February Tag Time!

In whooshes the short month of February and with it is Tim Holtz's latest tag!

I went so far off the MacGyver reservation this time that my tag hardly looks like Tim's at all!  =D

You can check Tim's out here....and here's mine:

I used Tim's recipe, but I still have embossing glitter stuff all over the place!  ARGH!  ;-)



Thanks for dropping by today!


~Cynthia

Another Year of Tim's Tags?? NO WAY!!

Yes way!!

It seems Sir Tim Holtz has decided to continue with another year of his amazing tags.  I'm so excited!  I have long loved doing these mini works of art. =D

Here's Tim's tag for January.

Here's my take...all MacGyvered up!

As always, I tried to follow Tim's recipe, but I did have to make a few adjustments.  The embossed silver parts on the top and bottom are actually duct tape--the shiny kind.  I just embossed and stuck it on a tag, then painted it a bit with Black Soot Distress Paint and wiped the embossed parts off.  Simple!

The compass was stamped twice on chalkboard paper.  The second image was cut out to layer on the tag.  The bottom compass is white embossing powder, while the top image is clear embossing powder with chalk dusted lightly on it.

I added one of Tim's decorative brads with a tiny steam (train) engine inside the brad head.

And that's it for me!  Thanks, as always, for dropping by!  I have not been able to get my photo to link up permanently on Tim's site.  (Booooooo.)  So I am doubly grateful that you've found my tag!


Now, come play with us and Tim!!  ;-)


~Cynthia

Tim's Tag for December!

Can you believe it??  One whole year of Tim Holtz's tags!  One whole year of gettin' all inky!

INKY INKY LOVE.

Gosh, I hope he continues this creative endeavor next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  =D


Here's Tim's tag.  As usual, I had to put my MacGyver thinking cap on and here's what I came up with....

I didn't have the cool stencil Tim has, so I used a leaf one!  It kinda looks like a giraffe.  Heh heh.

I didn't have the green Color Core papers, so I used scraps of cardstock for the wreath.

I didn't have the bells, so I used Distress Stained wooden stars.

I didn't have the leaf punches nor the bow die cut, so I used two Martha Stewart punches instead.

See?

Sometimes ya just gotta bring out the MacGyver and you can make pretty stuff!  =D


Now.

Go make a tag!




Merry Christmas and Happy Inky Fingers!!

~Cynthia

Tim's Tag for November!

I'm not real sure where October went, but here we are on November 1st and that means it's time for a new tag.

Here's Tim Holtz's tag--love love love that background!!

And here's mine:

This is probably my favorite background...like ever.  Too bad that fat pumpkin is covering up all the really cool splotches!  ;-)

I followed Tim's recipe fairly closely.  I deviated on the letters, because my tags are smaller than Tim's and the "negative" technique he used wouldn't fit on my tag.  I love the way the letters have that tone-on-tone look, fading a bit into the tag.

I also didn't have any gold foil, so I picked up some gold acrylic paint on my finger, then gently wiped it off on the edge of the tag in a few places.  I then wiped the excess off on the pumpkin and leaves so they have an ever-so-slight shimmer.

And that's it for me!

Thanks sooooooooooooooo much for dropping in to check out my tag!!  I appreciate your visit!


Stay crafty--

~Cynthia

October Tag Time!!

Yep, time flies and then it's Tim's Tag Day!

As usual, I had none (NONE) of the products Tim Holtz used to create his super fun and really cool tag, which you can see here.

BUT.

Since these sweet little die cuts arrived at my house, I have been waiting (im)patiently to create something with them.

Check it-----

I *did* follow Tim's idea of layering parts of the die cuts.  There are two birds, layered.  I adhered the eyes to the bottom layer to give them a sunken look.  And there are two pumpkins layered as well.

Then I added lots of sparkle to the hat and the pumpkin.

All the coloring was done with Distress Inks and Markers and a bit of Distress Paint.

I added the tie as an afterthought.  But I think it totally makes the bird, amIright??  ;-)


Happy October, y'all!!  And thanks so much for dropping by today!


~Cynthia

Tim's Tag for September!

Yep, it's the first of the month again.  Really, where does time go??  Whoooooosh and it's a new month!!!

But that means it's also time for Tim's Tag!  Check his out here.

As usual, I had very few of the supplies Tim used, so I had to go all MacGyver on it!

