Tim Holtz Sizziz Christmas 2022 - Christmas Cutouts Double Lighted Square Vignette Box Ornament

Here is the second project that I made for the Tim Holtz Sizzix Christmas Live...one that is near to my heart...an ornament made with the Christmas Cutouts Thinlits that all lit up with two different Tiny Light sets in Griswold style meets Retro Vintage!!! You can hang it with all the lights off, or just the sky and inside lights on, or everything lit up, which is super bright and fun. It was a little labor intensive which really makes this post lengthy so grab snacks, but if you want to make one for yourself hopefully my process and the step outs won't make you crazy, but tis the season! Enjoy!

 

 

Plan out the scene on the Vignette Box with the Christmas Cutouts Thinlits and Mini Paperdolls, and figure out the colors of Kraftstock you want to use. Add two sided tape to the back of the colors of Classic Kraftstock. (Note: I used my Sidekick Die Machine just sitting and watching a movie, as all the die pieces fit perfectly in the machine.) Die cut the wider house using a brick red color, and then die cut the smaller part of the same house but die cut it from the two sided tape side so that the house roof slants the other way and can connect to the whole house with some symmetry. Die cut the words each a different color and the symbol inside a different color as well, and die cut another of the symbol parts just in case you want to add more of those shapes later. Remove the letters inside and save those for another project. Die cut the stars in yellow, and the trees a dark green, and do about five of the trees. Die cut the cloud and moon with White Heavystock. Set the pieces aside for now.  

 

 

Paint over the top and sides of the smallest Square Vignette Box with Uncharted Mariner Distress Paint from Ranger using a medium paintbrush. When dry, shake up Snow Flurries Mica Stain, and lightly mist over the top and sides of the box. Let dry, and then cover the sides of the box with a paper towel to protect them. Add a little Picket Fence Distress Paint to the mat and pick up with a Splatter Brush, and then strum the bristles upward, pointing them at the top of the box, and flick the white paint over it to create a snow flake look. Let dry, and clean your Splatter Brush. If you got any white paint on the sides, just paint over the white with more Uncharted Mariner.

 

 

Select paints that match the word opening rectangles...the Uncharted Mariner matches the blue, Victorian Velvet matches the pink, Fossilized Amber the yellow, and Mowed Lawn matches the green. Barn Door matches the red from the Classic set perfectly as well (Just gotta love the Distress color palette across the lines!!!). Take the large Diamond Dot Layering Stencil from Stamper's Anonymous, and lay it over one of the sides of the box (best if box is turned over on one side) centering it so that you have five of the diamonds in the center with half circles showing on the edges. Shake a color of paint and then screw off the lid. Working from inside the lid for easier cleanup later, dip a Detail Mini Ink Blending Tool into the paint, pick a small amount of paint up in the foam, and pounce it over the silicon mat to distribute the paint into the foam so you don't have too much. Pounce the foam over a diamond on the stencil, carefully holding the stencil in place. Create a pattern of color that is easily repeatable, and use the next color of paint. I went pink, green, yellow on the diamonds, and red on the circles. When the pattern is painted in, remove the stencil and wash it quickly while the paint dries on the box. If you are heavy with the paint, you might have some bleed under the stencil, but you can touch it up later...the pattern is the important part for now. Once the paint dries, repeat the stenciling on the next side, but this time use the four diamond pattern, still following the same color pattern. The next side will be five diamonds, then the last side four diamonds. This will take some time to dry a side before moving on to the next. When it's all dried, touch up any paint with a detail paint brush.

 

 

Once all four sides are stenciled and dried, use a white pen to outline all the shapes. Let that dry a few minutes, and then gather 1/4 inch two sided tape and the blue scalloped Trim Design Tape. Apply the two sided tape to the very edge of one side of the top of the box going down to both sides. Peel the liner off and then adhere the Trim over the sticky tape. Burnish with your finger for good adherence and trim off any hang over. Do the opposite side the same way making sure the Trim tape follows the same pattern (scallop turned it or turned out). Once both opposite sides are finished, do the other two parallel sides, overlapping the other Trimmed sides so you will create a nice looking frame that matches up and falls off to the sides of the box. The reason for the two sided tape is to make sure the tape sticks as the paint and Mica Stain underneath can make the Trim tape not stick very well by itself.

