Phew! That was close!

Happy weekend folks,

I see I have another new follower ........ we're getting closer to that 200 Giveaway!  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit, it is nice to have you on board.

Guess what ..... it's the last day of February ...... it must be tag time!!!

I'm on the last minute as usual ..... no excuses except it's been a bit of a busy week.  Good busy though ..... I've been out to lunch twice (I could get used to that!!)  I think I've found a new sofa that I like the look of, just need to see if it will fit in the new house!  And had a successful trip to the shops this morning ..... even though I did end up getting soaked in the rain!!
There's not much packing been done though .... and it's only 3 weeks to go before we get the keys to the new place ..... eeek!!!

I won't go in to all the details of how I made my tag ...... Tim has a great tutorial over on his Blog. Easy to follow step by steps, on all the various techniques he's used to create this month's fabulous tag.

Here's my version ..... not exactly the same

The collage background was done using left over pieces of paper from the Menagerie Paper Pad ......

I added a heart cut from chipboard and glitter card ..... no room to get the sewing machine out!!!

I love these metal arrows .... this is my last one (must remember to re-stock with those!)

And how cute are these little heart charms ...... attached using some coloured wire to match the sparkly heart

I finished off with a touch of lace, and something else that's my last one .... the word band (time to do a  stock take of my Idea-ology stash I think!)

And that's February's tag done .... just in time!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.

Next week's going to be a busy one ...... I need to get all my crafty stuff done at the beginning of the week, along with all the boring stuff (housework!).  I've got lunch out and a craft workshop on Wednesday, meal out with hubby on Wednesday evening, then on Thursday ..... have I mentioned it's my birthday!?! ...... I'm off on a craft retreat for the weekend, with my bestest craft buddies.  It's my first trip of the year off the island, and I can't wait ...... my bags are already packed!

But before all that my boys in blue are playing tomorrow ...... it's the League Cup Final .... Chelsea v Tottenham.  So ..... it's Sunday lunch at ours, a quick trip round to see the new house to measure up for a few things, and then it's time to settle down and watch the match.  Come on Chelsea!!!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

I'm doing it all again!!

Hellooooo .......
Happy Wednesday everyone, from a very wild and windy Isle of Man.

I mentioned yesterday that I'd finally got around to doing my Timmie Tag for January.  I'm so glad that we're able to do it all again this year, I really enjoyed the monthly challenges during 2012 (and to actually win twice was an added bonus!)

12 Tags of 2013

As usual I didn't have all the stuff Tim had used, but I managed.  Here's my version .....

The words are different and I didn't have the little pointing finger stamp, but I think everything else is pretty much what the Master used.   Ooh, except the stamps on the ribbon ......

I used the calendar ticket from the Odds and Ends stamp set (CMS100).  This is a really cool idea, to customise the ribbon to match your project.  The Idea-ology Crinkle Ribbon takes colour so well and as long as you remember to stamp in a permanent ink and dry it straight away, your design shouldn't bleed into the ribbon.
Full details of all the products and techniques used on the tag are on the Tim Holtz Blog.

Why not join in the fun, if you're not doing so already.

Well I'd better be off.  Sorry it's a bit short and sweet, but I have a busy afternoon ahead.  And, it's also my day to post over on the Indigo Blu DT Blog - see you over there later!

Thanks for popping by today.

Cheerio for now

Linda

x  

Where did the weekend go?

Morning everyone,

Just a quick post to let you know that I am still here.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend, I certainly did. Lots of good food, good friends, loads of laughs and craft!  What more could I ask for.  Just wish it had been longer. 
I even got to see my grandson, Alex, which was a lovely surprise.  I didn't think I would see him this visit with it being such a short one, but Lauren brought him round to Stephen's Mum's before we left for the flight home.  He's sooo cute! and growing fast.