Tim used that fabulous, probably need it, gonna add it to my want list Texture Paste/Transparent Gloss.  I went old school and used embossing ink and clear embossing powder instead.  I did swipe it with just a tad of Archival Ink so you can see the pretty swirls a lot better.  Really neat technique!

I also didn't have the Frosted stuff Tim used, so I stamped on the glossy paper then I stamped on some Shrink Paper--I just didn't shrink it!  ;-)  Tim heated his butterflies and bent them, I decided not to bend my little Chinese seals.  Still..pretty cool technique.

That Tim.

He's so awesome.

=D

Thanks for dropping by today!  Stay crafty!!


~Cynthia

Tim's Tag for July!

Oh no!  I can't make my usual announcement for July 1st!!

Yeah, pretty much because it's July SECOND!  :-O

So I'm a day late and a dollar short on this one...heh heh heh.

Here's my take on Tim Holtz's Tag.  Please check his out because I really had to go all MacGyver on this one.  ;-)

When I saw Tim's tag, I though--oh this will be so easy!  But hours and HOURS later, here's the final tag.  I hated the first few incarnations so I kept changing and adding and coloring and and and......

It's not my favorite tag, but it's done DANG IT.

Thanks as always for stopping by.  I am no longer able to post my tag photos on Tim's site, so it means a lot to me that you've found my tag!


Happy Fourth of July!


~Cynthia

Tim's June Tag Time!!

June first already???

Another opportunity for some inky fun??

YES!!!

It's TIM'S TAG TIME!!!


Here's Tim's take on this month's creation.  Go there.  Now.  I will wait.

You back?  Good.  So you will notice some stark differences in our tags this time.  That's because I honestly had very, very few of the ingredients Tim used.

So....here's my take!

At first, I will admit, I was a bit daunted.  I had no coffee cup die cut thing nor anything close to it.

Or did I??

As I flipped through what I *did* have, I came across this cute Mason jar die cut.

And then I had to think.

And think.

And think.

Then...it came to me.  I don't drink coffee, right?  But June is beach month, right?

So I decided to head to the sea for this tag!

I die cut the Mason jar, little sand dollars and tiny starfish.

I scuffed up the jar to get a shabby chic ocean vibe there.  (Totally cool in real life, close up like.)

Then I remembered my cool crab die cut.

(I actually bought that crabby die for scrapbook documentation of crabby attitudes while traveling, but that is a whole other story.)  ;-)

So I die cut and glued and colored and distressed and Wink of Stella'ed everything.

And called it done!


Thanks so much for dropping by!  Give Tim's tag a whirl--inky fun is the best kind of fun!!!!  =D


~Cynthia

Tim's Tag for May!

Hello, hello!!  It's May the first and you (probably by now) know what that means, right??  =D

It's TIM'S TAG TIME!!!

As always, here's Tim's super cool creation...and here's my take.

 

I had some of the supplies Tim used this go 'round, but I use a smaller tag so I had to pare down a bit.  I don't have any of that slick sticky burlap (man, that stuff looks awesome!)  I used sticky-back canvas instead.  And I didn't have the tiny flower dies either, but I thought the leafy die was totally the perfect size.

I did kinda have a little too much fun coloring my creepy uncle there.

OK, not really my uncle at all--he's one of those photos from Tim's Paper Stash pad.  But he still looks creepy.  Especially with a Crushed Pistachio-colored tie and a lovely Worn Lipstick-colored hat band.  Heh.

So there ya go!  May Tag done!  ;-)

Come on and play along with us!

~Cynthia

PS:  Thanks so much for stopping by!

No April Foolin'--It's Tim's Tag Time!!

Happy April 1st!  I can't believe we're on Tag #4 for the year already!

Check out Tim Holtz's Tag here.

As always, I didn't exactly have the supplies Sir Tim used, but I really didn't have to go all MacGyver on this one.  I pretty much followed his recipe.

However, because the tags I use are smaller than Tim's tags, I did have to get a little inventive.

Take a look...

There was no room to die cut a word out of the kraft tag, so I just used a heart hole punch instead!

The little heart on the left is really cool in real life.  ;-)  It's a silver star doused with Mushroom Alcohol Ink.  Sweet.

I love the idea for this and I just might use the recipe for some cards!  =D


Thanks so much for dropping by today.  I appreciate the visits and the comments!!


