I have cleared a spot on my desk and finally tried out the CCC # 25, Scribble Stain Distress, from Page #34 of the Master's book. This is a great technique as you never know what it's going to look like when you flip it. I used Wild Honey, Broken China, and Peeled Paint, along with Tea Dye reinker. Have a go and post your results and play along.

Though, totally unplanned, I decided to continue the tradition of making a Christmas stocking for my newest great nephew. I have made them for all of my grandchildren and have somehow been roped into making them for all of my niece's and nephew' children as well. I announced a couple of years ago that the Grandmothers of all the new babies would have to take over them for their families and that they could come over and I would teach them how and provide the supplies even. so far, this has NOT happened. I have made them all, including spouses as they marry. I felt guilty that Conor wouldn't have one until next year as my sister never came to learn in time, so started his Sunday night during the packer game, worked on it during my lunch Monday and Tuesday, the entire Monday night game and a bit Wednesday morning. Had it done, only to find out, they only have one N in his name, so I had to tear apart the name and redo it. Here it is in all it's glory. Hope they like it!

It's a wrap! I have completed all of Tim's 12 Days tags. I still have several to make into Wendy style but not sure I will get to them until later. I do have to get my Christmas cards made, addressed, and sent out at some point. LOL I would like to get some more baking done as well. I really like these tags today. Struggled with the die-cutting though. Inked and crackled and waited for the whole drying period and then carefully cut them face down as instructed, and when I turned them over, my words were backwards! What!!!! So I flipped them over, re-inked and made Wendy's blue at this point, crackle painted and waited for not too long this time! Too p-o'ed to be patient now. Had to run to Wal-mart to get stuff to make some batches of Chai Tea mix for sister gifts and tried to get some holiday picks to use on the tags, and of course, they don't carry them anymore. They call themselves a supercenter, but our Walmart had NOTHING! So I found these sparkly branch twig things in ornaments and got a red and a blue and snipped them down to size. I love how they look on the tags. you should see how great the back of my ornaments looks from how nicely I did the technique beg=fore I cut it wrong. LOL Next time I will be cutting a sample on cardstock. I had to use patterned paper because I put my Seasonal paper pack by Tim in a special safe place and I still haven't found whee the hell that is! LOL Once the holidays are over I am sure I will find it.

OK bloggers, I have my Day #11 tag done and again had the chance to make one Wendy-style as well. I made them almost the same. Added a red star to the top of my tree on the Tim version to add a little more color and to match the trim I used on the bottom. I still don't have any Sparkly Fluff or even know who makes it to order any, so I used Distress Stickles and then added extra glitter to it on my branches. I used Destiny for my word because I chose the saying "Sometimes fate and your creativity collide" so I thought it would be appropriate. I added some little flower buttons to Wendy's to decorate the tree for Christmas. Fun! On to the final tag now that my Packers have just gotten beat by the worst team in the division. Ugh!

I am a day behind again but I have gotten yesterday tag, Day #10 completed. I had to take the picture at a weird angle so it didn't glare from the flash on the packaging. I love using packaging and have been making die-cuts with it for a while now, but I really like this effect, embossed and laid over the project. I didn't have the holly punch, so I drew the leaves and cut them out of grunge-paper and then I used my long-reach punch and punched out the berries. I don't have any washers either and didn't want to go out in the blizzard to find any on workbench, so I used snowflakes to adhere the packaging to the tag. I love this tag!

Day #9 tag is now behind me. I even had time to make one of these Wendy-style. I love today's tag. So rich and warm and sparkly. You can't see the sparkle here from the glimmer mist, but it is there. I used a bird for Tim's rosette center and a resin flower for Wendy's that I got on Etsy from a shop in China when I was searching for miniatures. Very fitting for each, I thought. I didn't have any tinsel again, so I ran to Wal-Mart and went to the kids craft area and got some sparkly pipe cleaners. Had to put them right to the edge on the back as they are not very big around, but they work! I went with Oh Holy Night for my title on Tim's as that was the song my Dad always sang as a solo every Christmas eve at midnight mass. I can still hear him every time I hear that song.

