Christmas Envelope Mini Junk Journal Album

Hi

Today I would like to share a Christmas Envelope Mini  Junk Album in a Paper Bag which I have made up as I went along. |It all started with some envelopes which I had received through the post and saved, these had clear windows which I wanted to use in the album, then when the mini was complete I decided to make a paper bag for my mini to sit in and this is the result,  there are lots of photos hope you can stay 'till the end with me.  I will be joining in with  Mini Album Makers November Challenge.

Front of mini and paper bag pocket, papers used were old ones in my stash so I have no idea where from. Paper bag was cut down to size and sew all around to form pocket to hold mini and a smaller pocket was sewn to the front for tags which I made from paper and coffee stained paper on the back for journaling.  I stamped the paper bag  with Tim Holtz stamps and added Christmas trims

front of envelope mini tied with gold ribbon

view fro the top which shows tags in the pockets complete with ribbons 

inside first page with the window part of the envelope, the tag was made with Tim Holtz stamps embossing folder on alcohol ink background, 2nd page coffee stained paper and designer paper added to form pocket at the side

all papers were sewn to the envelopes first before assembling together, leaving the tops of the envelopes open to form pockets for tags you could also add photos

another window envelope showing tag made from papers and coffee stained paper, another small tag was stamped and stained with distress ink vintage photo

same as above added washi tape TH and another small tag, I found some Christmas buttons and added these too.

back view and another button

Front of Mini

Mini inside the Paper Bag Pocket I love all the tags and ribbons

back of paper bag stamped with Tim Holtz Christmas stamps

2 recycled envelopes were used and papers were sewn to them first and sewn together through the middle to assemble pages, lots of pockets in this mini, all tags were made from designer papers and coffee stained papers for journaling and pages left blank for either journaling or photos, everything used was in my stash.  It came together very quickly and developed as I went, this seems to be the way I work a fun project to do.

Thank you for looking 

Maggie

Winter Shabby.............

...........the final one!

Today is the last tag #12 I was very sad this morning and also very excited to see what the last tag would be I wasn't disappointed shabby vintage just up my street and instantly I found I had a new favourite lol .......Tim threw everything at this one and I had to improvise a lot as he used  products I don't have,  including tissue wrap see 12 tags of Christmas for all the details.

I stamped onto the tag and then used tissue from a serviette to stamp music onto and then applied to tag in the same way apart from the word "wish" everything else on my tag is improvisation.

I cut the deer from metal and then painted with white and sanded back to show the silver, flower was cut with music paper which I had covered with picket fence DI stain and I crumpled the petals while it was still damp. I added stickles to the letters...just because I could..... which left the top left a bit bare so I added a silver star from my stash.... finished tag #12.  I really enjoyed this one and it runs a close second to my favourite which was #2; I have completed them all now except #8 which I will get too soon.

It has been an amazing journey again this year and once again I have learnt such a lot, some techniques I will use again and again I'm sure. 

Thanks for all the comments they are always appreciated.

Simply Retro ..........

Day 11......12 tags of Christmas

Here is my tag for Day 11 I loved the simply retro look of this tag  it reminds me of my childhood in the '50's..... yes now you know how old I am ish!!! rofl :-()
The main event for this stamp was a cool technique with the melt pot and shrink plastic...have melt pot but shrink plastic....well it is here somewhere but I couldn't find it anywhere so I improvised..... will go back to that technique when shrink plastic comes out of hiding....or when I buy some more!
I have kept it simple as Tim's was not owning those stamps and they aren't my style really anyway but perfect for this look, I used Tim's stickers and mounted onto card and cut out, inked edges with vintage photo and mounted onto foam pads.  Background as Tim's only I got a snow blizzard rather than a light snow falling.....

Top corner my improvised embellishment is foliage cut from die and covered in glossy accents to give the shine and ranger dimensional pearls in cranberry for berries.....this is why I couldn't post yesterday as my glossy accents were not dry .

It is a sad but exciting day today as the last tag is super fabulous and just up my street but it is the last day for 12 tags of Christmas....... :-(  so I'm off to play and do Christmas things in between drying times!

Will be back later with today's no.12 tag

bye for now

12 tags Christmas

Day 9 and Day 10 

I have managed to catch up again today with my tags I did Tag 9 this morning and Tag 10 and 11 this afternoon, I have had a lovely crafty day to unwind from the hectic week and friends visiting  yesterday  from Ireland.


Day 9

I love this technique and use it quite often so when  day 9 was posted on Saturday I was sorry I couldn't play straight away but with visitors looming within the hour I just had to resist......sorry for the pun lol............
I used peeled paint for the swirls and fired brick for the background and lastly vintage photo candle and the word peace as per Tim's instructions...... I think I have a new favourite glossy accents I can't stop using it.......will need another bottle soon!

