Articulated Tags and Wagging Tails

Gosh, where did the week go?

I had all good intentions of finishing up my next lot of tags and getting them uploaded to the blog earlier in the week. Tuesday night, all was going well and I got the other option of the caged bird tag finished and got all set up to take the photographs..... camera battery flat, so it had to go on charge overnight. Memo to self: buy a back-up battery. I use a Canon IXUS 800 IS, it's a brilliant camera but has one downfall - there's no battery meter. One minute it's fine, the next minute there's a flashing red camera icon on the screen and then it closes itself up and goes to sleep. Fortunately, a full charge lasts quite some time but a spare battery is a necessity.

Wednesday evening, I made a quick get away from work and hot tailed it from Barny to Darlington to catch the kennels on my way home. Diesel was out of food and I had to pick up his next 15K bag before they closed or he would be going without his tea and demanding mine! While I was there I just had to give my new best friend a cuddle, let me introduce you to 'Reno'......

Isn't he just totally adorable? I first got to know him when he was just eight weeks old and he's now nineteen weeks, very calm, very obedient and a real sweetie. His personality reminds me very much of Diesel's with not a nasty thought in his head. I make no apologies for the following:

"Just look at my big teeth, I've got some new ones you know, Pllleeease have a look"?

"Don't you think I'm a good boy? I can sit here being very composed, when really all I want to do is this"..........

Needless to say, I really wanted to take him home with me but Andy (his Dad who owns the kennels) wouldn't let me!

OK, drooling time over - until the next time!

When I eventually got home I managed to get another tag finished up and got the photographs done too. I've used the 'BIG' tags again from Graphicus, they're 21.5cm x 10.5cm (81/2" x 41/8"). If you want 'need' these tags don't hang around, as far as I know they are a one-off and we won't be getting them back in stock. Trust me, if you love creating art on tags - you definitely need these!

This is the alternative Caged Bird tag with a beaded trim around the base of the cage. The letters are Grungeboard Mini's again and I coloured them with a Copic Sketch marker then coated them with Glossy Accents. The flower is from my own stash (it's a Prima that I brought back from a trip to Las Vegas a few years back - see, I do use my stash.... eventually)!

The next one is a fully articulated tag that I made in the workshop last Friday. The top section is joined to the mid section by  a working hinge.

There's another of those fab Tim Holtz Bigz dies, this one has several elements to it. You get a solid heart, an open decorative heart, wings and a crown.... I've cut them from plain Grungeboard.

This is another one I started as a demo piece during Friday's workshop. It's another image transfer onto Claudine Hellmuth's Sticky Backed Canvas with handmade paper flowers. You can see that it's not quite finished..... there's nothing on the hanging banner for a start....

.... and those flowers look pretty plain to me - too plain! So I got to work and finished it off and here's how it looks now.........

I've added Stickles to the stamped flowers in the background in rust and orange, attached a brass hanger at the top and there's those Grungeboard Mini's again on the banner. I originally coloured  the letters and the laurel leaves with Distress Inks but I didn't feel that the colour was strong enough so I used the Copic's to beef them up.... I'm really liking Copic's on Grungeboard!

Finally, I worked on the flowers and glitzed them up with some glass glitter, a touch of yellow Stickles around the pearl flower centres and a decorative brass corner was added to the image transfer.

Well, that's all for now - the weekend is here again and I'm off to York in the morning so I must get to bed. Whatever you're planning for the weekend, have fun and of course.....

Happy Crafting!

Vacation Over

As some of you may know or may have found out when you tried to visit here, my blog was being intermittently 'hi-jacked' and it has taken quite some time to work out how it was being done. It has been a case of removing items one by one to see what the outcome would be.

I must admit, I was so fed up of it at one point that I really lost the will to blog. I set up a blog on Typepad but really didn't want to have to start from scratch again which is what I would have had to do, as transferring all my stuff without finding out what was causing the problem may have meant that the problem moved with me!

After months of investigating I finally identified the offending widget and removed it, so hopefully, everything should behave itself now and you should no longer find yourself being transferred to the 'I Meetz You' site! It's certainly had a lot of testing every day and at different times of the day and night so we'll see how things go (fingers are firmly crossed). While I was messing around I decided to have a change of scenery and freshen things up a bit so things look a little different too.

I have a huge amount to catch up on, all the time I've been away from blogging I've been cataloging events and taking photo's so I'll be dipping in and out of the last six months in an effort to catch up some.

I'm going to make a start with some photos from an event last Friday, it was my 'Articulated Tag' workshop at Graphicus. The ladies who attended were lovely and they turned out some fabulous tags of their own but, as usual the day just flew by and we didn't get the last one completed so I promised to put the sample tags on here so they could catch up in their own time. Here's Part One:-

I've used the large #10 tags from Graphicus. They are a fabulous size and great for showcasing larger stamps, Tim Holtz die cuts and beautiful embellishments. We found these tags at CHA when we went to the trade show in Los Angeles back in January and I can't tell you how excited I was at the thought of having these beauties to work on. I was like a cat on a hot tim tin roof waiting for them to arrive from the USA.

The focal point of this tag is the image transfer onto Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Backed Canvas which has been triple embossed to give a glass-like finish. It's been embellished with the Tim Holtz Bigz Die - Tattered Florals which I've cut from Grungeboard that was first covered with a page from a dictionary and inked with Distress Inks after it was die cut, together with a lovely antiqued Key Hole. The pearly rose on top of the bird cage was made with the Melt Pot and Pearl UTEE. I made a mold from Mold-n-Pour using a button to create the impression.... I was really pleased with the result I got and of course, I can make it in a variety of colours too!

This tag features the Tim Holts Bigz Die, it's called Caged Bird and I've cut it from plain Grungeboard. The tag also features Fragments, Grungeboard Mini's, Film Strip Ribbon and a Philosophy Tag.

I've been working on another version of this tag this evening, with a beaded trim on the base of the bird cage. It's drying at the moment as I've coated the letters with Glossy Accents, I'll get it photographed tomorrow and onto the blog tomorrow evening with some more articulated tags from the workshop for you to see.

For now..... Happy Crafting!