Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 November

Good Evening!

Is it really the last day of November?  I swear Tim just posted his tag for this month.  Check out his fantastic tag here.  Be sure to also scroll down to the bottom of the page to see what everyone else created.

I'm just happy that I was able to make some time to create my version.  Since Thanksgiving has past, the leaves are falling, and its almost December I decided to do a snowy version.  Don't you just love the layered dies?  This snowflake is just amazing.

 I chose some blues and some iced spruce for my background.

Faded Jeans for the embossing portion.

A silver for the foiling.  Now that's really cool.

More blues for the corrugated cardboard.

Now here are when things took a decidedly dark turn.  I only have three colors of distress stain sprays so far.  So far, hee hee.  I used pumice stone and need some more practice on the spotty technique.  It was more spray than spot.  Looking quite dark at this point.  I wanted to lighten things up and get some "spots".  What to do?  Hmmm, could I do a flicking technique?  Well, yes.  I smooshed several colors of blue stain on my mat, hit it with some water and flicked it onto the tag.  Subtle, but I think it helped.  As you can see, I think I got more ink on my fingers than on the tag.  Don't mind a bit.  Love to get inky!

Determined to go with the flow and enjoy the process I went forward with this dark and grungy snow flake.  I added some white rubs on, ribbon, and the alpha parts.  So happy with the overall look and really felt good about staying in the moment.

Hope you like my version of Tim's November tag.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Happy Creating!

Hugs,  Sharon

Busy Thanksgiving Week

Hello!

Well, we are on the countdown to Thanksgiving in the US. How are your preparations going?  Things are in full swing at the Young Household. Busy doesn't even begin to describe it. 

Oh before I forget I wanted to share some pics of our front yard tree. I am lucky to live in an area that has some great fall color. These were taken a few weeks ago when the leaves were turning.  Our neighborhood looks fantastic and really puts me in the fall mood!

So, back to this busy week. At work this is always an especially intense time of year for me as the Human Resources lady. Short weeks like this one mean payday is early and it's a race to get payroll done before the deadline. Ok, today I checked that one off my list!  I also have a couple of new hires starting who need their orientation and initial training. That's tomorrow.  Wednesday will be all about collecting all the health insurance renewal paperwork and getting the new deductions set up in our payroll system. 

At home, preparations for Thanksgiving are under way. Since we don't have much family living close by and with my busy work schedule we tend towards keeping the day mellow. This year we are doing something a little different. My sister in law and our nephew will be joining us for dinner. Ok sounds good. Last week my husband said how about if we have prime rib instead of turkey. Um, ok, that sounds good too.  Except for one thing. I have never cooked a prime rib!  Um, ya,  I have to admit I'm a little bit scared over this one.  Looked up how to cook one and some nice sides and of course a horseradish sauce. Really, what did we do in situations like this before the internet?  Thanks goodness I was able to get educated.  Though it doesn't really help me feel any more relaxed about getting this big ol pice of meat cooked just right. Yikes!  What have I gotten myself into?  Breeeeeeathe!  We pick up the prime rib from the butcher on Wednesday!  Let the adventure begin!

Tonight I made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Can you say yum?!  Oh these beauties are a little bit of heaven.  First time making them and I'm in love!  The recipie called for brown and granulated sugar. Turns out I had about a teaspoon of granulated sugar so I just added more brown sugar. Both hubbie and I agreed it was just the right amount of sweetness. 

I hope that those who celebrate Thanksgiving have a wonderful time full of good food, friends and family and lots of laughter and love!  

Be sure to check back as I take you along on my culinary adventure. 

Thanks for stopping by. Happy creating and cooking!

Hugs, Sharon

Compendium of Curiosities 3, Challenge 15

Happy Friday!  It's number 15 in the Compendium of Curiosities III Challenge.  This one is a Cabinet Card Pocket.  You will find this challenge on page 38 of the Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiosities III book.

