Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Day 1

I know what you're thinking.... "She's been gone from her blog for a week and gone totally bonkers! That doesn't look anything like Tim's tag!!" ROFL!!  It's all about "improvising" peeps!! So I present my first Tim Holtz Christmas Tag, Day 1!

Okay, I was a bit dismayed when I first saw Tim's tag... I didn't have the rickety house, I didn't have the fence.... what to do?  But if Tim can use his Halloween house for Christmas, then I can use the birdcage as my house. Right? Right???? LOL!

So, if you'd like to hear it, here's the lowdown on what I had, what I didn't have, and what I used in its place....

For the base of the tag, I was pretty much set - had the tag, the Distress Inks, the snowflake stamps.  Didn't have a Ranger mist, so just used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl.  So far so good.

Ah, the house.  Well, as you can see, I used a grungepaper birdcage.  I had the notebook texture fade, so ran it through that, then used regular old white acrylic paint since I didn't have the Dabber.  Sanded, distressed, misted.  So far, so good.  Now about those mica windows... didn't seem right to "glass in" a birdcage, so I used mica flakes on top of Liquid Applique to bring in the mica sparkle and also to add the snowy icicles that Tim created.

Obviously, didn't have the fence, either, but I still wanted to have something that was distress-crackled.  So, I crackled the bird.  (Kind of a long story there... didn't have any red crackle so used Picket Fence, then had to color birdie with Red Pepper Dabber - too orange - went over it with lots of other red inks till I got what I wanted.)  Since I was also lacking the dimension that was given by the fence, I had to improvise again.... by giving the little bird cage some tinsel garland, woven through the holes at the bottom.

Okay, next.... I actually had the mini holly garland (gasp!!), so could make the wreath.  Also gave the birdie a few leaves to chew on.  I did not have a Prima tree branch, so it was out to mother nature.... a little twig, holding up the bird cage, is what serves as my "tree."  Are ya with me?  Added some liquid applique and mica to that, too.

The ticket I had - wooo hooo! And I made an attempt at what I *thought* Tim might have done - used three different colors of embossing powder, which I tapped on using a plastic spoon.  Here's a close-up:

 We'll see what he has to say tomorrow.... Also had the mini paper clip (love those things!).

Finally, I had the seam binding, which I dyed just as Tim said.  But that star charm.... nope.  What I *did* have was some of Tim's foliage, and one of the pieces looks just like a sprig of holly.  The top of my tag was getting a bit busy, so I chose to hang the holly from the bottom of the cage.  I colored it with alcohol ink first ("Meadow"), but you can't really see it in the photo.  It could also look like a bit of mistletoe hanging from the bottom, if you have a glass of wine or two and squint, LOL!!!

So, there's my extremely improvised take on Day 1.  I know I won't be able to do them all (big family gathering this weekend, so I may go AWOL again for a bit), but this one was definitely fun.  I think not having the required elements actually made it a bit *more* fun, because there's more creativity to it.  Hopefully tomorrow's tag won't require so much "drying time" - if you're playing along, you know what I mean. :)


Ta for now!