tim tag mania #4

welcome back authentique fans!suburbngypsy here with inspiration for the holiday season and beyond. today i'm going to introduce just one of the many techniques i used for this tag. upcoming blogs will highlight others including using "acrylic paint dabbers" to create a release, and creating gilt leaves with "glycerine paper".

so are you ready gypsies? well then away we go!

it's been an amazingly creative month. so many company challenges, so many incredible blog hops. and what would the season be without tim's "12 tags of christmas". after totally immersing myself in craftiness, i started to try putting everything i'd seen and learned into some sort of order. and i found myself wondering what would happen when i took two inspiring techniques and put them together. the result? tiny crystal roses!

these delicate little beauties are made with our "wonder" collection, but any of our papers would do. the heavier the paper the better the results, and the more white on the paper the more translucent your flower.

these first steps are inspired by tag #10 from tim holtz's "12 tags of christmas"

the first thing you need is some very clear packing tape - yep! packing tape. and some paper - for these i used pieces from our "wonder" collection..

adhere the tape to your paper, burnish it down, then cut it out.

next dip the strip in very warm water. the warmer the water, the easier the next step is.

once the strip is completely wet, take it out and turn it over so the paper side is facing up. then rub rub rub away the paper. keep rubbing until no paper is left on the tape - you'll have an imprint left from the ink though, that creates a translucent strip.

pat the strip dry with a paper towel - don't use a heat gun! once dry, take a second piece of packing tape and tape the backside of the strip, creating a two-sided glossy strip of translucent paper.

now we're ready to make the roses. this is inspired by christina colon at the twisted muse.

next, cut 2" squares, then cut each square down to a circle. you can use a punch, but hand cutting will give your rose a more organic look. take your circles and cut them into spirals, leaving a round circle in the center.

now use tweezers, and starting at the end, twirl the paper around the tweezer tip. you'll see the paper curl into a cone shape, and once you've reached that little circle you left in the center, stop and pull the paper cone off the tweezers. keeping a good hold on the cone, let it open up and relax a little so you can see the "petals" start to form. use the tweezers and your fingers to loosen or tighten the layers. once you're close to a shape your like, dab a little hot glue on the circle you left at the end of your spiral, and press the flower gently onto it. you can continue to shape the petals while the glue sets.

 

once the hot glue has set, the final touch comes by applying a little bit of glossy accent along the edges of the petals, and dipping the flower in diamond dust.

by creating your own transparent "paper", the roses become luminous in a way paper can't match. you can vary the roses - buds to full blooms - by playing with how tightly you wrap the spirals. you can also play with the size of the petals by how thickly you cut your spiral - the wider the spiral the bigger the petals.

i hope you enjoyed today's technique tutorial. the tag i created to highlight the crystal roses is a compilation of lots of techniques - too many for one blog! so be sure to come back on december 22 for the "gilt leaves" tutorial!

materials used
"wonder" - authentique papers
glossy accents
diamond dust
special thanks to tim holtz and christina colon for their inspiring work.

tim tag mania #3

hello gypsies!
well tim may have wrapped up his 12 tags of christmas, but that doesn't mean the fun has to stop! presenting...tag #3! this one is inspired by techniques from a couple of tim's tags this year. so are you ready? well hold onto your sleigh bells 'cause here we go!

so the inspiration for tag #3 came from

tag #10 "believe letters"

and tag #8 - background

and tag #6 - rugged metal

so i created the rugged metal following tim's technique. first i used a texture folder on a piece of crafting metal and ran it through the sizzix. the i gently painted over the embossed metal with a "snow cap" paint dabber. once the paint dried i lightly sanded it and then rubbed "walnut stain" over the surface and around the edges to create a vintage patina. final touch was to sprinkle embossing powder over the whole piece and hit it with the heat gun to seal in the ink and add a shiny finish.

next i cut letters to spell "i believe" from idea-ology "alpha parts" and dabbed them with the "gold" metallic paint dabber. after the paint dried i covered each letter with a thick layer of glossy accent and set them aside to dry.

to create the background of the tag i first stamped it a couple of times with a stamp covered in "snow cap" acrylic paint. the paint creates a resist for step 2 - dying the paper. to do that, i dribbled distress stain directly onto my craft mat, spritzed the tag with water and swirled it around in the distress stain. i used a heat gun to speed up the dry time because it was so exciting!

once all of the separate elements were dry, i assembled the tag. note the santa face embossed on my "homemade" kraft paper, and the tissue tape banner. the ribbons and lace are all dyed using distress ink pads - tim's seasonal color set was great! i sanded the finish off the "believe" washer to brighten it up, and finished the tag off with a bell, ala "the polar express", because i believe!

