Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 June

Hello!

What a blast I had with Tim's June tag.  The plaid, the coffee, and oh the creative fun!

Here is what Tim created

This month I wanted to recreate the technique in my Ranger Small Dylusions Journal.  I faced some challenges along the way but am so happy with the finished journal spread.

The lightest spray stain color I have is Pumice Stone.  I sprayed some water and then the stain.  It's been hot (like over 100 degrees hot) here in Chico and I think the heat and the AC caused the stain to dry too quickly and so I kept spraying and ended up with pages that were way too dark for the plaid technique. I'm sure these pages will make a great background for another journal spread.  It will be there waiting for inspiration.  In the meantime on to finding a solution.

Well, I thought, I just need to start with gesso so my ink doesn't soak in too quickly.  On went the gesso on some other pages.  The stain didn't soak in but I didn't exactly get the look I was after.  I kept going determined to make this work.  I don't have the DIY pad so I used my mini Distress Inks to create the plaid.  It was then that I remembered that Distress Inks and gesso do not play well together.  The plaid ended up looking like a bunch of dots and dashes.  This was not going well.

Ok, back to the trusty tag.   Yes!  Much better.  Still determined to do a journal spread I took my favorite peeled paint distress ink and a blending tool and blended all the inks on the gesso pages.  Turned out to be a cool background.  Happy accident.  I pulled out my Spills & Splatters stamps as well as the Scribbles and Splats Thinlits dies to create some background interest and accents.  This is why I love art journaling.  Creative play with lots of layers, inks, paints and what ever works for me.   Yay!

I added some journaling with some Idea-ology Small Talk stickers.

Tim's 12 tags series is such a great way to get some creative play time.  Thank youTim for the inspiration and generosity in sharing your cool techniques.  Be sure to stop by Tim's blog for your own inspiration and ideas.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Happy Creating!

Hugs, Sharon

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 January

Happy New Year!

I have been having fun in the studio today making my version of Tim's January 2015 tag.  You can learn to make your own by checking out Tim Holtz blog here.  While you are there be sure to check out the archives for the previous years tags.  Lots to do and see on Tim's blog.

Love the artsy feel of this tag.  I didn't have all the colors and products that Tim used so I pulled from what I have on hand.  See the end of this post for a list of products I used differently than Tim.

I stayed true to his design with a few changes.

You can see right away that I did not have the Alpha Parts so I improvised by using the Alphabetical die for the letters and number.  I also added the tumbled glass distress glitter instead of the tarnished brash.

So fun that the chit chat stickers picked up the ink colors from the tag.

Closer look at my glittered 15.  The medallion is from the Paper Rosette die painted with distress inks.  My first intention was to use the Rosette for the numbers but it turned out to be the wrong scale for the tag so I just used the center medallion instead.  You can see that the medallion didn't quite cut right as I didn't have the paper lined up.  Instead of cutting another I just embraced it and now I really like the irregular feel of it.

Some more views of the tag.  Don't you just love all the layers!

This is one of those inspirational tags that I will display in the studio.  These words are a map to what I want 2015 to be.  The artsy, painterly feel of the tag just makes me happy.  Hope you like it too.

Products specific to my version of Tim's tag:

Distress Stain Sprays:  Pumice Stone, Forest Moss

Distress Paint:  Broken China, Iced Spruce, Antique Linen, Tarnished Brass, Brushed Pewter, Picket Fence

Pens:  Distress Marker-Black Soot, Sharpie Gold Metallic

Distress Glitter:  Tumbled Glass

Embellishments:  game spinner, jump rings, heart charm, ring fastener

Dies:  Paper Rosette (center medallion), alphabetical

Thank You so much for stopping by.  Happy Creating!

Hugs,  Sharon