12 Tags of Christmas, Day 4

Have you been following Tim's Tags? I have to say, this is my favorite tag so far-but it was definantly the most time consuming one that I have done!

Here is Tim's Tag:

And here is mine:

There were ALOT of steps in this tag :-) I only have 2 Distress Stains, So I used Distress Ink (Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans) which I rubbed in different spots on wax paper, then homemade marshmallow shimmer mist, Sapphire and Sea Glass Glimmer Mist which I misted onto the wax paper and rubbed the tag through, adding more as needed, then misted the whole tag with my marshmallow mist.I partially dried with my heat gun, then left it alone for a while to finish drying while I worked on the other stuff. After it was dry, I stamped various snowflakes from several different sets in a random fashion with the Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans, and Chipped Sapphire Distress inks. I stamped a flourish in Moonlight White Momento Ink up in the upper right hand corner, cut a snowflake edge that I designed in Sure Cuts Alot to look similar to Tim's, which I dabbed with a Pearl Adirondack Paint Dabber. I cut the snowflake and snowman out of chipboard with my Cricut, Deep Cut Blade, and Winter Woodlands cartridge. I cut out the "25" from a little piece of Christmas sheet music from Tim Holtz's Seasonal Paper Stash, also using the Winter Woodlands cartridge with the font set on blackout. I coated the snowman and snowflake with my pearl paint dabber first, dried with my heat gun, then coated with Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint. I had to let this dry on its own. I then coated the "25" with Glossy Accents and let it dry again. I misted the snowflake with Sapphire and Sea Glass Glimmer mist, then wiped it off. I added 3 clear/white/greenish buttons tied with tulle, tied a tulle and shabby seam binding "scarf" around the snowman, added some pearls and rhinestones to his hat, along with a tiny feather. I tied the tag with more tulle and shabby seam binding, adding a "joy" charm and a snowflake button at the top for decoration, and topped the die cut snowflake off with Stickles.
 I am linking this tag up with the Simon Says Stamp Challenge of "Anything Goes", and the Sir StampAlot Challenge Bingo :Pearls, Stickles, Ribbon

Family...

I love my family more than anything else!And I rarely get to scrap photos that I am in, so it was so much fun to scrap this one of my brother,sisters, and me. I was inspired by a couple of challenges for this page: A sketch (#172) from Creative Scrappers, and the challenge from The Paper Variety to "make a monochromatic creation using your favorite color"- my favorite color is blue of all shades (aqua, navy, sea blue, periwinkle (my wedding colors were periwinkle and white), teal, sky....I could go on and on...

This is the way I do monochromatic-a few different shades of the color I am using, mixed in and tempered with a good bit of neutrals (kraft, cream, and black in this case):

Supplies used for this layout:

Lily Bee Designs This&That "Milk Bottle" patterned cardstock,Lily Bee This&That banner stickers, ZVA cream pearl flourish, handmade blue houndstooth (made with Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Uptown Houndstooth digi paper) flower, a sky blue glittered cardstock punchout border from Colorbok's Flea Market Punchout pad, American Crafts puffy black Thickers, scraps of cream shimmer and kraft cardstock, pale aqua pearls from the wedding section at Hobby Lobby, and an ANCIENT quote from one of those DCWV vellum quote stacks (this was one of my earlier scrapbooking obsessions-I loved those stacks-not that I used them much ;-p  ). I mounted the quote on another scrap of the cream shimmer cardstock and inked the edges with Tim Holtz Sapphire Distress Ink, and attached it with pop dots to make it stand out.

Handmade Flower Mini Tutorial:

Here is a closer look at my handmade flower:

For this flower, I first printed out this paper from my Counterfeit digi kit:

I printed it out on 8 1/2 by 11 white cardstock first, then I cut out the 6 pt flower on the Mother's Day Bouquet Cricut Cartridge (last flower on the right, third row down) in several different sizes, starting at 2 3/4, and then stepping down a quarter inch at a time, with the exception of the last one, which is 1/2 to 3/4 smaller than the previous layer. I misted each layer of petals with Sea Glass and Turquoise Glimmer Mist, and then dried with my heat embossing tool. I scrunched and shaped the petals with my fingers (another idea would be to use an icepick or pencil), then glued them on top of one another, offsetting the petals, with my trusty hot glue gun. I put Crystal Stickles on a paintbrush and dabbed it on the edges of the petals and left the flowers alone to dry over night. I really do have to say, this is such a fun way to use those digi papers that you are hoarding!! Try it out-you can even flip the paper over and print on the other side for your own double sided paper!

