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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CHRISTMAS ETCETERA SLEIGH PART 1 - IDEA-OLOGY CHRISTMAS 2019

Hello everyone!  Today I have part one of a project I created for the Tim Holtz Christmas Idea-ology 2019 Facebook live.  I'm sharing how I created this 'sleigh' for my Christmas vignette.

I love creating vignettes, but I wanted something different other than a box or a flat structure for my base.

Don't ask me how I came up with this idea of creating a sleigh from Etcetera Bracket Trim(THETC-010)parts, but I know if I stare at something long enough, something is bound to click!  I seem to do a lot of 'staring' when trying to come up with an idea in my crafting projects, lol!  Any of you have the same problem?  All I  can say is, just start experimenting with whatever crazy idea you come up with.  If it doesn't work out, you just take it apart and try something different.  I hate throwing out perfectly good foam, chipboard, packaging bits, anything that might come in handy.  Look at all the leftover negative pieces in these Etcetera trim sheets!  You will need 4 of the smallest trims for the runners.  See where I've cut out the negative piece; you will need two of the end pieces to attach your runners. That leftover large piece will be your base, just trim off the end so it is flat like the opposite side.

I used really tiny nails with Collage Medium applied first to attach these end pieces as there's not a lot of area to work with.  Just warning you though, the chipboard can split, so if you can think of anything else, let me know!  Dressmaker pins maybe?  I will be reinforcing these later.

Once I had the sides secured, I adhered the 'runner' Etcetera Trims to these sides with Collage Medium.  Let these dry.

I use Idea-ology Collage Paper or tissue paper and Collage Medium to secure projects.  It's like using paper mâché.  Just cut small strips and apply a few layers.  I've used this method when making my own boxes (the corners), or just to strengthen something.  The tissue is thin enough that, once covered or painted, it doesn't show very much. This was to make sure my sleigh didn't come apart easy when handled.

After the runners were dried, I applied white gesso to the entire sleigh base.

Using a Mini 4.5 x 8" Etcetera Tag (ETC004), I gessoed the back side (or both sides) and covered the top with Idea-ology woodgrain paper (Christmas Paper Stash TH93988).

Before adhering these two parts together, I crackled the runners and parts of sleigh tag top with Ranger's Opaque Crackle Texture Paste INK57505.  After the paste was dry, I rubbed in Distress Crayons. Scribble the colour on and with a very small amount of water on my finger, rub it into the cracks to accent.  To age the crackle even more, apply a small wash of Distress ink.  I apply the ink to my craft mat, spritz some water on it, then with a brush, apply.

I just applied a coat of Distress paint on the underneath, but I would probably cover that Etcetera base part with paper or thin chipboard if it was for myself.  I wanted to leave it bare, so everyone could see  what I used for the  base.

That is how I created my Etcetera Sleigh!  Stay tuned for the rest of the tutorial!

Hopefully I can get that done soon, I'm so behind in sharing all my projects and creating more!  October was not a good month for me! I've been battling a dreadful cold for three weeks, fell and sprained my wrist, bruised my sternum, and then to end the month on a very low note, my dog who developed heart problems this year, collapsed and we had to say good-bye to our sweet Roxy.  Whew, I think I've had enough; here's to hopefully, more crafting, a good ending to a not so good year!

See you soon, and thanks for stopping by,

Jan

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LET IT SNOW CHRISTMAS VIGNETTE

Hello friends!  One of my favourite things to create with Tim Holtz Idea-ology products, are little vignettes.

 I don't know about you, but I love all the Trinket Tins so much that I have a really hard time using them, I just want to collect them!  I've actually purchased more than one of each... to use and one or two to keep!

The first thing I did, was cover a Vignette Wood Box (TH93279) with plaid paper from Christmas Paper Stash (TH93739) and sand the edges.  I then adhered some Funky Festive and Mini Holiday Greens die-cuts on the top of my box where my trinket tin was going to sit.  I didn't do too many as I wanted it still to be fairly flat.  With the matching plaid Christmas Design Tape (TH93760), I taped all the inside of my tin, both sides, close to the outer edge to finish off the inside, except the edges that will sit on the box (I'll tell you why in a bit).  A piece of Worn Christmas Wallpaper (TH93777) with a wintery scene, was cut to fit the inside of my tin lid.  A Christmas Quote Chip (TH93753) with four little mini fasteners (TH92790), love these, they look like little screws, in the corners.  At this point, I have not put the box top or anything else in the deep side of the tin.  Place your tin on the box where you want it placed, and hammer a small nail through the tin and wood box, both sides, lid and bottom of your tin.  Your tin is now secure on the box to continue on embellishing.  I just glued a piece of foam underneath where the nail came through, or you could bend the nail.  Add in a piece of Design tape to the bottom of your tin, both sides, to cover the nails.