First let me say Thank You for all the lovely comments on my last CC3C piece.  So appreciate all the comments and visits.

As Thanksgiving is next week and with colder weather arriving I was in a winter mood while creating my cabinet card pocket.

Meet Sammy skater.  He loves winter, snow, skating, and making snowmen.  Aren't Tim's found relatives so fun?  I took all my inspiration from this photo to come up with a winter theme.

Ack!  So sorry for the cruddy background of my dirty non stick mat!  Well, that's kind of embarrassing.  In my haste to get these photos I didn't pull out a better, er, at least cleaner background.  Hee, hee, hee.

Did you know that the speckle stencil makes great snow with texture paste applied through it?

Clear rock candy glitter applied over Scotch Quick Dry glue added a sparkle and icy feel.

The tag in the pocket is one of those snowmen that Sammy likes to build.  The top is adorned with the new stacked snowflake which slides over the front of the cabinet card.

Mr. snowman is covered in clear rock candy glitter.  But first the tag was inked up in various blue Distress inks and the scarf, holly, nose and arms were colored with Distress markers.

Here is a closer look at the snowflake that adorns the tag.  Fun, fun die!

The skate charm was the perfect embellishment!

I really like how my cabinet card pocket turned out.  Captures the essence of Sammy the skater, don't you think?  It would make a fun Christmas card and could even hold a gift card if you attached a pocket to the back of the tag.

As with every challenge there will be a Curiosity Crew choice winner who will get a load of goodies from Tim and Mario.  Challenge 15 is sponsored by Inspiration Emporium and one lucky winner will get a $50 gift certificate.

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Creating!

Hugs, Sharon

Ranger Ink Rocks! Happy Mail and Keeping Me Organized

Happy Thursday everyone!

I received some very happy mail today.  If you are a regular visitor to my blog or Facebook then you know I am a huge Ranger Ink fan.  The Ranger blog is one of my regular stops when I'm cruising the net.  Last week they announced the release of the remaining 24 colors of the new Distress Stain Sprays.  Check it out here.  To celebrate they picked 5 random winners from those who commented on their favorite color of the new stain sprays.  Well, as it turned out I was one of the 5 lucky winners!  Winner, winner chicken dinner!  Yay!

Yup, you guessed it my happy mail today was from Ranger and it contained my new sprays!  So excited to play with these.  They even included the Pumice Stone which I commented was my favorite. Happy dance!

Ranger Ink rocks, right?  Their products speak for themselves (can you say, I love Distress?!), they have amazing signature designers,  they are a US company who makes their products here at home, and are always keeping us inspired with a wide variety of posts and tutorials.

Many a Ranger product has made its way into my studio.  Like many crafters and artists I struggle at times keeping myself organized.  It can be a battle between having everything within reach and having enough space to create.  Did you know that Ranger has some ways to help you organize your inks, paints and various media?  There are some printable charts and labels that you can use that really come in handy.  If you go to their website main page and scroll all the way to the bottom you will see a link called "Organize Your Ranger Products".  You will see a variety of Ranger products from alcohol inks, Dylusions sprays, archival ink, and of course the Distress line.  Click on any of the pictures and it links you to a color chart and/or a label sheet.  Pretty cool, huh?

I spent some time last weekend labeling all of my Distress ink pads, paint, stains, embossing powder and glitter.  No more rooting around my bins to find the color I want.  Easy to see, easy to use, easy to put away.

Here are my full size Distress pads.  I actually printed 4 sets of labels so that no matter how I put it away I can see the color.  A lot more work than just one label per pad?  Yes.  So worth it.  I also have to give a shout out and big thank you to my friends Michele and George Wellman for this wonderful ink pad holder!  This was a gift that George made himself.  This is going to save me so much time.  Plus it looks great in my studio.  Thanks and hugs you two!!!!!!

There are also some larger slots that fit the archival ink pads.  My well used jet black along with my Wendy Vecchi archival pads.