I have finished my tag for Day #8 and am coming along nicely on today's tag #9. I had to find some wire for the chimneys and was going to use ornament hooks but then I found some silver! Of course when I cut out my houses, I had the grungeboard upside down, so my houses are opposite in progression and I didn't have a clock face, so used something else from my stash. I thought that big key was too much, so I added a jingle bell and a tiny metal key to my ribbon.

Oh yeah, I'm back again! I have not only finished my Day #7 tag, I have done a second one in Wendy Vecchi style! Wendy loves flowers so I thought it would be suiting to use the same flower but use her stamps. Subbed a few things of course but had a fun time with these techniques. Using ink in these folders is ingenious! That Timster never ceases to amaze me!

It's hard to see in the picture, but the entire surface of this page is done with this Technique found on page #47 of Tim's book for CCC #24. I let it dry overnight and then added some tissue tape for embellishment. It is so sparkly and pretty in real life but i had to turn off my flash or it was awful in pictures. What a cool one this is! The stamped image portion of this was ust a paper on my desktop from a pad of paper I keep under my work area all the time to protect the desk and under that is my non-stick craft sheet. If I like how the sheet looks sometimes after several projects have been made on it, I use it in a project such as this one. Just stamped the little girl onto it and tore around it. Working on today's tag also, have some paint drying so stopping to eat a bite and watch days of Our Lives and then I'll be back once it is finished. See you soon!

Oh how I love that reindeer of Tim's, so today is another favorite tag of mine. Very cool techniques used on this one with the folders and ink. my coloring came out funky on my pictures due to lighting issues last night but it is blue in real life!I used the snowflake tissue tape to stick to the theme and used a pre-made miniature wreath I bought for the configurations. I will be using these tech's again!

Well, the kids and grand-kids have all gone home and I have finished my tag for Day #5, gotten supper cooked and the dishwasher is loaded and running, so I can post my tag now. I was going to get an early start until I opened my jar of crackle paint and it was one solid mass inside, I added water and stirred and broke chunks with the popsicle stick until my hand was sore, but I got it back to normal consistency and was able to use it. So, I decided I better have a look at the rest of them in the tin. I opened all of them including the unopened ones and added water to about a third of them and they are all good as new. I had to make a few substitutes again today. I didn't have the holly stamp or the verse so used some ancient ones from The Angel Company. I also tried to add another holly near the verse and it was not a good choice, so I just moved my metal foliage and flowers to that spot. Of course when I finally located my metal numbers, I had already used the 2 and the 5 last year, so I used some chipboard and die-cut them, painted them black and then did the white UTEE over that.I still don't have Sparkly Fluff, so I used my glue pen and white flower soft for his beard, eyebrows, and hat trim. Added a word charm, believe, and a little bell to jump rings on my ribbons. Fun!

I have to interrupt the Tim Tag posts and do a quickie on my kitchen update. We decided to cover our chairs with a wipe-clean naugahide type fabric and I wanted it to be red as I had painted an accent wall red last spring when we redid the kitchen. well, I now painted all but one wall red and took down the header over the vertical blinds on patio door and added a decorative rod and three valances to it. Wanted a coffee print in reds but struck out but really think this one tied it all together. Love the chairs. It was pretty hard for the first three but then we had a system and the last five went together pretty well. Painting was a snap for us, we are getting really good at it. Of course the valances were NOT the right type to go on the rod that the friendly saleslady told me were perfect together and I did not want to take them back and start over again, so I measured where I wanted them and not so bravely, cut a slit in the back pocket for the brackets to poke through. What a pain in the a&!. But they look great now. I promised my girlfriend I would post pics and it has been all week, and still haven't so here goes nothing. Now imagine it without the piles of junk there, Phillip's booster seat, and the grill covered on the deck behind it all. LOL

Keeping right up for now, I have created Day #4's tag. I wish I had toned down the patterned paper a bit more with my ink blending. It's still too bright red for me. I don't have the baubbles so I added a little JOY charm and I used Tim's tree die-cut that I sprayed with Perfect Pearls Mist in Pearl. Really sparkly goodness from here, hard to capture in the picture. Added some fancy trim to the bottom and a strip of sparkly bead trim over that and at the top using continuous line glue dots. My snowflakes are not crisp like Tim's but they turned out pretty good for my first try.

