Happy New Years

Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet

For auld lang syne!

 

We twa hae run about the braes,

And pu'd the gowans fine,

But we've wander'd mony a weary fit

Sin auld lang syne.

 

We twa hae paidl't in the burn

Frae morning sun till dine,

But seas between us braid hae roar'd

Sin auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere,

And gie's a hand o' thine,

And we'll tak a right guid willie-waught

For auld lang syne!

And surely ye'll be your pint' stowp,

And surely I'll be mine,

And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet

For auld lang syne!

Happy New Year Everyone!!

For auld lang syne, my dear,

Happy Kwanzaa

Today is the first day of Kwanzaa - Umoja.  It's not a religious holiday, but a celebration of Family, Culture and Community.  You can find out more about Kwanzaa by going to the official website.

 Umoja means Unity.

To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community and nation.

Follow along to the E:spire Giveaway.

And the Cards are Finally Finished!

Ok, I know I'm not in this boat alone.  I procrastinated in doing other things vs getting my Christmas cards created and ready to mail out on time.  I started a while back, but other things just got in the way.  So tonite, I finally got all of the cards signed, put in the right envelopes, Christmas letters tucked inside, mailing addresses applied and the envelopes sealed.  Then the fun began.

I went to look for the baggie of the 80 stamps that I had purchased and lo and behold, they were not in my bag.  Oh no!  What did I do with them.  I was in a card exchange with another group of ladies.  We decided not to do a secret santa, but instead, we all sent each other cards.  Since I had done those early, I put them in the mail almost 2 wks ago to get them out of the way.  I must have never put the stamps back where they were to go.  So here I go on the hunt for the envelope holding those precious stamps.  I tore up the living room looking for them ... and hours later, still no stamps.  Decided to start picking up the mess I've made with my late nite creating.  Moved a stack of unused cardstock and underneath were the stamps.
YIPPEE!!

So, now, most of the envelopes have stamps on them.   Yes... most of them.   Funny story... hahahaha!
I was in this WinterWonderland Tag Swap.  I wrote an earlier post about them being lost somewhere at the post office.  Well, 2 days ago, they turned up in my mailbox with a little sticker placed across the "to" address stating that there was postage due.  Ok, heres where I get upset.  You know those self serve kiosks  that they have at the PO?  On this particular day almost 2 month ago,  I mailed 3 packages using that kiosk.  On that same day, I bought the Kwanzaa stamps that I lost here in the house.  So I handed the postal clerk the 3 packages that I had just weighed and applied postage to.   2 of those packages arrived at their destination, while this one envelope was held for ransom..... for $.34 .  You know I'm pretty pissed.  To make this long story short, I sat down 2 nites ago and created 14 new cards to mail out with the tags that were just returned to me.  They are just too pretty for me to keep them all.  So to make sure that I have enough postage on those envies, I'm taking them to the PO to have them weighed to make sure that I do have enough postage on them this time around.

So.... here's the 80+ cards that I have created for this year.  I turned them over so that the addresses wouldn't show.  But if you look in the middle... I left one card up to show my address label and the Kwanzaa stamps that I found.

Studio 3 Solutions Christmas Wish GIVEAWAY!!

I was out blog hopping and saw this giveaway!

So hop on over to the Wee Memories blogspot and sign up to win this color cubbie.
I could really use this to store all of my copic markers.

I Had to Take a Day to Myself

So, the 12 Tags of Christmas creating is over.  No , I didn't win anything from the Tim man ..... and am I bummed out... you betcha.  LOL!

There was so much creativity.  I know it was a hard job to choose 12 people at nite... then sort thru those names that had posted on all 12 days for the grand prizes.  There were 3000 messages posted so I hope they had some kind of name sorter. 

Anyways, I'm trying to keep my blog interesting so that people will want to come an look to see what I've been up to.  I've been staying up late at nite to get my Christmas cards done.  I'm almost there.  I have 20 more to go.  I made more than I usually have done in the past since I now have my mom living with me and I need to send out cards for her.

I'll be back later with the cards I've created.

