Hey everyone, and welcome to our second, and final night of peeks for this month's release!! Tonight's set is SO super sweet!!
Would you like to win the new Little Moments stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post.
You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday December 31st with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Welcome to day one of our sneak peeks and Blog Hop Challenges! Today we have an amazing set illustrated by Torico !! If you loved Friendbots, you’re going to love Lovebots. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Torico has created an adorable set that will have your heart bursting with joy.

I used the cute little scale image and matching sentiment paired with some pretty traditional Valentine-coloured papers and embellishments.

This little guy was super easy to colour (it took me maybe 10 minutes) and I added a little shine with a white gel pen.

This adorable mini set will have your creating cards and gift tags that carry your message of love and friendship to all your special Valentines.
Lovebots is a 4x4 set that includes a total of 7 stamps $10.
 



Would you like to win the new Lovebots stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post.

You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday December 31st with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Hello!

Welcome to the All Things Love Technique Tuesday blog hop.

Technique Tuesday’s Stamping Techs are blog hopping again, and we are sharing love-themed projects this month.

I have to admit to being a little bit sad to put the Christmas stamps away, but in making this card I was reminded that I have so many great “Love” stamps! And really, we only have a month and a half to prepare for Valentine’s Day!!

The sentiment is from a lovely set called Love Always Wins by Ali Edwards and this is a great example of not needing to use the whole stamp when stamping a sentiment.. I added a little color to the sentiment by stamping a heart from the same set in a very pale pink as to not detract from the words..

The green medallion-looking die cut is a Memory Box die, just in case you’re wondering..

 

Be sure to check out the blogs of everyone taking part in today’s blog hop. If you’re in need of some non-Christmas inspiration you’ve come to the right place!

Tanis
Ashley
Charlene
Daniela
Tobi <---- you’re here.
Laura
Sharyn
Kris
Jaclyn
Teri

We love reading your comments so we will have some random draws for prizes.

From the comments received on all the blogs, we will pick one lucky person to win the Bear Necessities stamp set.

We’ll also pick one person to win the Home Tweet Home stamp set.

You don’t need to comment on all the blogs to be eligible to win. But the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!

Comments must be posted by midnight on Dec. 28th. The winner will be announced on Dec. 29^th sometime on the Technique Tuesday blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

Notes about the card:

• I usually reserve this kind of technique for a tag, but it’s fun to do with a card too!
• I misted my craft mat with various glimmer mists and smooshed the cardstock into the puddle
• I dried the cardstock with a heat tool then I flat-ironed it flat.
• Then I stamped various sentiments (Technique Tuesday Believe by Ali Edwards) in Brilliance black ink and set aside to dry
• Once the ink was dry I distressed the edges with brown ink
• I wrapped a little piece of silver cord around the main panel and stuck it to the card front

This is an exciting day for me! I got an iPhone last week and I’ve been downloading apps and playing games, taking cool pictures, but I kinda totally forgot that I can take videos with it. DUH!!

This is my grand debut of a Copic video (yes I know Copic videos are SO 2 years ago, but I don’t care!) and I hope you like it.. I did the kind of video where I do no talking but show you the colours that I’m working with and I’ve sped it up… I hope you like the format because I really do…

Enjoy!
 

Here are some still shots of the final product:

   

Thank you for your feedback if you have any!

I was distressed about how to store my Tim Holtz distress inks and stains until today. Tim recently came out with a couple of storage solutions, one being the “Cargo Case.”

(FYI, we still have a couple in stock at Clipper Street for $47.99 if you still want one… You could also get it on sale today for 40% off too!) Anyway.. I broke down and bought one today. I was hesitating buying it because I like to have my stuff visible – so I use it – which would mean if I bought this I would be looking at finding enough space on my desk to have it open all the time…

Here’s what I’ve settled on for the time being. This is what I’ve filled it with:

Note that I used the “lid” as usable storage space.

And here’s how it’s oriented on my table:

So right now it has the place of honour right next to my craft mat and we’ll see how it goes. I don’t have an issue with re-organizing my space every few weeks if it doesn’t work for me. Right now I’m really into the distress ink thing but that may change in a little while… Who knows!

Got everything done?

I don’t! pfffff…

I have most of my shopping done, which feels good, but nothing’s wrapped.

At least I have a good supply of tags and wrapping paper!

