Mandie's Tim Holtz Inspired Tags

I will admit, I look forward to seeing what Tim Holtz comes up with each year for the Tags of Christmas Past. So this year, before he begins, I decided to review some of the previous years tags for some inspiration and here are a few of the tags I came up with (please excuse the iPhone photos)


For this first tag I used Walnut Nut Stain, Frayed Burlap and Gathered Twigs Distress Inks. I used the direct to paper method and just kept adding ink, strait from the pad onto the paper, until I was happy. Then I stamped my deer onto Kraft Cardstock and cut it out. I coated it with my Rock Candy Crackle Paint for a bit of bling. Finally I tore some strips of natural denim and stamped the music notes. I stuck them down with some Scor Tape and attached the deer with some foam adhesive. I added a cool strip of fabric (from the remnants section at a fabric store) to the top and called it done!

For my "Autumn Splendor" tag, I used Festive Berries, Ripe Persimmon and Peeled Paint Distress Inks with my Blending Tool to create the background. Then I used a set of leaf stamps and stamped my images with Distress Inks. On a piece of scrap cardstock I stamped "Autumn Splendor" with Embossing Ink and embossed it with Gold Embossing Powder and my Heat Tool. Then I blended a bit of ink over to top of it. I attached my phrase with some foam adhesive ad added an acrylic acorn.


For this tag I used only my Winter Seasonal Distress Inks for color. I added the Festive Berries and Evergreen Bough to the background. Then I spritzed it all over with my Mini Mister and crumpled the tag. I dried it a bit with my Heat Tool while it was still crumpled up and then carefully smoothed it a little. I used the Iced Spruce and ran it over the top of the tag, catching the raised wrinkles. Then I used my hands to smooth it a bit more. On some scrap paper I stamped my Santa and my "Merry Christmas". I inked Santa with the Evergreen Bough and then coated him with the Rock Candy Crackle Paint. When he dried, I added the Festive Berries to the rest of the piece. I tore it out and then matted it on a piece of torn Kraft Cardstock. I also inked my Merry Christmas with the Festive Berries and Iced Spruce. Then I attached both pieces with foam adhesive. I inked up my piece of mesh ribbon with Festive Berries too!

My last tag is my favorite. I used Broken China, Evergreen Bough and Seedless Preserves to ink up my background. Using the same colors, I stamped snowflakes all over the background. Then I used some Stickles and smeared them across the background with my finger for a bit of sparkle. I stamped my deer with Evergreen Bough, coated it with Rock Candy Crackle Paint and fussy cut it and attached it with foam adhesive. I had the "Season's Greetings" epoxy sticker in my stash and added some tinsel ribbon.

For clean up when you are done playing with your inks, I HIGHLY recommend the Inkssentials Craft Scrubbie! It get all of that ink off of your fingers!