More layouts for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge :

You may have seen the first page that I am sharing with you today on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, since it was my submission for the "Food Inspiration Challenge"- and yes, I do realize that it is stretching it a bit to call gumballs "food", but I had the precious photo of my son and his grandma who he was extremely close to before she passed away, and I have had the idea for the page swimming around in my head for a while, so I was happy to put it together finally.  

Counterfeit Layout # 6:

I used pretty much only supplies from my Counterfeit Kit for April: GCD Studios Patterned cardstock, Echo park patterned paper (teal dots),yellow Cardstock, Echo Park title, journaling spot,balloons, orange cardstock scalloped border sticker, and added a birthday mini banner from my stash. I cut the gumball machine with my Sweethearts Cricut cartridge, and added a silver mini brad, a red mini heart shaped button, and Glossy Accents for the "glass globe".

Close-up of the "gumball machine":

I was inspired for this layout by this sketch by Sketch Inspirations:
Sketch 214:

Layout #7 with my Counterfeit Kit:
( I must admit that this is my favorite one done with my kit so far this month!)

 The lovely patterned paper background is the Webster's Pages "Underwater Oasis" from my kit, which I painted in the center with a gold Shimmerz Blingz, and added some of the brown swirl patterned paper to the center to "ground" the photos, then added a journaling tag to the center-one of the K&Co tags from my kit , which I painted with Ranger white crackle paint, then sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists in a couple of shades of teal, and tied with a sheer turquoise ribbon. I then scattered Primas with mini brad centers, a chipboard flower that was inked and painted and embellished with a rhinestone in the center, another chipboard flower that I turned into a starfish with crackle paint and pink inking on the edges, a tiny felt sandollar that was handmade by me, a couple of the gorgeous feathers from my kit,  a few of the tiny silk baby's breath, and a glittered (the turquoise glitter was in my kit, too) Prima flower, and a green glitter butterfly that was embellished with tiny pearls.

Close-ups Of My Flowers and Embellishments:

 This layout was inspired by this sketch from Twisted Sketches:

Sketch# 95:

February Counterfeit Kit

I had soooo much fun playing along with the Counterfeit Kit Club blog last month, so I couldn't wait to see what they had for us this month! They didn't disappoint! The kit they chose to scraplift this month was an awesome kit from Scraps Of Darkness kit club, shown below:
The first thing I thought when I saw this kit was, "Very French, very sexy, and a little, well, dark." Not exactly my normal style, but gorgeous, and I want to push my creative boundaries, so I made a kit as similar as I could, and even made my own version of all of the add on kits from my stash:
My February Counterfeit Kit:


Kit contents:
Making Memories Red Glitter Love Notes
SEI Chocolat Noisette (2) , Eclair
Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses Starry Night, Berry Frost
Teresa Collins Damask Invitation and Damask Decor
Creative Imaginations die cut flourished paper
GCD Studios Paris Nights Collection Black shimmer with cream polka dots(2), Vintage parisian collage
Bazzill Wild Pansy Diamond Print Glazed cardstock
3 printed digipapers:
Red Uptown Houndstooth from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff from MyGraphico
Hearts and Diamonds from Family Game Night Papers from Design House Digital
Argyle Print from Jessica Sprague Echoes of Asia kit (was green, I played with it in Photoshop)
decorative vintage pins that I received in a swap
Spare Parts gemstone flower brads
2 ANCIENT red leather photo corners from Making Memories
pink twine
Prima Say It In Crystals
Prima pink and black Crystal Flowers
2 ZVA Creative flourishes (pink and lavendar)
1 light green Prima flower
Basic Grey Painted Brads
With Charm mini golden frame
Doodlebug rub-on letters (partial pack)
Anna Griffin Peyton Collection journal tags
American Crafts Remarks journaling sticker books
1 vintage ephemera french receipt
black tulle
black grosgrain ribbon
small pink and white flowers



A close up of my patterned papers:


My Cardstock Add-on kit: ( I ran out of cardstock very early last month, so I needed some more this month!)So here is my cardstock list:
SEI Chocolat Raisine, Rose (1 each)
2 Wasau White with silver shimmer
1 Bazzill burgundy Swiss Dots
2 Bazzill ?blueberry?
1 Paper Studio textured burgundy cardstock
2 Bazzill pale lavendar
2 Bazzill light pink
2 Walmart black

