Playing with new Tim Holtz CHA 2013 dies

Hello Everyone

A huge welcome to my latest followers, it is a pleasure to have your company!

I have had some new Tim Holtz Winter CHA released dies for a few days now and just wanted to have a play with them.

The dies are the Movers and Shapers  Mini Clipboard Top and Bottom die and the Bigz Picture Wheel die.

Had I not seen a video of Tim Holtz using the Mini Clipboard die I would not have known how to use it, in fact when I first cut the die out I thought that my machine had not cut through properly - but it cut exactly how it is meant to cut and I will show this a little later.

I made this tag, to incorporate both dies.  As a child my Mum and Dad had a very old view-finder which used a picture wheel and so this new die brought back those memories for me.  I found some mini photographs at Craftwork Cards and they were a perfect fit for the picture wheel. If you click on the picture you will get a better look at the photos.

The picture wheel is cut from TH Grunge paper which I distressed with Picket Fence Distress Stain and then randomly coloured with Brushed Corduroy and Gathered Twigs Distress Inks.  I touched the photos here and there with the same colours to give them a more aged look.

The base tag is a No. 10 tag which I have embossed with a TH Sizzix die.  I did the top first and then put the bottom in again - this is a great embossing folder for doing this without leaving a line across where the join is.

The embossed base was then aged using Antique Linen, Gathered Twigs and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks.

The words Remember and Vintage were added with black embossing paste through a Wendy Vecchi stencil. Wendy's stencils are amazing and so easy to use.

I cut out a topper for my tag using the Mini Clipboard Top and Bottom die.  As you can see from the photo on the left (I have put arrows) the die does not actually cut out where the arrows are indicating at the top and the bottom.  This makes it ideal for mounting items such as gift cards.  I have never seen anything like this before and I just love it!  You can space the dies as close or as far as you want, or, as I did with my finished tag, miss out the bottom piece altogether.

I embossed my cut out piece using a harlequin pattern embossing folder and coloured it using Gathered Twigs and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks and used Brushed Pewter Distress Stain to colour the 'clip' element.

I trimmed the top of the topper so that the clip element was more prominent as you can see in this photo.  I really does look like a proper clip on a clip board.

This close-up also gives you a better look at the tiny photos I have attached to the Picture Wheel.

To finish the tag I coloured some vintage ribbon with Gathered Twigs Distress Stain placed directly onto my craft mat, spritzed with water and then the ribbon was dragged through it and then dried with my heat gun.

The Cherish token is a TH Idea-ology one and I coloured it silver with Brushed Pewter DS to match the clip.

I did make quite a mess when I made my tag, with the Distress inks on all the pieces, dying the ribbon and using the embossing paste (I am fairly new at this and always make a mess!) so I am entering this in Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge this week where the theme is Something'Messy'.  It does not have to be messy as a project but just messy getting there! There is a great prize of $50 on offer for a randomly selected individual and also a top three will be chosen from the entries.


I really enjoyed having a play with these new dies and I am looking forward to seeing what other people do with them.  In the meantime I hope you like my effort.  Thank you so much for visiting me, I hope you will leave me a comment and if you are new then I hope you will leave a link so that I can return the compliment.  Hugs, Anne x