September Monthly Tag for Tim Holtz challenge

*Warning*

This post is going to be picture heavy ;)

I have completed my Tag for Tim Holtz monthly tag challenge for September.

Tim focused on his stencils and his distress paints for this month.

I found one of his stencils on our trip and I picked up some of his distress paints as well..but we will get to those in a minute.

I have enjoyed not only coming up with creative ways to make Tim's monthly tags, but also to come up with alternative ways to use the supplies I have.

As we all know, as much as we would love to, we can't all have all of his great supplies :)

I am also making my tags to go with a theme for that month.
So when I think of September I think of the start of school.

One of the supplies Tim used was embossing paste.
I have never heard of this, but it sure looked like drywall compound.
Can you tell I do home repairs as well ;)
My drywall compound was old and mostly dried up, as I have been working on my downstairs bathroom forever and by the looks of this container...took a real long break, lol.
But at the very bottom of the container I found some I could work with.

I have to say...this technique I loved!!!!
I like the dimension it gives and it came out so crisp and clean.

The next step was to use Picket Fence distress paint and dab it on over another of his stencils.
I have a lot of stencils from when I went to school, many moons ago, so I just used one of them. I save everything, lol.
I guess I didn't read Tim's instructions well, as he stated to use a clean sponge, lol.

Now to play with his distress paints.
I picked up 2 sets on our trip.
One with my darker colours and the other set more pastel colours.
I am on the fence about these.
The seemed to make my tag paper pill. But I am more sure it was from me adding to much water to the tag.
Also it looked like when Tim did it, they blended so much more nicely.
But then again this is my first time using them.

Tim used more stencils, so I pulled out some of mine and added distress inks...I think distress inks are my favourite of all Tim Holtz products.
I also added some distress ink (black soot) to the raised stencil area.
See how the distress paints seemed to resist the colour of the picket fence I used on the alphabet stencil...so cool.
This is the point where I had to get ready to go to the cottage for the weekend.
I swear this tag was calling my name all weekend, I even had a dream about it, lol.

Note to Self
Don't bring my phone in my craft area while creating...I will loose it in all the creative chaos.

I wanted to use this washi tape for the tags ribbon.
But it was a bit on the white side, so I used distress ink to give it that aged look to match the tag better.
I then went back and used a darker colour.
I then folded the washi tape and stuck it to itself and fed it through the tags hole.
I then added some twine and my charm.

Lets take a closer peek at the details, shall we ;)
I used a stamp set that came with one of my Pure Innocence girls for the saying.
A closer look at the ruler stencil :)
See the little map stamp of Canada? :)

See how I used the tissue/washi tape in place of the ribbon.
I used a fishing swivel to attach the "inspire" disk to the ribbon.
I have used this many times over the years, but these swivels were a pain to open. I told Wayne, a man would have not fought with them as I had, they would have thrown them over the boat first try, lol.
I used my Graphic 45 school papers for this tag. I really like that collection.
I also used a dotted banner stamp in burgundy at the top.

A few other embellishments I used is the pen nib....I really do love these.  I also do calligraphy, maybe that is why.
Also a clock charm. Not sure about you, but I always watched the clock in class ;)
A closer look at how the Picket Fence resisted the paints. Even though it was a little coloured up from my sponge ;)

And there you have it my September tag for Tim Holtz monthly challenge.
I really had fun with this one :)
It seems like forever since I have been in my craft room.

I hope you all had a creative Monday :)

Edited to add my planner page challenge photo. I was so excited that I got Tim's tag completed I totally forgot to post my planner photo and today is the last day :)
Day #30
"Wide Open"
Here is my pages from last week.
You can see on Sunday when I went to try those pens out at Staples ;)

Tracy :)

Closed for the Season

Of course it turned out to be a beautiful day as we closed up the cottage for the season.
It was like Mother Nature was teasing us for leaving.

We turned off the water, put away the fire pit supplies and out door chairs. I went for one last quad ride, before Wayne took out the quad batteries and ran them out of gas.
Look how pretty the changing leaves are.

