August's Tag

Well while I'm signed in I might as well as my August tag.  I found some where on the wonderful internet that Clown week or Clown day is in August and I bought the beautiful Le Cirque paper pack to do some layout about my Great Grandfather and decided to use it for my August Tag.  The other reason I did the Clowns and circus theme is because I hate to do what everyone else would do.  I like to go with the unexpected unless the expected is what inspires me. Like you'll see with next months tag.  And I really love how this tag came out and hope you enjoy it too.  I had to steal the picture from my friend Tabitha because I forgot to take a picture.  Only 4 more tags to go and I already have September and October done....But guess what I did...forgot to take picture so you will have to wait till Tabitha posts them for me in the group.  Oh well. Pin It Now!

July's Altered Tag

So here is my altered tag for July.  It seems these come to me in clusters.  Its nothing too fancy I just inked the background with Faded Denim and Fired Brick ink.  Then Embossed Fireworks in white.  I cut my main image out on the cricut with Child's Year.  Made a Rosette out of Tim's Holtz holiday paper pack (I got for $5 at Micheal's on clearance wooooowhoooo!!) Then added some tissue tape and Distress stickles (and regular stickles) and July that I welded and cut out on the cricut (and more stickle!).  Now I just need to sit down and duplicate June and July's tags for myself and I will have them done then on to August and September.

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June's Altered Tag

Front

Back

This tag has been staring me in the face for weeks now.  I had the men and the tag front sitting on my table along with the vintage truck.  I knew I want those element on the tag in some way but I wasn't sure how to get it the way I wanted.  So I just starting placing and pulling stuff to make a tag I was proud of.  So today I sat down and said to myself "You are going to finish this!"  and of course I did.  So here is what I basically did.  I started with a blank manila tag I stamped the background with one Tim Holtz's new stamp sets (I'm not sure the name of the set and I don't feel like walking to my craft room to figure it out.  Its the one with the stamp of the three men, which I also used).  I then took distress ink in Peeled Paint and Broken china and turn the manila tag green and blue. Then I made my June pattern paper using my calendar stamp set from CTMH and added peeled paint distress ink so it would match the tag.  The next thing I did was I color the truck Aged Mahogany (again with distress ink) and to tie it in with the rest of the tag I used a very light amount of the mahogany around the edge of the tag itself.  I then glued the strip of DCWV gear paper (which measures  3/4 inch)  and then my June paper (which measures 1/2 inch).  Then I set my men on the tag and decided it needed more so I went to my stamp collection and found a CTMH stamp set with a pocket watch and embossed it using copper embossing powder. I still thought it was too plain so I went off to my gypsy and looked through my Heritage cartridge and found the tree I used.  I cut it out on white paper and then used Vintage Photo and Walnut stain distress inks to color it (which I should have colored the paper first then cut it out).   I glued the tree down then Foam dotted my men in place.  So as you can see my truck ended up pushed to the back of my tag, so I used it like I wanted to but I just couldn't work it into the front.  I repeated a few techniques on the back.  I really like how it turned out.  Now I'm going to move on to July and hopefully I will share it very soon.

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A birthday gift, A Sympathy card and Alphabet atcs

So this past month had some different events that I needed to make stuff for.  First was my friend Lori's birthday.  I made her a card which for some reason I didn't photograph...oh well. Then I made her an altered cabinet card, which I altered with gesso, and green paint then added stamped images and diecut flowers (from my cricut), of course I used brads as my flower centers and some pretty lace to finish it off.  I also made her an altered tag which is pictured above.  I went with a bird theme for her art, I'm not sure why but when I think of Lori I think of birds.  I think she likes them I'm not sure where I get that idea from but it works. Who doesn't like birds. Then I made her a 4x4 again with the bird thing going on.  The big beautiful bird cage in the back ground and the pretty girls in the nest.  

Then a dear family friend's dog passed away and boy do I know how hard that is.  So I decided to make a simply sympathy card for them to let them know that they were in our thoughts.  Losing a pet is equal to a human being in my book.  My pets are my children.  I lost 3 beautiful ferrets last year for various illnesses and my best friend Buster.  It makes me sad just thinking about it, but I think Buster was the hardest.  I know it sounds  a little strange but through high school I cried on his shoulder all the time.  The best thing about him was how he just sat there and listened to me.  He was patient and kind and there will never be another Buster.  One of my girls does remind me of him sometimes just her mannerisms and sweetness, but she doesn't behave quite as well as he did, but I will move on...The card was cut out on the cricut.  I welded the image of the dog onto a circle card and then cut the "with Sympathy" on its own.  I love how much I have learned about my gyspy and cricut in the last month or so.  I'm becoming pretty good at making new stuff with it and I have been using my cricut soooo much more now.  I also made the envelope which I welded the paw print on to.  To make sure there was no problem when I mailed it I took a small piece of plastic from the packaging of a sticker sheet and packing taped it in place on the inside of the envelope before I folded it and glued it. 

Now last but not least are my M,N,O cards for my Alphabet atc swap in the vintage room.  I'm having a lot fun with these.  M is for Mirror, N is for Neighborhood, and O is for Oven mitt.  The oven mitt was done on my cricut.  The Neighborhood took me forever (and I decided to keep it) and the Mirror actually came to me pretty quickly.  I was surprised these are not my usual style as far as my atcs normally come out but I think that's okay sometimes.  Well that's all I have for now I'm sure I will be back soon with more to share. 

