Alternative Tim's tags

I have much admired the tags Tim Holtz hash been showcasing his techniques on, both thishe Christmas and this, but I have very very limited 'Sir Tim' supplies and at this time of year little hope of affording all that would be needed to update my 5 distress inkpads and bottle of glossy accents to acheive his 'look'. OK I lie, I also have one large tub of UTEE, a bottle of crackle accents and 2 small much used squares of 'wet and dry' foam, but I still dont think that is going to cut it?

I am pleased that lots of the techniques he is showing this year can be achieved (although not on such a great scale) using alternative products. For instance, the first tag uses a Ranger mask which I did attempt by cutting a post-it note to use as a mask. The result would have worked if I had thought a little more about the scale of my mask and cut it a little smaller, but at least I could join in and play.

My best achievement though is this card.

It uses tag 7 as its inspiration.

I started by using my culozzle and circle template to make the snowman out of chipboard. linking three different sizez of circles together. I mixed some white acylic paint (Reeves) and equal parts of Ranger crackle accents, I covered the snowman in a thick layer. Heating it with my heat gun caused it to bubble and blister so I put it to one side to dry and then coated it with more crackle accents.

I followed Tim's instructions to make the rest although obviously cutting out of chipboad and not grungeboard. The hat is sponged with versimark black ink as I dont have a black distress ink.

I also followed Tim's guide on the background, its a reddy wintery sunset colour as I only have red and brown hues in my repetoir and the snowflakes are a Anita's stamp.

The SNOW word, I used Heidi Swapp chipboard lemonade, these were white so I gently peeled off the white layer, inked with Fired Brick dress ink and then embossed with Stampin' stuff Red Dragon embossing powder which is a glitter powder. The snow, rather than mix up Tim's recipe I actually had. I think it came from Baker Ross - I have had it many years.

There are a few other techniques I think I can reproduce from my existing supplies - watch this space.