One World One Heart

I was out blog hopping tonite or shall I say early this morning when I stumbled upon this event that has been going on for the past 4 yrs.  This makes the 5th and last year that it will be held.  So , I figured, why not try it out and meet bloggers from all over the world. 

IT WILL BEGIN ON SUNDAY JANUARY 3OTH WITH THE FINAL DAY BEING FEBRUARY 17TH, 2011



http://awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com/a_whimsical_bohemian/2010/12/annoucning-the-fifth-and-final-one-world-one-heart-event-.html

For more information and details about this event , go to Lisa's blog.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 12

And last but not least.  Tim Holtz graced us with the finale tag of the season.  And what a wonderful way to end these last 12 days.  Not with one tag, but ideas on how to use the tags in different ways, including a gift card type tag.  Fantastical!!!

So as you know, I don't own his entire line of products... but if Santa is listening... I put a list out for you to see just what I NEED!  Its not a want... its a NEED!  I hope you are listening closely.

I logged on at 1 am my time to see just what he had created for us and to see if I might be lucky enough to win a prize from him.  But it wasn't meant to be.  But he is doing some grand prizes afterwards, so all is not lost just yet.  Wouldn't it be great if I could win that Vagabond!!!  Then I could bless someone with my manual embossing/cutting machines.  Yes, I would indeed.

Ok, I'm just going on and on.  So here is what I did to create my tag.   I had to sleep on this to figure out how I could make it and indeed, I came up with a good idea.  Once again, I put my cricut in action to design an ornament that was worthy of me creating and putting on this final tag.  Then I remembered that someone on the Cricut Messageboard had created an Ornament cutfile using the George and Basic Shapes cartridge.  Since half the work was done, I just needed to modify it to make it similar to the ornament that Tim used.   Denise Hill is who I need to give credit to, so if you know her, tell her I mentioned her on my blog.  The one thing I had problems with was welding the words in the middle of my ornament.  I have had troubles in the past doing this and went back to Diane aka Capadia's blog for some assistance.  But my patience was wearing thin and it was getting the best of me.  So Diane, if you're out there and see this... kudos to you to for your helpful tutorials.

I cut my ornament using 2 layers of grungepaper since my grungeboard has designs on it and I didn't want that for this ornament.  After gluing them together, I inked them with Fired Brick distress ink and used my clear Distress Rock Candy Crackle Paint and layered the ornament with it and set it to dry.  The background paper used is Graphic 45 Christmas paper that I had no idea what I was going to use it for when I bought it... but it was perfect.  I didn't want to loose any of the image, so I cut a shipping tag from a folder.  I don't have a paper distresser, so I just left the tag as is, but I inked it with Walnut stain around the edges.

I just happened to be able to purchase Tim Holtz mini Christmas stamp sets, so I was all set for the December calendar stamp.    For the final added touch, I was going to attempt to make some pine cones since I don't have any.  But this is all about being creative and using what you have, so I used a MS branch leaf punch and cut out a few and glued them down adding some Xmas Red Stickles as the berries.  

And finally, what you are waiting to see, my final Day 12 Tag:

I think I did a beautiful job!!

My ornament crackled nicely I think.

How do you like my leaves and berries??

Recipe:

Shipping Tag

Graphic 45 Christmas Paper

Xmas Red Stickles

MS Leaf Punch

Ribbon from my stash

George and Basic Shapes Cricut Cartridge

Base Camp Cricut Cartridge

Tim Holtz Grunge Paper

Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint

Distress Inks:

Walnut Stain

Fired Brick

Vintage Photo

Frayed Burlap

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 11

Ok.... so I got a funny story for ya before I get to the tag.  On Tim's blog, after each days postings, he selects 12 comments to the blog and sends them a prize of some sort.  So I've been making sure that I get my comments in each day.  Well, this morning as I waited for him to post todays tag at 1am, I finally log on and look through the entire post and the last name that he has posted is mine.  But the time that it was posted to his blog was very late.  I can't remember when I posted or what I said.  LOL!   I got CRS.  So, anyways, I send them a note to see if its me because I know that I wrote something similar... but what the heck did I write.  I'm all psyched out thinking, yeah I've won, I've won... finally.  I log on to my email this morning to find that it was someone else.  Oh well.... I got another chance at it all.

