Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas - Day Eleven

It's the big countdown!! The countdown to the last day of Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas! Wow...it has been a wonderful week, I can't believe it's almost over!! It's been so much fun that my oldest has started creating with me...today he made his #3 tag of Christmas! :-) I'll need to get photos of his tags posted, they're adorable. Well let's get down to business, shall we? I've got a lot to share today!! My tag again uses each of the elements that Tim used but in a different way. Tim's tag contains homemade brads, flowers, rub ons, and embossing. Hey, so does mine! :-) My tag background was created like Tim's and I thought I'd briefly share how to create this fun background. You'll need a craft sheet for this technique, which you can purchase at eclectic Paperie (you can actually purchase most Ranger and Tim Holtz products at eP) and two distress or dye ink pads. Turn your pads upside down and rub a wide strip of ink directly onto the craft sheet, do the same with the second color, right next to the first. Mist the inks with water until they bead (see above). Place your tag directly on the ink and kind of smoosh it around. Pick it up and dry the tag with a heat gun. You can continue this process until you have the color/look you're happy with. Make sure your tag is fully dry before you stamp. Once my color was on the tag, I added some brown distress ink to the edges, and stamped a script image on the entire surface of the tag. I chose a few Unity images for my tag today and stamped the swirls directly on the tag in a blue distress ink. The butterfly was stamped on kraft cardstock and covered with a few different color embossing powders. Once the butterfly was embossed and cut out, I filled in the non-embossed areas with brown distress ink. I also replaced the stamped butterfly antenna with wire and attached my finished image to the tag with dimensional tape. I bent the butterfly wings a bit for some fun movement! OK, a show of hands of how many people are still with me...hello....is this thing on... Next up is my homemade brad! Ah, that Tim has been throwing me curve ballss all week...today a custom brad maker, something not in my storage closet. So...I made my own! I used a Nestibilities die to cut a small circle out of a heavy duty cardstock and the cut a circle of fabric. I lined up the cardstock circle on the fabric and cut slits all around the circle of fabric. Next came a small ball of polyfill that was placed in between the cardstock circle and fabric. A little glue or tape on the back of the circle and I pulled the fabric around the circle. Kind of like a fabric covered button...or brad. My finished brad became the center of a chipboard flower. Last but not least...a SU! rub on was added to a paper tag! And that is today's tag...You guys ready for the last day? I can't wait to see Tim's last tag!!