Here we go onto Day #5, 2007 in our December tags from Start to Finish challenge. I love using alcohol inks and blues are so pretty to work with so eally like this one. I made my own snowflakes with the packaging from soe embossing folders and a die-cut. This was a very quick and easy one so maybe we'll get more players. Join us, it's fun!

Going for a two-for again this week. Love when that happens. Studio L3's Compendiul of Curiosoties Challenge this week is found on page #50 of Tim's book, called Weathered Wood Grunge and on Simple Simon Says Stamp and Show, the challenge this week is Show us a childhood memory. I went with a bird die-cut fior mine. When we were small kids, we rented an old farm-house for a couple of years when my Dad still taught publi schools. We had a huge swingset in the backyard and the top of it was old metal piping and was hollow all the way through. Every spring and summer, birds would nest inside so when the babies would hatch and try to fly, we would catch them and put them in a shoebox and stash them under our beds like some treasure and feed them earthworms and water. Of course they would be heard and let free but we couldn't resist the little creatures. We watched the nests in the trees also and kept track of eggs and babies as they hatched. I guess that's why I am still such a bird lover now! My background was colored with Tim's new colorwash sprays in butterscotch and meadow, after I die-cut some masks using Tim' fancy flouishes, then blotted slightly and sprayed again with yellow Glimmer Mist and a touch of Interference Red. Stamped a few inspirational words in black. Used Watermelon for the grunge bird and walnut stain distress ink. Added some lines with markers on his wings and beak and feet and pop-dotted him. Blended some vintage photo and olive distress inks around the background before ading the bird for depth.

December Tags from Start to Finish

Here it is , Saturday again, so that takes us to Day #4, 2007 from Tim's blog archives for our challenge to get all four years worth done this year. This stamp has never been on my favorites list but I did use it and the technique Tim suggested so my set will be complete. I added a bit of Rock Candy Distress stickles to several of my layers to give it some oomph. I hope you will join us and if you haven't started yet, jump right in and go back and get the first three done so you will be caught up.

SSS Challenge this week was show us some dots. Well, I needed a quick get-weel card for my dear listmom Gloria from the AllThingsTim yahoo group after her recent surgery this week, so I decided to use something with dots in it for the challenge before I sent it off to her. The patterned paper was too bright and cheery for this, so I used black soot distress and blended it over the paper. I used a piece of cream cardstock and die cut it using a nestie and did wrinkle-free distress for the background using weathered wood, stormy sky, and Victorian Velvet and Pearl perfect pearl mist. Yummy, I love this lok. I then stamped in black and embossed with clear detail the umbrella man. Blended some more stormy sky and then black soot allaround the edges for depth and o look like a storm. Added a verse on a scrap of the background. I wanted to add some dotted ribbon but it just didn't look right with the theme.

The CCC continues this week over at Linda's blog with #28 found on page #57 called Colorful Layered Fragments. Oh this was a fun one. I think my blue was a little too dark but I still like it. Open your books and play along and if you still don't have the book, get to Tim's blog and order a signed copy! Backgrouns was wrinkle-free distress in wild honey and mustard seed. I stamped the cityscape and flock of birds with black archival and then used my blending tool with Broken China and brushed corduroy around the edges to tie in the blues and highlight a bit and add some depth.

http://http://tensecondsstudio.typepad.com/tenseconds_studio/

Three posts in a day! What am I thinking! I wanted to share with you the canvas I won when the wonderful, funny, and ultra-talented ladies at TenSecondsStudio had a breat cancer fundraiser a while back. They got several popular artists to create canvases and had a raffle for Breat Cancer. I bought several sets and was lucky enough to win one of them. Who's, you ask? None other than the King of Crafts, Mr. Tim Holtz himself! So eat your hearts out folks. I have it sitting above my computer desk for now, but not sure if that's it's permanent spot or not yet.The second one is a close-up of the opening. On top of the XO block is a little word WISH and then a miniature wishbone is adhered. Too cool!

Just heading off to a birthday party for two of my grandkids and thought I would share their cards. Pretty cutesy for me and so not my usual style but they are kids! Victoria will be 10 on February 27th and her little brother AJ turned 6 on November 8th and we finally have decided to combine their parties and use one day instead of two every year and so close to Christmas. They have been playing with this lion die in my craft room and making lots of lions with it lately, I didn't even know I had that die. LOL, so thought it was appropriate to use it on AJ's card.

On to Week # 3, so Day #3, 2007 in our journey of Tim's "December tags from Start to Finish." This was a fun one to do and pretty simple as well. I wish I had stamped a little background or added some tissue tape to the upper portion of mine but oh well, sometimes less is more. I hope you will play along and get all 48 tags done this year in time to start right in and do the 2011 tags as Tim does his.