This is the view from the back, where you can see my Christmas foliage peeking out from the tin bottom.  I tucked in a few more pieces after the tin was nailed down.

The smallest of the Vignette Box Tops, there's 5 in the package (TH93755 - Ribbon Icicle Decorations; 3.38 x 4.75 inches) fits inside the trinket box with a bit of room above and below.  I've just die-cut some Distress Cardstock with  Funky Festive and Mini Holiday Greens to fill in that empty space.  I wanted a 3-d looking scene inside, so I found this photo ephemera from the Christmas Ephemera pack.  It was a bit wider than my box top, which was perfect.  I just taped the two sides to the front corners, giving the photo a curve.  This created a half circle area to create a "floor" by just adhering a small piece of cardstock to the bottom.  This was covered in Tim Holtz Grit paste(for snow) and a mini tree.  Rock Candy Glitter was added while still wet. Adhere the box to the inside of your tin, leaving a space on the bottom and top for your greens.  Greens were added to the top of the tin with Tiny Bells (TH93744), ribbon and a Christmas Token.

Love these Salvaged Snowmen (TH93774)!  Fun to paint or alter anyway you want, the same as the Salvaged Santas, which I altered with just Gold Mixative Alcohol ink and glitter here.  I've used Distress Paint and antiqued it with a Distress Crayon (diluted with water). To add a bit of snow around my snowman, paper dolls, and tree, I used Grit Paste with Rock Candy Glitter added while wet. This will anchor your embellishments to the box a bit more securely even though they were glued down first. The Icicles (TH93778) were accented with Distress Rock Candy paint, glitter, and a touch of white Picket Fence paint.

A tree Ephemera piece was adhered to the corner of the tin. The edges were inked and a bit of Rock Candy glitter added.  For my tree in the front, I used a Woodland Tree(TH93757) which was coloured with Bundled Sage Distress Spray, glittered with Rock Candy Glitter, and placed in a thimble(TH93772, my favourite item from this Christmas release!) which was coloured with Alcohol Ink.    I bit of snow was also placed in front of the thimble.  Some Beaded Berries(TH93779) were coloured with alcohol ink and placed among the foliage.

Well, I think describes about everything.  Sorry, I didn't take any step by step photos this time.  I find it really slows down my creating process, especially in the winter here, when it gets dark so early and there's a shortage of good light!  Hope I've encourage you to use one of your trinket tins!

Thanks so much for visiting me here, and thank you for your wonderful comments, they are much appreciated!

Happy Crafting,

Jan

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"Wish" Canvas

Hello fellow crafters!  Well, November is here... I can't believe how October just flew by!  I'm starting off the season with this bit of Sizzix inspiration.

I have this small burlap canvas to share.

I first took a small burlap canvas that had a picture already on it.  I just applied white gesso to make a fresh start.

With the Sizzix Tim Holtz Sparkles Texture Fades Embossing folder, I embossed a piece of Metallic Kraft-Core paper (Tim Holtz).  I cut the piece slightly smaller than my canvas.  I had to emboss my paper two separate times as it was larger than the folder.  Lightly sand the paper.

I tore the edges of my paper before applying paint.  I painted the darker colour first, Evergreen Bough and Pistacio Distress paint.  Let this sit for a minute, and then lightly wipe off, leaving it more in the recessed areas.  I then applied Picket Fence Distress paint, and did the same thing.  For my canvas, I applied different Distress sprays - Brushed Pewter, Iced Spruce, Evergreen Bough, and Picket Fence.  They were still a little damp, when I applied Picket Fence paint and the Tim Holtz Snowflake Stencil (THS050) to the one side of my canvas.  This gave my snowflakes a kind of watery look.  After my painted canvas had dried, I adhered my embossed metallic paper.

