Who Doesn't Love Some TIM!

Ok, every year at about this time. I get very excited!!! I mean there's the obvious reasons. Christmas, kids excitement, the smell of pine, lights, snow, just the overall season! However, there's another big reason that I get excited. December means that Tim Holtz does he 12 tags of Christmas. I love all of the Tim Holtz products as most of you know. I love being inspired by him. When he does these tag, I get down right giddy! I can't wait to see what he does and then try them out. Now it's a rare occasion that I ever make a tag! But I always dive in come December! So, I thought I would share some of the love in case you haven't participated in this before. Here in the blog: HERE FOR HAPPINESS !!!! Here is a little skit and information about the tags.

 Now not everyone is into crafting or tags. So I'm sharing pictures of his last 4 years of tags! I mean these alone will make any gift, wrapped or not, just wonderful. Now remember what I always say, Just because you see all these things done, doesn't mean you need to run out and buy these products he uses. Instead.. I challenge you to just take something away from each day. you may not make a tag and you may not make anything that looks anything like his, maybe you just use it as motivation!

Here are the past 4 years in order 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. Some of them are larger than normal, so load time may take a moment, but I wanted you to be able to view all of the great details! Now even if you don't craft these simply have to put you in the Christmas spirit!

Work In Progress

I thought I would do a little sharing tonight. In my spare time I've been doing some playing around with some cheapo wooden frames I found at the local Dollar Tree. I love these things. Here's a little tutorial for what I did with them thus far. My advice. Any of you out there who love those Tim Holtz configuration boxes but can't bring yourself to buy them for 10-30 dollars. This is a great alternative. For a whole 6 bucks total after all materials.. even glue, inks and stains. How frickin cool is that!

Ok here, I took a small saw and sawed some of the pieces to make them different sizes. These boxes are a simple 7x7 unfinished box.

I then took Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive and applied it to the sides after I decided how I wanted them. I choose this glue not only because I love it but also because when it tried if you get any over the edge you can simple rub it off with your finger or light sanding.

I use large clips to hold them in place while the dried. Which doesn't take much time at all but make sure their really secure.

Here I am just showing you how you could make these into any shape you so wish. I did something a bit longer and staggered but you could also make a cute cube.

I then used some Tim Holtz stains, as well as some Tattered Angels mists to get the distressed look I was going for. I like the glitz form the mists as well, gives it something fun. I'm very very happy with the aged look it has. I'll keep everyone posted on how I alter it further from here.

Charcoal Experimenting

Last night I began playing with some charcoal pencils I have. Now I'll be clear I've played with charcoal pencils many times. I have however, never used them for sketching. Last night I sat by myself, watching some tv and just sketching whatever came to me. Here are some of the pieces I ended up with. I was ubber excited about them! I in no way think I'm a sketch artist now but they defiantly made me want to play a bit more with these on my layouts and cards. Experiment more. I sketched and shaded and then sprayed with a workable fixative to ensure they would not smudge anymore after I was done. I also used the fixative because now I can still water color them if I choose to.

Like I said their not going to be framed in my house but I really had a lot of fun just playing to play, working with shading and so forth. I'm definitely going to be playing more with these in the future.

Inspired

Over this past weekend I mentioned joining my dear friend Tracy, the owner of my fave adhesive company, Helmar Adhesives USA. She did a canvas piece that was just great. Tonight I needed to put together a card for a gal at work for her 13 year anniversary at work.

I immediately thought of the play time Tracy had. I wanted to share this piece of information because sometimes we watch a video or see a project and think "oh that's great, but I don't do canvas pieces." Or card or layouts or whatever it may be. My advice is to not be limited by just what you see. So, what if its canvas, that doesn't mean you can't pick up a little something from it to draw inspiration at a later date to use on something completely different and maybe in a different way even. Here is what Tracy made the other day.

I watched and enjoy and then tonight remembered the torn book pages and what a great textured fun background they made.

I then decided to use that inspiration towards my card tonight. This is what I came up with.

I adore how well this turned out. I think the gal at work is really going to like them. I'm definitely going to be going more background like this. I carried over the front onto the inside, which I thought turned out well. Just goes to show you never know where you can draw your inspiration from.

To see the entire project by Tracy and countless other wonderful things check out her blog HERE



Motivation Monday & A little Story

So, this last weekend, (as you can probably tell from my posts), motivation hit me big time. I got some great masculine cards completed for people this week. I still have about 4 more to do. I think I shall complete them tonight. Including one or two very fun girl cards. I get very excited when I get to do girl cards now, as well, there's only about 8 girls in the business and over 60 men! So, I'm rather excited for lace and charms and crystals!!!

I'm not sure what cause my burst of motivation. I have been making an honest effort to keep my area very clean. Ok, that's a lie, it's never been "very" clean. I'm making an effort to keep it in good enough shape for me to be able to work in it. Yes, that's a more factual statement! I really think this has contributed to my recent motivation to "do" some... anything. I don't dread looking into the room, keeping the door kept shut because I didn't want to have to go and clean up all the many messes that cluttered the room.

While I still create best with a bit of chaos, and maybe some wine. I'm beginning to like to put things up when I complete something.

Do you work better in chaos or with everything in its place???

Side note: funny/not so funny story to share. Saturday, I was making some cards and did some embossed gears on one of them (see previous posts). I knew I also wanted to add some metal gears. I went to look for them and couldn't find them. I looked and looked. I probably looked for a little over 45 minutes. Dumb founded confused as to why they were not where I always put them. My daughter then walks in, I'm beyond frustrated. I have tons of gears, store bought, vintage, clock parts etc. And to not be able to find a single one.. irritating!! So, she comes in and asks why I'm upset. I tell her I can't find the gears. She then informs me that a week or so before Taylor (my 11 yr old son) was in the room going through my metal drawers and "taking stuff." GRRRRRRRRRRR. I then talk to my son and he indeed took, hmm I'd say well over 45 gears from my drawers and used them to build little things for his army men and what not!!! Needless to say we had a big ole conversation, about taking things esp. vintage things without asking. It irritated me soo much! However, I do have a feeling in the near future I'll laugh about it, just not there yet!

Now see I've never had an issue with my kids kidnapping things from my area, as in my area they both have big ole drawer units filled with crafting supplies ranging from play dough to cardstocks, papers, embellishments, glues etc. Anything kid stuff or that I no longer have a use for! Do you kids kidnap things from your stash? This is my first encounter with it but I'm pretty sure it was last.