Woo-hoo, what a roll I was on today! I have also finished tag #3 and have it here to show. I don't have the tree stamp but used a pine branch with cones on it to perch my bird in. It doesn't show up very well in the photos but is nice in real life, although my rafia nest seemed to cover a lot of it! I don't have the splatter stamp either but found a mini version on a stubby stamp so used that. Of course I have no tinsel but used a pretty lace trim and forgot to color it until I had it attahced so that was a bit tricky! Used the blending tool and just rubbed some color onto it and it worked OK but there's a smear of ink behind my tissue tape flower. I need lots of practice on these babies but this one turned out OK.

I got done early today for a major change and so I got my Day #2 tag done, again with some substitutions. I don't have the pine stamp Tim uses, but thought my cardinal on a pine bough was very pretty, so made my custom ink pad with that. I just added some snowflake buttons that I cut the shanks off for embellishments as I didn't think it needed anything more.

I had to do a lot of improvising but I have the Day One tag done for Tim's 12 Days of Christmas 2010. I don't have his rickety house die, so used the old original sizzix haunted house. Nothing to make wreath from, so used a brad. no twig from Prima, so cut a piece off the centerpiece on my mantel's swag, no Sparkly Stuff, so used some glittery paint called Elf Dust I have had for years and was all hard and nasty. I added some water and kept stirring until it was workable and used that for my snow. Packaging for my window panes, and hung a gingerbread man from my ribbon instead of a star. Was fun to do. Hope to be able to start number 2 tonight after work. Lunchbreak is almost done. I DID have a Q-Tip though. LOL Since the challenge this week on Simon Says stamps was also to show us your tags, this will qualify for the challenge.

Just a quick post here to add a card I made up for the SSS challenge this week. Let Us See Your Distress was the theme. I use distress inks on nearly everything I create so this was easy just didn't have time for anything elaborate. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Just going to get ready to head out the door to go gather with family for dinner and then get together for football, visiting, and game playing, along with food, of course. Got my meatballs simmering in the crock-pot and my grape salad chilling.

I had time last night to finish up my CCC- Week #23 called Double Distressing found on page #40 of Tim's book. This one was really fun and so simple. Makes me wonder why I hadn't ever tried it before. For my background, I used a pearl paint dabber to make the snow drifts. After I painted it, I tore a sheet of paper and ran along the edges for the drifts and then used Cloudy Blue for the sky and lightly ran it along the torn paper edges again to slightly highlight the drifts. Can't see it very well in the photo, but in real life, it looks just like the snow looks on a cold winter morn, which is exactly what we woke to yesterday. Snowing and wind howling. Windchill made temps at zero yesterday! We have had such a warm fall this year, that noone is ready for reality to hit now.

I finished up my 20 pages for the Christmas 6 x 6's we are swapping on All Things Tim yahoo group. Stephen hosted the swap and I mailed them off to him today. We had to make 20 pages and at least cover the backs with patterned paper. Well, I couldn't leave mine that plain so I had to ink up the paper a little to warm it up and die cut some of Tim's reindeer and punch a few snowflakes at least. Added a little stickles in the centers of them and Enamel accents for the eyes. The main pages were fun to do and may make my Christmas cards like this only smaller. Lots of distress inks and die-cut some chipboard scraps for the numbers and then painted with the black dabber. Die-cut the ticket strips and stamped with Barn Door red and used the tiny attacher to attach. Used my Distress-It-All for the edges. Wow, does that make it easier to do 20 pages on all four sides!!! Felt like I was cheating. I can't wait to see what the rest of the players come up with. I have to make my covers so they are ready for binding when I get the pages back.

I am going for A "TWO-FOR" this week on my challenges I have been playing. SSS and the CCC. SSS challenge this week is to make something that makes you happy. I adore snowmen even though i am not fond of the cold. You can never have too many snowmen stamps! On the CCC, we are in week #22 and it is found on page #52, called alcohol ink splatter. I have done this one a number of times and love it. I decided to go monochromatic with my inks because I wanted a snow scene and wanted to use my new On The Edge Snowflake die. I have been waiting for this baby to arrive! Can't believe I have them, both done on the first day! Good thing because I need to get my pages done for a swap in the All Things Tim group. The theme is Christmas and I need to get 20 pages made and shipped to Stephen within the next 20 days. I did a lot today on them but need to wait now for my main image stamp to arrive in the mail. It has shipped as I got notice by email on Saturday that it is on it's way.

