A Few Tags {how I spent Christmas Break}

 
So, having a 4 day weekend last week and having been feeling a little bored with the tags I found in the closet that have been being re-used I decided that since there were no looming deadlines of make this or make that right now going on, it was a good time to start a new pile of tags for next year. ( and I do not have a stash of C tags because, every time I do make one for Cortnie, I give it to her ha ha.) 

The large alphabets here are Altenew Mega Alphabet letters, they were cut twice on printed papers glued to blank cardstocks for some depth and stability. the just for you on the left is from a Sizzix tag set called tag with snowflakes. The No peeking tag is from Avery Elle. both of these tags the texture was done as Faux Patina. The Noel die is from Echo Park.

The tiny James tag was found in the bottom of the little basket that is holding these letter tags to be used and I decided to add it to this larger tag diecut that had been run through the bigshot with a embossing folder. The shipping tag has some Distress Oxide inks stamped direct on it with a Simon Says Stamp plaid making set and the letters in the name are from the Tim Holtz Alphanumetric set. The for you with love is from the Simon Says Stamp Joy for you set cut with a MFT jumbo fishtail banner die.

The C on the left is from the Pinkfresh Studio's Adore alphabet set, and the tag is from the Altenew Holiday tag set. The tag on the right is a re-habbed one. the largest snowflake was on a different tag, the shipping tag was sprayed with ink and the other layers of snowflakes came out of the bin of precut things and the letter is from the same Adore set. The sentiment is I think Tim Holtz on a Mama Elephant slim tag that I cut the end off with some pink shear deco scissors.

The tag on the left with the D that bird on the branch is Penny Black diecut called Perched. the tiny poinsettia came out of a spellbinders decorative frame set. The poinsettia ornament on the right is a Hero Arts die, they are both on Spellbinders "Shortie" tags, although I did trim the one on the left to make it more square. 

The embossing folder the two upright tags ( T&C ) is from Simon Says Stamp called Holiday Greenery. the skinny tags laying down are cut with a tag from the Sizzix Brenda Walton XL Library pocket die set. the round one in the center is something I cut with a Cricut when my mom first gave it to me, I cut pages of these round tags in this size and still have a stash of them. The sentiments here are all from that SSS joy for you set. 

The Ho Ho Ho here is an Impression Obsession die, the tiny poinsettias are from spellbinders and the larger one came pre made like that. The tiny snowflakes are also dies but, I lost track of which set they came out of.

The birdhouse one on the left was a tag that got re-habbed from the basket, the original version of that tag can be seen here. (scroll down a little bit) it really surprised me to see that post was from 7 years ago. Now the tag on the right is something I think really different for me, I did this one jump started by Ina's tag seen here. ( she is featured stamper this week at SCS)

I had this little snowman previously colored from when I received it as a gift from Unity stamps a long time ago its been waiting for an idea. The tree is from the reverse confetti set Holiday gnomes and was also previously colored and cut out just waiting. So, I cut the snowman out with some scissors and added some clear wink of stella to the banner he his holding and put foam pop dots behind him. the You'll never guess sentiment is from the Hero Arts Snarky Christmas messages set cut with a MFT stitched dome die, and the letter J is from the pinkfresh Adore alphabet set. And it is on a justrite tag that is really old. the main tag it self is from the Poppy stamps mainstreet pinpoint set and it was run through a tasteful textile folder from SU. 

Doing that, I had completely covered my table in bits and pieces and then hit the wall with the mess when things kept sliding off the piles to the floor and I spent hours cleaning up these left over things. but, the temptation is still there to make a few more maybe with different alphabet letter sizes. ( and preferably less mess ha ha) That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 604 {years end mug shots}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

I had some happy mail somewhere over the weekend and I opened this up as a reward for cleaning off the table ha ha.  January SSS kit came along with a couple things I had tossed in the cart with it ( the puppy in a quilt stamp and the warm hugs sentiment die )

to the left of the center, the bins that used to hold just tags, once again only hold tags and all the piles where you see plain plastic tabletop, they have been put away. I have not shot that S wine bottle tag as of yet, I may add more to it, the pieces under it were some scraps I was pushing around ( months ago) that were under all the other piles.