I totally cleaned up the cottage.
I thought I would share with you a bit of our cottage.
This is in the kitchen area.  I wonder what the theme is in this room, teehee.
My husband Wayne took those photos of those bears on the wall.
I put pinecones in the table centre piece. Yep those are bears on either side of the log, teehee.

Here we are leaving the cottage :(
Locking up the gate on the way out.
The centre building is our cottage.
The one the right is our 26.5 ft trailer. We use it as a guest cottage or when I am working on a large project I use it as a craft room ;)
The buildings on the left are the garage, then the sauna and the tiny one behind the pole is the outhouse.

Every year at this time, on our way home from the cottage, I see this beautiful scene of the fall trees.
Every year I try to get the perfect photo.
And every year I fail, lol.
Here you can see the power line.
















And here you see the antenna of the truck.
Plus I can never capture the beautiful crisp colours.
Mind you these are taken from my cell phone.

When we got home from the cottage, Wayne wanted to run to Home Depot.
I didn't really want to go out..until I realized I wanted some new pens for my planner.
I know, I have so many pens, but I am trying to find some pens that don't bleed though my pages.
I love thick pen nibs, as I have big bold primary writing.
I really like my sparkly pens, but they really bled through.
So I will give these a try. I did try them a bit in the store and they didn't seem to bleed through.

Now that we are talking about planners....
Its day #29
"Loves"
Two of my loves in my planner, these photos of my family I keep in the business card holder. And of course my washi tape ;)

I hope you all had a great weekend and a creative Sunday :)
I actually got to create tonight :)
I finally finished my Tim Holtz tag for September :)   I will share with you that tomorrow. Don't want to overload this post more than it is ;)

Tracy :)

Closing up

Taking over the couch with my creative goodies.

After a long day of working at the cottage, I am relaxing by watching "The Rock", I love me some Sean Connery :) and decorating my planner pages for next month.

We did a lot today. 

Put up the storm windows, took down the solar lights, covered the patio furniture, put away the marshmallow sticks, put the umbrellas away and hooked up the snow plow. 

Yup we are bringing the plow home. Hopefully we won't need it any time soon

It was very windy today, but it was a warm wind.

It was raining pine needles and leaves, as the wind was so strong. 

Enjoyed our last sauna of the year. 

We will turn off the water and drain the pipes before we go home tomorrow. 

Day #28

"On The Shelf"

As we are at the cottage, I thought this was a fitting shelf to display my planner on for this challenge. 

At home my planner either sits on my living room or dining room table. It never sits on a shelf. I would forget to use it if it was, lol.  

I hope you all had a creative Saturday. 

Tracy 

Fall is in the air

Enjoying some hot chocolate in my Fall cup. 

We are at the cottage getting ready to close it up for the season.

We do still come out to the cottage during the winter. 

But with the cold temperatures we have here, we have to turn off the water or it will freeze.

If we do come out in the winter we need to bring up our water and use the outhouse.

As you can see fall is here.

The colours of fall are so beautiful. 

I started working on my "Tim's Tag". 

I wasn't happy with how it was going. I need to play with those distress paints more. 

But didn't have time to complete it. 

I hated leaving it this way. 

Day #27 

"Planner Charms"

I don't have any charms on my planner, but I got flair 😊

I wanted to cover up the embroidered symbol on my closure, plus I wanted to make it more personal.

I just added lots of snot dots, or sticky dots as most call them. This pretty flair is not going anywhere. 

I hope you all had a creative Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Tracy 😀

Washi, washi Who's got the washi ;)

Remember the washi tape I bought last weekend.
I thought I would un-package it all and share with you what they all look like, up close and personal.
Plus when they are un-packaged, doesn't look like I didn't buy as much ;)

Day #26
"Pen Case"
I keep my pens in my travel tote.
But I also use my Stampin' Up markers in my planner. They have a fine tip, plus I can use them with my stamps.
The tiny little tags on the left, those all all my marker colours and the names on the backside of the tags.
I really like this case as it has another zipper pouch on the back.