My Romance Add-On Kit:
Thickers Tiara Accents Glitter Shapes
Thickers Sprinkles white glitter chipboard letters
Making Memories Garden Party shimmer letter stickers partial sheet
Maya Road Cherry Blossoms rub-ons
ZVA Creative flourishes
Jenni Bowlin Journaling Cards
Tim Holtz Grungeboard shapes
Basic Grey Undressed chipboard shapes
assortment of seam binding and trims-pink, red, and lavendar
Pink Heidi Swapp Felt Butterflies
Making Memories Vintage Findings medium kit-"Love"

My Color Add-On Kit: I made my own Glimmer Glams for some of these colors:
Crimson, Silvery Onyx, Concrete shimmer, Hot Lips hot pink sparkle, Ruby Shimmerz, Homemade dark Cherry Shimmer, Homemade Plum Crazy shimmer, Pink Sparkles puffy paint, Pink, Lavendar, and Denim Distressed Stickles, Silver Making Memories paint(if yours are sort of dried out like mine, you can add a bit of warm water and shake really well to get them flowing again),Rose Tea Glimmer Mist, and Tim Holtz Picket Fence Crackle paint. I plan to make some stencils/misting screens with my Cricut, and I will share those when I am finished!

This was so much fun to put together, and I cant wait to make some decorative pebbles, flourished heart and masks, and maybe turn some of that Grungeboard and chipboard into faux metal accents! And make pages and cards too, of course! And of course I'll share it all here when I do it!

I Vant To Drink Your Blood...

Cackle,cackle! And, guess what...it's another way to use my favorite stamp set! I promise, I'll try to move on to another set next week, but I just wanted to show one more way to use this awesome set! I used a black shimmer cardstock for the background, cut a scalloped square with my Winter Woodland Cricut cartridge on Fit to Page, using GCD Studios Paris Nights flocked cardstock. Then, a smaller square of GCD Studios Paris Nights cardstock, a shimmer this time, inked the edges with red ink, and dripped Candy Apple Red Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to look like blood, then mounted a photo of my son drinking "blood punch" from a skull cup on Bazzill Swiss Dots cardstock. I used the Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Vintage Halloween Labels as a banner, dripping the Candy Apple Red Glimmer Mist on the banners (I made a bunch more of them for a swap, as well), and I inked the edges with silver ink, punched holes and threaded black satin ribbon through them. To finish the page, I took a red lollipop flower that I received from another swap, a white paper "doily" that I cut with my Cricut and an svg file, dripped Glimmer mist on the doily, inked the edges of everything with silver ink, then twisted and hot glued black tulle to the back, then added the embellishment to the page.I added a bit of black tulle under the mini-banner to ground it, as well.
Challenges that I am entering this week are:

• Aly's Sunday Challenge- Halloween
• Bee Crafty-Halloween, using a digital image
• Crafty Ann's-use at least one digital image and your favorite coloring medium (shimmer ink spray)
• Crafts and Me Challenges-Halloween
• Create 4 Fun-use a digi
• Creative Cottage Challenge Blog-halloween
• Double Dutch Challenges- halloween
• Everybody Art Challenges-Halloween
• Easy Craft Projects-Halloween
• Fussy And Fancy Challenges-Halloween
• Inky impressions-Anything Goes
• Karber's Challenges-halloween using a digi
• The Stamping Boutique-fall/ halloween
• Mel Jen's-halloweeny
• Paper Pretties-black, white, and one other color
• Stamp Scrap And Doodle Saturdays-Halloween or Fall project
• Stamp N Doodle-Halloween
• Suchins-Halloween

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share with you today!Head by Lindsay and the other designers' blogs Thursday at 10 am (ET) for inspiration and a freebie!And, Thursday through Saturday, Lindsay's Stamp Stuff is having a 30% off sale-everything in the store!
Lindsay Weirich (Owner & Stamp Designer)
Cheryl Gorka (DT Coordinator)
Cindi Hooks
Diane Bove
Jennifer Bliss
Karin Martin
Laurel Seabrook
Leanne Garner
Margie Visnick
Micki Harper
Rhonda Walker
Shannon Neparko
Tamara Bennett
Tracey Allen