A vintage card that makes me smile

Last year, during the 12 tags of Christmas, I was looking back at the previous years' tags. The photos of the children screaming on Santa's lap just crack me up. While making the cards in my craft room, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. The sweet man heard me upstairs and came up to investigate. Here's what he found me creating...

http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-christmasday-9s/
Tim Holtz graciously enabled us to right click and save these great pics so that's where my jumping off point was.

I added some punches of pine sprigs and some half pearls and voila, cute vintage looking cards to make you smile - not scream at Santa (but if that's your thing, then go ahead)

My Favorite Stamp

Do you have a stamp that you keep coming back to year after year?  I do.  This particular stamp distributed by "Stampa Rosa" years ago, is my all time favourite. There is something magical about it that pulls me back every Christmas season. I use it on some of my cards without fail.

I tried a technique that Shelly Hickox posted on her blog a while back called "Tarnished Silver" you can check out the link here....http://shellyhickox.blogspot.ca/2012/10/new-tutorial-on-splitcoast.html
I loved the effect, very cool, thanks Shelly!

I made five of these cards to give away, so without further taunting, here's what I did...

I made the frames with the "Tarnished Silver" however I used silver ink and Platinum EP. I didn't have the small Baroque die so I had to hand cut the inside to make a frame.

 I then stamped my image on Specialty Stamping paper from Ranger and cut the shape out on both the paper and on the packaging that we don't throw away. Right?!

 Add colour with distress markers and distress inks to give it a vintage feel

 add denim and silver alcohol inks around the plastic to create a Mercury glass feel

spray background paper with Heidi Swapp spray and emboss with  texture fade
add some silver ink and embossed lines to highlight.

Kaisercraft Advent Calendar

Whew! I haven't posted for a few days. The Kaisercraft Advent Calendar took waaaaay longer than I had anticipated. I did get a little carried away though, and I love the final result, but I'm keeping this one. LOL!

I used a bunch of different techniques here. I painted, sprayed, glued, 3D'd and decorated to the max.
My sprays were Heidi Swapp, the main paper collage was from Kaisercraft. (LOVE that paper) and I went on a shopping spree at Michaels for the decorative elements on the top.  I threw on some snowflake die-cuts from Memory Box and Tim Holtz. I used  Mahogany, Black Soot, Vintage Photo, and Broken China Distress Inks to antique the edges of the boxes.

Don't you just love the lanterns from Tim Holtz's ideology line? I bought 4 as soon as they came in.

Now  I just need to fill the little boxes with some treats for the S.M.

12 Tags of 2012

I was so excited to see the resist faux batik on this months tag from Tim Holtz. I have been using that technique for years now. It's fun watching the magic happen when you iron off the embossing powder.  Back in the Western Ed days, Cathie created a fabulous class called "pressing out the details". I think that was in  2005?  Hummph, I still feel like 2001 was only a couple years ago. I'm Gettin' OLD.  Anyway, I digress. Here is my tag for November, one for Tim's layout and one for what November represents for me here in Canada

I love weddings...

My friend/coworker got married this past summer. Her wedding colors were royal blue and gold. I wanted to make a really elegant shower card for her. This has been my most popular pin on Pinterest. Lots of detail to take in- enjoy.

Punk Rock Flea Circus...or my dabble in mixed media



 while dogsitting one week, it got a little crazy around here.  The pups were all lined up outside the patio door. SM (sweet man) took a picutre after I said "oh that is so punk rock".
Remember when Jack Black said that line in "School of Rock"?  It made me laugh and totally reminded me of this picture.

Enjoy!