Friday 19th February 2016

Tim Holtz Tags of 2016 - February

Love Tim's tag this month and the combination of techniques he's asked us to use - monoprint and embossing with textured paste.  My take is below but these are not lost relatives but my parents on their wedding day - they're still with us and still together which I'm very grateful for. Love you mum and dad.

I love how this has come out - you can't quite see but I used my Wink of Stella on the embossed butterflies.  The arrow has been die cut from a copper embossed card which I picked up from Trago Mills and the ribbon is silk ribbon dyed with dylusions inks - luscious.

As I'm off work today I've also completed and posted the latest Journal52 offering:

 The prompt for Week 7 was self love - something I've been neglecting recently which has been causing me some angst (and at my age too!).  Still this has been a good lesson in reminding myself that's it's ok for me to forgive myself, to accept myself for what and who I am and most importantly to love myself.  This started life as 2 pages that I'd used to experiment with but once I drew the flowers and painted the negative space in black I thought it started to look like something.  I'm pleased with the result and glad I had the opportunity to complete the spread.

In the last few weeks I've also completed and posted the following:

This was for Week 6 of Journal52 what's above my head and below my feet - nothing too deep here just another spread I've used to experiment on including the Wonder which is embossed with white embossing powder.  The addition of some stickers, marks and stamps finished it off nicely I think.

I'm loving Mission Inspiration with Mike Deakin and the tasks he sets.  This is my February mission and I was quite pleased with how she turned out.  The quote is something I've also been struggling with recently but I can't wait for March's mission.

There are so many things that I'm into at the moment I'm worried I may get to the point where I'm doing too much but I'm really excited as I've had the opportunity to sign up to Connie Solero's 21 Secrets - Tools and Techniques for the Spring.  Comes out on 1st April and again they have some wonderful artists/teachers who'll share their tips and techniques - so excited!

I'm off now to Tim's site to post my tag - so glad I can participate.

Friday 12th February 2016

Here again to post up some photos of the work that I've been doing lately.  Created a Facebook account - first time for me.  It's just so that I can join in some of the journalling groups.  I've joined Journal 52 with Effy and Sarah - great fun, great prompts, I'm enjoying joining in.  The group I've joined is Mike's Mission Inspiration and have completed my first page for that which is a different way of going about creating a page - not sure which way I prefer I'm just enjoying both at the moment - who knows where it'll lead though.

I'm going to start by posting all the pages I've now done for Journal 52:

Week 1 was about choosing a word for the year.  My word is 'heart' and each letter signified a different aspect of the life I'd like to lead in 2016.  Loved the background on this one.

Week 2 asked what I would be saying 'Yes' to in 2016.  I enjoyed the doodling in yes.

Week 3 was to commemorate David Bowie's death by illustrating the lyrics of one of his songs.  Was pleased with the background and the leaves on this one.

Week 4 was full moon and I had the opportunity to use some of the Pebeo paints that I had - thought it created a dramatic moon.

Week 5 was monochrome or psychedelia.  I cut the face out and drew round it but filled in the shape freehand - I don't think she looks too bad!  Her nose isn't quite right but from a distance . . .

Now for Mission Inspiration - I've only managed one page but Mike asks you to create a page using a list of requirements like stencil, 3 colours, book pages, etc.  Here's my page:

I enjoyed working on this.

That's all for now as I'm off to start on some more pages.

Tags of 2016 - January

It's 2016 already and I haven't been here for a while!  Seems alI my posts always start with that sentiment - I'm going to be better this year!

Anyway I'm going to be attempting to keep up with Tim and his Tags of 2016 - he's looking back through his archives and updating some previous techniques.  He's been doing this tags for 10 years now so he'll have plenty to look through.

I don't have half the things that Tim used but have created a tag with definite similarities.  Here goes:

These are the elements that I started with:

Black card on which I stamped Tim Holtz's Alterations Leaf Blueprint using a Yinks white chalk ink.  The Leaf Blueprint set is great as it also comes with dies which enabled me to cut out the leaf perfectly.  I cut a size 8 tag using Tim's Sizzex Framelits Tag Collection from an old manilla index card - this was one of my Christmas presents and is a collection of 6 tags, 1 banner and the hole strengthener - I'll never be without a size 8 tag again!  Tim used metallic tape on his card but I used the inside wrapper from my KitKat bar stuck on to a piece of card and then embossed using a pretty flower folder which I believe was a free gift on the front of a magazine - I was pleased with the results.  I rubbed in some black ink to give it more of a industrial look - even though they're flowers!

I figured out where my main leaf stamp would come and then adhered the embossed KitKat wrapper to either end of the tag and punched out the top hole. Loving the flowers.

I copied Tim and tore the top and bottom of the card with the leaf stamped on it and adhered it to the tag.  Not looking bad at this point.

I used sticky pads to adhered the cut out leaf to the tag and even though it's hard to see from this scanned image (no camera available) I added Wink of Stella clear to the top leaf - loving the shimmer it gives - again another Christmas present that I'm really going to love using.

To finish I added a banner with 'be thankful' something that I'm hoping will run through this year for me.  I've been keeping a gratitude log in my bullet journal (something new I've picked up this year) which is helping me to think more positively.  I then added some gems to the banner sides - no brads like Tim but I thought these would add a touch of femininity to the tag.  I used clear gems on the leaf to indicate rain drops and added some silver glitter ribbon to the top.  I'm very pleased with the results and would like to do something similar for a card next.