Tags 7 & 8...

Spent today working on these 2 tags and really had a lot of fun
with them, I think I have got my mojo back! Above is day 7's
tag which was simple but so fun to do.
If you have not tried the Kraft Glassine yet you need to run out
and get some. I made flowers with mine unlike the greenery that
Tim showed in his example here. The background was a quick
technique although I guess I didn't read the directions until after
I had done part of it so I did not do the water spritzing before I
dried it. I really like the simplicity and style of this tag.

This is today's Steampunk style tag and I absolutely love all the
details involved in this one. There was a lot of steps involved
and this is really the first tag this year that I have mostly copied
from Tim. I have to admit that the reason I was able to copy it is
that I actually went out and bought this stamp set today (I did

use a 40% off coupon though!). Looking forward to seeing what

is in store tomorrow :)

Day 6 Tag...

So glad that I was able to finish this tag on the same day. It was a
fun new technique to try, for all the details go to Tim's blog.

It actually took quite a while to do this one as there was a lot of
waiting around for paint to dry and I had to keep going back
and forth from my craft desk to the room where my computer is.
I am glad that I am up to date now and glad this only took 1 attempt :)

Days 4 & 5 tags...

Well I finally finished yesterday's tag this evening, sensing a
pattern here :)  I did not have the dies that Tim had yet again,
to see what they were go here. I did just recently get the
house dies and cut out a heart shape from it. Not really
holiday-ish but I am improvising. This took time as I had
to wait a long time for all the crackle paint to dry.

This is the tag for today which again was a lot of improvisation. It
is about this time that I am kicking myself for not buying all of the
wonderful new products that Tim Holtz released this fall. Anyway,
I did not have the Holiday Reflections stamp but I had the first
Reflections stamp that he came out with. The technique for the
background was really cool, not sure I got it to work as well as
Tim did but I am very happy with it. Looking forward to see
what tomorrow's challenge will be for me :)

Day 3 Tag...

Finally finished this tag!! It is now Sunday and the Day 4 tag is up
but I have just finished day 3, aarghh! the pressure :)

My son is home from college this weekend and so I have been
trying to sneak in time to do these tags. This is my 3rd attempt at
this tag, just do not have all the supplies that Tim Holtz uses and
trying to adapt to what I had for this tag seemed so hard even
though it was a simpler tag. Well it is done, not 100% in love
with it but need to move on now. 

Day 2 Tag...

It is 8:20pm and I finally finished today's tag! I did not start until
late as I had to really think about how to do this tag without
having anything close to the die that Tim used. I reverted back to
a favourite of mine, the umbrella man, sorry if you recognize him
from previous tags :) For all the details on todays tag go to Tim's blog.

The colours did not show up too well due to the fact I took this at
night and the lighting is awful at night. I found a piece of cream
coloured seam binding to use as the trim and used one of the
Distress Stains to colour it.
This is a quick and easy way to colour your own ribbons, love this
idea, in fact I did it for yesterdays tag too!

12 Tags of Christmas...

Yes it is that time again already! Tim Holtz is doing his 12 Tags of
Christmas for 2011, you can read all about todays tag on his
website. This will be my 3rd year following along with this and
the photo is my take on Day No.1 today.

Just like last year I am not feeling the love for the first
tag, mainly because I have very few of the supplies
that Tim used this time and also last year. I do not do
a lot of holiday stuff in my art so buying all the dies he
uses is just not in my budget (especially now I have a child in college!).

I did have the embossing folder he used and the tattered banner
die too so had to improvise with everything else. I am not 100%
happy with it but it is done and I am looking forward to seeing
what he comes up with for tomorrow.

Bloom True & Be Bold...

This weekend I went to California to take the "Bloom True" class
with Flora Bowley. The 2 day workshop was hosted by the
fabulous Jenny Doh at her brand new location in Santa Ana,
California. She is lining up more fabulous art classes!!

What a wonderful experience this was, 17
women all learning how to be brave and be true and let go in their
painting. Flora started the day off by getting us all together and we
all shared what brought us there and what we wanted to get out
of the class.
After a little stretching and breathing we got to watch her demo
how to start out on our paintings. Throughout the day we did
various exercises on our canvases and had several other
demonstrations. It was a wonderful process and over the first day
our pieces changed dramatically.

Here is Flora working on her piece, this changed quite a lot over
the course of the weekend. She used this piece for all of her
demonstrations and even used it to show us how to fix what we
thought were mistakes, at one point she made everyone gasp
in horror as she put a huge splash of green paint over the face!

Here is how her piece ended up, well I think this is the final piece
but honestly I wasn't very good at taking photos as I was so
immersed in the painting process. It was a good feeling to be
so involved in the painting :)

Now this is a picture of one of my canvases, (we worked on 2),
after a couple of layers had been added to it. I had a very hard
time letting go at first but on the 2nd day of the class I was bold
and let go of the part of the painting I liked the most.
This was the wonderful thing that I got from the class, to be
bold and let go, to trust it would be ok and it was only paint!

This is how that canvas ended up, a totally different thing for me,
my friend Michelle who took this class with me was surprised at
how it turned out. I usually go with blues, greens and a dash of
purple in any of my art work, also doing an organic kind of shape
is unusual for me. I am still working on my 2nd canvas and I
know I will be able to make it into something wonderful.

Thanks Flora for a wonderful experience. I really appreciate
all of the help and advice you gave during the class. It is so 

great to take a class with a small group as we got a lot of

one on one advice and made some new art friends.