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How to create: My Easter Altered Tags

This is a step by step, or as close I can do to how I made my April Altered tags.  I did this one 3 times till I liked the final product.  I took two tags and put them through my cuttle bug in an embossing envelope.  I went with the Script because it was the most fitting to the theme of Easter.  Then I took my distress ink in Wild Honey and Scattered Straw and inked them using my blending tool.   

Next I took out my Close to my Heart egg stamp set (this was a stamp of the month last year I believe)

I pick a few eggs out that I liked and stamp them with Versa mark ink on white cardstock. 

 Took my chalks and a make up sponge and picked a few pastel colors.

 Then chalked them so they looked like the ones below.

Below are all the eggs finished

 I then cut them in strips cause I find them easier to cut with my little scissors that way. 

 Then Carefully cut around the images and then up them aside. (Boy do I wish I had a video camera with the stand so I can do videos instead of all this)

 Next I dug through the scrap bins and found two brown scraps of different tones and cut them into strips with my paper cutter.  I then did I simple basket weave that was wide enough for my tag and I eyeballed the height. 

 Every Easter basket needs grass right.  So I went the scrap bin again and found two scraps of green in different tones and cut them with my scissors into very thin strips. 

 To give mine the "grass" feel I balled them up in my hands. Creating this: 

 Next up I flipped my baskets over and added adhesive in a strip on top of the basket 

 I added the grass and then added more adhesive to glue them down.  Then I layered my eggs on the tag itself about were I want them so they would poke out over the grass and basket. Followed by gluing my basket in place on top of them. Then I did all the trimming around the edges that needed to be done.  After all that I cut two strips of white cardstock and stamped Happy Easter then scored and folded them, cut "v"s on either side to create the banner look.  After I glued them on I decided they looked blah so I added some purple Stickles around the edges.  I think the came out pretty cut. 

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A little Scrapbooking this weekend and some tags done

Full 2 page speard

Close up of first page

Close up of second page

Close up of title

May Tags Complete aside from tassels 

Well this past Sunday I had the girls over to craft (my bestie included) and we had a very productive day.  I completed this two page layout that I love.  I got some of my childhood pictures back awhile ago and I pulled these out and said to myself that I would scrapbook them before most of the rest.  I love the fun free color and lighting in the photos.  And the pictures of me playing with the balloon are just amazing and then of course my favorite is my Grandma Edith eating the cotton candy.  I wish I remember what the reason for the day was or a little bit of how it felt to be running around but I left it simple with just the title "Fun".  All the embellishments and papers are Sassafrass lass, the cardstock is all bazzill.  

Then I got my tags done for my Twelve tags of the year swap.  These are for May...So I now have January, February, March and May done.  I have an idea for April and its started but I have finished yet.  I also help my Best Friend Tabitha with her 12 cards for a swap at her Stampin up Stamp Camp and then another 24 for the teacher at her school (that I was going to scrap lift today but couldn't find the awesome stamp she used.  I left Micheal's so very disappointed today, with just 2 12x12 cricut mats and a couple pack of felt embellishments.  I HATE that Micheal's doesn't allow you to use a coupon on the cricut mats and don't understand why they don't when AC Moore does.  I keep trying to remember to go to AC Moore to get mats but its out of my way.  Then to top it all off I had to go get someone to open the case to get me the mats out...are you kidding me really are they in such high demand (and being shop lifted) that we must put them behind glass and a lock.  I understand the cartridges but the mats.  I should have walked out but I needed the mats, so I bit my tongue.

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March fairy tags

These tags didn't come as easily as my first two months.  But after a lot walking away and hard work I think they came out pretty cute.  I didn't go crazy with them just applied some ink with the blending to the tag and some other papers before diecuting them.  Paper pieced a rainbow, cut the little fairies out from a image sheet, colored their wings a different color that worked a little better with the tags as a whole with Smooch and embossed some shamrocks in white embossing powder.  

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Valentine's Day Altered Tag(s)

tags 1 and 2 side by side

Tag 1

Close up of the altered "Be mine"

Tag 2 close up

Back of tag 2

Back of tag 1

So I was inspired after completing my first tag for the Tag swap in the Vintage room, so I moved on to the next month already.  There are a lot of techniques used in this tag.  I started with a blank tag then I inked it (using the blending tool) using Tim Holtz distress inks (Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet, worn Lipstick).  After letting it dry I took heart shaped paper doilies and put it half on and half off the paper then sprayed with Brick Tattered angel glimmer mist, then lifted the heart leaving the pattern on the tag.  After letting that dry I put a light coat of Distress crackle paint (clear) over the whole thing.  I let it dry before layering stamped images in Vintage Photo distress ink and stickers.  The metal "Be Mine" embellishment was originally pink with would have went fine with what I was doing but I wanted it to stand out so I used Tim Holtz idea from this years twelve tags of Christmas and painted it with white paint then covering it with embossing power (white) then heat embossing.   I think it really makes the tag more eye catching.  At the end I added Glitter glue and some ribbon and altered pompom trim ( spray with Brick and Cupid pink glimmer mist).  Now I'm moving on to March already.   Pin It Now!

First of the 12 tags swaps for the year

So my group of friends at the Vintage Room are doing a swap similar to Tim Holtz's twelve tags of Christmas but instead of just Christmas we are doing 1 tag a month.  So here is my first tag I'm really excited on how it came out.  I'm already started on the second one.  It will be posted soon I'm sure. Pin It Now!