The Twelfth Tag - To Wish You Peace And Joy

We're almost at the start of the 12 Days of Christmas and I'm here with the 12th Tim Holtz Tag for 2015, so I'm going to use it to wish you all a peaceful and joyous festive season, however you celebrate it (or not).


Season's Greetings to all my lovely followers - thank you so much for your company on this crafty journey.  Who knew, when I started this, that I would find so many kindred spirits around the world?  It's a joy.


But to the tag... I went off-piste colour-wise, but other than that it's pretty much according to the word of the master, so you can find all the how-to details by checking out his fabulous tag and tutorial.

Despite my recent foray into traditional reds and greens with my Christmas Story Book, I couldn't quite bring myself to go with red... so instead of spray ink, I used heavy gesso through my stencil for the background.

I have a couple of the punches, but I added in some of the Holiday Greens Thinlits to zhuzh up my wreath.










I chose quite soft bluish greens from amongst the Kraft-Core papers, and helped them along in places with some Evergreen Bough ink.  I added some Rock Candy Dry Glitter for a bit of sparkle, and also brushed on some white paint in the end for an even frostier look.

The wreath-building may be fiddly, but I think it's so worth the effort.  I've already had a play with one kind of door garland earlier in the festive season, so I resisted the temptation to build a door for this one to go on.









I actually ended up with my garland greenery going the wrong way, but once I'd started it was too late too stop!  I quite like the energy of it all springing upward, so I embraced the imperfection (and repositioned the bow to deal with it!).

And I'm embracing the imperfection of the glue gun cobwebs too - I think they're rather magical.









My bow is not red either, obviously, just a nice bit of white crinkle ribbon, with a white-washed snowflake to fasten it.













Rather than decorating with bells, I went all starry-eyed... little white-washed wooden ones amongst the greenery...














... as well as a few of the pewter Idea-ology Star Fasteners scattered around the surrounding burlap in place of the large star Tim used.














And I couldn't resist exchanging the Small Talk stickers for one of my beloved Word Bands, burnished for a slightly more silvery look.






So here are the rest of those 2015 tags all lined up.  Yes, I know it's a Baker's Dozen - that's because I created double trouble in January!  (If you want to revisit any of these posts, just click on the "Tim Holtz 12 Tags" label at the foot of the post just before the comments start, and they should all appear for you.) 

And finally we're here in December with the last of them.  What an incredible year of inspiration!  It's the first time I've managed to complete all the tags, and I can't tell you how much fun I've had with them.

I really hope that Tim will offer up some more of his 12 Tag creativity next year, even though I already know that I'll only be able to play catch-up with quite a few of them, owing to travelling for work.  But one of the other great joys is seeing what everyone playing along comes up with - so I'd still be able to enjoy it all that way.  Fingers crossed!

I'd like to enter this as my December tag in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2015

Merry Christmas all!

Now I'm going to leave you in peace now to enjoy your Yuletide festivities.

I hope you find some time for the things that matter to you,

and that the season will be kind to us all.

As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is.

Eric Sevaraid

Art Adventure

Hello all... busier and busier here at Words and Pictures - it's been daily this week so far, and even then I've held this post over for two days!

When I saw Tim's cool November tag I felt a little stymied again as I have very few Blueprint stamps, and the pumpkin is not amongst them.

So I let my subconscious go to work and it woke me up in the middle of the night on Saturday with the answer.

Unfortunately I was away from home at the time.  Well, it wan't so unfortunate... I was having a lovely crafty time on the Mixology workshops in Coventry - more of that another time - but it meant I had to wait until Monday to put the plan into action.













And here you see it... No pumpkin, but a vertical equivalent - almost the same shape and it ended up (unintentionally) almost the same colours.

Well you never know where one of Tim's Art Adventures is going to take you.













So yes, the balloon was the solution my mind came up with - perfect to get the debossing effect which looks so great with the pumpkin.  I even have the same segments to play with.










And it was also a bright idea because there are parts of the image which had to be stamped direct to the tag - no way I could fussy cut all those ropes.











I started with the background though, and oh my word I love this look!  I don't have the simple crosshatch stamp Tim used, but I do love this fabulously grungy cracked alternative.

Over the Picket Fence stamping I added spritzes of Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood and Pumice Stone and then inked with Blueprint Sketch, Frayed Burlap and a little edging of Walnut Stain.










The gilding was enormous fun.  I've had some gilding sheets sitting around almost since I started crafting.  I picked up some cheap ones in The Range or somewhere, thinking they looked useful, and of course I haven't even opened them until now.  So thank you, Tim, for making me explore my stash!

And given my love of things catching the light, once I started gilding I couldn't stop.












So as well as the gilding around the edges...














... I also used it to create my word panel.  I applied quite a lot of foil to a tag and then inked over and in between the die-cut letters, which gave quite a leathery look to the background.










It's a bit like a worn, gilded book cover.

And I loved that effect so much that I couldn't resist using some of the leftover letters too... 











I started with True Adventure as my wording, but then decided that I should reflect the inspirational journeys Tim's tags always take me on, so I changed it to Art Adventure.

I even added some weathered gilding to the Game Spinner pointing the way forward.

I gave the balloon itself a gilded touch too.

(And although there's no Blueprint stamp, I did use the Blueprint Sketch Distress Marker to add deeper shadows and colour the webbing.)













The Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey colouring was golden (a colour choice inspired by the gilding - I'd originally planned a green balloon... well, of course I had!), but not quite golden enough.