Got my card made for the SSS challenge this week over at Simon Says Stamps blog. This week it was use your favorite Tim Holtz stamp. Just one favorite! how can I possible choose which favorite to use, but since Christmas is right around the corner, I went with this one and made a Christmas card. Lots of distress inks, some Stickles, flower soft, etc. You can't go wrong with Tim style!

Right on top of things on week #21 of Linda's challenge over at StudioL3 blog. This week we are on page #38 called Perfect Distress. I wanted to do something wintery for my page so I used the reindeer and snowflakes stamps. There is so much sparkle in real life but very hard to photograph it without a huge glare. I had not tried this technique before but will definately be using it again.

Here is the card I made for my crafting friend Diana who's birthday is the 26th, but we are getting together tomorrow to go to a Christmas card/layout/project make and take mini-convention in Wausau. It's the first time it's being held and we are heading there at 7 a.m. to check it out. Hoping to get the Christmas dies of Tim's there instead of having to order online and wait. It's about 2-2 1/2 hours to get there but there is hardly ever anything scheduled on Sundays and that is the only day I get off of work, so I am so there! It's a little hard to see in the picture, but the Happy Birthday is embossed and sanded on Coredinations Cardstock to show the white underneath. And of course. my new Rosette die. Lovin' that one!

I finally had enough time to finish my project for Simon Says Stamps challenge this week. This week the theme was to make something "Shabby." Well, Lord knows, that's my style but I wanted to do something new. I bought a paper mache bird from Julia Andrus arts quite a while ago and decided to play with it for this challenge. I was trying to do the peeled paint technique using Vaseline after two colors of paint were applied, yadda, yadda, yadda, but when I did, nothing came off to reveal the under layer. All it did was get all shiny and oily looking! So I grabbed my Tim Holtz sanding block and went at it. After that, I added some dry-brushed paints over it all. Added some Tissue Tape, again from Tim. All paints were the paint dabbers, too. (I am a ranger queen!) i used one of the Rosettes I have been making for the tuft on his head and then just cut some strips and curled them for the tail feathers; added a chain and one of Tim's metal letters; K, for Kathy around his neck. His eyes are the new Enamel Accents, first a circle of white, and then a dot of black. I couldn't even wait for it to dry first, just carefully added the black to the wet white. He can now sit proudly over my crafting area and watch guard. What a fun project!

Week #20's challenge over at Linda's blog was found on page #54 and is called Industrial Grunge. I die-cut plain grunge to make the deer from Tim's new die and then used a pre-cut grunge-board snowflake for the technique itself. Background was of course, wrinkle-free distress. I had to tear some card-stock to make snow-drifts around my sign post and behind my deer because I got my messy inky hands on the background! I sprayed it with the new Perfect Pearls mist and then rubbed on some Pearl paint dabber to look like glistening snow. The signpost is a sizzix die I have jad for years. Crackle accents on it after embossing it with tim's folder and direct to paper with tea dye ink and handwriting North Pole on it. Enamel accents for the eye, hooves, tail, and belly areas.

It has take me since Monday morning when the new challenge was posted on Linda's blog to find that "safe Place" where I put my three packs of Tim's mask paper! But I found it this morning and laid out my plan for my new page. Week #19 already and it's on page #61, called Extreme Masking in Tim's book. Still don't have a copy? Are you kidding me? Grab one quick! It is a technique treasure trove. Here are the colors I used to create it: Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire, and Black Soot Distress Inks, black Archival ink, Tim's mask sheets, dies, and stamps and finally pulled out my brand new complete set of Perfect pearls mists and used the Forever Violet on this piece. It is a 3-fer this week. I am entering it on the Ranger challenge, Simon Says Stamping, and on Linda's blog at Studio L3, as well as All Things Tim, so I guess it's a 4-fer! Ranger's challenge this month called for the PP mists, Simon Says called for "make something Spooky", and Linda's was the technique. I ruined the first one, but tried again and it came out great.

Open your Tim books to page #37 for the CCC challenge this week over at StuioL3's blog. This was another fun one to do. I used Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky for my blues and Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, and Forrest Moss for my greens. I also tried out my new Martha Frine Scissors I have been wanting to make some grass for my rabbit to walk through. Fun!