coming soon - steampunk xmas! and a happy elf for giving!

tim tag mania #2

welcome back gypsies! day two/tag two. i was very inspired by this tag from tim

 

now, the tag itself didn't do much for me. in fact i refer to it as the "license plate tag" - sorry tim!

but the technique is what turned me on and inspired me to create this -

i was really stoked when i figured out how to do this. so are you ready gypsies? then away we go!

i created the tag itself by cutting it out of a sheet of metal, using tim's big tag die. 

one trip through the sizzix and we were ready for action. 

then i cut a bunch of leaves out of chipboard - tim's leaf die of course - and arranged them on the backside of the metal tag. then i sandwiched everyone together with cutting pads, and one trip through the sizzix!

leaving the leaves in place i then burnished around the edges with one of those big paper "thumbs" to really sharpen the edges.

then i broke out the alcohol inks and painted the leaves. i used a paint dabber on the background then rubbed it off and burnished it. next i used a point to create the veining down the centers. the final step was applying glossy accent and diamond dust to the leaf edges.

while the tag dried, i took those chipboard leaves i used to emboss the tag, and saturated them with "pine needles" distress stain. after they dried i sanded the edges and then rubbed them with "walnut stain" distress ink, using the sponge blending tool. the final effect was distressed layers of colors. final snowy touches of white paint dabber and the leaves were good to go. 

but i had too many leaves, so i cut the stems down and part of the leaf off, and ta-daah! instant tiny trees!

i also played with embossing and created the ticket and lightpost - tim stamps of course. for these i actually did the embossing on white cardstock, then rubbed "walnut stain" distress ink over the paper to create a subtle kraft paper. and of course i inked the edges after cutting them out.

final touches included velvet ribbon "berries" - tie a tiny knot then cut very close so there's no ribbon hanging out. some more ribbon and trims and we're done!

i really enjoyed this tag - thanks for the inspiration tim! or should i say, "timspiration"?

materials used

metal - 10 seconds studio

"tattered leaf" and "tag" dies - alterations, sizzix

"walnut stain" - distress ink pad

"pine needles" - distress stain

"snow cap" and "espresso" acrylic paint dabbers

tim tag mania! #1

so it's xmas, and evidently that means that tim holtz creates his "12 tags of christmas", and everyone else goes crazy. it's really amazing to watch. every day mario rossi starts tweeting behind the scenes shots and commentaries on that day's tag. we get peeks and teasers of what the tag will look like, and we build up to the big reveal at midnight. people challenge each other to post first on the tim blog, and this year we're able to post our own tags on tim's blog, to show off our own inspired spin on his idea.

it's a friggin party every night!

i didn't realize how crazy devoted tim fans are, and since i'm one of them, i think it only fair that i coin a new "gypsy jargon".

timaniacs - n. a person who stays up until midnight to get the first look at a tim tag, after spending several hours following on twitter, making shopping lists for the next day, and trying to be the first to post a comment when the tag goes live at midnight.

bonus jargon:

timania - n. state of being one with the timaniacs

i'm not saying i do all those things....ok, maybe i am just a little.

so in the spirit of timania i am starting my own set of tim inspired tags. i'm not doing a literal one-for-one, but rather creating tags that might be inspired by techniques from a couple of tim's tags. so are you ready gypsies? well here we go!

timaniac tag #1 - inspired by tim's day #1 tag

and it's inspired by...

so my first decision was to not copy the tag, as copying is boring

 so, i started off with one of my newest and most fun techniques - i made sweater letters out of the "noel". for those of you who visited during my "so knotty" tutorials, you'll remember my sweater letters, and i hope you're as excited as i am with the result.

next i added my other favorite new technique - homemade icicles

then i created some paper flowers from tim's cool tape. next i die cut some leaves and then crumpled and inked them for extra gypsiness.

final bits were the reindeer, which cut from a ribbon of them, and the lace at the bottom that i misted with water and then inked with "walnut stain" distress ink. some dabs of gold stickles and we're almost done!

to finish off the tag, i misted and inked some plain white ribbon with "iced spruce" and "festive berries", added some twine and sparkle charms and tied everything together around a glittered twig i stole from a decoration  found around the house.

i really had a lot of fun with this one, and i hope you're now inspired to try your own tag! don't forget to join the party on twitter tonight as we all await tim's #8 tag. and come back tomorrow for my timspired tag #2!

materials used:

"wonder" collection paper - authentique

"maraccinno" twine - the twinery

"iced spruce" and "festive berries" inks - tim's seasonal ink set

tim tape, bits and pieces, this and that

caffeine - starbucks