Tim Holtz: 12 Tags of 2014 - September

Wow, where did the last month go -

 I must have blinked and missed it!

Needless to say, I haven't been doing much crafting,

but am now back at my craft desk only to find, yet again

I don't have the main ingredients for Tim's tag - doh!

Still that hasn't stopped me, even though my take on

this month's tag is somewhat abbreviated.

Tim's tag for September is above - 

if you want to see how he made it,

click on the picture to go to his blog.

.... and here's my version

If you've read Tim's post, you may be wondering

where my 'faded layers' in the background are.

Well, if I'd used the proper alcohol ink cardstock 

they would probably have shown up,

but as I used ordinary photo gloss paper they didn't.

(let that be a lesson to me!)

I still like the background anyway - it's always

interesting using alcohol inks, such lovely effects.

Something else I didn't have was the Sizzix

Butterfly Frenzy die - so instead I used

a butterfly punch and as the butterfly was quite large, 
I only used a single one instead of a whole bunch of them.

I made two of the tags with different rub on

words.  The beautiful stamp is called

Art Nouveau Profile (In8119-k) by Inca Stamp.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll have everything needed
for next month's tag (although I doubt it!).

Thanks for looking :)

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 4

I'm only ten days late with this tag - not too bad!

I made this tag following the techniques described by Tim Holtz on his blog. 

This tag was all about embellishments and in particular using a 'facet'.  As I didn't have any of those I used a vintage glass droplet from an old chandelier.

Tim's technique called for rubber stamping on the back of a facet, but the drop I used only had a small flat area in the centre so I was a bit restricted.

I'm pleased with the overall effect though, it was fun using lots of bling and it's in my favourite colour too.

Only 8 more to do now!

Altered Tin Can Dolls

This month’s theme on MAMMA’s MAD (monthly art doll) group over on Flickr is an altered can doll - that is to say, take one tin (of say soft drink, or lager), squash it and then make it into a doll - and that’s all there is to it! Yeah right!

This was very different from the previous doll swaps - which have been paper dolls or button fairies - nice and pretty ones. We were forced therefore to ‘think outside the box’ - something which is a real challenge for me! However, as I’ve said before I always like a challenge so had a go!

Tempted as I was to pick up squashed tins from the street - I resisted and instead got my hubby to drive over a couple of clean, washed tins for me.

The first one I did was ‘Olga - the Russian Tin Can Doll’ which I based on the Russian dolls (the ones which stack inside of each other) because of the roundish shape. I just painted over the tin with acrylics, added some detailing with pens and sealed it. The only thing that resembles a Russian doll though is her face! I like the way the creases in the tin look a bit look folds of fabric on her red top.

The second one I did was a bit different, well quite a bit different really. He is called ’Max the Groovy Mover’. Max because he is a squashed Pepsi Max tin and groovy mover because his arms and legs (which are metal fish hook thingies) are connected to his body by jump rings so when picked up he moves around and jangles! I’ve left some of the tin un-touched, but the rest is coloured with alcohol inks. His face is a metal bottle top and his hair cut from a CD. Where I cut the tin into a shape it left very sharp edges so I covered them with some red braid which I then painted over with silver acrylic. This has bulked him out quite a bit, but was necessary. (His face looks a little cloudy in the photo because I took it before the Glossy Accents had dried)

He’s looking for love and is holding a little diamante heart - maybe he’ll find a nice girly tin at the disco (disco - are they still called that? - showing my age I think!)

Thanks Margaret, for another great challenge/swap - wonder what next month’s will be!

Altered Tin - 'Sea Treasures'

This month's challenge over on the GAS Flickr group (that is, group for altered art swaps)is to alter a tin using the sea as a theme.

For some reason altering a tin has never appealed to me - but nevertheless I bought a little tin of mints from Aldi and placed it at the back of my craft desk and kept looking over at it hoping inspiration would come! (the mints inside disappeared very quickly - don't know where they went to!!!!!)

As soon as some altered tins started appearing in the photostream of the GAS group I felt suitably inspired as there are some gorgeous ones in there.

