Say it with Words at A Vintage Journey

The lovely and talented Alison (butterfly) is our host this week at A Vintage Journey and not surprisingly, Alison has chosen 'Say it with Words'.  In Alison's own words:

Tim Holtz makes it so easy to "say it with words".  You could use one of the many fantastic sentiment stamps, or ChitChat stickers, AlphaParts, Grungeboard lettering (either pre-cut, or using the fabulous WordPlay die), or any of the other alphabet stamps or dies you can think of, or all of them together!  Whatever you pick, let the words be at the heart of your project.

Our regular Sponsor, Country View Crafts are offering a £10 voucher to the winner, who will be chosen by the Creative Guides (DT).  CVC details are on my sidebar.  We would love to see your entries to Alison's challenge and would ask that you read our challenge requirements, to ensure your entry is considered for the prize.

For my project this fortnight I wanted to use some new dies, namely my enjoy the journey strip die and my umbrella man die and also one of Tim's latest stencils - Speckles.  To use so much I knew I needed to use a very large tag and so I have used a No. 12 tag - they are certainly large!

I cut about 1 cm off the tag, all around and reshaped the top corners.  I used Broken China and Gathered Twigs Distress Stain 'smooshed' onto my craft mat and dragged the tag through, drying after each drag through until I was happy with the look.  I gave the same treatment to a No. 5 tag which I wanted to use as a topper.  After distressing the edges of both tags, they were edged first with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and then again with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I cut off a section from the bottom of the tag, distressed the raw edges and punched four holes in each so that I could make a hanging part with some Tim Holtz Idea-ology rings.  I die cut the 'enjoy the journey' from the Stacked Artful Words strip die.  Umbrella man was cut from black card and then he was stamped in Picket Fence Distress Stain using a script stamp from Tim's Shabby French stamp set.  Whilst he was drying I stamped  the beautiful swirl stamp from the Shabby French set onto the bottom of the tag and also to the hinged section, using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  Stamping in the DI gives a much softer look.

 Umbrella man needed to be 'grounded' so I added some tissue tape under his feet and in a couple of other places on the tag.

The Life quote from the Good Thoughts set was stamped onto the No. 5 tag with Ranger Black Archival ink.  After assembling the tag I added some of Tim's natural ribbon to the top of each tag. 

It would be wonderful if you could join us at A Vintage Journey, thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you all soon.  Hugs, Anne xx

Tim's Tag August 2013

Hello Blog Friends

It is that time again, Tim has done four tags this month which you can see HERE.  For once, I actually had two sets of the stamps he used, but for those who follow me regularly, you will know that I am totally obsessed with the Chemist set of stamps, see here and here to see how I used it, so I just had to include him. I have made two tags, as you can see here (click on the photos for a better view):

I won't go into too much detail as I basically followed Tim's tutorial and did lots of masking.  The tag on the left represents a wonderful holiday we had in Canada a few years ago, when we went on a fabulous steam train journey in British Columbia.  It is one holiday we would love to repeat over and over - nothing exotic or tropical for us!  The word band says 'Enjoy the Journey' - we certainly did.  The base is coloured with Broken China and Frayed Burlap Distress Stains.

For my chemist (have I said how much I love this stamp set?) I used Tea Dye and Broken China Distress Stains.  This set is ideal for masking, the stamps are quite large.  The word band says 'life is about creating yourself' - I have visions of a mad chemist trying to re-create another being in his laboratory..... is that better or worse than selling arsenic to a lovely steampunk lady?  I think it will be an ideal stamp set for Halloween creations.  I know he does not really fit the - where would you love to travel to theme - but Tim did say we could just use stamps that are our current favourites  - this is certainly my current favourite.

But I didn't stop there, I created two more tags because I was enjoying rediscovering masking so much.

I was not quite so happy with these, the butterfly one does not really show off the masking as well as I would like and I think the airplane one is perhaps a bit too bright, although I made sure the airplane was flying over North America to represent our visit to Canada again.  Still, the tags will not be wasted.....

I can't wait to see what Tim comes up with us for next month. I really hope he enjoys his trip to the UK this week too and that he will keep coming back again and again (please!).  Just sorry I will not be there this time but hopefully friends say hello for me and will take lots of photos and I will be watching Mario's BTS.

Thanks so much for looking!  Take care and I hope you are enjoying some crafty time.  Big hugs, Anne xx