Carey Burns

Happy Halloween! Today I was busy with the 'Treat-o-Rama' party at work, but I was plotting a tag to top off the holiday. I visualized it all day and once 4:30 rolled around, I tested out my idea on some scrap paper and it worked! So, where's the tag??? Well, the dry weather, my penchant for washing my hands a lot, and crafting have taken a toll on my hands and they are cracked open and bleeding. Not the stain I was hoping to use on my crafts! So, I'm going to use my super amazing lotion and try to hydrate my skin a bit overnight and with any luck, I won't bleed out onto my tag! Tonight was awesome with lots of trick or treaters. Our neighbors put on a very sweet haunt each year so it was fun to watch kiddos run screaming and crying from them and be afraid to come up our sidewalk. Sadly, I left my phone at work and feel a bit hopeless, especially since that's what I use for my alarm in the morning... I got the best treat of all: a Sizzix Vagabond 2 mac...

So I wanted today's and tomorrow's tags to be special and practiced making a tag on Sunday. It seemed to work okay, so I modified it to fit today's...but it didn't turn out right. I kind of forgot that there's a hole at the top of each tag. I ended up scrapping and salvaging bits from a complete tag to make a fun tag with movement! Supplies I used include white cardstock, Tim Holtz Halloween paper stash, Halloween ephemera skeleton, Halloween Clippings, Distress Marker and Ink in Black Soot, and Glossy Accents.  I traced my trashed tag out onto cardstock and cut it out, making sure to make a hole up top. Then I traced and cut out the cobweb paper. I decapitated my skeleton and edged it and the skull in marker then glued just his body to the cobweb paper.  Just above the cut mark, I made a dot on the cobweb paper and used my pen knife to cut out a long rectangle channel. I cut a long strip of cobweb paper just slightly thinner than the cut. I dry fitted it ...

The hubby is sleeping away and I decided to get my crafting done early. We ended up not getting to the spooky show last night but had a great night with friends! I had no clue what to make today so I just started off adding stain to a tag and went through all of my supplies to cobble something together...I think it paid off. Supplies used include a tag, Distress Stain in Carved Pumpkin and Walnut Stain, Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain, Distress Marker in Black Soot, Glossy Accents, Bouquet, Halloween Ephemera, Halloween Clippings, Salvage stickers, Adornments Stars, and a water brush. I began by adding heavy dabs of Carved Pumpkin stain to the tag and used my water brush to move it around. I blotted up excess with a paper towel and let it air dry. I edged the tag in Walnut Stain ink. I used the head and torso ephemera and dissected the witch and moon ephemera to just use the witch's hat. I added Glossy Accents to glue the two pieces together. They seemed to...

It's Halloweekend!!! Yes, I know the real deal is on Tuesday, but I'm celebrating all weekend long too! I woke up really late this morning and had the "It's time..." from Halloween III in my head so I thought I'd do something with a clock face. That's when my brain started churning... I assembled a tag, a piece of Bristol board, Distress Stain in Walnut Stain and Iced Spruce, Distress Ink in Walnut Stain, Distress Marker in Black Soot, a water brush, a clock face sticker from the Salvage pack, Game Spinners, Glossy Accents, Halloween ephemera, Halloween Clippings, and that funky garland that isn't Tim Holtz. First, I added Glossy Accents to the back of the clock face and glued it to the Bristol board. I let it dry then cut it out and edged it with the marker. I used a 1/8 inch hole punch to punch out the center of the clock and then added the spinners and secured them with a brad. I put a heavy line of Glossy Accents around the edge of the ba...

The hardest part of this morning's tag was choosing the paper background. I can't remember if I made a tag similar to this one, but, what can you do? All materials are Tim Holtz for this tag including the Halloween paper stash, Halloween ephemera, and Halloween Trimmings. I also used good old Glossy Accents, Distress Marker in Black Soot and Distress Ink in Black Soot. First, I traced and cut out my tag and glued the paper to the tag. I inked the edges in Black Soot. Next, I cut out the words 'POISON' and the carbolic acid label from a piece of the Halloween paper and inked the edges in Black Soot. For the skelly ephemera, I used marker to edge it. I added Glossy Accents to the back of the ephemera and glued him into place. I repeated for the carbolic acid label and the 'POISON' label. There was a small snippet of thin, sparkly ribbon left so I used that up on this tag. Now to finish off my Halloween cards...they'll be a little late thi...