Onto My Day:
A friend came for tea this morning.
Kristy wasn't here to go driving, so Heather had an extra long lesson :)
Ashley came home for lunch...it was like old times :)
Wayne and I went to pick up camp groceries as we are totally closing up camp.
Then stopped off at Ashley's as Wayne wanted to check to see if her fan belt needed re-placing...it does.

I hope you all had a creative Thursday :)

Tracy :)

Day #25 Pockets

Day #25 of the Planner Challenge.
"Pockets"
I keep my phone in the left side pocket of my planner. I am always misplacing my phone, as I don't use it that much. But by keeping it in my planner, I know where it is...if I put it back after I use it, lol.
In the business card pockets on the right, I put photos of my beautiful daughters :)


Onto My Day:
I had two of my friends drop by at different times today.
I would like to think that they came to visit me, but I think it may have been to see all my goodies I bought during my trip, lol.

I took both of my girls driving this morning and they are doing really good.
Heather, Kristy and I went to Ashley's for supper as Wayne is working late again.
We also went  to some home improvement stores. We are looking for a way to make Ashley a wall to wall bar, to hang up all of her clothes....we're still working on that though ;)

Hope you all had a creative Wednesday :)

Tracy :)

New Washi Tape, Day #24

Day #24
"Brand New"
Nothing is any newer to me then my purchases from last weekend

Here is a peek at my washi tape and flair I picked up during my weekend family vacation ;)
It looks like I went a bit crazy when you put them all together like this.
But it really makes me want to break open some new pages in my planner and start decorating my weeks!!!!!

Onto My Day:
I spent a good potion of my day taking Kristy, then Heather driving.
Kristy has to wait a full year before she can take her second driving licence. But Heather can take it anytime. So I am hoping she will feel confident enough to take it before the snow comes.

Ashley came over for supper.
She ran out with me to the grocery store to pick up a few things.
She really wanted some dessert.
Funny thing is we never have dessert, so we all totally forgot about it.
So she went back to her place without dessert, teehee.

I hope you all had a creative Tuesday :)
I didn't create or tidy up my craft room like I wanted to ....guess there is always tomorrow;)

Tracy :)

Craft Hoarder Quiz and Day #23

Day #23
"ToDo"
Here is my todo list for tomorrow.
I like to block out my days in 15 minute increments. I may not follow them to a "T" but I seem to get more done in my day when I make my lists like this.
Only a few more days left of this challenge that A Bowl Full Of Lemons is putting on :)

I took this fun "The Ultimate Craft Hoarder Quiz"

A friend of mine thought it would be fun if we took it. Funny thing is she scored very close to me, teehee.

I scored a 22. So I am a Creative Mess.

But only because I was willing to give up my loose glitter...but that is because that sh1t is messy, lol.

The Quiz states that "I am a borderline hoarder, but I am are aware of that. I know how to have fun, get messy and still keep a grip on reality (and your glue gun)" 

I like that they said I was only borderline, lol.

I would love to know what you scored on this challenge ;)

Just click on the link I posted and have fun ;)

I hope you all had a creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

Creative Travels Day 3

Today was our last day of our weekend trip.
But I got one last creative stop in before we headed home.

I always enjoy visiting Pine City Scrapbooking.
When I checked their web site it stated that they didn't open until 12:00.
So we waited and had a late leaving the hotel, so we could get to the store as they opened. Only to find out they opened at 10:00am not noon. I think they need to keep their web site updated.

Here are the last of my creative goodies.
I finally found one of the Tim Holtz stencils.

I think they are teasing me as I am haven't had a glass of Coke since last Sunday.  

We stopped at My Sister's Place in Grand Marais.
The food there is so so good.
While we waited to our food I was teasing the girls that I could make a swan out of my paper napkin ring.
LOL, pretty good eh...they weren't impressed, but they did get a good laugh ;)
Just for the record, that is Wayne's diet coke to the left and my glass of water on the right.

Day #22
"Post its and Flags"
I don't use many of these for the purpose that they are intended for. I mostly use them to decorate my planner pages...surprise, surprise, lol.

I hope you all had a creative Sunday :)
I am hoping to do a bit of creating myself tomorrow. If not actually making something, then at least putting my creative goodies away ;)

Tracy :)

Creative travels day 2

I have lots to share with you today.