Next, I die-cut snowflakes with chipboard from Sizzix's Tim Holtz Snowflake Duo bigz die with texture fade.  I also die-cut the word "wish" from Sizzix's Tim Holtz Handwritten Wish bigz die, also with chipboard.

 

The "Wish" was painted white, then Glossy Accents applied on top.  The snowflakes, after embossed, were also painted white, then dry brushed with a combination of Evergreen Bough and Cracked Pistachio Distress paint.  I applied Rock Candy Distress Glitter  on top with Glossy Accents.  I also added a few more acrylic snowflakes from Tim Holtz Frozen Alpha Parts, that were also touched up with a bit of glitter.

Adhere these snowflakes and the "wish" to your canvas and you're done!  I'm not wishing for snow just yet, but I'm lovin' these kind of snowflakes over the real ones for now!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jan
           

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MONTHLY CHALLENGE LAYOUTS

Morning everyone!  I was going to share my February Urban Scrapbook Design Team monthly challenge layout with you and realized I did not share last month's.  I think January was just a blur for me, that horrible cold I got lasted for almost the entire month.  So here are my layouts:

This is my February layout of my mother-in-law and Elvis.  Actually it's my father-in-law, but doesn't he look like him?  In this kit, the papers are from the Kiss, Kiss collection by Crate Paper.  I used the heart and paint splat die from Sizzix's new Tim Holtz 660222 Scribbles & Splat thinlits set.  You can't really see the paint splat, it's under the hearts and I've embossed it with the Stampendous Gold Spoonful of embossing powder & elements. The black and gold dot paper was die-cut with Sizzix's Tim Holtz 660220, Mixed Media Thinlits set. There's a little "love" on top of my ribbon, which is also a new Tim Holtz thinlits die, from the set "Handwritten Love" 660218.  I am loving these three new thinlits sets, I could use them on everything! They should be in the store any day now. We had some printed acrylic square pieces in the kit, which I cut out the design part and and used that on my layout.  There's also some acrylic page pockets in the kit, which my journaled paper is in, along with paper heart confetti.

Here's my January layout:

I think we all fell in love with this BoBunny collection, "Altitude" that was in our kits.  The colours are so beautiful and when all of our layouts were displayed on the wall, they looked amazing.  I used a word stamp with Distress Paint first, then a Memory Box stencil with Wendy Vecchi Crackle Embossing Paste.  The bare trees were cut out by hand and my snowflakes were die-cut from Sizzix's Tim Holtz Paper Snowflakes Thinlit set (660059) and Stacked Snowflakes (660052) Bigz die.  There was glitter paper which I cut out snowflakes with and alcohol inked them in random areas.  The winter wonderland is also a Tim Holtz thinlit die from the set, Script Holiday Words (660058).  I have been asked a few times how I did the scrabble tile word snow and it's reflection.  It was on one of the patterned papers (Bundled) and I just cut out each tile and adhered it to my page.

Well,  I hope to get caught up with my projects, that was supposed to be my goal this year.  I always seem to be late, and rushing to finish.  It isn't helping when it's been really busy at the store, some long hours trying to keep up with orders coming in.  I was hoping some of our new Tim Holtz dies would be today, but it looks like customs is holding things up again.  Why is it always the stuff we REALLY are waiting for?

But we did get in yesterday, the most amazing paper.  Some of it is like a velvet metallic, and bright rich colours. Brushed metallic, pearlized, chalk paper, ...you have to see it.  Oh boy, it's so hard to take home a pay check!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!

Jan

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January Monthly Challenge

It's time again for Urban Scrapbook's Monthly Challenge kit.  January's kit is filled with papers from BoBunny's collection, Woodland Winter, some great embellishments, and even a stencil.  Here's my layout:

I used my snowflake stencil and embossing dauber to emboss my blue snowflakes with Lindy's embossing powder.  My corrugated snowflakes and letters were die-cut with Sizzix's Snowflake #2 , Snowflake #3, Snowflake Border, and WordPlay Alphabet.  My snowflakes and letters were sprayed with Lindy's Starburst sprays and Mister Huey's Opaque White.
For more inspiration, make sure you check out the rest of the Urban Design Team's layouts!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jan

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Happy Holidays!

