12 Tags of 2013~January

This year I have decided to spread my crafty wings and try new things. So far, I have added THREE new creative things to my list:

1. I am part of the Design Team for Lone Wolf Designs. That's definitely something new! Be sure to check back on Friday (Jan 25th) to see my first Design Team Showcase. 
2. I'm also trying out new techniques. I have joined the Art Journal Challenge at Your Paper Pantry and I'm having fun with that. 
3. I decided to try out the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013. 

I really enjoyed making my tag for January. At first, I was disappointed that I didn't have hardly any of the items that Tim used to create his tag. I realized that I had to do some creative thinking and that's it's really more about trying out new techniques than making a tag that looks just like Tim's. 

This is Tim's tag:

And here is mine:

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about how I did the techniques, but you can follow along with Tim as he gives an in-depth photo tutorial HERE.

In this photo, you can see my embossed background (Sizzix Tropical Paisley). I used 5 different colors of Distress Inks on my tag. I used Iced Spruce, Stormy Sky, Wild Honey, and Gathered Twig to color my tag and my seam binding for the top of the tag. I used Black Soot for all the stamping. After I got the tag all inked up, I sprayed it with homemade gold shimmer mist.

I don't have any of the film strip ribbon (yet!), so I improvised with this filmstrip stamp (Foto Set) and Spellbinders die (Snapshot) by Donna Salazar. I inked up some grungeboard arrows with the same inks that I used on the background and then sprayed them with homemade gold shimmer mist. I attached them to the tag with Glossy Accents. I also added some Want2Scrap bling for the butterfly trail.

I picked out a couple of TH adage tickets that went with my quote. I inked the edges with Gathered Twigs, traced the letters with Glossy Accents, then glued them down with Glossy Accents and pieces of dimensional foam adhesive. I picked up those paper flowers from the dollar bin at Michael's. I used Wild Honey to ink up the edges. The butterfly was a gift from my friend Tami. It was a bright copper and not quite the right color for this project so painted it with gold metallic acrylic paint and then rubbed a little Gathered Twigs on it. I attached it to the flowers with Glossy Accents.

Let's see...next is the quote (Travel Collage by TPC Studios). I stamped and embossed the quote on brown paper and cut it apart and inked the edges with Gathered Twigs. I used the same inking technique as I used on the big tag. I covered the entire front of the tag with Glossy Accents and spread it around in a thin layer. I then placed the quote on the tag and covered it with more Glossy Accents. I attached another one of those grungeboard arrows with Glossy Accents. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but since the arrow is curved, I made one end come from behind the tag and then attached the other end to the front.

Last is the seam binding at the top. In Tim's tutorial, he stamped crinkle ribbon with archival ink and then colored the ribbon with Distress Stain. I don't have crinkle ribbon, archival ink, or distress stain. Yikes! What am I going to do?!? I used a small postal-type stamp (from the same stamp set as the quote) and Gathered Twigs to stamp my ribbon. I colored it with the same 4 colors (Iced Spruce, Stormy Sky, Wild Honey, and Gathered Twig) that I have been using throughout this project.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with how my tag turned out, even though I didn't have all the same products that were used in Tim's tag. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box and be creative with the items you already have on hand. Have you participated in Tim's 12 Tags? Leave me a comment below with a link so I can check it out!

Go and Be Creative!