Here is my Ikea Raskog cart filled with my most reached for mediums, embossing supplies, paints, stains, sprays and more.  Its on wheels so it rolls under my table when not in use.  On the second shelf you will see a clear bin that holds my Distress Paints and Stains.  These labels were printed from the Ranger website onto a full 8 1/2 x 11 sticker page and punched out with a 3/4" punch.

Much easier to find the color I want.  No more picking up each bottle to see what color it is.  Paints on the left and stains on the right use the same size punched out labels.

I also used those same labels for my embossing powders and glitters.  These are both stored in my spinning organizer from Harbor Freight Tool.

I have been trying to clean up and re-arrange my studio for several  months.  It is work but oh so worth it.  Thanks to Ranger my most used products are labeled and organized. 

Let me know if you are interested in seeing more studio organization by leaving a comment or sending me an email (listed on the top right of my blog).  I'm not quite ready for a full reveal but if there is interest I can show you areas as I get done with them.

Thanks again to Ranger for the wonderful prize!  You really do rock!

Appreciate you stopping by.  Happy Creating!

Hugs, Sharon

Thanksgiving Crop at Chico Scrapbooks

Happy Friday!  Hope your fall and prep for the upcoming holidays are going well. 

Tomorrow I will be spending the day at Chico Scrapbooks at a crop. It is time for the annual Thanksgiving crop, aka Walt's redemption crop. Hee, hee, hee. Sorry about that Walt, just couldn't help myself.  Lots of friends, fun and food.  

I helped Jodie design an optional kit that croppers can purchase tomorrow if they are in need of some fall home decor. I'm sorry but I have no photo of the finished banner but did manage to snap a few in progress shots.   Banners are a fun quick project that really brighten up a mantle, shelf, or table!

If you will be joining us tomorrow at Chico Scrapbooks I will be there to assist if needed.

I have been meaning to snap some fall foliage shots of the trees in my yard and neighborhood. Last year I waited too long and a big storm blew through and all the leaves fell off the trees. Hoping to get out there tomorrow morning.  So inspired by the colors and thought you might be too. 

Have a wonderful weekend. Hope you get some time to be creative. Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Happy Creating!

Hugs, Sharon

Compendium of Curiosities 3, Challenge 14

Happy Friday,

Whew!  Getting my project posted just before the deadline!

This challenge is all about the colored crackle.  You can find all the steps in Tim Holtz' latest book A Compendium of Curiosities 3 on page 53.  This amazingly fun challenge is hosted by Linda Ledbetter. You can hop on over to her blog to see what she and the Curiosity Crew have created for this challenge.

I love fall!  All the rich colors of the changing leaves are so inspiring.  I'm still having fun with the Tim Holtz Layered Leaf die.  For challenge 14 I created a fall gratitude canvas.  Hope you enjoy it.

The background was created with the Thanksgiving Background texture fade on Wallflower paper.  It's a nice compliment to the leaves and greenery.  The heart charm adds a bit of metal and movement.

Here is a closer view of some of that yummy colored crackle.  I used Core'dinations cardstock for the small leaves, branches and acorns from the Autumn Gathering Decorative Strip.

Yes, those are real acorns!  I happened upon them in an apartment complex parking lot and gathered them up knowing I would find some way to use them this fall.  I dyed some seam binding with Distress Inks to add a bit of softness.  It turned out to be the perfect place to hang the heart charm.

This fall canvas is a wonderful way to celebrate the season.  All the colors and textures make me happy.

A big thank you to Linda and the Curiosity Crew for the continued inspiration.  As always the Curiosity Crews Choice winner will get some cool things from Tim and Mario.  Another lucky winner will get a $25 gift certificate from The Funkie Junkie who is sponsoring this challenge.

Thank You so much for stopping by.  Hope you like what I created for this challenge.

Happy Creating!

Hugs,  Sharon