I tell ya, Tim Holtz is having me fall in love all over with this craft and finding out what I can use for substitutions for the items that I don't have.   Now today, he's used those book plates.  I've looked at those over and over again saying naw... I will never use those at all.  And wow... the way he's used it on this tag makes me wanna go out and get them just so I can use it on this tag.  But the saver in me... what an understatement.... is saying oh, get up and get dressed and go get those elements.  What to do, what to do??  Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Darn Tim and those dies of his.  I want them all.... but alas ... I'm not rich and I'll have to make do.  So once again, my cricut to the rescue.  I know theres gotta be a pine tree on there that I can use.  Hmmm... nothing that is just right, so I merged 2 trees.  Yessirree bob I did.  I used Camp Out and Dreams come true and came up with my own tree.  I didn't have that Sparkly Fluff that Tim used, but I used some MS Flock.

I started writing this post earlier today while I was working so that I could get everything down that I used on this tag.  But I had an itching to go out... so I did and go the Book Plates.  LOL!
I want the tag stamps that he has, but they don't have them in the store... so.......... I made my own sentiment in Word.  Yep, where theres a will, theres a way.

I didn't have any supplies to make the stamp like he did, so I just used a snowflake stamp that I have and inked the area to emboss.  I think it came out pretty darn good.

And alas, my tag is now finished.  Bring on the last tag TIM!!!

I just noticed that I forgot to add the raffia to the bottom of the tree.  I may ha ve to go back and change that up a bit.

The top of the tag showing the snowflakes and the embossing technique.

I made my own sentiment to go inside the book plate using Tim's words.

And I think my tree is pretty decent too.

Recipe:

Shipping Tag

Camp Out Cricut Cartridge

Dreams Come True Cricut Cartridge

MS White Flocking Powder

Tim Holtz Word Sticks

Tim Holtz Adornments

Tim Holtz Ornate Plates

Tim Holtz Fasteners

Tim Holtz Grunge Paper

Andironak Paint Dabber - Snow White

Distress Inks:

Walnut Stain

Dusty Concord

Stormy Sky

Peeled Paint

Distress Embossing Ink

Distress Embossing Powder Peeled Paint

UTEE

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 10

Frosty the Snowman... was a ........ ok... you get the gist.
Todays tag is quite cute and would make a good tag to put on a child's present... but I'm not.  LOL! These are all for me.  I will use them on a tree stand to display them for everyone to see.

So again, I don't have some of the elements... but I'm not going to let that stop me.  Take a look at Tim's day 10 tag.  It's really cute.  He's come up with some of the neatest dies.  But alas, my cricut to the rescue.  I found a culte little snowman on my Joys of the Season cricut cartridge and used it instead.  I cut it out using grungepaper.  I stamped the Sentiment and then took it a bit further by embossing it with some UTEE so it would stand out more.

And here's day 10's tag:

Here's the top of the tag.  I like the embossing acrylic on top.

And I embossed the sentiment so it would stand out.  I went back and used Black stickles on the broom making it look more like a lamppost.

Recipe:

Shipping tag

Joys of the Season Cricut cartridge

Tulle and Ribbon from stash

Black Stickles

Acrylic sheet

Sizzix Snowflakes Embossing folder

UTEE

Tim Holtz brads

Tim Holtz Grungepaper

Acrylic Paint Dabber - Snow Cap

Distress Inks:

Faded Jeans

Stormy Sky

Walnut Stain

Black Soot

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 9

Doncha just love it when things go a lot better than you planned them to?  Well, after staying up til way after midnite working on my Day 8 tag that was trying to get the best of me, I got it done and was in bed at an unreasonable time.  Then I was back up less than 4 hrs later to cook a peach cobbler.   So lemme tell ya... things were smelling some kinda good when I went to check on it and realized that I had used the regular flour vs the self rising flour.  Yep... that make a big difference.