This is what I did with the outside:
~ coated with some acrylic paint as a base
~ once dry, coloured it with alcohol inks (blues and greens)
~ coloured a piece of stampbord with brusho
~ added some printed text 'Follow the river and you will find the sea'
~ Finished off with some Ranger's Glossy Accents
~ Stuck it to the lid with some E6000 glue (first attaching some fabric and glitter)

This is what I did with the inside - much more interesting!
~ Cut a piece of silver self adhesive tape and free hand embossed it before covering
the whole of the inside with it.
~ coloured the tape with alcohol inks
~ placed in the bottom of the deep side of the tin six bright blue glass nuggets
~ poured in over the top of the glass nuggets some Anita's 3-D clear gloss finish
(basically the same stuff as Ranger's Glossy Accents, but a bit less expensive)
~ dropped in some other 'sea treasures' such as shiny beads, sequins and a couple
of mosaic fragments - not forgetting some more glitter flakes.
~ dropped in a piece of netting and a sea shell

I love the effect of the glass nuggets under the glaze and the alcohol ink colours on the bottom - I don't think the photo shows it off very well but I'm really pleased with the end result.

Think I may go and buy some more mints now - burp!!!!!!!!!!!

Mermaid Paper Doll

Isn't she lovely - well, I think so, especially her wild hair! Being underwater most of the time plays havoc with your hair so I must recommend a good conditioner - lol!

I've joined a new Yahoo group called Fantastic Flat Paper Dolls and this month's theme is 'Mermaids'. Well, I've never made a mermaid before but really enjoyed making the tail! The base is two layers of card (the back is covered with a scrapbook paper) and on the tail I used some self adhesive silver tape (I think it's what electrican's use, but for what I don't know!). I embossed it free hand to make a scaley effect then coloured it with a few different alcohol inks. I had trouble finding a top for her. I wanted her to have a bikini top but couldn't find anything suitable (much like me when I'm getting dressed these days - lol) In the end I used some more of the silver foil and made her a little triangular shaped top. Her face is moulded for air dry clay and coloured with pens and chalks and her hair is some gorgeous fibres which are incredibly soft and fluffy.

She is jointed at the arms and under the belly button. I think I'll have to make another one to keep for myself so I can play with the hair all day! Help someone.....please!!!!!!!!! LOL

Traffic Lights Swap

This is the second of two swaps Sian is currently hosting. We had to make three ATCs, one in each of the colours of traffic lights (red, amber and green) and each ATC also had to have on it some wire, some metal (in addition to the wire)and some plastic. How does she come up with these ideas!!!

The bases of each of my three ATCs were covered with some bright silver sticky tape which I then embossed (each in a different way) and then coloured with alcohol inks. The red and green wasn't a problem, but for the amber I used the Caramel ink and then went over with some amber metallic rub ons. The red and amber both have faces moulded from friendly plastic. This is the first time I'd used the plastic in a mould - I'm sure it should be easy but I think I need a bit more practice. The green one has a plastic button in the centre. The metal on each of them is - for red, the head-dress, for amber an old bottletop (the head is mounted in) and for green it is the metal corner pieces. The wire is for red, interlinked with the head-dress, for amber, the stem and leaves and for green it is attaching the button to the ATC.

Despite the gruesome looking face, I think my favourite of the three is the amber one. The petals are pieces of amber coloured acrylic mosaic. None of them have photographed very well unfortunately (well, I would say that wouldn't I!!)

School Days

My next page for Astrid's Round Robin Challenge has been completed.

This page is for Wendy whose theme was 'When You Were Young', and her only stipulation was that a photograph or image of your childhood should be included.

There aren't that many good photos of me when I was very young so I decided to use a copy of an old school photo. I've also included a copy of a school photo of my younger brother and sister who look very cute wearing their matching sweaters lovingly made by my Mum on her knitting machine. It was this photo that determined the year 1976 as Mum remembered that was approximately when she made the sweaters on one of her earlier machines. The extract of my school report was also from Spring 1976 but the photograph of me is probably a couple of years earlier since I'm not wearing any glasses - I didn't get my specs until about 1973 - I wondered why I could never see the blackboard in class!

The background of the page is a copy of the cover from my old School Reports book which I distressed by spritzing with some Glimmer Mist and making a couple of rings with my coffee cup. The report extract is spritzed in the same way. The date and flower are metal embellishments which have been coloured with alcohol inks (copper and stonewashed).

I enjoyed making this page and looking back at my old school reports, but have had the tune of 'remember the days of the old school yard' in my head for the last couple of days! I hope Wendy likes the page.