I have to be honest, I didn't like the 2015 June tag. I'm not exactly sure why, because I like coffee and everything related to it. Maybe it was the green color of the background, I can't put my finger on why, but I didn't want to make this tag. So instead, I looked back at the prior years and decided to make the June 2014 tag instead. I like the technique to make the background and had fun trying that out. I used an MFT flower stencil that I had and I like the outcome. I have the large distress ink pads so it was a bit of a challenge to get the ink onto the stencil without messing up my ink pads. I ended up using the rectangular sponges from inking tools and that worked just fine. It's always a surprise to pull the stencil off and see what you have!! I wish that I had stamped my sentiment a little more to the left so I didn't end up with an empty space between the words and the butterflies, but some vintage sequins from my friend, Kim, helped.
Thanks for stopping by :)
Janet
I couldn't wait to see what Tim Holtz had in store for us this month! It's only the 2nd of the month and my tag is already finished! Making these tags is really fun! When I saw the one for this month my first thought was, Yikes...there's a lot of stuff on this one! As usual though, once I got started it wasn't bad at all. I didn't have any old timey photos so I found one on Pinterest and printed it out and I didn't have any craft colored burlap so used the white burlap that I had and stained it with with Ranger Old Paper Stain. Here is how my tag came out...
I followed Tim's directions as best I could with what I had. What do you think? I never would have thought this one up myself. It's busy but I really like it! Here's a close up...
I printed the girl's picture onto white card stock and it didn't look right but once I distressed the edges and put some Brushed Corduroy ink on them, it looked much better. The cancellation stamp and signature made it look more authentic, too! Love that :) The expense list was cut from an old receipt page that my friend Wynema gave me. I sure wish I'd collected this kind of ephemera in the past, it is so cool! The Bliss disc came from another friend. I distressed it with some Ranger alcohol ink. The arrow is made from a Stampin' Up punch. I punched it out of black card stock 5 times and silver metallic card stock once and then glued them together.
I wanted the flowers to be small and soft looking so I cut 4 layers of white tissue paper all at once with the MFT small rolled roses die. It was kind of a pain to roll and glue because the layers separated but it was worth the effort. I sponged some color on the edge with Tattered Rose Distress Ink.
I LOVE the buttons on the pin!! Leave it to TH to think of doing that! It's a wonderful embellishment! The zig zag stitching is fun too!
I have another tag to show you because my friend Alita made one and let me take pictures of it! I can't give you all the particulars because I wasn't paying close attention to the colors she was using and exactly what she was doing but it is gorgeous and I'm so happy she let me share it with you! Here's her tag...
And here are a few close ups...
I hope you enjoyed seeing our attempts at this month's tag. If you haven't tried this challenge, you should. I think you would really like it!
Janet
Doing the Tim Holtz tags is definitely reducing my anxiety about mixed media. It's working...hooray!! I got together with some friends to make this canvas. Everyone in the group had a different theme. Wynema and Vicki did ephemera collages using lots of things from their relationship with their husbands, Wynema let me post hers so make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of this post so you don't miss it! Carolyn's canvas had a beach theme and I decided on a botanical theme. We had boxes full of stuff EVERYWHERE, which gave us a lot to choose from when embellishing! Our canvases were 9 x 12 and were painted black with acrylic paint. We used Adirondack sprays to put color onto the small cards and then began using our imagination to add ephemera for texture and interest. Oh what fun!!
Here is my canvas...
I was a little worried that the background colors on my card pieces were too bright, but I was going for garden colors and pink, fuchsia, and greens are my favorite garden colors. I went for it and I'm happy with how it turned out. I think Tim Holtz has some amazing ephemera and I used some of it on my canvas, but to me just using that isn't enough. I think it's so much more interesting to use found objects, vintage papers, and embellishments made from combining this and that so that is what I focused on while making my canvas. It was a challenge to place the cards so that my completed piece was well balanced and pleasing to the eye. I feel like I made one mistake but once it was all glued down it was too late to change it. What do you think? Do you notice something?
I'm not going to bore you with a close up of each little piece of my collage, but here are a few of my favorites...
I loved doing this so much that I'm going to make one more, with a beach theme next time!
Below is Wynema's gorgeous ephemera canvas! I just love the combination of the teals and blues with the orange and rusty color...gorgeous! You can see more of Wynema's work on her Pinterest page here. Make sure to check out her jewelry and painting boards. She is a very talented lady!! I'm still waiting to see Vickie and Carolyn's work. Once they get them finished, I'm hoping they will let me share them here :)
Thanks for visiting. I'd love to hear what you think of this project so if you have a minute, please leave a comment!
Love,
Janet
Supplies used:
The basic supplies were a 9x12 canvas, black acrylic paint, watercolor paper and assorted Adirondack and Dylusions sprays. Some of the other things we used are wire, encaustic wax, cheesecloth, metal sheets, embossing powder, slide frames, stamps, plaster tape, twine and fibers. Just about anything will work on this project!
Sorry for the delay, sometimes life gets in the way of my best intentions! I am loving doing these tags! The March tag brought some new challenges, e.g. using paint to make a swirly multi-colored background without getting mud! I didn't have any Tim Holtz Distress paints but I have almost 100 bottles of acrylic paint that I used years ago for tole painting. Since Distress paints are described as very fluid water based acrylic paints, I thought my tole paints would work just as well. What I found out is that although they did work and looked very nice, they weren't anywhere near as vibrant as Distress Paints. Here is my March tag...