So I digress... lets get back to day 9 tag.  Tim Holtz decided to take it easy on us by giving us a simpler tag to do.  Its only simple if you have all of his supplies... which he has at his fingertips.... including that adorable Vagabond .  So he also used this new die of his ... .to make rosette's.  No, I don't have that either.  I can't emphasize enough to anyone that wants to give me some Tim Holtz supplies some of the items on my wish list.  Hint, Hint, Hint!  LOL!

First off, I decided to make my own paper..... pulled out a sheet of craft cardstock.  I stamped the entire paper with my musical notes stamp with archival ink.  I heated it to make sure that it would not rub or smear when I started manipulating the paper.  So then, I pulled out my Scor-Pal and went to work.  I cut the first one and had it all assembled to realize that that was one huge rosette.  Ok..... so I miscalculated.  This time I cut the strip 3/4" x 12" and then used the Scor-pal to score this strip in 1/2" increments. I cut off 1/4" from one end and turned the paper over, then scored the opposite side at the 1/2" marks again or in between the original score marks.... making each score mark 1/4" in width.  I cut 2 circles out with my paper hole punch... but ended up free hand cutting them down to the size to fit the rosette.  If you don't understand any of this... take a look at this Rosette Tutorial.

I pretty much used what I had on hand for this tag and made substitutions as necessary.  Again.... my cricut to the rescue.  I used the Blackletter Cricut Cartridge for the sentiment on the tag.  I use my Glimmer Mist vs the Perfect Pearls.  I had the clear hearts in my stash from my jewelry making days.  Unfortunately, I gave most of my sewing supplies away .. including buttons.  Yep, I know... but I wan't scrapbooking then and knew that I could use them for this craft.

So without further ado, here is my Day 9 tag:

Closeup of the Rosette

Closeup of the bottom of the tag

Recipe:

Shipping Tag

Blackletter Cricut Cartridge

Ribbon and Fun Fur from stash

Coredinations Cardstock

Musical Notes Rubber Stamp

Archival Ink - Black

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Walnut Gold

Tim Holtz Trinket Pins , Adornments and Brads

Glossy Accents Paper Glaze

Distress Inks:

Wild Honey

Walnut Stain

Tea Dyed

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 8

I am oh so struggling to come up with something tonite so I can complete this tag.  I have cut out so many masks and I'm not having any luck with something that I'm finding acceptable.


Whoa is me!

Ok.... over 2 hrs later..... I have finally come up with a tag that I am almost happy with.  Thank you Tim Holtz for the challenge.  Boy, I really wish that I had all the embellishments , rubber stamps, ink pads , ok... lets just say the whole darn line of what he has come up with.... including the new Vagabond embossing machine that he has created.  But since its not in my budget anytime soon, I will just oogle and google and gloat over it.  Take a look at Tag 8 that he created.

So here's what I did with my tag.  I made my own mask using my cricut machine.  I used the Christmas Cards Cricut Cartridge and cut out the couple in the sleigh pulled by the horse.  I then inked up my tag using the Fired Brick Distress ink pad.  After getting it to a color I was happy with, I then used some black archival ink and stamped with the musical note rubber stamp and some snowflakes.  I removed the mask and then following Tim's instructions, I heated the  tag so that the inks were nice and dry.  Then I covered that image up with the other part of the mask and inked with the other distress inks that were shown in the instructions.

I don't have the metal corners.  I was going to make my own, but decided not to do so in the end.  Now what to do about the house?  I don't have that die.  Ah... my cricut to the rescue.  LOL!  Theres gotta be a house on one of the many carts that I own.   Presto... I found one on the Jubilee Cricut Cartridge.  The "village" had no windows but the words "Merry Christmas " on it.  Since I was cutting it a bit on the small side, I hid contoured the words and the really small windows.  I cut this out with grungepaper x2 and glued them together.  EK success has this neat little punch that punches out a tab... so I used that to cut out windows on the village houses.  How neat is that!  Then I painted it with one of the dabbers that I have on hand.