Day 10
I didn't have any stamps large enough to cover the tag and I wanted to use music as a background so I cut my tag from  Tim Holtz  Kraft Resist Pad I adore this so much I can't bring myself to use it very often.......I know sad I am.......... and coloured the holly with pine needles and went over the tag with vintage photo to bring out the resist, then sprayed with perfect pearls gold, no facets either so I used fragments with TH stickers behind, banner was hand cut from tissue tape stuck to card first, I added picket fence distress stain all over the tape and left to dry then added vintage photo  to edges, word was painted in copper dapper paint, finally I added bells lace and tinsel..... so glad I bought the big pack of bells knew they would come in useful and they were a bargain at 0.99p ....I love a bargain.

Really enjoyed making these tags today revisiting techniques I haven't used for a while and as I said at the beginning I have also made tag 11 today's which is still drying and will have to wait to take a photo 'till tomorrow in daylight.  It was dark by the time I needed to photograph these two and the light just doesn't do the colours justice.

Hope you have had a good crafty time today with your tags .......or is it Christmas preparations.....I should have been making Christmas cards.......still have family ones to make.......oh well there is always tomorrow!!!

Bye for now

Day 7 - 12 Days of Christmas

Vintage Tag
I was on  Tim's blog early this morning  in fact 3 mins after he had blogged today's tag eager to see Day 7 and I wasn't disappointed a fabulous vintage tag .... well I was up early as we had a Christmas shopping trip planned and the wind and rain was lashing on the window which woke me earlier than planned -  we had a successful morning and we also managed to met up with DD in her lunch hour which was a bonus had lunch and then we returned home.  So this evening was my opportunity to get crafty yeah!  I don't have the holly die or the twig die so I left the twigs out and hand cut the holly from the kraft glassine paper ...which I inked with alcohol inks and gold mixative as Tim's video great effect only thing was my greens were a little too light I could have done with a darker one but I loved the effects just the same.

I have the kraft glassine for some time and not really played with it and the video shows some rally good techniques so will be trying those out too later well after Christmas I expect.  Background for the tag was made with DI frayed burlap and vintage photo as I don't have these stains stamp used was the music one off the mini holidays collection as was the greeting, lace was from creative expressions.
I have already said that I follow Tim's tags unashamedly I like to do this as I keep them for future reference when my mojo takes a holiday which happens quite often of late.  I managed to make all 12 last year and have referred to these lots of times when I need a spark to light my mojo.....lol.

Hope you are all enjoying this journey I know I am... for me it is a lovely piece of crafting time in the mad run up to Christmas... see you all tomorrow maybe!

Bye for now

12 Tags of Christmas .............Day 6

Well here I am again with day 6 of 12 tags of Christmas half way on this fabulous journey and  I have managed to do this tag on day 6!  I have had a fabulous crafty morning and really enjoyed myself.
I have to omit that during the process I thought .....this look very bad..... and I had started to doubt Tim ...I know me doubt the master himself.....sorry but I did as all I could see at that time was a painted mess.......anyway I proceeded with the Tim's tutorial and am very pleased with the result.  I will definitely be doing this again think it would be great for the men in my life...DH and DS in case you were wondering...lol.

I wish you could see the enamelled look that this creates, photo does not do it justice at all, all those doing tag will know it really does look  and feel like an old painted enameled sheet of metal...... fabulous technique. 
I have used whatever I had in my stash I only had small sheets of metal so I embossed twice and put the design together on the tag. For the paint I used dabbers in several colours. I used a idea-ology pin to attach the painted metal wreath as I don't have a drill!!  I will definitely be doing this technique again.
This tag will be a Christmas tag for DH and I maybe back later with a Christmas card for him using a different embossing folder.......still work in progress.

bye for now

DAY 5 - 12 TAGS OF CHRISTMAS

I completed tag 5 on day 5 and what a great tag Tim produced today love this technique, now I didn't have the backwards stamps that Tim used so I went with a flourish swirl as there is no right or wrong direction, Alcohol Inks used were red pepper, currant and raisin.  I made the wreath from the pine cone die leaves (yeah it came today)!! a lot different to the original tag but this is the way I tie my greenery on my doors if I don't want a wreath... well I did when I had the conifer tree in my garden alas we have not got one at this house..... so I go begging from friends.......... it works for me!! Or better still collecting during a lovely walk.

 I have also stamped Season Greetings at the bottom of the tag in Archival Ink then I went overboard with the pearls and tied lace at the top of the tag.  I am really pleased with today's tag and it didn't take long to make.

