New Release & New Challenge at ADFD

Today is a good day at ADFD.  There are two new events going on:  a new release with some gorgeous images, and a new challenge.  The new challenge is Tinsel & Tags.  This challenge is really great for this time of year since, in my experience, this is the time that I use a lot of tags.  I really liked the process of planning and making all the elements for tag.  Here's my tag for the challenge:

Supplies:
Image:  Tina, Trina, & Tim:  A Day for Daisies digital stamp
Paper:  Cougar smooth white 130# card stock (base), brown kraft mailing wrapping paper, patterned paper (K&Company), DCWV card stock, Recollections card stock
Tools & Embellishments:  MS branch punch, Family Treasures corner punch, 1/8" circle punch, small corner rounder (EK Success), Ribbon (Michaels), chip board shape (Making Memories), Brads (Michaels), Scalloped Daisy border punch (Fiskars), EZ Cutter knife & oval template, gold gel pen, black gel pen, Tim Holtz distress inks (fired brick, bundles sage, walnut stain), iridescent medium (Windsor & Newton), Embossing pen (Making Memories), red & gold glitter embossing powder (Stampendous), red Stickles, Prisma pencil crayons, oms, mini tinsel pompoms (Dollar Store), Create-a-shade pearl paint (Close to my Heart)

I wanted the chipboard piece to shimmer, so I used the Create-a-shade pearl paint by CTMH.  It gave it a nice shimmery silver finish.  I popped the coloured image onto this, then I added the tinsel pompoms as the furry trim to the sock.  I bought some iridescent medium about 2 weeks ago and I am loving that stuff.  I've been using it on everything, so I had to use it on this project too.  For the background of the tag, I had some brown paper left over from wrapping up parcels I was sending through the mail.  I took a piece larger than my tag and crumpled it up a few times so that I would get it really wrinkled.  I adhered it to my tag and cut off the excess. Then I used the walnut stain distress ink and went around the edge of the tag.  Next, I mixed some iridescent medium with water & a couple drops of fired brick distress ink in one container, and in the other I changed the ink to bundled sage.  This made some nice "glimmer mist" that I painted onto my tag.  I put red on the top half and green on the bottom half.  I used my heat gun to dry the paper since I'm too impatient to let it sit long enough to air dry.  Then I took my embossing pen and drew swirlies on the top halve and covered it with green glitter embossing powder, then I did the same on the bottom half with red glitter embossing powder.  The tree on the tag isn't hard to make.  I took some scrap green cardstock and just punched about 30 branches with my MS branch punch.  I also cut a triangle out of the same scrap cardstock.  Then, starting at the bottom, I glued the branches onto the triangle, working across then up the triangle, making sure my little branches hung over the edges a little bit.  I did two layers like this because I didn't want the base to show through.  One that was done, I put little red stickle baubles all over the tree and used a star shaped brad with the prongs cut off and used pop dots to adhere it to the tag.  I didn't have a small enough stamp and I really didn't want to fuss with the computer and printing for the sentiment, so I just cut a piece of scrap white cardstock with my EZ Cutter knife & oval template and hand wrote the sentiment.  I used a gold gel pen to go around the edge of the oval, then I used the red homemade "glimmer mist" and painted over top of it to give it some sparkle.  Once it was dry I attached it to the tag with pop dots.

Wow!  That seems like a lot of steps, but really it wasn't that bad.  I think all in all it took maybe about an hour to make the tag.  I'm not excited about the way it looks in the picture, but in real life, it is very pretty and shimmery and I think a pretty good start for my first "Tim Holtz style" tag.

My next project is a scrapbook page using one of the new release images.  These new images pulled at my heart because we have a little dog that is pure joy for us.  She is so sweet natured and affectionate and we just love her to death.  Here is my layout:

Supplies:
Image:  Family Pet (or Good Dog) - A Day for Daisies digital stamp
Papers:  Pets paper stack (Imagine That), Exact Index 110# white cardstock (Wausau), corregated cardboard, matte photo paper (Kodak)
Tools & Embellishements:  Dog theme stickers (Dollar Store), Ribbon (Dollar store), Brad (Michaels), Letter stickers (Paperbilities), Floral vine deep edge punch (Martha Stewart), Iridescent medium (Windsor & Newton), Red brick distress ink (Tim Holtz)

For the layout, I wanted to get as many cute pictures of our little baby as I could fit in the middle of the heart, so I made a collage of her pictures and printed it out on 8 1/2 x 11 matte photo paper.  To make the heart frame, I cut a piece of cardboard to the size and shape I wanted (about 7"x8") and then ripped off as much of the top layer of paper to reveal the corregated paper underneath.  Then I took the homemade glimmer mist in red and sponged that onto the heart frame. (here's a close up pic)

While the cardboard was still damp, I distressed it a bit more by rolling up some of the edged and tearing it a little bit as you can see in the picture above, but here's another close up pic:

I glued the frame onto the printout in the spot that got as many of the pictures I really wanted.  I then trimmed away the excess photo.  I took about 12" of grosgrain ribbon and tied a bow in the middle of it and added a brad by bending the prongs and putting them through the knot in the centre of the bow.  I cut off the bits of the prongs that stuck out past the knot.  I used Aileen's fast grab tacky glue to glue the ribbon to the frame.  I like this glue because it really does live up to its name.  Since I was folding the ribbon over and scrunching it up, I needed a glue that would hold it in place and this glue is one of the best I've found for this (other than glue dots which I'm out of right now).

To make the lacy mat for the background, I took a piece of 9" x 9" paper and puched around it with the MS floral vine deep edge punch.  I wish there was a corner punch for this punch, or if there is one I haven't seen it in the stores around here, so I just went to the edge and just let whatever happened to the corners happen.

For the Good Boy image, I first coloured it digitally in my Paintshop Pro program, then I printed it out 3 times. I cut the various layers of the image and used pop dots to make the image 3D, kind of like making a paper tole image with it.  Here's a close up of that detail:

The title for the layout was done with letter stickers I've had in my stash forever.  I think I bought the package when I first started scrapbooking about 6 years ago.  I've only used them on this layout and one other layout. They're usually not my style, and I usually use my CraftRobo to create titles for my pages, but the colours seemed to go with my layout and they're convenient.

So other than the couple of doggie dollar store stickers I added, that's it for my layout.  I had fun creating all the different elements I did for this layout.  And, of course, I love doing layouts about my little doggie.  She takes such cute pictures.

Thats it for today.  Talk to you later...

Cat