October Tim Tag

Well, if you read my last post, I got my table all cleaned off, and I was ready for my play date with Grace & Mercedes.  We decided to work on the October tag by Tim Holtz.  This is his version ...

As you can see, we strayed quite a bit from Tim's tag.  lol

You can see Tim's process of creation here, complete with full instructions and step out photos.  I didn't have the zombie die, and I usually don't like to make holiday themed tags anyway.  I've had the Bird Crazy stamp sets, and the bird dies for a while now, and I was excited to finally get to play with them!  What a ball we had!

We decided to create our own backgrounds on watercolor paper instead of using scrapbook paper.  We wanted to have our birds stand out on their own without the distraction of a patterned paper.  Since Grace hasn't been able to play in a while, and Mercedes is new to stamping and creating tags, we went to Richele Christensen's blog for some inspiration.  She has a post for some cards she created for Tim using the Bird Crazy and Accessories stamps, and the dies.  You can see the post here.  You gotta go check them out!

I decided to use this saying from Tim's Small Talk, and I cut it apart and added some bling.

I also added some Stampendous Silver Crushed Glass Glitter behind the little guy.  Couldn't help myself!

I added some Clear Wink of Stella on the ties, along with a little bling on the bowtie (thanks for the idea Mercedes!)

I finally got to use some of this gorgeous ribbon I scored at the last Create event we had here in New Jersey.  So sad they're not doing it anymore.  :-(

Here's Grace & Mercedes with their tags.  Grace went with a birthday theme, and Mercedes did Halloween.

Here's a better look at Grace's tag.  Love the background!

I didn't get a close up pic of Mercedes' tag, so I enlarged the one from above.  She did a fabulous job!  This was only her 2nd Tim Tag!  I think she's a natural at watercoloring!  And, it was her idea to add some bling to the bowtie and her witches hat.  So cute!  Can't wait for our next get together!

Mercedes read this post and was nice enough to take a pic of her tag and send it to me so I could add it to this post.  Her background is awesome, and her birds came out so cute!  You'd never know it was her first time!

Clutter Clean-up Challenge

Is this what your studio looks like?  Are you so overwhelmed you don't know where to start?  It was only 4 short years ago that my sweet hubby created this beautiful studio for me where I swore everything would have it's place, and it would never look cluttered.  Ha!  I mean, I always knew I was a stamp/scrapbooking hoarder, but I think I finally have to admit, I'm out of control and a bit overwhelmed.

These are more pics of my workshop table where I used to (*sigh) teach classes.  I've been telling myself lately that I'm not teaching because I want to give myself a break, but alas, it's probably just because I can't get my table cleared off!

I try putting things into smaller piles so I could put things away more efficiently, but then I get a new package of goodies delivered, or I unpack a bag from a recent crop, expo, or class I've taken, and I'm back at square one!

This is my tall table, where I originally dubbed it my "creation station".  I think once, when my studio was first finished, I was able to create here.  Usually, when I have to clean off my table quickly, things just get dumped onto here.

I just have piles upon piles on this table.  When I have to finish off a birthday card or something, I usually balance a box or binder of stamps on top to find what I'm looking for.

This is the floor along the base of my Stampin' Up! stamp shelves.  I've got boxes lined up there from tools I've bought, and I feel I need to hang onto the boxes "just in case".  Time to get them into the attic.

These alone are two big shopping bags of rubber stamps from my friend who finally cleaned out her stamp room.  I can't decide what to do with them ... hold an event where people can choose a bunch of stamps for a small fee?  ...  sell them on EBay (well, I'd have to learn how!) ... donate them and be done with it?

This is the other end of the room.  Yup, more bags.  These are piles of organization items I don't use anymore, like five(!) Tim Holtz stamp binders.  Baskets, boxes & bags of scrapbooking embellishments.  I've got a sewing machine cabinet buried in there!

