NOVEMBER TAG: 12 Tags of 2013

           November has blown in, and T!m Holtz has posted the November Tag. He was a bit late, but that kinda made me feel nice to think that I'm not the only person who's ever late with anything. (Ok...so I am late ALL the time. And....???) Anyway.... I usually just fall into TOTAL LOVE with just about every Tag he has posted. I guess by mentioning that, you can guess that I wasn't exactly falling all over this month's technique. Frankly, I felt like I was pushed out on a ledge when it came to the October glitter- even as it was Distress Glitter. But then T!m chose to do CHALK for the November Tag! YIKES!!!

When I think of chalk, well, all I think of is that screechy feeling I get of chicken-claw-scraping on raw blackboard.

    All that being said....if you're STILL with me thus far after that rather...er...scraping remark....(shuddering)...

I'll get down to business here about my take on his chalk-technique.

    This particular technique had to be THE hardest I've ever had to TRY to master! And, I will fully admit, I have NOT mastered, but rather-sort-of-maybe-kinda-just 'floated along' with it. By the time I did SEVERAL mistakes- AND- THERE WERE MANY.(Mistakes of which I did NOT 'embrace' as T!m lovingly suggests we do with our flub-ups...nope- I uncerimoniously tossed them into the trash bucket; and trust me here on this one that my trash bucket is a charming silver metal feed bucket to compliment my Craft Room's 'old' decor....the bucket is MUCHO cuter than the TOTAL FLUBS I first did with this tag.) We're talking ALOT of time out of one afternoon which turned into all evening too. Just trying to get that powder to heat up juuuuust enough to make a Matte Finish on the embossing powder takes alooot more practice than it looks. That said. I finally resorted to the only thing I could figure out to help me FINALLY get ANY chalk at ALL to stand out on that paper. (Even if you have all the right items, it STILL depends on the right finish of matte with the emboss to make the chalk stick inside the bumps produced by the flat matte finish.) And since I was making THREE MORE of this Tag- let me tell you that I had QUITE A BIT of practice doing this technique moooooore than enough, thankyouverymuch.

        Long typed story short- I used WHITE emboss powder to help my chalk show up alot better. So was that 'cheating'? On this particular technique....YES. On the other hand, much like life itself; we all have our particular talents. Only a few crafy things have I come across that I reeeeeeallllly struggled with- painting is one of those. This chalk thing would be another.

I DO LOVE, however, the starkness of the white-on-black! It reminds me of a Tag I did on my own idea of "Just Me & My Camera" in the Spring of 2012 using paper & scissors.

(I've included pics below.)
    The rest of T!m's November Tag is mmmeh...okay I guess. I was half-hearted over the LEAF on it just because we are doing the last of the fierce battles of LEAF WAR 2013. So I chose to make my own take on this month's Tag to be about family traveling home for Thanksgiving. We have Brett&Holli (married on Aug 10th this year) coming home as a family, as well as Brian staying all night for the Holiday, so that means TWO NEW GRANDPUPPYs coming as well as Shax Grandkitty joining our HunniPi pup and BudderCup kitty. A full house of BLESSINGS we are VERY THANKFUL for !!! And we pray for our kids as they grow their own family to add each year- MORE BLESSINGS ! We wish the same for YOUR family also: GOD's merciful forgiveness & kindness in His infinite LOVE for us ALL !