What's on Your Workdesk 133

Couldn't really believe it is Wednesday today, I merely went onto my blog to see what I have missed and there at the top of my list of blogs I follow is Stamping Ground with desk follow number 133!!!

It took me 7 hours to sort, pack and infiltrate stash (both new and old) into my system yesterday, so now you see my relatively clear desk covered in stuff to make the last few Christmas cards for friends and family.

I have been out of circulation and away from my desk since Friday last week as I flew to Johannesburg to teach the 12 Tim Tags of Christmas at a Shop called Beautiful Scrapbooks, owned by Liane.  What an amazing place.  Liane will go to the ends of the earth for her customers and back to try and get everything their hearts desire.  Nothing is too much trouble, it was such a pleasure to work with her on this project.

The kits that traveled hand luggage with me as I would not let them out of my sight!

I taught the "Hope" techniques page on the Friday after landing at the airport at 11 and getting to the shop at 12,  setting up and getting going with the class at 2 till 5.  The class was full of vibrant ladies who all made it fun to teach.

Jennifer very kindly fetched me from the airport and gathered her group of the "Usual Suspects" for me to teach...

The whole of Saturday was spent teaching the 12 tags from 9am to 5pm (we asked for an extra hour) to try and get as much done as possible.  The techniques, stamping and inking were mostly done by the end with 4 full tags finished (by most of the ladies) and the rest had to be constructed at home.  A bit ambitious to do all 12 tags in 8 hours, but we had fun, learned a lot and Tim has such clear instructions on his blog that they will all be able to finish what they need to when they get home.

This is the yummy cake that Jennifer organised for tea, the most decadent Chocolate that I have ever tasted...still dreaming of it now...

Myself, Jennifer and Liane out for dinner at Tribes after wonderful day of 12 Tags.

Thanks for popping by my WOYWW133 desk, and for those of you who celebrate Christmas, may it be a Blessed and peaceful one.  For those of you who don't, may it be a special holiday with family and friends.

See you all soon.






Bella

Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday 132

A lot! is all I can say!  I have been prepping like a mad woman for the past 12 days, as each and every one of Tims tags have been issued.   I am going to be teaching them to 20 peeps in Johannesburg on Saturday 17 Dec. The shopping in bulk has been fun and the die cutting a little tedious, but then the Christmas CD playing in the background did help the vibe and some die cutting and packing help from my assistant at work all day last Friday made a huge dent in the massive amount of work that had to be done.  I am now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and can go to bed before midnight tonight! Everything is cut, and counted, it just needs to be put in little packets so they don't get lost!

Happy WOYWW 132 everyone!

Pop on over to Julia's desk to have a virtual tour of the desks around the world!

Whats on your workdesk 131

TAGS! 6 of them!  Today is tag 7 in 1 hour 20 min...and counting!  I am doing the 12 Tags of Christmas with Tim Holtz and LOVING IT!  I am also flying to Johannesburg next Friday to teach all 12 of them in a tag marathon from 9am to 4pm!  Gonna be SUCH FUN!

So yes my desk is covered in all things Ranger, Stampers Anon and Sizzix at the moment!  I have even taken over my hubbys desk but I am not showing you that corner of the room today...

Happy WOYWW everyone, see you over at Jula's desk for more creative desks, though Mr Linky is AWOL we are carrying on regardless!

Bella

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 6

Hello there fellow bloggers

I am finally caught up so I can relax about tomorrows tag!

This one was quite fun to do.  I don't have that texture fade, so I used another one.  This one is quite a simple design and so I thought it might give me a few hassles with the painting as there is a LARGE background where there could be potential trouble, but it all seemed to go fine.  Just in the heating stage of the embossing powder, the foil seemed to come loose and buckle a bit, but hey it still looks fine.

All the instructions for Tim's tag below are on his blog HERE if you want to give this a go.

See you tomorrow for Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday and Tag 7.  I can't believe we are now just about to go over the half way mark.  December is vanishing at a rate of knots!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 5

For this one I had to wait all night for the alcohol ink to dry properly as we seem to be going through a bit of a humid period and the stuff just stayed sticky.  I used the inside of my embossing folder as my stamp because it is the right way round for this technique to come out reading the right way from behind.

