Tag for the master himself

Hello dear enthousiasts,

Well it finally happened. I made Tim Holtz a tag.... I read his blog the other day and he was clearing out the garage. He stumbled upon a collection of wooden type set letters he bought a few years ago. He decided to use the letters to revamp his craft desk. He asked in his blog if people knew where to get more of those wooden letters because not all of the table was covered.

 

I happen to have three of those blocks..... My initials, given to me by my mother.
So I decided to write Tim an email to ask him if he would like to have my three letters for his collection, and if so, where to send them, as they are only gathering dust in my own craft room as I only used them once to make my mum a card.
Within two hours he replied!!! I couldn't believe it. He was honoured to add them to his table and gave me his address..
So the next day I made a package and decided to send a tag with it to tell him how honoured and proud I am that a piece of me will be in his crafting studio. He is after all the reason I started making tags in the first place. My style before I heard of Tim Holtz was rather boring and not really a style.
Everything I know about crafting I learned from watching YouTube videos of Mr. Holtz. And I have two of his books, Compendium of Curiosities 1 and 2, one of them signed. (Can you tell I am a huge fan?) Well without further adue........

 

I put some bright colours of distress stains (by Tim Holtz) on my craft sheet. I dragged my tag through it to colour it. It created the most beautiful rainbow of colours....

I stamped it with stamps from Stampers Anonymous (by Tim Holtz) and added some mini brads ( by Tim Holtz). I added the red ribbon and a muse token (by Tim Holtz)

I misted over the whole thing with a perfect pearl mist and added a sentiment using a label maker.

(now I really wish I had better handwriting)

 

As I write this it is sinking in that my "guru" of crafting is going to see this. Still can't believe it.

 

Anyway, here also a photo of the blocks I sent him. I wonder if I will get a thank you..... I will let you know of course.

 

 

Take care and until next time!

 

Frederique

 

A caged birdy

Dear all,

The other day I made a tag for a person who found a new job. She lost her job a few months ago and felt like a caged bird not being able to find any work. So I was very happy to hear she starts her new position on December 10th. Of course this is another opportunity for me to make her a card.

I die cut a # 8 tag from pre printed paper. It is a ledger layout. I then stamped the swirls with embossing ink and covered them in dusty concord coloured distress embossing powder. I die cut the paper swirl, bird and cage from black card stock and covered them in embossing ink. I then dusted them with perfect pearls powder to give them some sheen. The swirl in purple, the bird in red and blue, and the cage in gold. I glued them on the tag and added some little paper roses to give it some elegance.

I then distressed the edges of the tag and inked them with walnut stain coloured distress ink.

Here you can see the shimmer on the purple swirl.

I tried to make the bird resemble a red robin. Black card stock works the best with pearlescent powders I think.

 

I hope she liked it.

 

 

Take care and until next time!!

 

Frederique

A get well soon card

Hello dear bloggers,

Today I want to share a project that I made for a friend who broke his nose a few years ago and finally decided to get it fixed. After years of a runny and crooked nose he thought it was time to see a plastic surgeon.
And as I am not one to pass up on an opportunity to have a little fun, I made him a tag to poke at his vanity....he is rather vain....

 

I used a # 5 manilla tag and dragged it through bright colours of distress stain I put on my craft sheet. I created this great flame effect. I then stamped the dotty pattern with black stãzon ink .

The words are from the Dylusions range by Dyan Reavely. I stamped them on white card stock and cut them out. Inked the edges with Walnut stain distress ink and glued them on the card. And as this person is very macho I added the dark blue ribbon. The bulldog charm was to emphasise it all......the botched nose...... He had a very good laugh when I gave it to him this morning.

 

Until next time,

Frederique

Versatility of bookplates.....

The other day I found some nice jars at IKEA for the kitchen. However they didn't have a label. And as I like to bake I need to know what is in what jar.... So I decided to make labels for them using Tim Holtz's bookplate die and Ultra thick embossing enamel (UTEE) and mini brads.

The instant yeast.

The Vanilla sugar....however no vanilla has been added yet.....:-)

The sugar.

The flour.