I finally have my Collaborative Chaos tag swap put together completely onto a canvas and hanging in the hall next to my art studio doorway. I really like how it turned out. I have the canvas painted and primed for the one from the Everything Wendy Vecchi group as well. I just have to get it decorated and assembled and hung now so stay tuned. Hopefully in the near future!

I think there is less time when you're on vacation than when you are working! We have been on the go almost every day and today is the last of my two weeks off I have just enjoyed. I finally got all the pieces of my page for this week's challenge on Linda's CCC- Week #17. It is on pae #64 of Tim's book, so open yours up, have a look, and join us.

Been playing around on my Cricut this last couple of days off and made stencils from my vinyl to try out a bit of glass etching. I made a jar for my coffee, a treat jar for our dog, and one that's actually a cookie jar for dog treats for a close friend who we are road-tripping with tomorrow. She will be so surprised to see it. Her spoiled rotten, LOL, corgi is named Babes, so I etched Babes' Treats onto the side of it. Got the big size for her as she goes through LOTS of treats. On ours, I just etched Jack's and then cut a dog image and etched that. I will be doing more of these! The pictures are terrible as it is very hard to get a good image, so use your imagination.

Made lots of cards again on Columbus Day this year. Two of my girlfriends and I started an annual play-date on Columbus Day since we are all postal workers so it's a day we can all play. We were a little slow getting going yesterday, but here's what I got accomplished. I was on vacation all week, but made nothing other than a huge pile of garbage bags while organizing my studio. What a disaster it was. Still not completely done, but good enough! Five days in there is too much!

My little "Philly Steak and Cheese" aka Phillip, my youngest grandson, just turned two on the 26th.I can't believe how fast it went! We are having his party this coming Saturday and Kayla and I made the invitations using my Cricut Expressions. They turned out so cute, that I decided to duplicate the Little Tykes car with his photo in it for his card as well. Mama better keep this for his book!

Can you believe it's already Week # 16 of the CCC. Don't know what I'm talking about? Hop on over to Linda's blog and check out the deets. http://studiol3.blogspot.com/ I decided to go with a Christmas theme this week. I love this technique and use it all the time so it was fun for me. For the background, I used peeled paint and fired brick distress inks. i over-stamped my images with Pine Needles and archival black. Made my banner using designer paper and a nesties die. Then made it again and cut with scalloped scissors and layered and added the pebble letters to spell out "Joy." Cut the smallest stars and added Glossy Accent. I strung them onto tiny hemp twine and threaded through to the back and attached. Pop-dotted them and then added the stars with thicker dots.Blended the edges with aged mahogany ink. Fun!

I had a short day at work today FINALLY, so was able to make up my challenge page for my book of techniques from Tim's Compendium of Curiosities book. I have been playing along on Linda's blog Studio L3 every week and here we are already on week #15 of this fun adventure. It's not too late to join in if you aren't already playing, just get the book and check out her blog for instructions and not only learn, but have the opportunity to see some wonderful art each week as you see how everyone else interpreted it as well as have a chance to win some awesome art prizes! We are on page #53 this week and it is called Alcohol Ink Agate on Grunge. I love grunge paper and board, so was anxious to play; plus Simon Says Stamps challenge this week is Grunge, so double the fun. I used lots of colors on blue AI's and silver for my metallic. Used a new frame sizzix die to cut my grunge and then outlined it and the background page, which is wrinkle-free distress, with a denim paint dabber. That really made it pop. Black archival ink for my verse, and denim distress ink for the snowflakes on the background. Some sparkly buttons from my stash for a little bling to embellish it with.

I am finally using one of the pieces of 2 x 4's that I had my local hardware store cut into chunky atc size for me after all this time. I had them cut the entire length into chunks 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" x 1 1/2" thick to make chunky atc's. I signed up for the swap in my Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group and have put one together for my swap partner. I will be sending to Cindy. I hope she likes it. I painted it first on three sides, then I stamped my flower and house and bird from grungepaper and inked them up. Trimmed around them and added along with Tim's tissue tape for the edges and some felt vine trim from my stash. Made some paper flowers from my cricut on designer paper and a hot-glue gun. Fun! Pop-dotted these into place and added some mulberry leaves. I hope she likes it and I wish I would have made two of them!