The March tag for the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 Challenge featured lots of beautiful pastel colours, a great technique for clean stamping and a bright, springlike look.

As in the last two months I wanted to make my tag utilize many of the techniques that Tim mentions, utilizing the supplies I have, and adding my own little twists here and there. I have also used a lot of Tim Holtz products, but this is mainly because I have quite a few of them, and love using them!

Again I cut out a tag from sturdy mount-board using the Tim Holtz Tags and Bookplates die from Sizzix. I used thin strips of Tim Holtz tissue paper instead of the washi tape that Tim uses. I use a lot of tissue paper in my journal and scrapbook pages and always keep any little trimmings for just this sort of purpose. I glued them down with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.TTTimHoltzTagMarch1

Next I chose some pretty acrylic paints. I particularly love the three Americana colours on the left of the picture below, yummy. The squished looking bottles are cheap paints from my local supermarket, the yellow one is actually gold and gives a nice metallic shimmer. TTTimHoltzTagMarch2I blobbed the paints on to my glass craft mat and gave them a couple of squirts of water… TTTimHoltzTagMarch3and a quick poke about with the end of a paint brush, what messy fun! The green came out a bit lumpy (the joys of using very cheap supplies, I suppose) but I carried on and hoped for the best.

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Then I dropped the tag into the mess, I mean beautiful paint, and wiggled it about a bit. Believe it or not it came out of this looking very pretty indeed. Phew! I left it to thoroughly dry.

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I decided I would also use a butterfly stamp and chose this gorgeous one from Sheena Douglass’ “A Little Bit Sketchy” collection. I don’t have an acrylic stamping block big enough for this stamp so used my quilting ruler (I always use this for big stamps, after all, it is just an acrylic block too!). I used Jet Black StazOn ink (why does it small of marzipan?)TTTimHoltzTagMarch6Argh! The stamp didn’t come out properly! After a few whispered swear words I decided that I was not going to start again but that I can save it! That is a crafter for you, resourceful and tenacious (some call this “daft”).

So I quickly sprinkled the ink with Turquoise Sparkle clear embossing powder (from Personal Impressions) and heated it up. The effect is a gorgeous shimmer which does not really show in photos.. what a shame the butterfly has holes in it 🙁TTTimHoltzTagMarch7I don’t have Mr Holtz’s fancy stencil film, so I stamped my butterfly onto a scrap of copy paper, cut this out and gave it a quick spray of Stick ‘n’ Spray from Crafter’s Companion. A couple of seconds to let it become tacky and I added it to the tag.

TTTimHoltzTagMarch9Next I used an old alphabet stencil and applied some DecoArt Media Texture Sand Paste around the tag. I then sprinkled it with Ranger Gold Embossing Pearl embossing powder, tapped of the excess and left it to thoroughly dry. Despite my background being definitely dry the embossing powder still insisted on sticking to it. I dusted as much as I could off, but the excess looks pretty, so I am not really bothered by it. After heat embossing it looks great, adding both shimmer and texture to the tag. I am very pleased with this technique and will definitely use it again on future projects, thank you Tim! TTTimHoltzTagMarch8Now for some embellishments, and to see if I can make that poor butterfly look a little less pathetic. I added some little buttons over his body and a few stick on jewels over the wing (in the gaps!). It is a bit clumsy but overall I think it works ok.

Then I added some little gold star brads (punching holes for them with my Crop-a-dile Big Bite). The top left one has two iridescent little feathers added to it before I put it on the tag. Because they are basically clear they are very hard to photograph, but in real life they have a lovely shimmer and catch the light.

I added a pastel purple rivet to the tag’s hole (with the Big Bite again) and then two ribbons.

TTTimHoltzTagMarch10At the bottom of the tag I added some pastel pink gingham ribbon and a little plastic “LAUGH” embellishment. I couldn’t resist including the bright pink feather. All the embellishments were glued with Collall Tacky Glue.

TTTimHoltzTagMarch11I can not believe I have made something that does not include any Distress Ink!

TTTimHoltzTagMarch12I enjoyed making this tag and the techniques for the black embossing and the texture paste/embossing powder combo are ones that I know I will be using again and again.TTTimHoltzTagMarch14Here are useful links to some of the products used in this project. These links will take you to the Amazon.co.uk store. If you buy them from these links then I will get a small commission for sending custom to Amazon.

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2015 – March tag
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