I die cut four bookplates from heavy card stock and inked them bright red to match the colour of my mixer...... I dabbed them with embossing ink and gave them two coats of UTEE to make them sturdy enough to go on the jars. Then I cut our some rectangles from white card stock and wrote the ingredients on them using a calligraphy marker. I then glued a piece of acetate on the front to protect the paper from use in the kitchen. I glued the acetate to the back of the bookplates and let them dry.

The bookplates have two holes on the side and I put some brads there so it looks like it was tacked to the jar. Then I covered the back of the altered plates with heavy duty double sided tape and stuck them on the jars. Very appropriate for a country kitchen I think.....

 

Well that was it for now....until next time and tell all of your friends hahahaha.

 

Frederique

Japanese themed birthday card.

This is something completely different from what I normally make. Well the style is. The person I made this for loves anything Japanese. The food, the art, the writing. So obviously I had to make her a Japanese styled card.

The background is red card stock from the Core'dinations range from Tim Holtz. It is beautiful heavy card stock with a linen texture. I stamped it with a bamboo like stamp in jet black stãzon ink and the edges are painted gold. You can't make a Japanese card without red, black and gold.... ;-)

The front I made from a white tag, I die cut out of linen textured card stock and then I embossed with my Cuttlebug using a Provocraft embossing folder depicting a Geisha. How Japanese is that!!

First I was thinking to paint her but I have done that before and I'm not sure that the birthday girl would like that style. She likes modern simplicity I think, so I only inked her with walnut stain coloured distress ink using my ink blending tool. That way only the raised areas were coloured and the rest stayed lighter. The edges of this tag were also dabbed with the gold paint dabber.

I looked up on the Internet the birthday girls' name in Japanese and with a black broad calligraphy marker I wrote her name.

 

I stuck to the colours black and gold for the ribbons. I attached them using a tiny staple and covered it with a green self adhesive pearl to give it only a mini hint of colour.

Turned out quite nice, even if I do say so myself. The person I made this for was very happy with it and that is the biggest compliment.

 

 

In between all my cards and calendars, I still am working on my Christmas cards. I will post those after they have been sent obviously. But until then I will post my other projects as they are finished.

 

 

Take care and until next time...

 

Frederique

Love for Starbucks

Dear reader,

Today I want to show you a calendar I altered to expres my love for Starbucks. Even though we only have two Starbucks stores here in the Netherlands (one on the Airport of Schiphol, after customs, and one in Utrecht on the train station.) I love the branch. I get my fixes in Germany in Aachen, about half an hour drive from here.
Every now and then I take home a packet of sugar or a heat protection sleeve from the cup.
I was clearing out the kitchen cupboards and found all sorts of stuff so I decided to use it to alter a rather dull calender for next year.

I had some card stock with a coffee theme and incorporated some coffee beans to emphasise the theme even more.

I also made some detail photos for different techniques I used.

This is one of those calendars where you tear of a page each day and it has a joke on the back or a famous quote. Anyway, the cardboard on which the calendar is attached is boring, so I glued some things on there as you can see.



A sleeve that goes around your cup of hot java...





Here I highlighted the words by colouring them in with Liquid Pearls, just to make it pop.

Coffee beans, just had to be on there too.....

This mini tag I first stamped with embossing ink and heat embossed it with ultra fine clear embossing powder to give it some texture. I then coloured it with distress ink and the words are stamped with Archival ink.  I distressed the edges of the tag and attached a green ribbon in compliance with the green of the Starbucks logo.

This tag was made the same as the other little one, only using different colours ink. But same green ribbon as you can see.

I cut out one of the logo's from a sleeve and inked the edge with walnut stain distress ink. I love the logo.

The little packets of sugar are empty by the way. I cut them open on the back side to get the sugar out. The calendar hangs on the wall of the bathroom downstairs. And I didn't know if the sugar would react with the humidity in the room or not, so to be safe I took it out.

The cups and words I cut out from glittery card stock from "Nana's Kitchen" and the edges were walnut stained to make them more vintage looking.

 

And that was about it. Can't wait to hang it up on January first.....

 

Visit me again soon!

 

Frederique



anniversary mini album

Hello scrap fans,

Last month I have been busy with a scrapbook mini album for an anniversary for a couple.

I used various techniques I explained in earlier posts, so I decided to just show you the pages. As always privacy was respected but you get the idea.

I hope you enjoy!