ETA:  If you've dropped by via Tim's site, my apologies for the double photos/links.  I've been having trouble for months in getting my tag photos posted there and this time my link address was wrong so I had to link up a second time.  *sigh*

And ETA again:  I've noticed that the CORRECT link/photo is now gone, leaving the one with the wrong address.  *SIGH*  I give up.  :-(


Happy Easter!

~Cynthia

March Tag Roarin' In!!

Yep, that's right.  It's March the first.

Seriously.

Where did this year go??

But that DOES mean it's time for....

(insert drum roll here)

TIM'S TAG TIME!!!

Check his out here.

This month's tag was full of color and relatively easy to create!

YAY.

Check out my take...

The light doesn't quite catch the cool Alcohol Inked stars there, but they are all grungy and antique looking!

I used Tim's recipe for the most part.  Instead of using gold embossing powder on the Texture Paste, I just grabbed the first one I came to, which happened to be Vertigre.  SO DANG COOL.

I also Alcohol Inked the gear up at the top.  It's the same grungy color as the stars.

Also, the ribbony stuff at the top is really not red at all.  It's that sweet new Abandoned Coral Distress Paint mixed with a bunch of other colors.  It matches the Abandoned Coral on the bottom left of the tag.


On a side note...I have tried and tried to post my tags on Tim's blog this year.  It stays there for a few minutes, then deletes itself.  I've uploaded/linked each tag about 10 times...no go.

*sigh*

So I really really really appreciate that you have found my little tag!  :-)



Now.  Go create a tag!  It's easy and super fun!!


~Cynthia

Tim's Tag Time!!

Hey, hey, it's February!!  And you know what that means, right??

It's time for another tag from Tim Holtz!!

This month Sir Tim created a collaged beauty.  You can see it right here.

And this is my MacGyvered tag take:

 

My favorite part is the "frame" behind the heart.  Since I didn't have one of those cool industrial sticker frame thingys that Tim used, I took an old key tag--like the round ones you get at the car dealership.  Then I distressed the heck out of it.  I painted it with Brushed Pewter Distress Paint and silver Tulip Paint.  Next I loaded it up with Mushroom Alcohol Ink.  Now it's all gnarly!

I dumped Mushroom AI on the key and the little compass too.  Love that grunge!!!!  =D

Thanks so much for dropping by to check this one out.  I had a lot of fun getting my fingers inky again this month!  I'm so grateful Tim Holtz is continuing this project/challenge.  :-)

Craft on!

~Cynthia

Happy New Year!!

Well, it's January first and you know what that means....

Tim's Tag Time!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right!! Tim Holtz is doing another year of monthly tags.  I am so excited he decided to continue this creative endeavor!!  WOOT!

Check out Tim's tag here.


For ONCE I didn't have to go all MacGyver on this one.  But I do use a smaller size tag than Tim does, so I did change a few things. 

Here's my take:

 Sorry about the odd shadows...winter sunlight...sigh.

The numbers have Brushed Pewter Distress Paint on them and they are nicely sparkly--which you can't see well here.  But so much cooler in real life!  ;-)

I dabbed Mushroom Alcohol Ink on one of Tim's stars and I love how antique it looks...like those old mirrors at your grandma's house.

Anyway.  That's it for me this month!  Thanks so much for dropping by and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!


Stay crafty, my friends!

~Cynthia
 

Tim's Tag for December!!

Woo hoo!!  Once again Tim Holtz has hit his tag out of the park!

As ALWAYS I didn't have most of what he used.

     ...insert Distress Stain Sprays wailing and temper tantrum here....

And as ALWAYS I just MacGyvered my way to this:

I use smaller tags than Tim does so I didn't have the room for the second word.  No problemo!  I just added a strip of paper.  But ooooooops...I forgot to adhere it UNDER the frosty stuff!  Eh.  It's fine.  ;-)

I used some plastic packaging with a frosty look to it and as Tim did, I ran it through an embossing folder and it became even MORE frosty!  So love that look!!

I added a Mirrored Star, coated with Distress Paint in whatever that silver color is called.  Tarnished Silver?  Yeah, THAT.

The tree is die cut from Grunge Paper.  The die is actually supposed to knock all those swirls out, but it didn't like the Grunge Paper.  I thought it looked fabulous that way.  Pretty cool, eh??

There's a bit of glitter on the tree too.

And on my fingers.

And my clothes.

And the carpet.

And my computer keyboard.

And in my hair, on the mailbox, the TV remote, the neighbor's cat and the Eiffel Tower.

