Tim Holtz November Tags

Since taking the Online Card Classes Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 class, I am continuing to play with the techniques. For this month’s 12 Tags of 2013, Tim Holtz demonstrated the chalkboard technique we covered in class. I’m sharing two tags using this technique.

Tim Holtz November TagsFor the first tag, I stamped the sentiment and fun retro snowflakes onto the tag. The Santa was silver embossed, cut with the matching Sizzix die, and added to the tag with dimensional adhesive. I finished the tag off with tinsel twine, trimmings, and a Christmas Muse Token.

Tim Holtz November Tags

For the second tag, I stamped the blueprint onto the black tag with Versamark, and again on Ranger watercolor paper with Archival ink. I colored the toy soldier with a variety of distress inks, both from the pads and from markers. I prefer to scribble onto my craft sheet and lift the ink off with a water brush, rather than put the ink directly on the paper. I added some Seasonal Chitchat that I distressed around the edges with Black Soot distress ink. For the top and bottom of the tag, I dry embossed red Core’dination cardstock with the Candy Stripes folder to which I’d applied Distress Embossing Ink in the way that Tim shows in this post. I heat set white embossing powder and then distressed it lightly with a sanding block.

Tammy Tutterow Tag CASE

As I get my “sea legs” with the Tim Holtz products, I’ve been looking at the projects of Tammy Tutterow. She has a number of fabulous tutorials on her blog. Today, I’m sharing a CASE of a tag from one such tutorial.

Tammy Tutterow Tag CASE

I don’t have all of the same supplies as Tammy, so I improvised. For the sentiment label, I printed a digital label from my computer, stamped one of my favorite Hero Arts sentiments, and distressed it with Vintage Photo ink. (Even though we tend to think of fall as a time of reflection, and spring as a time of renewal, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to think of the autumn season as a time of renewal as well!) I adhered the light-weight vintage paper to Craft-a-Board before die cutting the leaves. I combined a number of different Distress Inks to color the leaves – I’d try one ink, step back, add another depending on whether I thought the leaf needed to be more red, more green, and so forth.

Debby Hughes CASE

With each lesson of the Online Card Classes Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 class, we received a download of inspiration cards and projects based on the techniques. Today, I’m sharing a card I created based on one that Debby Hughes contributed to the class.

Debby Hughes CASE

I replaced some of the elements on Debby’s card with supplies I owned. I die cut the leaves from Craft-a-Board and painted them, before adding the Distress Glitter, in a matching color, to a Glossy Accents coating. On the card background, I applied embossing paste through a stencil. I watched several videos on the application of the paste, and honestly, it couldn’t be easier! I used a plastic disposable knife to spread the paste through the stencil.

Supplies: Technique Tuesday Go Outside stamp set (sentiment); Tim Holtz Mini Tattered Leaves Die Set (smaller leaf)

Tim Holtz Style Holiday Tag

I’m still working through the techniques from the Online Card Classes Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 class – there was a lot of material covered in just one week! I’m relatively new to the “World of Tim Holtz” so there’s quite a learning curve for me.

To continue practicing the techniques, I made a holiday-themed tag working with a Distress Stain tag base. I spent several hours testing color combinations and watching videos. I found the video in this post of Tim’s to be the most useful for creating the type of distress stain background I most liked. In short, the Mini Mister is my friend!

Tim Holtz Style Holiday Tag

As I don’t own many Tim Holtz Sizzix dies, I worked with some recently-released Savvy dies. The cardinal, cut from Craft-a-Board, was painted with Festive Berries Distress Paint before an application of Glossy Accents and Festive Berries Distress Glitter. I cut the branch and holly from Kraft Core cardstock and lightly sanded them. I stamped the snowflakes (from a discontinued October Afternoon set) with Broken China ink, and embossed with them with Sticky Powder before applying Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

Supplies:

Tim Holtz Chemistry 102 Smudge Stamping

One of the techniques shared in the Online Card Classes Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 class was smudge stamping with distress inks. The idea being that you stamped once, then stamped a second time and smudged the stamped image. I attempted this technique, but I wasn’t able to smudge the ink.

Tim Holtz Chemistry 102 Smudge Stamping

I don’t know if my distress ink pads aren’t juicy enough, or whether I wasn’t smudging the right way. At any rate, trying the technique gave me an opportunity to use  the Tim Holtz Seasons Silhouettes stamp set, which I bought when I first started stamping two years ago.

The trickiest part was using the sentiment stamp, which is a subway art stamp with several sentiments. I put sticky notes on the stamp after I carefully inked the “Believe” sentiment and also put sticky notes on the tag to block out the area in which I wanted to stamp. I finished off with some Vintage Photo around the edges. I think I like the first generation stamped tag the best. I’ll add ribbon, die-cut evergreen pieces, and maybe a bell to finish it off.