This bin used to be colored images ( towards the left, and scraps in the back towards the right) it is now ( no drop pieces, and the back towards the trimmer is handmade backgrounds) The two pads of red ink, one is old and one is new and now I have to figure out which is which as the older one is on the pretty dried out side.

before all this happened it kinda looked like this most of the Christmas weekend before the cleaning started.

I had about the amount of space those tags are in to create in, and I got tired of it and started cleaning on Sunday afternoon to end up at the levels of more organized that you seen in the first three shots. The fiber line did get installed from the pole and through the house on the 24th and we are now on the list for the splicer crew to bring the wi-fi boxes and router and turn it all on and so. ( tentatively set for Jan 8th) 

And although some of these alphabet tags will wait for the future, I actually have some gifts that will not go out for a few months as my son is deployed and his fiance is at a job site so, sending a box to their not home house was not really a smart idea, so. when I do get around to wrapping those things I will be ready.

And that's about it from me, I continue to haul the dry ice here as even though the vaccinating has started they are still testing lots of people daily ( for everything not just covid virus, so the need from the medical community for the dry ice is still high here) We are too rural for them to receive the Pfizer vaccine that needs the ultra cold storage, it's just the normal blocks that are used to ship tests out fortunately we can still get it, there was some worry there would be not enough with all that is needed for shipping/storing vaccines. So far so good. Continue to take care of yourselves and your families. Happy New Years! & Thanks for stopping by!

Inspired by {a collection of Doors}

                                     Hope you are all having a really good Christmas Weekend! 

Recently there was a free gift with purchase at Simon Says Stamp offer for this Tim Holtz Feathered Cardinal die, (so, you betcha I jumped at that and made a purchase ASAP to receive one ;) ) and then it came and I started cutting different colors of cardstock trying to figure it out. (in case you are wondering, we do not have this particular bird on the west coast so, I have never seen one in real life yet) and the packaging it looked a little like red & green to me, and I dismissed that right off the bat but, thought red & grey might work and then progressively ended up with the one in the lower left corner which is the one on the card below.

I 

I did add some Distress Oxide Barn Door, Candied Apple, Black Soot, to the diecut pieces and added a drop of Nuvo Carmel Cream for the eye.

The branch is a Poppy Stamps pine twig diecut that was cut from some left over watercolor paper that had green splatters on it and then I added some rustic wilderness and iced spruce to it and the My Favorite Things framed diecut also. The white texture is Snow Tex. This sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Joy for You set stamped with some brown Versafine and die cut with a Nellie Snellen oval die. The middle mat is a piece of recollections distressed green wood printed paper that I chose because, I had found this green door here seen on pinterest for the Inspiration destination this week chosen by Amy and then it was a little small on my A7 Base so, I added a second mat of some old Basic Grey print. You can find this Inspiration challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us and I am also cross linking this to the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge to celebrate (found here ) Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 603 {Christmas Eve Eve edition}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

So, this is what I came home to on Tuesday afternoon and below is how I walked away from it Tuesday night. over flowing trash bucket is even more full this morning ha ha.
 

 I had decided I needed to actually cut some of the Monograms for the gift tags in advance this time around. ( I finished wrapping yesterday lol) and I really could have used these a few days ago, so when I got the bulk of things off the glass mat I just started chopping up scraps with alphabet dies. the large ones are single dies from Altenew ( I dont have very many letters of that) and then the one you see to the right is from Ellen Hutson and the one in pieces that I am taping the back sides of contrasting ones together is from Pinkfresh studio's adore set.

So, that is about it from me. I hope this last few days before Christmas finds you well and I find my self feeling very hopeful about next year seeing all those people starting to be vaccinated the last few weeks. Have a blessed Christmas! & Thanks for stopping by, OOh more good news ahead, the fiber line guys are going to be doing the outside at the street part of the build on Christmas eve at my house, we are thrilled of course.