Don't know if you've been over to Barbara's blog but she is celebrating her first year in "Blogland" and having a great give-away. So what are you waiting for, check it out.
http://anartsoul.blogspot.com/2011/01/first-blogoversary-giveaway.html?showComment=1295061660144_AIe9_BHTjSEVv8MSFjAnS6w6DB8coefjXwYa0COFL2utusmOqiuOD2NSq53U2Xu9cWPnyVHgojsWClmRclv7HP6_c13epJGlFF80EHK01_iAKzrUVNA0Eu5wfmPIZ-Z1a6QDmi9gzuuBxr2bO8VKDTTW6-JqFu0XavJ6rFX4DNj6GuiXVplc8Z0bUUu_U_JX5TDbQv2gLie8MBdil92U0i13NgpmGY9rhXxfrjoF9xtO_Kq_98zzq6ulpYaqwsvyMUmmtMasaECZetAzSk7wpmyYwuX2X5ht6Dz_NmOjljLZHmXiu8xIaetk4K-h8tIPRSjL07zSsxbcJgaIOKB0m2BMsoKzrlF_5lk4p_3t5oR_cXmUKGPlpexuz3V2yGVs2qD6P-q1vU_bcSRDpKzCxDfHdDSqlc3hZYp3P2iEJzNarwlMlT4mfQCf3K-xMkA5hh3cgS1WZMMG7aYmzHQsdLLuU7eMj1N0EaatK_9kMDlmtn-FnSzAH7qxvWfC_VL72sq6NGaS87ZB_DpAuyp8chfpYnYBaOYp7bX0MyBHVoHkNt-rCTurtefV_NXwTWxkqF5ZjZwhOJU_HSEuOtKYcP5aPba5Gu8kRYXrl8ZbR5ty2Vf_0BSDnIJleR6lswTwXcA1hAHqxUhEJW2eaLFuKLkptdnop_3ZNMfhgRYycBU-915ePrkwBjMRfpcCeOu2M9Goy2pBoeKutCpGldf8YPhVchW5LFfkpyAlP-G8-LjaLUtzMuCwXnHvm1A_xYko4vgvAAo2WU0LbLjZPC4b0vTBeAJ0uPpEiQRPXx0jkPx1UZ9VXrVHFaAr3aoKll2jEPiaYRKC_a3rSVwCJavY9OEN1ezx4YWnUg#c4665562972098297935

CCC #27 is upon us and we are in full swing over at Linda's blog, Studio L3. This week we are on Page #60, called Extreme Masking. I am combining challenges yet again. SSSS challenge over at Simon Says blog is to use your masks and also my RangerInk yahoo group has a challenge to combine Ranger inks and paints, so this piece is a three-for. I used the Seasonal Masks and sprayed with Red Pepper Adirondack colorwash ink and then used Forever red Perfect Pearls Mist to give it some sparkle and shine. I also used the negatives so I wouldn't have stark white areas and overstamped with Archival Coffee Ink. I used that for my mini hearts as well. I then used my Pearl paint dabber by Ranger and stamped the xoxo's randomly. I cut out the word Love and painted them with Pearl dabber also and adhered with my brand new Multi Matte Medium. Wow, I love that stuff!

December Tags from Start to Finish

It is Saturday again, so here is tag #2 from 2007's series. This one was super fast and easy. I should add some ink to my black ink pad though as it's not very dark looking. I didn't have the ghost snowflakes, so I die-cut my own using the clear packaging on one of my new Sizzix dies to make mine, then added some Snowcap paint dabber to them for color and texture. You can't pick it up in the picture, but I took Picket Fence distress Stickles and rubbed them all over my snowman for sparkle and shine in real life. Hope you play!

I am not too computer-tech. savvy, but I think I have successfully added a place to link your tags to thie 12 Days of Tags from start to finish challenge I have started here. I added it to the bottom of the post about the challenge, so let's get some tags made and link them here so I can see if this works! I tried to set it up to be a weekly post so we'll see if I did it right.

Well, again I am scrambling, so am combining the challenges for this week. CCC #26, Rusted Grunge found on page #45 and for SSSS over at Simon Says Stamps blog, it's Use your newest stamp, or one you've had and have never used. I bought this clear set of Tim's mini's at Michael's a while back and have not tried them out, so used them here. I did a wrinkle-free distress on the background of my page and finally broke out my Eifel Tower die that I had to have and have never used before. It was great for this one. I wanted the stamping to be subtle on this, so used Tea Dye, walnut stain, and faded denim and then blended vintage photo around the edges.

Happy New Year to all of you out there in blog-land! I had a conversation on my blog-friend Donna's blog a while back where she said she wished she had played along on Tim's Tags of Christmas for all of the years since he started. Well, I answered back, "I challenge you to make one tag a week, starting at the very first day in 2007, and you will have all 48 done by the time he starts back up in 2011." Pretty easy, right! No stress, just one tag a week. Well, wouldn't you know, Donna came right back with,"you'll be playing along with me, right?" So, here we go. We are starting with Day #1, 2007. Leave a comment here with your link to yours and we can all admire each other's. No prizes or contests, just plain art-fun! I wasn't going to do them Christmas style, but then had a brainstorm, wouldn't it be cool to make triangles large enough to hang the tags on and create a wonderful Christmas garland! So that's my plan! Who wants to play along with us? Just one tag a week, easy-peasy! Come on now, let's have some fun!

I think I can finally know that everyone has received their Christmas cards from me, so I can post mine from this year. I only made 30 hand-made ones this year and the rest were; gasp, store-bought! It just got too hectic and busy an we were so short-handed at work that I couldn't make many. So I am going to try to do 10-15 a month all year long this year to avoid the crunch. We'll see how I do! LOL