*&@#^%$  I hate glitter.




Merry Christmas, you crafty souls!!  =D


~Cynthia

Dec Daily in the Houuuuuuse!!!

Yeah, OK.  I really did make up my December Daily album way back in August.  I find that by getting the album set up that far in advance, I don't have to feel rushed putting it all together at the end of November...or even in December!!  ;-)

You can follow along with Ali Edwards and her December Daily project right here.

And, as always....and, as I am such a rebel...my December Daily is actually an Advent Daily.  I start mine on the first Sunday of Advent, versus the first of December.

This is an old 6x6 SEI album.  Love them.  I used papers and embellishments from We R Memory Keepers' North Pole collection.

The album cover is still plain simply because (a) I haven't decided yet what to put on it and (b) I usually wait til after Christmas to decorate it so that the embellishing doesn't get worn or fall off with all the use.

Here's the first page:

Love those sweet little houses!!


Here's another.  I stuck an embellishment on each page:

This is one of the pages for Christmas Day:

Here's another random page:

So that's done.  I've got a whole tub container full of 3x4 journaling cards, stickers and more embellishments.  Very excited and I can't wait to get started!  This album will take the place of the daily junque journal thing I have going.

Are you playing along with Dec Daily this year??  I would LOVE to see what you're doing!!


Stay crafty!

~Cynthia

Week In The Life

Ali Edwards ran her Week in the Life project this year from Oct 27 to Nov 2.  I was a bit of a rebel.  I prefer my weeks to start on Sunday, so I just moved it one day back.  :-)

I really wanted to use stuff I had on hand, so I grabbed an old, bought-on-clearance Smash Book and went to town.  It really was the perfect size--and I had plenty of pages too!  I loved it so much I bought another Smash Book for next year!!  (Yes, yes. I know.  It totally defeats the purpose of using stuff I have on hand.  SIGH.)

Here are a few pages from 2014's Week in the Life............

I loved the mix of pages in the Smash Book.  There were printed images and words on most pages. I tried to not cover them, but to highlight them with Distress Markers.

I also loved it when a particular page went perfectly with a photo, like this flower (above) from Wednesday.  (Excuse the wonky writing--I'm trying to learn some art journaling fonts.)

We had reallllllllly lovely weather that week.  I tried to hike as much as I could.

On Thursday (above), my Mom and I went to North Carolina's Blue Ridge Parkway.  More beautiful weather and gorgeous scenery!

On the last day, Tim Holtz posted his November Tag so I played along and got all inky!  While eating Halloween candy....of course.




I'll be doing two new (to me) projects in 2015.  One is Stephanie Ackerman's Documented Faith and in conjunction with that is Art to the Fifth's the Documented Life Project.

Both are free!  I'm already excited to see what craftiness (crafty-mess??) both of these projects will bring to 2015.  I've already done a few things to prep the journal/planner the classes use.  Check them out if you are looking to step out of your comfort zone!


And that's it for me today.  Thanks for dropping in!  Stay crafty, my friends!  :-)


~Cynthia

Tim's Tag Time!!

Gosh, has it been another whole month already??  It seems like I just posted the October tag two days ago!!  :-O

Sir Tim has created another gorgeous tag for this month and you can see that here.

AS USUAL I don't have all the fancy toys he has, so I went MacGyver on this tag big time.  I got super inky in the process!!  Love it!


Step One:  Distress Paint the heck out of a tag and then root around for an embossing folder that looks fallish:

Step Two:  Panic because you don't have the gold foil stuff Tim used.  Use gold embossing powder instead.  Watch as gold embossing powder goes everywhere.  Did I mention that gold embossing powder goes everywhere?  It does.

Step Three:  Spend way. too. much. dang. time trying to find some cardboard stuff.  Spend way. too. much. time fiddling with a leaf die cut.  Give up after three attempts and make do.  Attach to Distress Painted tag.  Go to distress edges of leaf cutout with ink.  Notice that there is now gold embossing powder on your beloved Gathered Twigs Distress Ink pad.

Step Four:  Eat some Halloween candy and feel better.

Step Five:  Flick brown ink on tag.  Realize you have no Distress Sprays.  Pout.

Step Six:  Smoosh Tarnished Brass Distress Stain on your craft sheet, spray liberally with water.  Make a huge mess.  Sop some up with a paint brush and flick it on the tag.  Feel pretty good about your MacGyver skills.