I can't believe it's Christmas in six days.  My list of things to do gets longer and the days seem like they are getting shorter.  The only reason I'm sitting down to write this is; yes I am crazy, I'm waiting for a coat of paint to dry so I can put on another coat.  My husband and son were moving a mattress down our stairs last month and because it was such a tight squeeze on our curved staircase, they put a hole in our drywall.  It's one of those little jobs that you totally ignore until the very last minute and my husband has been threatening to paint his patch work if I don't.  I let my husband paint once, never again!  I was pregnant with our second child so I couldn't paint our son's bedroom.... my husband painted the entire room during half-time on a football game he was watching.  Unfortunately, most of the paint didn't end up on the walls.  There have been a few times where he's tried to sneak in some touch ups in places, but the tell tale signs of paint everywhere didn't go unnoticed.  So, here I am trying to get this done, as our family Christmas dinner is at our house.
I'm not supposed to be doing things like this right now; as just because my life isn't busy enough, I had some minor surgery last week on my arm.  Thank goodness it's not on my writing hand!  It's amazing what you can do with one arm!
I have help arriving today though, my oldest son Reece, is coming home for Christmas from Australia!  He hasn't been home for over two years, so we are looking forward to his visit.  Typical Canadian, he's already scheduled to play in a hockey game on Saturday!
Some other really exciting news in our family, our daughter Cassandra was chosen as a contestant on the reality show, "Fashion Star"on NBC.  It's already been filmed, everything was top secret, so it's been a big surprise for everyone.  Can't wait to watch the show starting March 8th to cheer her on!  She's not allowed to say anything about the show, so it will be nerve wracking to see how far she makes it.
That's a little bit of my busy life, I'm sure you all trying to check off your lists too!  But back to scrapbooking, here's a layout I did for Carta Bella Paper, using their Winter Fun collection:

I took one of their coordinating cardstock papers and lightly stamped snowflakes (Tim Holtz snowflake stamps) with white paint.  Just be adding some stickers, hand cut paper and a diecut snowflake, and a photo, my layout was done!
Back to my painting, have a great day!

Jan

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Page Maps

I'm sure you have all used Becky Fleck's Page Maps at some point.  For those of you who haven't; for years, she has been creating sketches for all of us scrapbookers who have hit that creative wall.  This month the Carta Bella Paper design team was invited to take part in the December maps.  Here's a peek at my double page layout:

I used Carta Bella's Winter Fun collection for my layouts. To see the rest of my 2-page layout, check out Page Maps December 2012 maps here!  There's some great inspiration there to help those times when you need something to kick-start those creative juices!

Have a great day,

Jan

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January Tag Challenge

This month our group's challenge was to make a tag that represented our favorite winter activity.  I hate being cold (and I live in Alberta!) so any winter activity for me involves indoors, fireplace, hot drink, and warm cozy clothes.  Although, I do like taking winter photos and I love snow at Christmas but just not the cold temperatures.  We have been extremely lucky this winter, breaking records for the warmest winter, and very little snow.... until this week.  It has been in the low -30's to almost -40's, that's Celsius not Fahrenheit!  At least it's perfect weather for scrapbooking and my favorite winter activity, reading.  I read a lot throughout the year, but it's so nice to cuddle up with a good book when it's cold and snowing outside.
For my tags I used old book covers as the tag base.  I buy used books for the inside pages, but I save the covers for future projects.  Since the covers are harder than chipboard, I didn't want to chance ruining my tag die, so I cut them out with a craft knife, using a chipboard tag as a template.

The flowers were made with a Spellbinder's die(Spiral Blossom One) Tim Holtz Pinecone die, and the small leaves, flowers were from Memory Box.(Catalina border) I also dipped the bookpaper flowers in Utee and sprinkled on some clear glass glitter immediately.  Some of the covers were plainer so I cut out a rectangle from the spine(included the title) and glued it onto the front of the tag.  I printed my tickets from this website  and added in my own words.
My photos aren't the greatest, the light isn't great this time of year, and I took them outside (very fast in the cold!) but here are a few closeups:

Today I had the day off, and because it was so cold out, I decided to stay home and scrapbook.  Here's a layout I did with a line from My Mind's Eye called "Kraft Funday, Bright Days":

I added in some Tim Holtz Kraft Coredinations paper, Prima Wood buttons, a 7Gypsies ruler, a porcelain number (the photo was taken in 1982), Cosmo Cricket word sticker and My Mind's Eye matching kraft embellishments.  I love the little package of circle garland!
That's all for today, stay warm!

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