Joven's Congratulatons Tag

My 12 year old grandson, Joven, won first prize at school for his science fair project on archery & fletching and then won for the Grade 7 Engineering & Design category, and is now going on to Regionals. So proud of him..especially because he has dyslexia so the reading and writing are a bit of a challenge - good job he's smart as a whip to overcome it though!  I decided to make him a congratulations card but then decided to do a tag instead so he could use it as a bookmark and then I combined them both.

The tag was inked with various Distress inks and then walnut ink was sponged along the edges. The edges were distressed with my distressing tool and then inked with dark walnut Distress ink. I then stamped the words, stars, etc with Stazon black ink and added a brown ribbon at the top. The tag was then stuck to the front of this card base with repositionable tape so he can take it off and use it as a bookmark...not that he loves to read but that is likely because of his dyslexia. I wrote a nice note on the inside for him.

This is the back of his tag.

I used Tim Holtz repositionable Alphabet masks to spell his name and then spritzed on some spray ink. It looks dark around the edges in the picture but it actually purple. Some of it leaked under the masks - I guess I didn't adhere them strongly enough, but thats OK, it gives it a distressed look.

Tim Holtz Inspired Tags

Yesterday my youngest daughter and her two boys stopped in for a quick visit. I had the boys open a couple of small gifts from us but the rest have to wait until we have our "family get-together for Christmas" sometime in January - its difficult to arrange with everyone spread out so far. My husband's sister also sent over her presents for them and although they loved the Lego sets she gave them, the biggest hit was a voice changer gadget. I got the boys on video singing Jingle  Bells. So funny....but so annoying! Barbi and I both agreed that it will become an outside or "in-the-basement-with-the-door-closed" toy. One of her comments was, "You can tell she's never had kids"!  It reminded me of when I was about 18 and bought all my nieces and nephews toy musical instruments for Christmas. They loved them, my sisters threatened to throw me out in the snowbank! Ah, Christmas memories!

Well, I wasn't sure what I felt like posting today but when I started flipping thru my crafting files,I came across a file I had forgotten about. A couple of years ago Tim Holtz had a contest with regard to his 12 days of Tags. We had to make a tag based on his technique (not necessarily using the same items, thank goodness because who besides Tim has everything he uses) and submit to enter the contest. I actually participated in this one and I made all 12 tags...but I didn't win anything!! I have used some on my scrapbook pages. Some I'm not crazy about but I may re-do them to my satisfaction later on.  He does it different now and if you make a tag you can post it to his blog but you enter the contest just by leaving a comment...much better for us busy people. I love Tim Holtz products but I don't have very many...except Distress Ink. I have several of those and I use them all the time.
Here's the tags....I actually made 13 because I liked the one technique so much.

Tim has all the tags from the last few years on his blog..along with instructions. He has some very cool techniques. See the two tags on the top, far right...the plaid ones. I created these tags with alcohol ink to match the ribbon I had - one of his techniques.