't throw anything away!  I've used lots of cut off pieces of Very Vanilla cardstock to stamp the flowers on and also the background panels.  I used Versafine Vintage Sepia and SU More Mustard inks. I don't normally go for mustard colours but I ordered this one as it co-ordinates with the Designer Papers and I love it.

 

 The back of the Tag was decorated too, with a space left to put a message.







My addiction for tags started last Christmas.  These are a few that went onto gifts for family and friends.  Hope you like them.

No doubt you're thinking I have too much time on my hands - you're probably right, but I really loved making these, more than doing my Christmas cards I think.  Each one was different, some only slightly, but they were different. I used a variety of Christmas stamps, a lot of Tim Holtz distress inks, the Reindeer Alterations die, the new Poinsettia die from Nestabilities, lots of ribbon, gems and of course glitter.  They were so much fun to do, and it was all worth it as everyone loved them.


I decorated all the backs with scrapbooking papers. The names were all die cut and I left space  to write a personal message.

 
 














 This was for Alex, my Grandson.  The stamp is from Magnolia, coloured with Copic pens.  The name on the back was cut on the Cricut machine using the 'Storybook' cartridge.


It's weird showing Christmas stuff in February, but hey, they're tags.

Well it's off to tidy up my desk now, to make way for the next project.  My daughter's asked me to make her a card.  It's her friends little girl's birthday in March and she wants something special for her, something Princess themed.  I feel a Cricut day coming on - ooh fun!!  I'll let you see what I come up with.

Bye for now

Linda
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