CHRISTMAS VIGNETTE TRAY - TIM HOLTZ CHRISTMAS IDEA-OLOGY 2019 RELEASE

Hello friends!  I'm sharing another project today created for the Tim Holtz Christmas Idea-ology 2019 Facebook Release.   

This is my Christmas Vignette Tray.  For a change, I've used the backside of the tray. 

 This is rather a long tutorial, so you might want to grab a beverage, sit back and relax!  I know most of you have completed your Christmas projects this year, but you can always use the inspiration for next year!

I started off by giving a light coat of white gesso or paint to the back of my large Vignette tray(TH93568).  Along the outer edges, I applied Ranger's Opaque Crackle Texture Paste INK57505, then set aside to dry.

Cut out paper to fit your tray.  This plaid is from the Tim Holtz Christmas Paper Stash TH93988 and because it's not as wide as my tray, I pieced it together.  I knew I was going to put a vignette box in the middle, so I tried to make the seam where the box would cover it.  Machine stitch around the edge.  Adhere this to your tray back. I didn't use adhesive right up to the edge of the paper, just up to the stitching, as I distressed and lifted those edges.

I've used Etcetera Scalloped Trim pieces(THETC-008) all around the edge of my tray.  I used the longest piece and cut a shorter one to fit the longer sides.  Shorter one on the sides.  These were painted first with white paint, dried, then Ranger's Opaque Crackle Texture paste on top.  Once the crackle paste has dried, use a brown Distress Crayon on your pieces, and rub it in with a damp finger. This brings out all the crackle!

I've used quite a few of these Christmas Quote Chips (TH93998). But if you're like me, I buy these every season, so I've accumulated quite a few so I don't mind using them up! With the narrow ones, I figured out which ones I would use and how they would fit around the perimeter of my tray first. I managed where I just had to trim a couple of them to fit.  Distress and ink them, even use a bit of Tim Holtz clear Distress Crackle Rock Candy(TDC31888) to age them.  Paint Tim Holtz Hardware Heads (TH93788) and adhere to each end of the Quote Chips. 

Adhere the Quote Chips all around the edge of your tray.  I have the words facing the front of the tray. 

Next adhere the scalloped trims.  I was so happy that the combination of the two were the exact width of the tray edges, with the scalloped parts slightly overhanging.

Cover the inside edges of a large Vignette Box(TH93279) with pattern paper.  Crackle the corners with Crackle texture paste.  I did this because when I place the Christmas Vignette Box Top (TH94000 Sparkling Tinsel Icicles one-5.5 x 3.875) on top, I curled up the corners to expose the crackle.  I had drilled two holes through the back of the box and tray to secure these two pieces together with screws. 

I also drilled a hole large enough for a Tiny Lights strand (TH94019) to go through.

Here's how the back looks.

I secured the lights around the upper edge of the box using small nails (TH93668) at each corner(slightly sticking out), and wrapping the wire around once.  Your strand should end up at the bottom of the box with extra left to wrap around the trees.

I've used a winter postcard from the Christmas Layers and Baseboard Frames(TH94017) for my background scenery.  I curved this card, so I used 3D foam dots on each side to hold the card edges up higher.  The edges rest on top of the foam dots. Adhere them underneath.

Your postcard will look like this from the side.  

Your light strand is in front of the postcard.

For the snow at the bottom of the box, I cut out a small piece of styrofoam.  It's flat on one side and curved to fit the postcard on the other.  Apply Ranger's Tim Holtz Grit Paste(TDA53422) to the top.  While it's wet, apply Tim Holtz Distress Mica Flakes (TDR69140) and Clear Rock Candy Glitter(TDR35879) to the top.  Set aside to dry.

Take the stands off the Tim Holtz Trees (Woodland Tree Lot TH93757 and Mini Woodland Tree Lot(TH93758).  Colour these with Distress Spray Stain in your chosen green colours.  Apply a bit of Matte Medium with your finger on the trees and sprinkle Mica Flakes and Distress Glitter.  These trees are adhered into the styrofoam.

Glue the snow piece with the trees to the bottom of the Vignette box.  Paint a Salvaged Santa or Snowman (TH93995) with Distress Paint and adhere next to a tree.  Wrap some of the light strand around the bigger tree on the left and with the remaining bit, hide behind the snow at the back and bring it across to the other side to wrap around the tree at the right.  Adhere your Vignette box top to the wood box.  Curl up the edges of the box top.

Now for the deer on the little shelves.  I cut out pieces from the leftover negative bits of the Pinked Etcetera Trims(TH9401, the same width as the Silver Stencil Chips(94018), numbers 2 and 5. For each shelf you need one flat and one pinked strip and crackled these.  Cut out two pieces of the Idea-ology Icicles (TH93778) the same width as the trim shelves.  Apply clear Distress Crackle Rock Candy(TDC31888) and Distress Rock Candy Glitter.