So let's start from the beginning. 

Heather didn't like her yogurt that her and Kristy picked out for breakfast. So being the caring mom that I am. I sacrificed my healthy muffin to give to her and I had to eat the ice cream bar. You know breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

We were on the road by 7:03 am. 

Yes my friends we were late to Wayne's standards. And to make matters worse I-35 was closed due to roadwork, Lola 2 (our GPS) had to keep recalculating, so we were taken down back roads to get back onto the interstate. 

Oh yeah and there's a bit of a rattle in the back of the jeep, sounds like a Wibur adventure to me.

First stop Cabala's. 

While Wayne shopped the girls played checkers and I wandered.

I did pick up a new duffle bag for me. 

Next stop was Scrapbookers Too 😃

I found a few goodies. 

Pretty good eh? No paper.

But don't get to excited the shopping trip has just begun.

I picked up some prima doll stamps, washi tape and some fun flair 😀

We were all pretty hungry by now, so off to the mall. Mall of America that is.

I can't believe it was Wayne's first time having a crepe from the crepe stand. 

Maybe not the healthiest lunch, but it was delish ;)

Can you believe that Scrapfest was going on and I didn't know about it until the day we left home. Bad scrapbooker aren't I 

I think I was the only person at Archivers that wasn't here for Scrapfest. 

Ohhh, you want to see what I bought at Archivers?

Okay here it is. 

See still no paper...

Tricked ya, lol. 

I was also happy that I got to watch the always creative Tim Holtz do a demo. It is so inspiring to watch him create. 

He also demonstrated his app to me as I had asked about it. 

Funny to watch the women sneaking his finished tags. I have to say I wanted one as well... But he signed one for me last year and I didn't want to be greedy. 

After MOA, which was all day, we went to Perkins for dinner.

I had a small soup and half a sandwich no photos. But honestly it was the most healthy thing I ate all weekend. I again had water.

Then we dropped the girls off at Burnsville mall. Then Wayne took me to Joann's and the other archivers.

I was looking for Tim's stencils, but no one had them. But did get a few things from Joann's. 

That is all from my creative shopping. 

But tomorrow is Pine City Scrapbooking on our way home.

Day #21

"Colour Coded"

I really don't have a colour code system as my girls are all (more or less) adults and take care of their own lives.

So what I did for this challenge was share my month page from July. I try to colour coordinate for that month. For example July 1st is Canada day, so I used our colours red and white for that month. 

I hope you all had a very creative Saturday. I am so looking forward to creating when I get home.

Maybe start on Septembers tag 

Tracy :)

Creative travels

I love a road trip....especially a creative shopping road trip.

But before we get to that, come along with me on our journey.

I picked Heather and Kristy up from Ashley's, as they spent the night at her house last night. Sadly Ashley didn't come with on this trip. 

Wayne took off early from work.

I grabbed my water and we all hit the road a little before 12:30.

On our drive I had a little nap. I usually pick up some Junior Mints but saw these and thought they would do the trick. I like the Junior Mints better. 

When we got into Duluth we decided to go for an early supper.

So off to Red Lobster we went. 

See my healthy supper. 

Psych....I got my shrimp trio;).

But ordered water, not pop :)

I think we had dinner too early as none of us finished ours. 

After dinner we checked into our hotel, then off to Hobby Lobby. 

Even Mother Nature was happy to see me at Hobby Lobby 😃. 

Here are the goodies I picked up at Hobby Lobby with some coupons of course. 

We then went to Micheals and Hancock Fabrics. Again with coupons in hand. 

I know what your thinking. 

"She just got rid of 8" of paper and here is she buying more paper"

Well they just jumped out at me. They practically begged me to take them home. I am such a kind hearted person I couldn't just leave them there abandon on the  shelf. 

I just want to make some cards now. 

Day #20

"Handwriting"  I usually don't write, I rather print. Even when I do write I also print at the same time. Plus my writing is pretty primary.

I thought I would share my travel list. 

I hope you all had a creative Friday.

More creative shopping tomorrow so come back ya hear 😉

Tracy