This wall is my favorite part of the room.  The shelves to the right of the drawers hold all my Ranger and Tim Holtz stuff ... stamps, inks, paints, pastes, Idea-ology, etc.  All the piles at the base are supplies that need to find homes.  And all those drawers hold punches ... yes!  ALL punches!  I don't need all those punches anymore, do I?

This basket alone must have close to several hundreds of dollars worth of new stamps, dies, embossing folders & stencils, all waiting to get logged in, labelled, and found homes.

And, what about this corner?  I've got Wendy Vecchi's Ranger suitcase (it came home with me from the trip to England with Wendy Vecchi--she emptied it from class supplies, and I filled it with stamps & supplies from a stamp store in London), and a huge rolling bag with supplies from an event that was probably a year ago!

OK, so this pictorial confession is a challenge for myself.  I'm having a friend or two over Wednesday night to have a creative play date.  My goal is to at least get my table cleaned off, and things PUT AWAY, not just piled onto the other table!  I'm going to post before and after pics over the next few weeks of all this clutter disappearing and to keep myself accountable.  Maybe I'll do some giveaways while cleaning stuff out.

If you want to see more classes once again in Mrs. Rodgers' Neighborhood, please, keep me on task!  Now, I'm off to get started!

World Cardmaking Day

I went to a crop last Saturday, but I wasn't really in the mood to scrap, so along with all my scrapbooking supplies, I also brought my latest die acquisitions and label maker and wanted to organize them.  When I got to this Simon Says Stamp Mod Circle die, I just had to play.  I saw this technique done on a blog months ago (I thought it was Jennifer McGuire, but maybe Kristina Werner?--couldn't find the post) and fell in love.  I'm sooooo not a glitter girl, but this looked like so much fun.  The die has been out of stock ever since.  I guess a lot of people felt that way!  I had packed my Martha Stewart glitters and Stick It paper, just in case, and I'm glad I did.  This actually, was the 2nd card I made.

I wanted this first card to be golds, silvers & browns, and I was so disappointed with the Stick It paper.  You can see the line across where the seam was between pieces of release papers.  I didn't notice this until all the glitters were done.  The adhesive is a fine film, so when I lifted the 2nd piece of release paper off, the film stayed with the release paper, and not on my card.  I can fix that like above, but what a bummer!

I was playing with the leftover pieces, and this is what I came up with.  They still need to be finished.

This was another die I bought.  I liked it because you could do an entire background, or just cut out individual words.  I'm not sure of who makes it, and it's still packed away with all my gear which is still in my car.

I cut out three of these because the first one had a few spots where it didn't cut all the way through.  I tried it again using just a metal shim from Memory Box, and then again with the Metal Precision Base Plate by Sizzix.  I think for this die, the metal shim worked the best.

I didn't want to waste all those beautiful letters, so I started running them through my Xyron machine and layering them.  After just two words, I was so done.  haha!  I only had black & white cardstock with me, so I decided to try this.

I still couldn't bring myself to throw out that big pile of letters, so after spending about 15 minutes sorting them out, I started playing with simple designs on black.  Love them!  They'd make great "over the hill" cards.  I could also just use the word happy on the inside.  Plain & simple.

Tried one with the word happy on the front, but I think I prefer the one word cards in this design.

For an all day crop, I only completed one layout spread, but I had so much fun playing with these dies, and also getting my new dies organized.  When I got home and checked my emails, I noticed it was World Cardmaking Day.  Well, what do you know?!  haha!  Guess it was meant to be.

I'm going to submit the top card in this post in the Simon Says Stamp World Cardmaking Day blog post.  Today's the last day to post, and it's the only one that's completely finished!

September 2015 Tim Tag

So, I'm sitting here on my computer, and I'm on this site where I notice there are only 3 days left in the month.  Whoa!  I better take some pics of my September tag, blog about it, and get it linked up to Tim's site today!