Cut out a piece of Christmas Stash patterned paper for the back of the stencil numbers.

Distress ink and alcohol ink the number stencils to age them.

Paint the Decorative Deer (TH93994) with Distress Paint and lightly sand these to make them look worn.  Apply Distress Rock Candy Glitter with Matte Medium.

Adhere the Stencil Numbers on each side, a little less space at the top as the shelf will go underneath.

  Adhere the shelf underneath.  Die-cut some foliage with the Sizzix Large Funky Festive Thinlits die(6642221).  Cut these apart and glue onto the shelf with a alcohol inked red Beaded Berry(TH93779).  I applied a tiny amount of white paint to the snow.  Adhere the deer to the shelf.

A silver Metallic Droplet was adhered above the stencil numbers.

I also cut out a piece of the negative leftover trim from the Pinked Trim package as pictured above.

This is to hold the battery pack for the lights.  Glue this to the back corner of your vignette tray.

Cut out a piece of Ephemera or paper to fit over the trim piece.  This creates a little pocket to hold the battery pack.  Now it's easy to remove the pack when changing batteries.

For the top of the Vignette Box Top, I cut off the bottom of a Wood Slice(TH93662) so it was flat on the bottom.  Glue this to the back of the box in the middle of the top. Apply Mica Flakes. I used this to give the ribbon/foliage cluster some height.  Die-cut various pieces of the Sizzix Large Funky Festive Thinlits die(6642221) with Distress cardstock.  Adhere Distress Rock Candy Glitter to the foliage and adhere to the box.  I dyed seam binding ribbon with Distress Candy Apple Spray, tied it in a bow and adhered to the wood slice. Add in a couple of Tiny Bells (TH93744) and a tree from the Yuletide Adornments (TH94008).

And that my friends, is how I created this Christmas Vignette Tray.  

I think my favourite part is the trim around the tray.  I want to create this again on another tray!

I still have a few more projects to share, I hope to have them posted before Christmas!  Fingers crossed!

Thanks so much for visiting,

Jan

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PATCHWORK BIRD - TIM HOLTZ SIZZIX CHAPTER 4 2019 RELEASE

Hi fellow crafters!  I can't believe how fast Christmas is approaching, and as usual, I'm so behind in everything. Still some decorating to get done, cards to make, and the list goes on. So if any of you are like me and still busy creating for the holidays, here's some inspiration! This is a project I created for Sizzix's Tim Holtz Chapter 4 Facebook release using the Patchwork Bird and wool fabric.

The bird perches on a spool I made using a piece of a cardboard tube, and the Mini Tree Rings die and embossing folder set.  Here's a short tutorial:

After selecting the wool pieces I wanted to use, I used Heat'n Bond Iron on Adhesive paper to the back of the fabric pieces. There are different kinds of this adhesive, two sided, one sided, light weight, etc.  I had a two-sided light weight that I used which can be found at a craft or fabric store.  This adhesive not only makes it easier to stitch on top of your pieces, it also stops your fabric from fraying.  Also keep in mind, that you want to keep your fabric on the thinner side, so it will still die-cut with the Thinlits.  You might have to scissor cut it in a few places.  When ironing the two-sided adhesive onto your fabric, leave one side of the paper backing on, iron the side with the exposed adhesive to your fabric.  

Remove the remaining backing and iron your tail pieces onto the bird body die-cut.

Do the same for the feet.

 I hand stitched around the edges of the pieces after they were adhered to the upper body die-cut and through the middle of the tail feathers.  Adhere the body with the pieces to the main bird die-cut.  I left the top of the bird chest, head and beak unstitched because I wasn't sure what I was going to do when stuffing it.  You can hand stitch this area now, except for the beak, which I left.

This is what your bird looks like so far.

I used 2 pieces of thin craft wire, twisted together halfway.  This wire supports the bird, so it stands upright. Glue the wire to the bird body and feet, leaving some wire sticking out past the feet.  It's a bit tricky on the feet, there's not much room, so you can't use a lot of glue.

 I die-cut another bird body and glued it on top of the bird back around the edges, except a small opening underneath the head.  I used a small amount of hot glue for this.  

I stuffed the bird to give it more dimension, but you could leave it flat. You will only need a very small amount of filling, then stitch your opening closed.  I finished off with the hand stitching around the chest and head at this point (not through the very back body layer)but you will have already done this step. To finish off the back edge, I hand stitched in matching thread all the way around and secured the feet fabric around the wire.  You will be poking  the wire from the bottom of the feet through your tree ring.

For my 'spool', I die-cut two of the smaller Mini Tree Rings from chipboard and two from Tim Holtz Mixed Media Cardstock.  Emboss the two pieces of Mixed Media cardstock rings.  