 

The area of Christmas prep I am falling behind is – ironically – CARDS! I have dropped off all of my Christmas/holiday cards at the flower shop and I have none of my own.. Every few days I remember more people that need cards and I then have to set aside a good chunk of time to either mass-produce or try and be really creative and make one-offs.

Today I did a little mass-producing of a design I love.

I did a tag with this clean and simple design a couple of weeks ago and just loved it. The poinsettia is so techniquey and the Technique Tuesday sentiment stamp (Celebrate the Seasons by Ali Edwards) is just perfect that it doesn’t need anything else.

Thanks for stoppin’ by!

This week our challenge is brought to us by our glorious leader- Jessica! She has challenged us to make last minute gift tags. Who doesn’t need those?

I got to work using some of my favourite products (TSG stamps, distress inks, glimmer mists, copic markers) and came up with this really quick tag:

The stamp set I used for most of the tag is called Holly Jolly, and it’s everything you need in a set: image, background stamps, and a die cut! The set comes with lots of great sentiments, but I chose a sentiment from Wishing You because I wanted the sentiment to be “outside the box” and a little bit longer..

On top of the image and the tag I misted “Gold” Tattered Angels mist and it has the most beautiful sparkle ever! It’s certainly “festive” but I can see using it on many different applications too..

 

To be eligible for the giveaway, create last minute gift tags, and then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of this challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (December 26th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

Hi there! This week’s challenge was SO awesome, I just had to play along… Pink, Red and Blue with a holiday theme. It’s such a yummy colour combo for Christmas.. Check it out: 

 

All stamps from Holly Jolly by There She Goes.

I used the “emboss resist” technique to create the pretty background. (Stamp image in versamark, emboss with clear embossing powder then it will resist all inks/mists that you put on the paper) I misted the three colours onto my craft sheet and smooshed the paper into the colours. I am absolutely taken with the way it turned out.  

Head over to the TSG blog to play along with this challenge for a chance to win a cool prize!!

I’ve had a lot of fun this past week playing and singing at concerts, teaching some classes at my LSS, Clipper Street, and completing some big projects for customers. This card design is for a company who’s colours are yellow and black and they like their Christmas cards to reflect that combo!! Normally each year I happen to luck out and find some yellow holiday paper, but not this year.. I went with some basic Echo Park paper for the yellow and decided to bling up the card with a glittery sentiment (Tim Holtz die cut and gold glitter paper).

I’ve also hit a milestone: I can pull my hair back into a tiny ponytail!!! I always get to this stage with my hair and cut it off, but I LOVE Adele’s hair and I want to be a beautiful, plus-sized, LONG-HAIRED knock-out like her!! (Do I sound like a teenager?? whatever….)
Take care, and I’ll be back soon!!

It’s been go-go-go here at the Crawford house as I’m sure it’s been at everyone’s house across the globe. Unfortunately for me/my blog I’ve been busy teaching all day and every night I’ve had either Christmas concerts I’m directing, singing in, or listening to, and when I get home I’m POOPED!! I had a lovely concert this morning with some of my choir kids and then I went to work at the scrapbook store where we helped many a man buy gift cards for their wonderful wives… Lucky ladies!

I had a chance to sit down and create for a while tonight and here are some tags.

I took the photos with my new iPhone 4s and this is an experiment. Excuse me if the photos are a little “rough.” I’m having fun playing around with all of the photo apps I’ve downloaded!

 

You’ve seen a similar tag from me before, but I just bought the tattered banner die (tim holtz of course) and I wanted to put it to use tonight. I cut out some glassine paper and stamped a sentiment from the TSG set: Wishing You.

 

 

I played along with Tim Holtz’s Day 5 Tag and this is a technique I wouldn’t normally do, but that’s what I love about Tim’s tutorials: he shows you new and unique ways to use products that you already have in new and wonderful ways. I am not normally an alcohol ink kind of person, but I do have a small collection of Copic re-inkers, so I use those instead of the inks.. Did you know you could do that? Just another amazing use for copic markers. The sentiment stamp is a Technique Tuesday beauty from the set called Good Cheer by Ali Edwards.