Everything came together quite nicely and I like what I've created now that I've written this all out.  I just realized that I didn't add one of the final touches to this tag... the key.  I'll do that later on.  Enjoy!
So here's the tag:

I like the effect seen around the sleigh (white border) .

Isn't my little Village House the cutest!!

Recipe:

Shipping Tag

Jubilee Cricut Cartridge - Village

Christmas Cards Cricut Cartridge - Horse Drawn Sleigh

Ribbon from stash

Crystal Stickles

Copper Wire

Music Notes Rubber Stamp

Snowflakes - Tim Holtz holiday mini stamps

Hand written sentiment

Tim Holtz Time Piece

Acrylic Paint Dabber - Pool

Distress Inks:

Fired Brick

Tumbled Glass

Chipped Sapphire

Walnut Stain

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 7

We're winding down to the homestretch.  Today is day 7 of the 12 Tags of Christmas .... following along with Tim Holtz.  I'm so proud of myself in able to keep this up.  Nothing else is getting done.... lol.... but at least I know that I will have accomplished this task at hand.  I am learning all sorts of new techniques that I've never tried out before.  You really need to go to his blog and see the tags that he is creating.  So go here.... Tim Holtz.

So today's tag used a lot of different techniques, and again, I'm without a lot of the items that he used.  Now if someone would like to gift me with any Tim Holtz supplies.... I would graciously accept them.  He  cut flowers and leaves using sticky backed canvas ..... now where can I find some of that locally.  I had an appointment to take my mom to, so on the way home we have to pass Michael's... so  I stopped in there very quickly.  They didn't have that, but what I found was some Canvas paper by Strathmore and thought I could see about making this work as an alternative.  The other thing that I didn't have is the wood grain folder that Tim used to emboss the tag with.  But have no fear, I used another one..... "Rays".  I should have taken a picture of the tag before I embellished it, but oh well.... I'll have to remember to do that next time.

I'm still in search of the Rock Candy Distress Stickles.  It's on my wish list.
Again, I used my cricut to cut out different elements that I needed for this tag.  This time, I used the font from Hannah Montana cartridge, and the flowers were cut from Accent Essentials.

So without further ado once again, here's my day 7 tag.

Closeup of Bottom of tag.

Closup of flower to show a bit more detail.

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridge - Flower and Leaves

Hannah Montana Cricut Cartridge - Joyful

Shipping Tag

Ribbon from stash

Button from Joanns

Rhinestones

Crystal Stickles

Glimmer Mist - Meadow Green,  Burnt Red, Cherub Pink

Tim Holtz Embossing Folder - Rays

Tim Holtz Grunge Paper

Distress Inks:

Walnut Stain

Vintage Photo

Forest Moss

Fired Brick

Crushed Olive

Frayed Burlap

Alcohol Ink - Cranberry

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 6

Ok... Tim Holtz  is really pushing things here.  Out of all of the elements that he put on todays tag, I had 2 of the items.  Nope, I didn't go out and buy anything.  I used what was in my stash and I think I did a pretty good job of it.

I pulled out my cricut once again and let it work its magic.  I recut the deer that I used in the missing holiday tags that I made.  I also cut a tree from the Cricut Cartridge - Camp Out, out of grunge paper.  I took this cut out and embossed my tag since I didn't have the embossing folder that Tim used.  I don't have any of the pine stuff to make a wreath, so I used some ric-rak .  The tissue tape was replace with some fabric leaf ribbon that I picked up from my LSS (local scrapbook store).

So here's my Day 6 tag:

Close up of bottom of tag.

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridge - Camp Out (Tree embossing)

Cricut Cartridge - Very Merry Tags ( Deer)

Ribbon, Ric-Rak

Shipping Tag

Tim Holtz Grunge Paper and Grungeboard

Tim Holtz Ideaology Word Sticks

Distress Inks:

Walnut Stain

Vintage Photo

Forest Moss

Frayed Burlap

Tumbled Glass

Paint Dabber - Pool

Journaling Tickets

Studio G stamp - Seasons Greetings

Stampology Clear Stamp - Flourish

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 5

Wow!  I don't know how he comes up with some of these ideas, but he sure is pushing me to my limits.  There are details that Tim Holtz is doing that I had no idea you could do.  I guess it helps if you just think outside the box.