I met up with some friends for a meal out on Friday night, one of them being Sally, my Stampin' Up demonstrator across in the UK.  It was her birthday a couple of weeks ago and although I sent her present in time, her birthday card was a little late (oops!)  She was very understanding though and when it did finally arrive, I'm glad to say that she liked it.
Included in her birthday present was a little something handmade, you've already seen this, if not it's here .    In this post you'll find all the details of the techniques I used to do the background etc., so I won't repeat it all again. 
I wanted to make her card, gift tag etc., all co-ordinating.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the gift tag (silly me) but here's the card I made for her......

I used all the same stamps as on the doorhanger (some of my favourties from Tim Holtz) only this time I added a little SU touch (well, it would have been rude not to!)  The flowers are from the Vintage Vogue stamp set, along with the Flower Accent stamp. 
There's even a little butterfly on there from the Chocolate Baroque Patchwork Butterfly set.

As you can see above, the envelope was decorated, and I did a little stamping on the inside too ....

I'm going to hide all my dress form stamps and dies for a while now, as I seem to be using nothing else lately. It'll give me an excuse to go through all my stamps and see what hasn't had an outing for a while.

I'll be back later with some pics of what we got up to on Maria's workshop at the weekend - I said they would be fabulous designs, and I wasn't wrong.

See you later

Linda

x  

Tag 2

Happy Weekend!
I hope you're all doing something nice this weekend.  We're having a quiet one I think, busy week next week. We're going across to the UK next weekend and I can't wait. We're going to catch up with family, and I'm off to spend time with my crafting buddies.  It's going to be loads of fun!!
I've had a lovely week this week with birthday wishes, and surprises arriving daily. Thank you everyone. My new camera arrived on Friday (another present from Hubby), so I'm looking forward to having a play with that.  Hopefully I'll be able to get good pictures now.  Bear with me though, it may take some getting used to - I'm no photographer!
I've spent quite a bit of time in my craft room this last couple of days, and boy can you tell.  I've left it in a bit of a mess, but hey! what's new.  Unfortunately I can't show anything just yet as it's all been stuff for birthdays that are coming up, and Mother's Day. Don't want anyone to spot their card before their big day.
The one thing I can show you though, is my March Tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2012.


http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/12-tags-of-2012/
This month's inspiration is Spring.  I love the little butterflies made with the Movers and Shapers Dies.  Unfortunately, like last month, I didn't have all the products that TH used but I managed to find something to do my version.
I've pretty much stuck to the design of his tag this month, except I wanted mine to be a little bit more feminine, so I used the blue and the pink papers from the 'Vintage Shabby' paper stash, and added some vintage seam binding and a few pearls. Hope you like it.

The mosaic technique was really fun to do, a bit fiddly because the pieces were so small, but I think it's very effective. It's a technique that I will do again, on something a little bigger next time!  I didn't have the Antiquities embossing powder or anything that was similar (Note to self:  must look for that at next craft show!) so in the end I went for a Cosmic Shimmer Embossing powder in Steel Blue Aurora.  I think it turned out ok.  The woodgrain background stamp is a Hero Arts one that I've had on my shelf for ages, and I haven't really used it that much. At least doing these tags, I'm going through my stash searching for product to use, and I'm finding stuff that I'd forgotten I had.  You never  know what you'll find when you start looking!
Have a lovely weekend whatever it is you're doing. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheerio for now

Linda

x

Key to my Heart - Tag #1

Thanks for popping by.  Just to let you know, I am a BIG Tim Holtz fan.  For those of you that follow Tim you'll already know about his '12 Tags' projects.  For the past 5 years he has done a series called  '12 Tags of Christmas', however this year is different.  The Christmas theme has been retired (Nooooo!) and he has replaced it with  '12 Tags of 2012' (Yeah!!)   Each month, starting with February, he will create a new themed Tag and post the tutorial, (with pictures and step by step instructions) onto his blog http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/ .  There's also a place on there where, each month, fans can show how they've used Tim's inspiration and created their own versions of his tag.  There's already some fab projects on there - people have been very busy.
There's no more waiting until the end of the year, now we get a new idea at the beginning of every month.  Exciting!!  I've only ever looked at his tag creations before,  but, this time I'm going to join in with the fun each month, and create my own version - you know how I love my tags!