See what I mean? Very pretty, but not as vibrant. Actually this photo makes the colors look brighter than they really are. I started by putting some pieces of Tim Holtz tissue tape here and there on the tag. Then I dropped random acrylic paint drops onto my craft mat. I spritzed with a lot of water and then mixed them a bit with my finger and dropped my tag on top. When I picked up my tag, there were some bare spots so I put those back down in the paint until the entire tag was covered. Once the paint was dry, I stamped the butterfly in black ink. The butterfly is from Art Institute Glitter. I used a stencil from thecraftersworkshop.com called Numbers and Dreamweaver stencil paste to add the numbers. I sprinkled gold glitter over the paste and embossed it before the paste was dry. I know TH said to wait for it to dry, but I couldn't! I was very happy when it came out ok! The next step was to add embellishments. I used a pin that I had in my stash and a key, a Heidi Swapp Ghost Letter M for March, a butterfly wishes ticket that I found as a printable on-line and a butterfly image in a tiny frame that I've had in my stash forever! I collect quotes and decided to add one to my tag. I thought the blue that I used around the edges matched when I made it but it isn't right. Despite that, I'm happy with how my tag turned out.
Here are some close up pictures...
Isn't the little frame cute?
You can see from this picture that the Dreamweaver texture paste works just fine when heated before drying. It didn't bubble up or distort at all. It may have something to do with the fact that my paste is a few years old. It was kind of stiff but still worked very well through the stencil.
A friend who was doing the tags with me used Distress Paints and the colors were much clearer, more vibrant and more transparent than the acrylic paints that I used. I bet you know what happened when I found that out. If you guessed that I needed them...you are right!! It was a no-brainer, especially when I found out that Joanne's had all of their paper crafting supplies 1/2 off that day!! Yikes, that was serendipitous!! I was a very happy girl! Once the tag was finished and everything was cleaned up, I went directly to Joanne's to take advantage of the great sale! Can you blame me?? I "needed" them right?
On this tag I learned how to make another beautiful background, this time using multiple colors and my craft mat...the color combinations are endless! I also learned that using texture paste with a stencil adds a lot of texture and dimension and that you can make it any color by using different embossing powders. Embellishing is my biggest sticky wicket. I never know what to use or how to combine things but doing the tags is teaching me to let go of the anxiety and just try things that I have on hand and that eventually...if I keep rearranging them, I come up with something that is OK!
If you have any suggestions or ideas on mixed media or collage that might help me or others, I sure would appreciate hearing about them!! I like blogging, but it would be so much better to be able to sit together with some coffee and have a long chat with you about all of the things we love!!
Thanks for visiting,
Janet
I want to do mixed media...but for whatever reason I'm afraid of it. I've watched videos and looked at blogs. I've purchased lots of products that I've seen recommended. I've talked to friends who are creating mixed media successfully BUT I'm still afraid of it! I've been looking at Tim Holtz's 12 Tags blog posts since 2013 and I decided copying the master might be the way to go. I've done 2 months now and I don't hate what I've made. I don't really love my tags either, but I'm thrilled that I'm producing something! I've learned some things about backgrounds and embellishments. As I feared, it isn't easy, but I can honestly say it isn't quite as scary as I expected it to be either. I'm trying to make my version of the tags with things I already have on hand so they aren't exactly what Tim has on his blog. I started with February. Here's my first tag...
Like I said, I don't love it but I don't hate it either! For the arrow I used an MFT die from the Blueprints Tag Builder 3 set. I cut 4 black arrows and 1 silver mirror arrow and glued them together to give it more substance. The Love stencil up in the corner and the red heart were cut using the Tag Builder 3 die also. The charm is cut with a die from Taylored Expressions set called Handmade Charms. For the frame around the velvet heart I used a Spellbinder scalloped oval and used a solid oval to cut out the middle. The string of hearts was made with a Penny Black die. The lace was stitched onto the tag using a zig zag stitch. Here are some close up pictures...
I used silver mirror card stock to cut all of the metallic pieces and it was a little bit overwhelming when I finished my tag. It was everywhere and it was SHINY! I like shine but it was really bothering me. I used Precious Metals Platinum paint to dull the arrow and the frame down. It was perfect and made my tag look much better. This product is available at Hobby Lobby!
I have a huge bag of felt, do you think I could find it? NO! I die cut a heart out of red velvet and it worked great. I really like the richness of the red color and stitching on it made it much more interesting! i glued it onto a card stock heart so I could used foam dots to raise it up off the frame.
After I used my sewing machine to stitch on the lace...love that...I decided that the top of my tag was too plain so I cut the heart string and Love stencil to finish it off. If you are interested in trying mixed media and you freeze up like I do...I recommend that you give this a try. On this tag I learned that gluing down different papers and ephemera with Ranger Multi Medium Matte is an easy way to make an interesting background. I learned that white washing the background dulls it enough so that it recedes and lets the embellishments on top shine. I learned that sewing is a good way to add texture and interest. And I learned that you have to keep adding embellishments until everything looks balanced and pleasing. Thanks to Tim Holtz for helping me start my mixed media journey! When I finished my tag I found myself wondering what new lessons the March tag would bring!
I'll post my March tag later tonight!
Thanks for visiting :)
Janet
