The 12 Tags of 2016 are really gonna challenge me! Getting out of my box of neutral colors and further into flowing more towards an 'unbalanced' act. I tend to like to do everything in an even number or a totally balanced look. It's not really my style to do anything in a single form- when shopping, I tend to pick up TWO of everything. I have no idea why I do that, and it's served me well while living out in the boonies. But it can be an artful challenge when you're crafting something that you want only ONE of in the entire world. I try, but more times than not... I find myself making a copy of whatever I am doing. You know; just in case. So, while doing these, I am going to try to keep that in mind and steer into new directions. 'TRY' is the key word here.
This very day of posting is a special day out of the year for us for several reasons. The first and foremost is because romance and fun should be a part of EVERY MARRIAGE! It's required to laugh, have fun, and BE young more than anything else is what will keep us young. I happen to LOVE hearts and you'll find them in every room of our home. Not gawdy, in-your-face hearts... in fact, most of the time, you'll have to LOOK for them. But they are certainly there- all over. Secondly is the fact that my fave color has always been pink, and the Chiefhubby's has always been (what other color does a firefighter like?!) red. So those 2 colors right there, plus hearts, fun, laughter, and downright GIGGLES and GUFFAWS: and you'll find a pretty romantic guy living with me. So, aside from those once-in-awhile 'marriage assessments' where I have to kick his butt, or he has to kick mine....I'd say we make a pretty happy couple. And I pray for our kids couples that they, too, will keep their marriages alive and well. So they were my first thoughts when it comes to "Be My Valentine" kind of holiday. (This can surely be excused from that thing about not making 'copies', right?? I mean, these are my KIDS, folks.)
Like last month, I'll stick to the photos and captions...
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| The FIRST thing I had to take care of was fixing my BigShot machine. Remember the last posting, I was seeking help with parts from Sizzix.com company? Well, I ended up calling back AGAIN for more parts because I found out the smaller set of bearings were also bad. No problem! Sizzix set me right up and never charged me for the 2nd set of parts because of my original 'helper' went on vacation and it kind of got mixed up but it was NOT their fault. Even so....they took the horse fully by the reins and REALLY GO TO ALL LENGTHS to help !!! Talk about an AWESOME COMPANY !!!! The ChiefHubby was very pleasantly surprised not only by the measley cost of parts, but how EASY his deaf wife was able to get help from them!! If only every other contact could be so easy with deaf customers! *sigh* |
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| And here you see....my BigShot machine purring like a kitten here ! Works just like brand new again. And it was EASY to put back together- they help with that, too, if you need! AWESOME COMPANY!!! |
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| This is where I began- the BACKSIDE of the Tags. I only began here simply to use my new Tim Holtz stamp. |
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| So, gotta have a fave color for each of us. I texted our boys and asked them to send me their latest fave color (just in case) and they didn't get back to me right away. So I went ahead and took a guess on the colors I used for each of us on every birthday. That green pile would be Brian's. Then I second-guessed it and pitched the green and cut more red. They both got back to me and confirmed Mom's correct guesses. "Impressive" was one word I got back. haha |
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| After using my Base Plate Die for the Heart Movers and Shapers to cut heart-shaped windows out of the tags and then embossing them in a fave folder, you can see how the plastic allows the two piles to 'mingle' together. It's supposed to be how 2 different ppl become ONE together. Then I used my stamp and that made the backsides complete. |
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| The frontsides got a little complicated. I only had ONE of the ephemera items each. I wanted all 3 tags to share the very SAME ITEMS but in the different COLORS. So I got on my computer and this pic shows how I scanned them off, made the color adjustments match the original item (the "LOVE" cards are actually my own drawn out as I didn't have another original to scan). Then I saved it to my files....oh boy....just in case. :) |
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| Printing, cutting, then shadowing the ephemera. More stamping and cutting tickets gave me several sets of the same things. |
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| Modge-Podging them all down, layer by layer just like we did last year in February; and I have what I wanted.... |
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| ...after I cut them and shaded them with matching Distress Inks to the fave colors. |
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| After staining with Distress Tea Dye Stain, my choice was Brick Stencil for the first layer. I only wanted the tops and bottoms done- to give them impression that the main things were 'breaking through' the bicking. |
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| Then, I ran into a problem; no heart stencil! Argh!!! I thought I'd purchased one but nope, So off I went- to make my OWN. |
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| And since it would be only temporary....I didn't need to worry so much about caring for it. |
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| Here's the embossing.... |
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| And the final background; WOW! I liked how I DIDN'T emboss the entire INSIDES of the gears. I just barely touched the inside edges and I had a space in each one for the heart in Fired Brick Distress Ink... made from my Heart-shape TH Punch !!! Love IS what makes the world go around.... :) |
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| I have my choice of pics - from my kids' own Facebook page profiles. The Chief and I were the only ones who did a 'photobooth' recently, anyway. The ygr PURDUE couple had a booth at their wedding but I wanted a more updated photo of them. So I picked out one of their first camping trips in their new home of Red Wing, MN. The older cpl already had a pic that looked like a really cute photobooth shot, so I stole that one. |
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| This is my setup for making the tissue flowers. Again, I wanted to make actual corsage flowers. Kind of going a bit overboard, I know. But PUR-TY!! |
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| The sets of corsages all ready to put onto the fronts of the tags. |
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| Closeups of the final colorization with the Distress Markers... |
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| Closeup of the backside stamp... |
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| I even made up little gift tags with their names on them... |
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| The Tags all bagged up and ready to go out- the kids' by hand drop off and by posted mail- getting there on Tuesday since I was finally able to get to town on Friday. |
That's my FEBRUARY TAG- wow, but I am early this month !!!
Thanks for checking in and taking a look, and I'll be blog-creeping again to look over all the awesome Tags that I just know will end up on Tim's blog !! Last month's was SPECTACULAR and I pinned several of my faves!
Here's wishing everyone a very
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
& Safe, HAPPY BLOGGING!!
The 12 Tags of 2016 are really gonna challenge me! Getting out of my box of neutral colors and further into flowing more towards an 'unbalanced' act. I tend to like to do everything in an even number or a totally balanced look. It's not really my style to do anything in a single form- when shopping, I tend to pick up TWO of everything. I have no idea why I do that, and it's served me well while living out in the boonies. But it can be an artful challenge when you're crafting something that you want only ONE of in the entire world. I try, but more times than not... I find myself making a copy of whatever I am doing. You know; just in case. So, while doing these, I am going to try to keep that in mind and steer into new directions. 'TRY' is the key word here.
This very day of posting is a special day out of the year for us for several reasons. The first and foremost is because romance and fun should be a part of EVERY MARRIAGE! It's required to laugh, have fun, and BE young more than anything else is what will keep us young. I happen to LOVE hearts and you'll find them in every room of our home. Not gawdy, in-your-face hearts... in fact, most of the time, you'll have to LOOK for them. But they are certainly there- all over. Secondly is the fact that my fave color has always been pink, and the Chiefhubby's has always been (what other color does a firefighter like?!) red. So those 2 colors right there, plus hearts, fun, laughter, and downright GIGGLES and GUFFAWS: and you'll find a pretty romantic guy living with me. So, aside from those once-in-awhile 'marriage assessments' where I have to kick his butt, or he has to kick mine....I'd say we make a pretty happy couple. And I pray for our kids couples that they, too, will keep their marriages alive and well. So they were my first thoughts when it comes to "Be My Valentine" kind of holiday. (This can surely be excused from that thing about not making 'copies', right?? I mean, these are my KIDS, folks.)