I had no clue what to make this morning so I spend thirty minutes assembling raffle baskets for our work party next week. With what little time I had left, I decided to do something using the Distress Stains dabbed onto a tag. Things took weird turns but ended up bringing tears to my eyes in the end. I assembled a tag, Distress Stain in Carved Pumpkin, Distress Marker in Black Soot, and Distress Ink in Black Soot. I used the striped sheet of Tim Holtz Halloween paper stash, a sticker from the Salvage Seasonal sticker set, a Halloween Clippings sticker, and Tim Holtz Halloween Trimmings for the string. First, I dotted the stain all over the tag using the attached felt dabber. Once dry, I cut out the striped paper and ripped the top edge. I colored the tear in marker and then used Glossy Accents to glue it to the bottom of the tag. I looked through the Seasonal stickers and my eye went to the silhouette of the black cat. A few fussy cuts later, I was edging the sticker in marke...

My day began at 3:20 a.m. when the cat urped on my comforter. Nothing like doing laundry in the middle of the night and then having to use a throw blanket for warmth... I'm a bit tired today, as you can imagine, but if that's the worst thing that happens, I'll be okay. For today's tag, I decided to just randomly grab a piece of scrapbook paper and go from there. I like the direction I took and will finish it out when I get home later. All supplies are Tim Holtz except for the twine. I gathered a tag, Tim Holtz Halloween paper stash (cobwebs!), Salvage Stickers, Halloween Typography letters, Distress Ink in Black Soot, and Glossy Accents. First, I traced, cut out and glued the web paper to the tag. Next, I edged the tag in Black Soot. After that, I grabbed two stickers for my '31' and added Glossy Accents to the backs of them to give them better sticking power. I lined up a ruler on my tag and taped it to my workstation to keep it in place and t...

I had no inspiration this morning so I sifted through my Tim Holtz Ancestors paper dolls and found the creepy old man and the gangly boy and thought, "That boy should be holding something..." In addition to the lack of inspiration, I had some 'oopsie' moments with this tag. First, I assembled a tag, Tim Holtz Halloween paper stash, Halloween Clippings, Halloween Trimmings, Ancestors, Glossy Accents, and Distress Ink and Marker in Black Soot. I traced and cut out my tag onto the background paper and glued it to the tag with Glossy Accents then edged it in Black Soot. I edged the boy in the marker and cut the old man's head off with scissors. Just putting the head under the boy's hand didn't look right so I grabbed my utility knife and cut a slit between his thumb and index finger. I glued the boy to the tag but left his hand glueless. I added foam dots to the back of the head to give it some dimension and slid him into the cut I made, adding a dro...

You know how I always have something hinky happen with my crafting plans? Well, this past weekend we took a little trip to Michigan and I packed up my crafting supplies with ideas of tags filling my head.We had a break from adventuring so I decided to make a quick tag...but forgot my scissors at home. All of my tag ideas required scissors and I didn't want to buy a pair because I have way too many pairs to begin with so I made the decision to stop fussing and just make three tags today. Tag 21 My first tag uses almost all Tim Holtz items except for the delightfully grungy tinsel garland. I assembled a tag, a piece of Halloween paper stash with handwriting on it, Distress Ink in Walnut Stain,  the skeleton Halloween ephemera, and Typography. First, I traced and cut out my tag on the paper and used Glossy Accents to glue them together. I used a standard hole punch to make the hole. Next, I edged the tag and ephemera in the Walnut Stain. I cut out pieces of the garland and ...

Wow, there's only 11 tags to go! Today I made a quick tag because I have things to do. I gathered my tag, Distress Ink in Crushed Olive and Black Soot, a Distress Marker in Black Soot, my last Tim Holtz big witch Ancestor doll, some Tim Holtz metal stars, Tim Holtz Halloween Clippings, and Tim Holtz Halloween Trimmings. First, I inked the tag in Crushed Olive. I finally bought the Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool and used that instead of my felt pad blending tool and I have to say, the coverage is different! I added swirls of Black Soot and edged the tag with it. The edging wasn't as mottled as the felt pad. (I like the mottled look, especially for Halloween) Can't wait to keep playing! Next, I edged the witches in the marker and added Glossy Accents to the back to glue it to the tag. There wasn't much room left on the tag so I used the 'MISCHIEF' sticker and edged it in marker and added Glossy Accents to keep it in place. I added Glossy Accents to the ...

I'm back in the land of the living today but didn't really have the time to take step-by-step photos of today's tag. Probably a good thing because my fingers were all inky and I would have gotten it all over my phone. Today's tag consists of Tim Holtz Halloween paper stash (ravens), Broomsticks, Typography letters, Halloween trimmings, and Distress Inks in Crushed Olive and Black Soot. First, I traced and cut out my tag (including the hole!) onto the raven paper and glued it onto the original tag. Next, I did a dry fit of the broomstick and letters. I added Crushed Olive to the letters to give them a nice slime green tone and glued them in place with Glossy Accents. When the letters were dry, I added Glossy Accents to the back of the broom and  held it in place. I edged the tag with Black Soot. I wanted the tops of the letters to be darker so I dabbed on more Crushed Olive straight from the ink pad. I like how it has a mottled look. I wanted the string to ...