I won a prize for last month's tag, so riding on that high, and seeing the awesome tag Tim created for this month, I got on it right away.  You can see Tim's tag in all it's glory here, along with lots of step-out photos and complete instructions.  I love making these tags for several reasons ... 1) Tim teaches us a boatload of techniques with each & every tag, 2) I enjoy putting my own spin on the tag and using what I have on hand, 3) Tim makes it easy to link up your tag on his site so other people can see it, and you could possibly win a prize, and 4) I just love making them and displaying them in my studio!

A lot of times, Tim's tag is just so perfect, I want to recreate it exactly as is.  This tag is very similar to his.

With all that said, I had a little scrapbooking get-together with a couple friends at the beginning of the month, and I decided to bring my supplies to make this tag instead of SBing.

My friend, Mercedes, who's new to stamping and Tim Holtz, wanted to make one too, so we got to it.  We used Alcohol Inks on glossy cardstock, Transparent Embossing Paste, a stencil, Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art in clear, Distress Inks, and a little bit of Idea-ology.

Here's a side view so you can see the dimension of the butterflies that were created with the Clearly For Art.  These plastic sheets (it comes in clear, white & black) are so much fun to work with to create dimension in your art.  You just stamp on it, cut it out with either scissors or a die, and then, using a heat gun, you heat up the plastic and shape it.  When it cools, it holds it's shape, even when going through the mail!  And, if you don't like it, you can reheat it to flatten it again, and start over.

Here's another view.  You can also see the transparent swirl design that was added over the alcohol ink background.  You just add the paste through a stencil, and it dries clear giving you this really cool raised effect!

These tiny black spots were added by using a Spritzer tool and a black brush marker.  I really love this tool, but a lot of my students have a little trouble at first, especially, if they have weak hands.  A little practice over some scrap paper usually does the trick.

I added some Mustard Seed Distress Paint over this Idea-ology Word Band with my finger tip.  After a couple of seconds, I wiped it off the surface, and the paint remained in the recessed areas.  Tim also showed us how to attach it with wire & brads.  A little tricky, but I love it!

I finished off my tag by adding some of Tim's linen ribbon (not sure of the real name).  It's very easy to pull it apart and get some cool, frayed ends.

August Tim Tag Tutorial

***This tag won on Tim's blog!  So excited to win again, I just had to share!***

So, I'm sittting here on a Thursday night ...  August 27th ... preparing to do all my family's laundry because tomorrow morning, we're all packing, and driving up to Lake Placid,  NY for the wedding of a dear friend of the family.  We'll be up there until Monday, August 31st.  Hmmmmmm ... Tim's tag needs to be done by August 31st.  Hmmmmmmm.

Are you familiar with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of the Year?  Every month, he creates a tag on the 1st of each month, using lots of his products, while teaching you techniques with lots of step out pictures and wonderful instructions.  You can find them here on his blog, and the August tag is here.

Well, lots of laundry to get done, and what better way to stay on top of it is to hang out down here, where my studio happens to be.  What luck!  I can do both! ... it's been done before!

First, a load of laundry in the machine.  Time to get working on my tag ...

Using Tim's dies, I taped each word die to the manilla tag and cut it out.  I used the Precision Base Plate on the bottom (in place of the bottom cutting pad), and ran it through my Big Shot.  Just to be safe, I reversed and rolled it through a 2nd time.  Out it came, perfect!  Time to lay this baby out!

On a 2nd manilla tag, I needed to collage some papers using Ranger's Studio Matte Multi Medium.

I used some Bazzill's Newsprint paper I picked up while I was in England.  This paper is very cool ... almost like real newsprint!

 

When the Matte Medium was dry, I cut off the excess paper down to my original tag size.

Then, I used Multi Matte Medium to glue the manilla piece with the cut-out words on to the top of the collaged tag.

The two tags were adhered together with Multi Matte Medium, and then, a coat was also spread on top to seal everything together.

White Gesso was then spread across the entire tag.  Quickly, while the gesso was still wet, I used a towel to remove alot of the gesso from the letters so as not to lose the decorative paper pattern.