I cut the basket, sandbags and flag from the watercoloured image and glued those on.

And the banner needed some gilding - it's flashing gold in the sunlight (sunlight, what sunlight? - there's none around here at the moment).










I added a bit of background stamping using the Correspondence set, to take the place of the text surrounding the blueprints images.














And the piece of blue-dyed crinkle ribbon which had been floating around the craft table for a couple of weeks finally found a home, wrapped around with some rusty wire to echo the tarnished gilding on the rest of the tag.






I had a grand time on this little adventure.  Thanks go to Tim Holtz yet again for triggering another brainstorm and a great crafty journey.  Thanks to all of you too for your lovely comments and feedback.  It's a joy to be on the journey with you, and I hope my balloon will carry me around Craftyblogland for some visiting in the very near future.




Suddenly the wind ceased.  The air seemed motionless around us.  We were off, going at the speed of the air current in which we now lived and moved.  Indeed, for us there was no more wind; and this is the first great fact of spherical ballooning.  Infinitely gentle is this unfelt motion forward and upward.  The illusion is complete: it seems not to be the balloon that moves, but the earth that sinks down and away...
From My Air-Ships, 1904, by Alberto Santos-Dumont

I have known today a magnificent intoxication.  I have learnt how it feels to be a bird.  I have flown.  Yes, I have flown.  I am still astonished at it, still deeply moved.
From Le Figaro, 1908


I'd like to enter this as my November tag in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2015





Answers to questions in the comments: both stamps are by Tim... the balloon is from the Remnants set, and the scratches are from the fabulously grungy set called Slight Alterations.

Underneath the Undertaker's

Hello all!

Well, this is a post I didn't expect to be posting, but when I saw Tim's spooktacular October tag, inspiration struck and I had to act... immediately!

In fact, I made it on day one, in a fever of activity, as soon as I saw the post.  I delayed sharing this by a couple of days just to let my Vintage Journey journalling pages have a fair crack of the whip!

I don't have the 3D Halloween monsters which Tim used as the centrepiece for his tag, but my brain went straight to work on what I have that could be deployed three-dimensionally.  The answer it came up with even had a Halloween slant - the Rickety House of course.















And you can see where that got me... to a tag which even slightly spooked me out as I was creating it, when I discovered what the undertaker keeps under his floorboards!

It appears to be full of gloom, but also has a metallic shimmer, so in the sunlight it's slightly ghostly - definitely one to avoid when you're trick or treating.  But we'll get to the macabre secrets of the undertaker's house soon enough. 









I started, as Tim does (you'll find all the making-of details over at his blog) with some wrinkle-free distress technique.  My colours include Hickory Smoke, Blueprint Sketch, Wilted Violet, Stormy Sky and Black Soot, as well as some Brushed Pewter and a couple of spritzes of Pewter Perfect Pearls into the bargain.









I cut the Rickety House out of the paler inky sheet (it's done on Mixed Media cardstock) and then drew around it onto the dark inky sheet and handcut a solid version of the house, with no windows and doors.

I made a dimensional fold to form the corner of the house, and the reverse fold in the background house.











Before gluing the edges together, I thought the house needed some inhabitants...

Meet James Fallon, undertaker (a.k.a. Edgar Allan Poe) - a stern and sinister looking type, particularly when he catches you peering in through the window at him.











Upstairs is a rather sad and lonely looking woman.  His wife?  Is she imprisoned up there?  Or merely a prisoner of her marriage?  I have to say, I rather fear for her future, as will you when you've explored further.











I used some paper from the French Industrial stash which had gloomy clouds flitting across its surface.  I've added quite a lot of stamping as well as the inky blottings from the stencil.

There are the Deaths notices providing textured detail.













The spiders loom large, whether dangling on threads of gossamer...
















... or waiting in ominous stillness on their cobwebs.














Oh, and I forgot to warn you - don't try sneaking around the back of the house either.













It's not only that the skull is keeping a beady eye on you from on top of his crossbones... 

... but you might just bump into something big and hairy round there!













Obviously I needed a floor for my little 3D house, so I cut up two wooden coffee stirrers, glued them together and stained them with Black Soot Distress Stain.













You may be thinking that the boards are a little uneven... small wonder when you realise that they must have been taken up and nailed down again more than once.










Just look what's buried underneath them!

I can only imagine that those jumbled bones are the relics of previous marriages...













Or perhaps Mr Fallon likes to keep a SOUVENIR of each burial he undertakes.  Either way, I think you would do best to steer well clear of this particular Rickety House, especially after dark.

A spidery jumble of black paper string winds its way around the crinkle ribbon, and we're done.













Another fantastic couple of hours of fun inspired by Tim Holtz - thank you for that, Tim.

And thank you to all of you for your company and your wonderful comments.  It's a joy reading them.  I'm off on my travels again this week - workshops in Norway which should be fun - but I hope I'll have some time to come visiting nonetheless.

Let us endeavour so to live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
Mark Twain (not this one Mark, I don't think so, no)

Houses are not haunted.  We are haunted, and regardless of the architecture with which we surround ourselves, our ghosts stay with us until we ourselves are ghosts.
From Velocity by Dean Koontz






I'd like to enter this as my October tag in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2015
There's stamping and stencilling and a 3D version of the Rickety House, so I'd also like to play along at Stamps and Stencils in their Make It 3D challenge