It's beginning to look like

 

I seen something somewhere, danged if I can find it again. but, there is someone out there who made kraft tags with this die and sheet music as the base of the tag, they had a lot of red and white and layers of diecuts and maybe fluffy snow and the colors grabbed my attention so, this was the beginning. The sheet music stamp is the background one from Stampin up using some versafine tulip red ink. I started cutting piles of foliage with strathmore watercolor paper, neenah solar white, some red scrap & PTI vellum cardstock from the Sizzix winter leaves set ( the vellum one with red stickles berries on the right), Concord & 9th stocking stuffers set ( pine sprig), Spellbinders Shapeabilies Joy ( tiny pine red sprigs), Impression Obsessions twig wreath has a pine sprig &  The tiny poinsettias are from the spellbinders holly frame set.

and it grew to this. the tag die is from Papertrey ink tag sale #4, the flowers are cut from watercolor paper as I had intended to color them red but, ended up changing my mind. I find it really hard to make nearly duplicate things so, these gift tags or gift card holders that go to work are on one hand interesting to do and a thing I find hard so, when there are so many after a while I start doing a little less to the pile so that I can actually finish them lol these photos were shot over a series of days actually. 

which morphed into this. The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Joy for you set stamped with some tulip red versafine and cut with a memory box stitched circle die. The ribbon is simple red grossgrain tied off with some natural hemp string as I have never been able to tie grosgrain and have it look good after I was excited to use up what I had of it. ( its the little things you know) :)

and finished like so for the work Christmas gift card holders going out with the payroll tomorrow, these were glued to white pocket things from paper accents. ( the pockets were big enough to hold gift cards they way they sell them now in all that excess cardboard) The name tag dies are from an old retired Justrite set that Spellbinders made for them called nested frame dies set. I just wrote on the kraft card with a white gel pen. There are some bisque liquid pearls inside the poinsettia diecuts. I cannot believe next week is Christmas, most of my Cards are sitting here waiting for me to address them and such. I do not know why I find that to be the hardest part, it would probably be easier if I made a big batch of very similar cards and there was not such hemming and hawing about who should receive which. That's my usual anyways since I make mostly one of a kind cards, its hard to decide and I put it off as long as possible. hope you are continuing to stay healthy & thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW #601 {messy background with loot on the side}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

This is what I came home to on Tuesday after work shot. I had started messing around with the technique lovers challenge on monday night that is ( link goes to the tutorial) Layered Gesso backgrounds. and I had to walk away and let them dry as this sheet started to get a hole in it before I quit on Monday night ha ha.

So, this is where things stood on monday night when I went to bed. the snowflake one will need lots more layers I think. the other smaller sheets are some Strathmore canvas paper that has a layer of gesso/acrylic paint on it as I had extra when I was done covering the mixed media paper sheets. 

On Tuesday after work I did end up finishing these into simple cards leaving the background alone. Every time I do this I think to my self it would be great to have more color choices or what not but, the whole opening the pots and finding them dry thing gets old over the years. I am going to try actual modeling paste next I think. ( instead of the fancy colored pastes by the paper crafting lines for smooshing through stencils) the hope is that if I get a small jar maybe I can use it up before it becomes a rock. The TH holly stems were cut from watercolor paper a while ago and have watercolors on them. the sentiments are a pre printed strip from SSS and a sticker from TH.

Last weekend I did receive this happy mail from Kat Scrappiness in Washington as they were one of the super sponsors from the recent coffee lovers blog hop where I won a gift card to the store and it took me a while to narrow down what I wanted to play with. So, that is about it from me. Hopefully someday we will have real internet at home and I will try to do the zoom play along next time that happens. I hope you are all continuing to do well and thanks for stopping by.
 

A few Christmas Cards

 

Memory Box Silverdale diecut watercolored paired with a Essentials by Ellen Tis the season sentiments.

This is a single Magenta stamp (very old) that was colored with some pencils and gel pens.for a recent color combo challenge at SCS. There is no sentiment on it.

Just something silly from Tim Holtz snarky cats line.

Recently the featured stamper was one of the newest dirty girls, And I really loved ever single detail in this beauty by Melissa and tried to do a version of it.

The slimline Lets get merry from Unity Stamps was something I seen somewhere maybe during a recent coffee hop, maybe during fallidays so, when I placed an order with them during their big sale in November this has been the first stamp colored up from that haul. The sentiment here is from Hero Arts 2020 Oct. kit.

last week the watercolor wednesday challenge was to watercolor a snowman card after watching a how-to youtube video. and so I did. ( someone should pinch me) I really enjoyed this.

This sentiment here is from the Ornamental pines set from Stamping up and the diecuts are Memory Box Reds & greens watercolored.