Here's what I came up with for the February one.....

February 2012

List of products I used...
Cream cardstock - to make the tag
Various Distress Inks  - shades of reds/pink
Tim Holtz cling stamp - from 'Stuff to Say'
Script rubber stamp
Tissue Tape
Grunge board - for the heart
Winged Heart Sizzix Die
Red Glimmer paper
Tim Holtz Vintage ribbon
Various Idea-ology pieces
Adage Tickets
Lace from my stash

Really enjoyed making this.  Looking forward to next month already.  Let me know if you're joining in too.

Thanks for looking.

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
x

     

Where has this week gone!!

Hi  there,
I can't believe it's the weekend, again!  Times flies when you're having fun.

It's been a reasonably quiet week this week, not much to blog about really.  Tuesday I met up with a friend, Catherine, we had coffee and a good old chat.  We hadn't seen each other since Christmas so it was great to catch up. Lots of crafty chat too which was nice.

I've been able to spend a few days in my craft room too.  My parcel arrived from the UK - shopping I did while I was over there last week!  I just had to spend some time filling up my new Tim Holtz Cargo and Trinket Cases.  These had been on my Christmas list but somehow Santa forgot to get them.  So, I bought them myself!! All my Distress inks and stains are in the big one and the small one is full of Idea-ology pieces.   It all looks sooo cool. Stephen wasn't quite as excited as me when he came home from work and dinner wasn't ready..... (Oops!)

Cargo Case filled with fabulous Distress inks

The Trinket box filled with Idea-ology goodies

 
I also started playing with some of the goodies I got in my prize for becoming Craft Stamper of the Year.  There's absolutley loads of stuff, it was hard deciding what to start with.  In the end I went for my Indigo Blu stamps. (You can see the pile of them in my Cargo Case)  Indigo Blu are a relatively new company in the craft world.  British too which is nice. Their products are always featured in craft magazines and they recently premiered on Create and Craft.   Their stamps are fabulous, right up my street.  They remind me a little of Tim Holtz style of stamps but with that English edge, and I had virtually the full range to choose from. It's a tough life!! Why not take a look at their website and see what you think http://www.indigoblu.com/

I'll be back tomorrow with some pictures of the end results.

Thanks for popping by

See you tomorrow

Linda

x

Birthday time again!

Hello there.  January is always a busy time for me as far as birthdays go.  I always say that I'm going to be prepared and do cards well in advance, it never happens though.  I just about recover from doing all the Christmas cards etc., and finally get my craft room reasonably tidy, when it all starts again.  My mother-in-law is the first on the 13th - Happy Birthday Mum! I did send her a card early as she's away on holiday from today and I wanted to make sure she got it before she left.
Next it's the kids, both of them, within a week of each other.  Lauren is on the 17th and above is the card I've made for her.  I've used this style a lot recently as I love my Tim Holtz Sizzix dies, especially the dress form. It looks so different each time you use it, it depends on how you dress her up.  This time I used pieces of scrapbooking papers from my stash and added the chipboard wings which have been painted and then crackled.  I hope she loves it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Next is the card for Chris.  I always find it difficult making cards for guys, you have to be careful not to add too many 'feminine' touches.  I know this one has glitter on it but hopefully not too much. I used my Cricut machine this time to make the guitar and kept everything else quite simply by using a lovely 12x12 scrapbooking paper from My Minds Eye, and stamped some sheet music onto it to add a little more interest.  Hope he likes it.
As both kids are over in the UK, Stephen and I are having a week over there starting Wednesday.  We thought we go in between their birthdays this year so neither of them got 'special treatment'.

Happy Birthdays Kids!! 

 

Bye for now  

Linda  

xx