TIM HOLTZ ALTERED KEY CHALLENGE 2015

These keys are beautiful and fun to make—For the one I made for a swap last fall I used a large skeleton style key I came across at Michael's for $1, but you can use any key of good size or you might combine two or three smaller keys as one altered object. You'll see some examples of that in the site linked below.

This swap has a long sign up time, as I am partially on “hiatus” from Swap-Bot until at least late September [check my profile for details] and won't be on the “Bot” as often as usual. And many of us are busy with kids home from school, taking family vacations, etc. so I decided to give everyone plenty of time to sign up and a good stretch of time to actually plan, design, and create your altered key. These are beautiful when done with ribbons, lace, buttons and bows, and all sorts of dangling gems. A work of art like that requires thinking and planning time before carefully implementing (and sometimes re-designing or re-approaching the whole process) of altering the beautiful key you want to send to your partner.Remember that a Tim Holtz Altered Art Key looks "vintage" (or simply OLD) but with lots of beauty added to it.

You will find all kinds of ideas and sample Altered Keys on Pinterest. You can find them quickly by CLICKING HERE.

You might also like to browse through what I found on Pinterest for a search of “Altered Keys AND Tim Holtz” Look for them HERE.. They are mixed in with other samples of altered art, so browse carefully to find only designs that make significant KEY alterations. You may also find good samples and idea starters by doing a Google search for Altered Keys; I have not tried that that search yet. Your altered key(s) need(s) to show obvious time taken to plan design, and implement the alteration(s). These are the criteria you need to use in rating the altered key(s) you receive.

This is officially a sender's choice swap, but perhaps you can plan what you want to do with you key (or keys) but wait to choose colors, etc. once partners are assigned and you have access to favorite colors, interests, and definite "DISLIKES" Please avoid those for your partner. As I said above, I've given lots of time for signing up and for making your artistically altered key(s).

Please sign up for this swap by August 14, 2015.

Deadline for mailing your artistically altered key(s) is September 12. 2015.

REMEMBER: I have one MANDATORY Rule for all Tim Holtz Challenge SWAPS: You should HAVE FUN and ENJOY your creative process. Send your partner something Tim Holtz would be excited to see! But have a good time in the process, or, in other words:, and to quote Tim Holtz, ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions about anything confusing or unclear in the instructions,, please contact me through a Personal Message or by email to: .