 

This is a fairly heavy tag with a large chipboard snowflake (embossed and sprayed with Perfect Pearls mist in Patina), a pretty rosette and a sentiment featuring a stamp from a Mint Motif called: Very Merry Sentiments on glassine paper.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

The challenge of playing along Tim Holtz’s “12 Tags of Christmas” continues. I’m starting to get used to staying up to 2 or 3 am.. Pretty sad. lol.. Here are my tags using a couple of techniques Tim used tonight, namely:

• Rock Candy Crackle Paint
• Distress stains to colour in the cracks after the crackle paint has dried
• Distress stains to create the tag background
• Stamping with Distress Stains

Tag 1:

I used some wonderful mica flakes (Stampendous “Fran-tage” line of products) with clear Helmar glue to keep them in place.

Tag 2:

To make this tag I did the exact same thing I did on the background it just has a totally different look because I used a kraft tag this time. The snowman is a Basic Grey chipboard shape from last year.

Do you have a favourite ribbon? This is mine, for sure. I simply tied a bow and adhered it to the tag with glue dots and shoved some die cut pine branches underneath it. I covered the branches with a little Rock Candy stickles.

Tag 3:

My equivalent of a CAS tag. The background was again created with the same materials as the last two tags, I just added some various snowflakes in the background. The main image and snowflakes are from There She Goes (called Holly Jolly) and it’s a LARGE stamp set with coordinating die for the large snowflake. I love it when I don’t have to fussy-cut!
Thank you for stopping in.. Have a wonderful Sunday!

I miss crafting at night after everyone’s gone to bed. I have been so busy with school and my second job at my LSS that I haven’t had the time (and energy) to stay up late for a few months. Playing along with Tim Holtz’s Christmas tags after midnight is fun and I am reminded why I love crafting at this hour – the peace and quiet. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….. Do you know what I mean?

 

So tonight Tim got out his large sentiment background stamp and stamped it using a special technique with Cut ‘n Dry foam. Check it out here.  I have never owned Cut ‘n Dry because I don’t do much stamping with colours (I do mainly line art images) so to play along I had to ink my stamp the old fashioned way: with small ink pads of varying colours directly onto the stamp.. Once I was done applying the ink I gave the stamp a light mist of “Marshmallow” glimmer mist to get the ink wet for stamping.. It worked wonderfully!

Tag #1

On both of the tags once I was finished stamped I misted the whole tag with “Biscotti” Perfect Pearls mist. It gives a lovely golden shine when it’s dry:

I went with two slightly different colours schemes with the embellishments. On this tag I used some “pinecones” (die cut with a Nestabilities rolled flower die) cut from Tim’s glassine paper.

The other elements were cut out with my Silhouette, inked, then got a dusting of Snow Cap paint dauber.

Tag #2

This is just a slightly brighter green.. And no pinecones this time, just holly berries!

 

So that’s all, folks! I can’t believe how many new viewers I’ve had from Tim’s blog. It’s been an honour to have you stop by! See you tomorrow.

Another night of me staying up till 2am to get a Christmas tag finished… I’m insane, but I love it. ha! Tim Holtz posted another great set of tags using his kraft emboss resist papers and it was the perfect push for me to pull them out and use them!

 

Here’s my tag:

 

I did the same technique Tim did for the background (Picket Fence distress stain then various distress inks on top) and finished it off by spraying some glimmer mist on top. I’m so glad I did this tag because I really had a mental block with this paper and I think I’m over it! I love how this turned out..

 

I cut out two snowflake shapes (one with my Silhouette and one with the Slice… don’t ask) and treated them both to a coating of glimmer mists, distress ink (vintage photo) and the top snowflake has a little Rock Candy distress stickles to make it glimmer in the light.

 

The perfect sentiment from a Technique Tuesday set called Good Cheer by Ali Edwards to finish the tag off.

Thank you for stopping by and I’ll see you tomorrow night!

Have you been eagerly awaiting Tim Holtz’s 12 tags of Christmas?? I was so excited to see it that I sat down and made my own version of his tag.. The weird thing about today’s tag is I JUST bought the “Noel” die tonight.. Like, a few hours ago.. weird……………. Anyway.. Here’s Tim’s tag:

 

Fun, eh? I loved his pinecone demo.. I did something similar but with a flower die cut.. Here’s my tag:

I obviously had to improvise some of the elements, but I really love how it turned out… I’ll upload a close-up of the pinecone in the morning when the rock candy has dried.. I can’t wait.

Thanks, Tim for the inspiration!!