After I removed most of the gesso from the letters, I realized that the cloth rag also removed alot of the gesso from the tag.  I decided to go with the flow and leave it like this so I get a more variation of colors.

I added Fossilized Amber, Cracked Pistaschio, Spiced Marmalade & Mermaid Lagoon pads directly to paper. (missed that picture!).  I then added Matte Multi Medium over it all to blend the colors and seal everything.

I removed some of the color/matte medium with a towel, and ended up with this paler version.  I chose this beach couple for my collage.

I fussy-cut the couple out and laid them on my tag.  I decided my colors were too dark, so I sanded some of the color off where I was going to place my couple.  Since I ended up with mostly blues/greens, and my found relatives choice was a couple at the beach, I went for that theme.

I live in New Jersey, 20 min. outside New York City.  I consider New York my home as much as New Jersey is!

I used New York themed ephemera, and went from there.  I found a gear that was color like the sun, so I added a little more Distress Paint, and added a New York star.

I chose some words from Tim's Small Talk to fit my theme.  I sanded the edges first, and then glued them on with more Multi Matte Medium.

I found some beachy/boardwalky ephemera and loaded it on.

Yes!  What a better place to anchor all this than New York's own Coney Island!  I used some Tahiti Beach Mudd Puddles and added some sand.

Nice touch, if I don't say so myself!

After adding some splatters from my Zig Painty pen and some smudged shadows around my images with a black stabilio pencil, I believe I'm done and ready to post to Tim's site.  I feel lucky this month!

August Make ART Challenge

I was banished to the basement to type up some invoices for my husband's business tonight.  My studio and the laundry room are down here also, so I decided to wash some clothes and work on a challenge.

This month's challenge over at Make ART Challenge is Monochromatic.  Anyone can enter the challenge, you just have to use at least one item from Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490.

I happened to be playing with Wendy's alcohol background technique this weekend, so I chose the most monochromatic one I had.

I used some Adirondack Ink and stenciled the bricks.  I added some rust colored washi tape for my trees (Wendy's Trademark Art set) to stand on.

I love this little car (Wendy's Destination Art set), and I rarely get to use it.  I stamped it on manilla cardstock and fussy cut it out.  I sponged some Espresso Archival ink on the edges and tires and added some Glossy Accents on the wheels.  I popped it up with foam tape.

I stamped my sentiment (also from Wendy's Destination Art set) with Espresso Archival ink onto some Stampin' Up! More Mustard cardstock, cut the words apart, and edged them with more Espresso ink.  Popped those up too.  The card base is Stampin' Up! Cajun Craze cardstock.

June 2015 Tim Tag

I finally cleaned my table off to find some time to play this past weekend.  Tanya was over, and we love to make Tim Tags together.  I've been backed up on my challenges (and blogging!) because of a couple European vacations (more on that later), so we decided to work on the June challenge.

I wasn't going to purchase this die, but it was on sale, and it's so stinkin' cute, I couldn't resist.  We decided to go with another color scheme than Tim's green, and we chose Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade ... 3 of my favs.  You can see Tim's tag here, with complete instructions and photos if you'd like to check it out.

Tim is very detail oriented, and also a Starbucks lover.  How could he not include the whipped cream on his favorite beverage?  I used a real plastic straw, but it was white with yellow stripes.  I decided to swipe an orange StazOn pad over it to change the color.

I usually like to change up my version of Tim's tags, but this saying was the most fitting.  Life is good, isn't it?  Just ask my husband ... he says when he dies, he wants to come back as me!  haha  He wants to sit around in his pajamas all day playing in the studio!

I'm not a Starbucks fan, so I made mine Steampunk.  A new beanery coming to your local neighborhood soon!  haha

I'm going to enter this tag in this week's Simon Says Stamp Blog Challenge "Food or Drink".  Click here to see the details and enter your own creation.