Now this little holly stamp was also in the big box of old Magenta Christmas stamps found on ebay last month and it was stamped 4 times on some scrap of PTI aqua cardstock and I added some red glitter glue thinking I was going to use these on tags but, when I cut them out and started pushing them around I thought they didn't look half bad as a window type block so, that's what happened here. 

 

 Now this the mix challenge last week was to do a Christmas card with non traditional colors so the Colorado Craft co. slimline poinsettias were stamped direct to the woodgrain print with purple versafine and then again on some strathmore wateroclor paper. ( I cut these out with scissors) and the sparkle is from some gelly roll pen, nuvo drops and there is a bit of polychromos & prisma pencils as shading.

 tried to catch the sparkle but, it was not happening.

This diecut has been on the table for a year. yeah, you read that right and I kept putting it on things and lifting it off every so often and one day I thought what if you traced around with some white to POP the detailing a little. ( sentiment is from SU)

There was a ways to use it challenge for including lots of dots. So this little gal is from the Trinity Stamps line and the sentiment is from The my favorite things coffee break set.

a closer look at the coloring.

this was just a messing around card, the Hero Arts circle of snowflakes was heat embossed directly to the card front and then the Sizzix & spellbinders diecuts were just layered over it. there is a bit of nuvo simply white dropped along the diecuts for a little more texture. the sentiment here is from Mama Elephants holiday messages set.

There was a Free for all to do a funny Christmas card. and I had this misletoe already watercolored on the table and thought this sentiment would play well with it.

Decided this one was even funnier but, did not put it in the gallery for that challenge. The gnome Santa is from Photoplay and the sentiment is from Riley & Co.

Now this, is a story. I have a lady who was one of th efirst people who drives you know 30 some odd miles to attend the craft fair where I have a booth at the school ( years ago) she was one of the first people who bought several bags of cards after lingering over the display for a long time and we talked about cards a bit, and every year she comes by and does it again. and she is retired from playing the Cello in an orchestra and every so often she would say do you have a cello stamp. (and I did not) but, I found this old Penny Black one on ebay last year and colored this up for her. ( she is going to frame it)

recently the Inspiration challenge went to the traditions store where I found a girl hugging a reindeer that made me think of this stamp. and then when I went back to cross link them when the challenge went live I could not find it again but, I found this one that was close... and I just used this link but, seeing the girl giving love to the reindeer I knew I had this silly sentiment about puppies and decided it would work. quite a few of the Christmas cards I sell tend to be on the silly side.

These were done because, I had recently colored one of these trees for a tag making challenge and I had cut 4 trees actually and only made one card. so, I received the Simon Says Stamp Joyful season stamps in the dec. card kit and I just love this so, I really wanted to just let the sentiment shine and kept them simple. I did add some nuvo drops to the tree line like snow.

Just something silly, the cats from Tim Holtz snarky cat line and the sentiment is from Riley & co.

another Photoplay santa with a Hero Arts Oct 2020 kit sentiment.

Unity Stamps lets get merry and Oct 2020 Hero Arts kit. in a 4X9 slimline with just tracing the petals with a pencil. I like the watercolored petals version better actually.

This is an old stamp from Stamps Happen colored with some pencils and a gellyroll pen for shimmer.

This is an old PSX stamp that I found on ebay last spring with another old Christmas stamp, I just love coloring these so its fun when you can find a new one to add to the stash of things to color. ( I still have never colored in any of the coloring books I have for adults.) funny eh. Hero Arts sentiment ( 2020 Oct kit)

now this I really thought the star kind of looked like carved old wood when it was done, I may do some more of these. its a Sizzix primitive star die that comes with an embossing folder done with cream paper and a kraft ish colored tombo marker. The sentiment is from Mama Elephants Merry Christmas wishes set.

Ooh I fell deeply off the cliff when Anita Jerams art became stamps through Colorado Craft Co. this fall, ( I have picked up just about every.single.set) and this is the first one that has been colored so far. Its paired with a My Favorite Things Sassy Pants holiday sentiment because, it just made me laugh. I cannot remember who makes that either die or punch for the photocorners. ( they are one of the first things I ever cut up scraps with and I have tiny baggies of them in the color embellishment boxes but, not once did I ever write on a bag what tool made them ha ha) And that's about it from me for now, I do have more cards I want to do and tags to share but, there is just not enough time in the day kwim? Thanks for stopping by.