I may be back with tomorrows............. we will see!

12 tags.............Day 4

Here is my tag for Day 4 -12 tags of Christmas I have improvised a lot on this one, no stains so I used distress ink for the background in stormy sky, stamped snowflakes in weathered wood, no snowman die so used another die but I did have the 25 shapers die yeah! so followed the instructions here and for the crackle both of these techniques took forever to dry but the crackle behaved and I ended up with small crackles instead of the mess I usually end up with so very pleased there, recycled a piece of packaging using on the edge die but not snowflakes!!  bits and pieces added from stash by the time it was dry the light had gone so waited to photo today.

Tag 5 looks fabulous not sure how I will improvise that one will have to go and have another long look as only peeked this morning before I left early ....


'till next time

12 Tags Day 2 and 3

I have finally completed my tags for days 2 and 3 for Tim's 12 tags of Christmas  again I have improvised with a lot of things to make them using what I had and adapted them where needed. You will see that I have again followed Tim's tags unashamedly.... I like to do this as a reference for later when I can take inspiration from them when my mojo has gone away.....I do intend to make my own Christmas tags or decorations taking the inspiration from each day not sure how much will actually get done though........but the intentions are there lol.

Day 2

I used the same background paper using white paint over it as I don't have the white DI stain, Deer was cut from canvas I had bought on a roll ages and ages ago, which I glued to card and frayed a little, the green around the deer's neck was found in my stash it is like a tinselled pipe cleaner and think I bought them to craft with my grandson last year......it's great to rummage through your stash and find things don't you think...! Hessian was the same bought ages ago knowing I would need it some day.... I added bell from my stash and TH trinket.

Day 3

Lots of compromising here on this tag, I used embossing folder and embossed in different directions and then inked over with Distress inks to get similar effect Tim used on his tag. I don't have anything to make a custom stamp will have to look into it though as it looks great fun, I cut the foliage and added buttons, sparkly ribbon (not showing up in photo) from stash and bell is tied on with strand from the Hessian on tag 2 and curled again not showing up well the light was going and electric light is not good for photos.

I have nearly caught up only 1 tag behind now hopefully will get this done soon
Bye for now and enjoy the 12 tags if you are joining in.

12 Tags ............Tag 1

.....and a Disaster if you say that in Craig's voice  - you know from Strictly you will get what I mean as I go on... if that makes sense.........maybe not.... anyway back to the The 12 Tags from Tim - how excited was I to see the 12 tags start again this year as always time is not on my side again but was determined to play even though I will be playing catch up all the time.  Friday morning I was up early and had an hour to play.... now I do not have the pine cone die yet so I had to improvise....you will see this word crop up a lot!!  I found my Spellbinders die the one that makes a flower and cuts in a spiral.... thinking this might work so I cut out with TH co-ordinations paper and set to rolling as his video using a hot glue gun......finger slipped straight into hot glue and Disaster struck(remember in Craig's voice).......see me running to bathroom to plunge into cold water to cool glue and getting cream to rub on.........after a lot of jiggy jiggy up and down the hall............because it hurt a lot........ eventually the pain eased but now finger and thumb so sore on right hand I can't craft!..... I wonder does Tim realise the pain we go through to complete his 12 tags..... just thinking!!!!   So much later in the day I finish rolling the before mentioned pine cones with my poorly now blistered fingers.... and on the whole they turned out ok ish not like the Masters but I ran with them.

On Saturday my parcel came from Jennie at The Artistic Stamper..... which contained the Noel and Festive Greenery... and a FREE stamp  with every order Tim's 12 days of Christmas.........we like Free stamps.. a lot....thanks Jennie and for speedy delivery as always.
So after I returned from a successful Christmas shopping trip out came all my goodies and off  I went on the journey of Tag 1 which as you can see I followed unashamedly!
I used a different embossing folder for the tag which was cut using colour tumbled glass sheet from Tims core'dinations paper stack and I made the banner which I hand cut from Kraft Resist paper stack charm from my stash.

I had moved onto the dinning room table for this crafting session as I had things drying in my room of craft .............and this is the after photo.........................

Oh my goodnes I'm sure it wasn't that bad last night but this is what I woke to this morning (sunday) and now have to clear it before Lunchtime!!!!!!!!! Or maybe craft some more and finish more tags..... liking the second idea more!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm linking this tag at
The Artistic Stamper Creative Blog would be rude not to as Jennie raced my order to me lol; challenge is Christmas
Studio L3 - Grungy Monday where we can link our 12 tags
Tim Holtz Blog where you can also link the 12 days tags OMGoodness I have just seen tag 4!
bye for now