Step Seven:  Eat more Halloween candy.

Step Eight:  CAREFULLY press rub-on words onto a vial label. Remember that you believe rub-ons are evil.

Step Nine:  Eat more Halloween candy.

Step Ten:  Admire rubbed-on words.

Steps Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen:  Add Philosophy Tag thingy (it says LISTEN) with bakers twine and pop dots.  Ink up some seam binding for the tag topper.  Distress edges of tag and brush with gold-embossing-powder-covered-Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

Step Fourteen:  Eat more Halloween candy.

Step Fifteen:  Admire finished MacGyver-ed November Tag.  Notice there is gold embossing powder on your computer screen.

Step Sixteen:  Eat more Halloween candy.  Repeat as needed.




Thanks so much for stopping in today!!

And Happy Fall, y'all!!  :-)



~Cynthia

It's October already???

Yep, it's October the first and you know what that means around here...Tim's TAG TIME!!!


And as usual, I had to go all MacGyver on this tag because I don't have any of the supplies Tim Holtz used.  Totally check out his tag here.

Here's my take:

 

I used Embossing Paste for the background, hit it with about a gallon of spray inks, then mopped it off.  The paper towel removed a lot of the ink from the paste so when I hit it with a bit of Distress Spritzer-ed Distress Marker, the speckles really showed up.

The stencil is actually a large tree.  When I first removed the stencil and saw the paste....um...it looked awful.  Kinda like broken glass shards or something.  But with the addition of the spray inks, I think you can see the branches if you really squint.  ;-)

I did make the mask for the leaf like Tim did with his spider, but it faded into the background too much.  So I just made a leaf from watercolor paper and a stamp, then pop-dotted it into the little recessed area.

The pumpkin, however, is wicked cool. Here's a closeup of it...

See all that texture?  I stamped the pumpkin on watercolor paper, colored it, then slapped Rock Candy Distress Crackle on it.

Then I may have been in a hurry and I may have overheated it to the point where the Crackle may have bubbled and blistered.

So.  Freakin.  Cool.

It's like those weird pumpkins you find with warts and bumps all over them.

I totally buy those for my jack-o-lantern each year.  No, really.  I do.

I added some ribbon stuff, that awesome skeleton skull and the fun letters.

So that's it for me!  Thanks so much for dropping on by!

Peace, spray ink, and bumpy pumpkins!

~Cynthia

Tim's Tag for September!!

It's the first of the month and you know what that means!!

Tim's Tag Time!!!!!!

Head over to Tim Holtz's blog for all the details and directions and secret recipes.  ;-)

Tim did this cool ghosting thing with alcohol inks on glossy cardstock.

Here's how my first attempt turned out:

See any ghosting?  No?  Me neither.  So I went to Plan B which was to use the kinda cool backgrounds I ended up with and SMOOSH the Alcohol Ink Blending Solution through the stencil onto the tag.

BINGO.

Worked so nicely that way!

Check it:

 

Oooooooo.  Ghostly!

Then I stamped this image on the tag:

One of my faves and I was so excited to use it!

See that headdress thingy going on?  I smooshed more Alcohol Inks on another piece of glossy cardstock then die cut feathers from that.  And then I rubbed on some Remnant Rubs to the ghostly tag and glued and pop-dotted the feathers on too.

Which gave me THIS:

Whoah!  Nice, eh?

I mighta sorta went and gone a little crazy on this one.  Since I forgot to stamp script on my feathers like Tim did on his butterflies, I just die cut MORE feathers, stamped script and added them!  WOO HOOO!!!!!!!!

It's kinda funky, but I had fun and got all inky and so there ya have it!

Thanks so much for checking this one out!

Peace, love and Alcohol Ink feathers!!

~Cynthia

Tim's Tag Time!

Yep, it's August first already--time for another installment of Tim's Tags!!

I had So. Much. Fun. making this month's tag.  Check out Tim's version here for all the details and instructions.

Here's mine:

 

I've got Tissue Tape, stamps, Archival Ink, Vial Label, stencil, stencil paste, Distress Inks, Remnant Rubs, Distress Embossing Powder and Embossing Ink on this bad boy.  Whatever I had...I threw at this tag!

So cool.

My deepest thanks, as always, to Tim Holtz for being the creative mind behind the tags.

And thanks so much to you for stopping by!  Have a crafty day!!  =D

~Cynthia