It's the most wonderful time of the year....my Tim Tag for December

It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

I'm looking forward to spending time with kids who are both back 

home from college ~ we have plans to decorate the tree & bake cookies!

Before I pack up the car and head back to Calgary, I wanted to share my take on Tim's tag.

Here are my tag bases I did. I wasn't sure which one I was going with at first but I 

decided to save the lucky clover argyle one for another project.

The tree is from an old Sizzix die I had and I think its called Christmas Tree #2. That was going to be the base for my next technique.

This is the same technique Tim used to make his wreath except I used my Holiday Greens Thinlit dies to make my tree.

I added a sentiment from the Occasions Small Talk and some splattered Picket Fence Distress Paint along with a few alcohol inked stars and some jute along the edges.

Another finished tag for 2015!

I am already so excited for 2016 and looking forward to more wonderful inspiration from Tim Holtz!

I wish you a very Merry Christmas & a happy and crafty new year!

Thank you so much for popping by my blog today.

 I hope I was able to inspire you even just a little bit! 

~~stay crafty~~

julia

Challenges Entered:
Tim Holtz - 12 Tags of 2015 December
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
 

Fall-ing ~ Emerald Creek Design Team

It's time for the Fall release from the Emerald Creek Dares Design Team.

Now, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about this season ~ I love the colours of the leaves as they change, the excitement of the NHL season beginning and the smell of a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

All of these things are wonderful but it also means that the snow can start falling anytime.

My project today was inspired by a walk I took with my dog in the beautiful river valley of the North Saskatchewan as it makes it way through Edmonton, Alberta.

My base was an 8"x10" burlap canvas that I had in my stash.
I knew I wanted it to look like a pumpkin patch at sunset.

I used my blending tool to blend Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs & Ground Espresso along the bottom edge of my canvas.

The sunset was a blend of several colours ~ Squeezed Lemonade , Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Seedless Preserves & Wilted Violet.

To add a little more interest to the background I stamped leaves in Archival Ink around the outside edges. I just love the Leaf & Maple Leaf stamps from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies!

 I decided to add a bit more texture to the bottom edge by using the Burnt Copper Leaves Embossing Powder ~ this is an Exclusive blend only available at Emerald Creek Craft Supplies.

The Tim Holtz/Sizzix Pumpkin Parts die was new to me and I was very excited to use it.
All three pumpkins were diecut  out of chipboard and coloured with Distress Paint ~ Rusty Hinge and Ripe Persimmon. The smaller pumpkin is the same die, I just trimmed off the outer sections of the pumpkin to get a different shape. The stems were coloured with Crushed Olive Distress Paint. The 'vines' were made using a wax coated hemp string that I had in my stash. I wrapped it around a skewer to get the curled look. To finish the look of the pumpkins I used my spritzer tool with my Ground Espresso Distress Marker.

A fall canvas would not be complete without lots & lots of colourful leaves!
The Fall Foliage Thinlits from Tim Holtz & Sizzix was perfect!
I die cut  leaves out of Core'dination's Cardstock & printed paper then inked the edges.

I couldn't wait to use my Distress Paint on these amazing Feather Charms from Emerald Creek.
I used Wilted Violet, Ripe Persimmon & Crushed Olive Distress Paint, wiping off a bit of the paint as it was starting to dry. I then used my Distress Blending tool to add some Ground Espresso Distress Ink to the edges.

It was time to adhere all these pieces to my canvas and after it was all glued down and just right, I gave the entire canvas a light spritzing with Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold for just a bit of shimmer.

 Thank you for visiting my blog today!
Be sure to check out the blog posts from the rest of the Emerald Creek Dares Design Team for a lot more Fall Themed inspiration!

Nicole Wright Designs
Diana Hetherington - missusgmoments
Cathy Potosky - Amethyst Dragon's Alcove
Karon Hughes - Karon's Krafty Korner 

Check out the Emerald Creek Dares Blog for a chance to win a $25 online gift certificate!

Mini Fall Canvas Set

Well, it finally happened - I took my dog for a walk at a local park in the river valley and I felt things.

The beautiful colours of the leaves, the rustling sound the leaves made as my dog ran & bounded through them. It was glorious!

All I needed a glass a warm apple cider and slice of pumpkin pie and it would have been perfection!

I came home full of inspiration and immediately went to, what I like to call, my Box of Bases!

It's where is keep canvasses, wood frames, 3D boxes etc etc. As I was flipping through I found 4 mini burlap canvasses - 4"x 4". Perfect!

Ripe Persimmon, Forest Moss and my brand new Wilted Violet that I bought at Emerald Creek Craft Supplies is a gorgeous fall colour pallet. I used my blending tool to apply the the colours to the burlap. On 2 of the canvasses I applied Ranger Texture Paste through the Zig Zag Stencil & the Argyle Stencil by Tim Holtz & Stampers Anonymous. After the texture paste dried I applied more distress ink. I applied Wilted Violet with my ink blending tool through the Zig Zag & Stripes Stencils on the other 2 canvasses.

I decided to use the Bird Crazy Stamp set because those little guys were just the perfect size. 

I stamped & watercolored 4 of them with my Distress Ink. 

I wanted some larger die cut elements and the Branch Tree & Rickety House were just the right size. 

To get the texture on the tree I took a sheet of Glassine and scrunched it up before appling Ground Espresso, Vintage Photo & Gathered Twigs with my blending tool. I then used matte medium to adhere the glassine to chipboard before diecutting my image. I used the same technique for the rickety house except I used my woodgrain embossing folder the for texture.

I used the Holidays Greens and Scribbles & Splats Thinlit dies to add a few more elements and some random letters to spell our "Fall". 

Finally, I used some old rusty hinges that I bought at ReStore to join all four mini panels together.

Thanks for visiting my blog today! I really appreciate it!

Project entered:
Southern Ridge Trading Company : Fall Challenge

Don't forget to check out the Emerald Creek Dares blog for this months challenge and for a chance to win a $25 gift card to the online store!

a Venti Pike Place engagement.....

Engagements between two amazing people are always an exciting & wonderful time...and this one is very special because one half of this engaged couple is my little sister, Jessica.

Simon & Jess ~ Seattle June 2015

The other thing that made this engagement amazing is that Simon planned it as a surprise - everyone knew about it for a month before the actual event happened. I'm so very proud of myself for keeping my mouth shut even though I was absolutely bursting with excitement!

The happy couple met for the first time at a Starbucks in Calgary & the plan was to surprise her with a weekend getaway to Seattle & propose at the very first Starbucks at Pike Place Market. All though the actual "popping of the question" didn't happen there it was still very memorable and romantic. 

I knew as soon as I heard the plan of the engagement from Simon that I had to make a Starbucks themed card for them.

I bought this cool Starbucks stamp at Viva Las VegaStamps

 and knew that it would be perfect with the Fresh Brewed Die from Tim Holtz & Sizzix.

I little burlap & die cut words from the Friendship Script thinlits die set finished it off perfectly.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today.

I love reading your comments & checking out your blogs!

stay crafty

~~~julia~~~


challenges entered:

Viva Las VegaStamps: July ~ a bit o'vintage