Wishing anyone who visits an "All is Calm, All is Bright" holiday tomorrow.

Every year I decorate this stone birdhouse I made and it really puts me in the mood to celebrate the holidays. There is a peacefullness as I add the animals and trees around. I perhaps I wish I lived in such a place.

I hope you are all with people you love and enjoying the wonders of the season.

Here are all 12 Tags of Christmas I made from Tim Holtz's website. Very time consuming but worth the effort. Loved making them all. Someone said you can copy off the tags and directions, which you can, however I did just tag number 1 and it was 30 pages. I know some of them are more than that, so unless you want a book (a fat book) I wouldn't recommend it. Perhaps just a certain technique might be the option. Anyway, hope you like and have been enjoying your own holiday preparations.

Thanks for stopping by.

Day # 10 and done early. Have time for shopping. This tag didn't take that long to do, but the colors are much more vibrant than they appear here. There is green in the wish section but it doesn't seem to show. Very fun to make. I didn't have the metal adhesive to use in the background so I used Plumber's tape which is about the same. So there is a seam in the middle, but he used his stapler to make stitches so I did too and looks like it was meant to happen.

Thanks for stopping by.

Day #9 of Tim Holt's 12 Christmas Tags. Mine is quite different yet looks a lot like it. I did not have the film that he used so I improvised by finding some old negatives that were very dark brown. I put them in bleach and voila, they turned clear. So then I used his distress ink to make them tinted a little vintage and went from there. I didn't know you could bleach them out, but that was exciting, as it opens up more possibilities. Hope you can all use that should you want to.

Today was a day of surprises. There is more snow than predicted and it is a winter wonderland out there today. Gave me an opportunity to make a snowman out front of the house and to notice my beautiful roses that the freezing temperatures don't seem to effect. As you can see the contrast is just beautiful. I decided to use the roses to look like a hat on the snowwoman?

Being a kid again today. Enjoy the beauty everyone.

Finally am caught up with tags 6 and 7 of Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas.

What I like about doing these is that it is teaching me new techniques that I can use in so many other applications. It makes me think how I can get the same effect with different products than he may be using. And, finding out that certain techniques that work for him are not working for me. For instance, he painted white flourishes on the Santa Tag that you cannot see on mine. I did it as he did, but when it came time to wipe them with a damp paper towel, the ink did not come off to make them white again. I would have embossed them with white and they would have had the contrast he was able to achieve. Not a big deal but I would have liked the white contrast that he got.

So, if you are trying these, I hope you have as much fun as I am. Can't wait to do some little atc's using some of these techniques. Hope you are all enjoying your holiday crafts and gift making..

Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Christmas Tags

Wow, this is a real challenge for me. It seems I spend so much time doing these. I can only get one a day done and I'm two behind right now. Don't know if I can catch up. Thought it would be today, but it's getting late.

The picture really doesn't do them justice. So much better in person, but oh well. For anyone else who is making these I hope you are having as much fun as I am with them.

These are the other two tags I did using the Hero Arts Vintage Flowers instead of Tim's metal rose. I post these just for comparison purposes as the metal rose was much too time consuming to be my cup of tea. And I love roses. Just not these.

This post should be below the last one but I'm not sure I can reverse them, so I'll let them stand as is.

I must be a Tim Holtz Groupie as I just spent endless hours making tag 1 and tag 2 of his 12 Tags of Christmas. And, they are not identical as I don't own all those images and embellishments. I had to improvise, but felt I got the same effect as his. If you are not familiar with Tim Holtz, and I can't imagine that, you can see his at http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/

I love making these, but I have to say that if you are going to attempt to make the rose in the lower left of the bottom tag that you might think twice. I am very good at assemblage, however, after over an hour this rose finally came together and then it broke. I would and did make two other tags but I used the Hero Arts Vintage Flowers and the effect is as nice if not nicer. I will post those pictures too. I'm trying to make one for me and one for Stampassion, so if you want to see them in person, you can find them there on the days I work or after.

This is truly an exercise in improvisation as the snowman is not the same nor is the stamp on the 2nd tag. I hope if you are doing these that you are enjoying them as much as I am and learning at the same time.

Thanks for your comments on my blog as they keep me inspired to try more and newer techniques. Hope you are all enjoying the beginning of the holiday season.