I also (until this afternoon) did not have the die for the wreath so I used a tree branch again which I have trimmed down.  I saw this idea on Tamara's tag (though she has a lovely type of branch).  I had tried all sorts of other things and they were not great.

Now to tackle tag 6 after tonights class, I seem to be one tag behind each day at the moment...trying to get back up to speed!

Tim's tag is below and the instructions can be found HERE!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 4

Up until today, I could hand cut or copy the content of the previous 3 tags...Ok, so this is where I begin to digress COMPLETELY from the original in content as we don't have snow in Cape Town so I don't buy anything to do with snow...I have used all his techniques and products, so there is some similarity to the tag created by Tim, but it ends there.  You can go to his blog HERE and follow his instructions on how to make a tag that will look like his at the end of this post!

I used puff paint on his beard, hat and shorts and just pencil crayons to colour in the rest.

Instead of glossy accents I wanted to see what the crackle paint would do in the numbers, so I filled them when I covered the tag.  I think it worked quite nicely.

This is Tim's masterpiece!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 3

OH Boy my heart sank when this tag came up this morning!  These two items are not available here in South Africa at all!  Hoping against hope that they are in the shipment that is imminent as they are top of my wish list for under the Christmas tree this year!

I used the Craft Concepts embossing folder and inked the raised areas of the tag after ebossing it in my Vagabond, let it dry and then inked the inside of the folder as per the instructions for tag 1 and put the tag back, lined it up again and ran it through the VB.  I covered it with white embossing powder to hide where my applicator tool had got the ink in the recesses!  I then put all the greenery at the top of the tag instead of the bottom like Tims.

Below you can see that Tim Used his Christmas stamp and matching embossing folder for today's tag and you can find all the instructions HERE.  All 64 photographs of step by step clear and easy to follow instructions...

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas tag 2

Hello there

At least I have the paper pad and sticky backed canvas is all I thought when this tag came up!  Cos I have nothing else!  I don't have the reindeer or the edge die so I have drawn and hand cut them.  Thank goodness for all my training back in the day when I became a graphic designer, so these drawing and cutting skills at least come fairly naturally...

I did in fact have an offer from Gabrielle to send me a reindeer and from Jennifer, so this got me to thinking that maybe this could become a world wide swapping session as we pool our resources!  Not a bad idea.  Maybe we should post what dies we have on our blogs and we can die cut for each other and mail them on!

Any way, I digress... Here is my take on the tag, as near as I could cut by hand and the wreath is a cheap 50 cm high tree (R12/ 1Pound 20) I got at the local China town that I have trimmed to fit her neck.  I don't have star charms, so here is my angel instead!  All the instructions on how to make this tag can be found on Tim's blog HERE!

Tim Hotz 12 tags of Christmas Tag 1

Well the build up to this tag was nothing short of spectacular on twitter and Face Book done by none other than Mario, the BTS king!  I am in South Africa so all this goes on while I am sleeping...I wake up with this excited feeling every morning now and for the next 10 days!  It is just like being a kid again and waiting with an-tici-pation to see what Santa has brought in the morning.  First thing I do is grab my phone ( to switch off the alarm) and then to go back in time on Twitter and FB to see what I missed.  The great thing is that the tags go "live" every monring at 10am for me, so no all night waiting here!

Here is the first tag, as near as dammit to Tim's.  You can find all the beautifully photographed and explained instructions HERE on Tim's blog if you want to join in.

I don't usually buy anything to do with snow because we don't get snow here in Cape Town, except for on the peaks of the mountains in winter for a while.  I have never personally been in snow, so I rather buy stuff a bit more relevant to our (rather warm) Christmas...Hence I have used the Cuttlebug Christmas ornaments embossing folder instead of the snowflakes!

Oh and the Noel die is not in our country yet, so I hand cut this from a piece of cereal box instead!  Not quite as legeble, but it will do!

My day has been frantically busy, so I am just sitting down now nearly 12 hours after this mornings tag of day 2 has been issued to create it.  I can't wait!

Bella