January Birthdays

I am blessed with some of the most awesome grandnieces and grandnephews that ever lived.  They never fail to delight me with their wit and inventiveness. Three have birthdays in January and I made these cards.  The first is for a young lady who loves dolls.  I had a fun time dressing this card up!  The other two were made using a 'scrap collage' technique that I learned on the web.  It is a cool way to use up ephemera and paper scraps that get collected over time.  The collaging technique is quite soothing somehow and I was very happy with the result.  Niko's card incorporates some paper that wrapped chopsticks at a restaurant that I saved some time ago.  Also, some graph paper from the computer room that tracks the air conditioner's performance.  I definitely raised some eyebrows when I asked that they save me those papers...

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 - December

Here is the last Tim Holtz tag of 2014 - you can see Tim's tag here.  I went a different direction with this one, but, the background is much the same.  I did not have frosted sheets, so I used unembossed frosted film and sewed it onto the tag with a zig-zag stitch.  You can see the stamped snowflakes and painted background under the film - I love the gentle frosted look of the film on top.  The snowflakes are die cut from chipboard that has Tim Holtz paper collaged onto it.  I wired the snowflakes together so that I could add beads, buttons, and a jingle bell.  The snowflakes can be detached and used as an ornament.  I do love a card that jingles!

So that completes a whole year of tags.  I have learned so much this year by taking the 12 tag challenge.  First and foremost, I have learned to add depth and many layers to my work.  I think my cards before were just a bit too one-dimensional.  I also learned some really cool techniques and had a lot of fun.  Finally, I am now more confident in going my own direction with the techniques.  Thank you Tim for the inspiration!