The paper roll was cut 2 1/4" long and the roll was about 1" or slightly more in diameter. Cover this with patterned paper (I used Tim Holtz Christmas paper). I coloured my tree rings, first with spraying with Antique Linen Distress Oxide Spray, then inking with Distress Oxide Ground Espresso ink and finally highlighting the edges and raised areas with Distress Walnut Stain ink.  Adhere the embossed coloured rings to the chipboard rings.  Poke two holes in the one ring that will be used for the top of the spool.  This is for the wire.  Poke the wire through and hot glue the the wire to the underside of the ring.

Glue your bottom tree ring to the bottom of the spool.

For the leaves, I die-cut different shades of green fabric from the leaf in the  Deck the Halls Colorize Set.  I did use a heat 'n bond adhesive (one-sided adhesive) to stop the fabric fraying, on some of them (mostly the ones that were not wrapped around the spool).  Machine stitch all your leaves in a garland, with the ends touching.  I continued sewing after I ran out of leaves for a little bit, so you have a thread that looks woven.

Leave the first leaf loose, then wrap and adhere the chain of leaves until you get near the end.  I had a total of 15 leaves in my chain.  Leave two to come up to the bird.

The thread piece that looks woven goes in-between the bird beak back and green front piece.  Adhere this to the beak.

To finish off my bird, I die-cut some green foliage from the Sizzix Large Funky Festive Thinlits set and green Tim Holtz Metallic Cardstock.  This, and spanish moss, were adhered to the spool top around the birds feet.  Also, two wool fabric leaves with alcohol inked red Beaded Berries(TH93779) were adhered slightly behind the bird.  A green fabric bow from the Deck the Halls Colorize set and a Tiny Bell (TH93744) tied on, complete this project.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, I still have a few more projects to share!  Hopefully I can get them done before Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jan

         

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A JOYFUL CHRISTMAS CARD - THE MAKING JOURNAL AT SIZZIX

Hi everyone!  I'm back today with another tutorial which I'm sharing on the Sizzix blog.  I have created a Christmas card featuring two of the new Tim Holtz Chapter 4 dies.  I decided to do something a little different instead of my usual vintage look, I went all metallic and a clean modern look!

That's the beauty of working with dies, just by changing your materials, you can achieve so many different styles!

Here's a sneak peek, but for the full tutorial go to the Sizzix Blog here or here!

Thanks so much for visiting me there!

Jan

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MR SNOWMAN TAG - TIM HOLTZ SIZZIX CHAPTER 4 2019 RELEASE

Hi everyone, I'm back again with another project created for the Tim Holtz Sizzix Chapter 4 2019 Release.  I've created this Etcetera Tag featuring the new Colorize dies, Mr. Snowman and Deck the Halls.

                                        

If you go to the Sizzix site, search for your Colorize die, there is a YouTube video for each die, to assist you in assembling your die-cut.  So helpful!

Paint a Vignette Frame(TH93694) first with Ground Espresso Distress paint, let it dry.  Then dry brush Candied Apple Distress paint for this.

Tint Idea-ology Wood Slices(TH93745) with Bundled Sage Distress Spray stain and then adhere them to the top part of a Stampers Anonymous Mini Etcetera tag(ETC004) that has been covered with plaid paper from the Idea-ology mini Christmas paper stash.  With my craft knife, I cut down the   center lightly, then it should snap in half when pressure is put on it.  Lightly sand the edges to smooth it out.

Adhere your painted Vignette frame to the front of your covered tag.  Adhere the Mr. Snowman die-cut within the frame.  I had the one arm on the outside edge of the frame.

Die-cut all your Deck the Halls(664229) Colorize pieces.

These are adhered on top of the wood slices.  Add Rock Candy Glitter to parts of the foliage, ribbon and snowman.  A strip of dyed Mummy cloth was tied around the hole of the tag.

For the hanging 'Let It Snow" I die-cut my letters with Alphanumeric Classic Upper 1 1/2"Thinlits set 664223 and Shrink Plastic.  I used these ones by Ranger Ink, but I think they have been discontinued.  To shrink them, I used my Ranger Heat It Craft Tool and tweezers to hold the letter.  It will start to curl, but I keep a Tim Holtz Die Pick handy to hold it lightly on my glass mat.  The longer it is heated, it will straighten out.  You might want to practise a few first!  Before heating, I lightly color the letters with Alcohol ink(I think I used an older colour-Juniper or Aqua), this won't look like they've been coloured much, but they will darken when shrunk.

Adhere the letters to one of the die-cut garlands, tuck the ends under the snowman thumbs. Add in the die-cut stars to the garland also.  Add some clear Rock Candy Glitter.  I lightly coloured some Tim Holtz Mica Flakes and glued these underneath the snowman.

A Idea-ology Clippings sticker was attached under this on the frame.

This completes your Mr. Snowman tag!

Thanks so much for visiting, 

Jan

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