Well, I didn't have a lot of the elements that he used, but again, I used what I have and I think my tag came out just as nice.  I didn't have any metal numbers, so I cut my numbers out of grungepaper ... painted and embossed them.  I don't have any of his dies yet... so my cricut comes in handy for finding similar accent pieces.  I used Blackletter for the numbers and Lacy Labels for the scallop tag.

Here's the final outcome of the tag:

 Close up of Santa!

Close up of bottom of tag embossing.

Recipe:

Blackletter Cricut Cartridge - numbers

Lacy Labels Cricut Lite Cartridge - tag

Tim Holtz Foliage

Tim Holtz Grungepaper

Tim Holtz Christmas Mini Stamps - Santa

Distress Stickles - Fired Brick

Glitz Stickles - Green

Paint Dabber - Snow Cap, Lettuce

Rock Candy Distress Paint

UTEE

Distress Inks:

Fired Brick

Barn Door

Vintage Photo

Distress Embossing Powder:

Fired Brick

Peeled Paint

I AM QUITE BUMMED OUT!!

I love doing swaps whenever I think I'll be able to do a good job and meet the deadlines.  Last month, I participated in an over the top holidiay tag swap... you can see it here.  Because of Thanksgiving week, I got busy and didn't get to the Post Office to mail it on the day that I was going to and they didn't get out until the Saturday following Thanksgiving.  I handed my package over to the PO Clerk and everything went well.

As of today, my tags have not arrived at their destination!  It's been 8 days and it shouldn't have taken that long for them to reach the hostess.  I could just sit here and cry my eyes out.... but instead... I am cutting out 14 more deer to use on some new tags.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 4

Its Day Four.  And I'm still running with the show. I gotta say, I am having a fun time and loving making these tags.  I actually started working on it about 1:30 am since I was still wide awake.  He is really pushing me beyond my limits.  I'm going thru my stash and making things works.  He used some faceted fragments and I don't have any of them, so I used the regular ones.  I even dug into my jewelry beads and found a few things to add that I thought would look cute.

This tag used a vintage Santa.  So I scoured the net for free vintage images and came across this site... Hub Pages .  I found all kinds of neat things on there.

So here is my day 4 tag:

Here's the Tag......

Close up of the fragment.  I finally figured out how to get it done.  It's not perfect like Tim's, but its good for a first time at trying something like this.

Recipe:

Vintage Santa from HubPages

Ribbon

Rhinestones

Tim Holtz Fragments, Swivel chain

Tim Holtz Adage Tickets

Tim Holtz Mini Holidays Stamp Collection

Distress inks: Fire Brick Red

Andirondak Alcohol Inks:

Cranberry

Rust

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 3

Ok, third times a charm.  This is my third attempt at making this post for my Day 3 tag.  I kept hitting something and wiping out everything that I just written.  That just sucks big time.  Not going to do that anymore.

My goal is to get each days tag done on that day and have it posted to my blog by midnite before Tim Holtz posts the next days tag.  I'm having so much fun doing this.  Now, I could go broke trying to buy every single element that he has used in the creating of his tags..... ok, I am broke since I'm still unemployed... but who's counting the days.  But it would be great to be able to just go and shop at his store and buy every single thing he has designed... including that new "Vagabond" embosser.  If you've not had a chance to see todays creation from Tim, then go here to view Day 3.

So, without further ado, here is my Day 3 tag:

The Day 3 Tag

Closeup of the Bird

Closeup of the bottom of the Tag

Recipe:

Home Decor Cricut Cartridge - Bird

Hero Arts Tree Stamp

Inkadinkadoo Script Stamp

Star Dust Distress Stickles

Ribbon, Fun Fur and Ribbon Flower

Andironak Paint Dauber - Snow Cap

Distress Inks:

Bundled Sage

Forest Moss

Peeled Paint

Vintage Photo

Walnut Stain

FireBrick Red

Jet Black Archival Ink