 

  

Take all four of the words and the symbols inside, and use a white pen to outline the letters on the outside border, but outline the symbols on the inside of the shapes. Remove the backing of the tape, and stick a word on each side of the box, keeping the word to the right side next to the Trim tape, so you can still see lots of painted pattern on the left side of the word. Add the symbol where it goes for each word. Once all four words are stuck down, apply a nice coat of Crazing Collage Medium over the sides and top of the box, and really apply it thicker in the areas where the letters would be. Take two Tack Nails and paint over them using Picket Fence Distress Paint. (Note: I stuck mine into a foam piece to hold them straight up while painting...works perfectly!) When they are dry, use a craft hammer to nail them in half way, in the middle on each side of one of the sides of the box. This will be the top of the box...you decide which it will be but I used the Joy side.

 

 

Remove the backing on the two house pieces, and adhere the smaller left hand piece to the main house. Add a tiny piece of black cardstock behind the door part and stick down, then add vellum to the back of the whole house. Take the Black Soot Distress Watercolor Pencil and pick up the color with a Detail Waterbrush and color around the roof line slightly for a shingle roof look. Clean the brush and using the Hickory Smoke Pencil, pick up the color for the tip of the Pencil and add stripes across the whole front of the house about an 1/8 inch apart, then add lines between them, alternating the stripes for a brick mortar look. Clean the brush and pick up the Barn Door color and color in some of the rectangle brick looking parts randomly for a brick front look to the house. Cut off the overhang of the vellum, and set this aside.

 

 

Adhere two sided tape to the back of white felt, and die cut two large, two medium, and one small of the grass pieces from the Papercut Chicks Thinlits...these will be snowy hills. Lay all the pieces on the top of box, except the Paper Dolls, and figure out exactly where everything will go. (Might be good to snap a pic so you won't forget.) You will use the star from the word parts that was not used, and it's a little larger, so you have six stars. I placed mine at the top left. Add three tiny squares of foam tape to the back of the moon, one on each tip and one in the middle. Do the same with the cloud, using two tiny squares of foam tape. Add one tiny square of foam tape to the top of the house. Do not remove the backings of those yet. Lift up the moon and use a White Marker or Pen to mark with dots the two areas under the moon where the foam tape is not (so on either side of the middle foam tape), so you will know where the white lights will go. Lift up the cloud and mark two dots where the foam tape is not where the white lights will go. Lift up the house and make a larger dot on the top right side. This is where the colorful string of lights will pull through so the dot needs to be bigger so you will know. Also, mark two dots under the house where white lights will go. Add dots under each star as well. You should have 12 smaller dots, and one larger dot. If you didn't nail in the Tack Heads, do so now. Pick a sentiment to use from the Clippings Sticker Book, but leave it in until you are ready for it. Remove all the pieces and set them aside somewhere safe.

 

 

I have no idea on the size of drill bits for the hand drill as they are not labeled, but the largest one is probably an 1/8 inch for the colored lights and the other one just slightly smaller for the white lights. Drill the largest hole that goes on the upper right side of the house, and leave it alone for now...don't confuse it with the others. Drill all the other holes with the smaller bit on the front side of the box so all the splinters go in to the back. Remove all the splinters with a rag or paper towel to protect your fingers. 

 

 

Flip the box over. Take the string of white Tiny Lights and pull the tabs to make sure they are working when you turn them on. Cut a one inch piece of fuzzy velcro and one inch piece of the other and stick them together. Remove the backing of one of the sides and stick it to the back cover of the Tiny Lights (one with the screws). Then remove the other backing and stick the lights in the opposite corner where the larger hole is beneath the holes for the sky area, pressing it down firmly to make sure it's nice and stuck. Wrap the thicker part of the wire part that's coated in plastic around the sides on the battery case, below it and around the other side so it's out of the way as much as possible. Take the first light bulb (closest to the battery pack) and fold each side of the wire down next to the bulb. Push the bulb into the closest smaller hole so that the bulb it barely peeking out on the front side. Fold the wires down and curl them if you need to and ready the next bulb for the next closest hole. Repeat for a few holes and then secure the wires down with scotch tape, making sure it is not covering up any holes. Repeat until you come to the last smaller hole (there are 12 unless you made more or less). Secure the bulb in the last hole and then use scissors to cut the remainder of the lights off. Save that wire for another cool mixed media project (think assemblage) so it doesn't go to waste. It would make a cool string for a Christmas tree card, even though they don't work now.  

 

   

To make the back a little more presentable, especially if this is a gift, use some cardstock cut to half the size of the inside, and secure it over the wires (but not the battery pack) with some foam tape. If you cover up the bigger hole, just use the scissors to cut around it. 

 

  

Flip the box over and lay the moon, cloud, and stars where they will go over the holes with the lights, but don't stick them down yet. Color over the moon and cloud with a little Weathered Wood Distress Ink with the waterbrush for some shadow areas if you wish. Ink the edges of each with the ink as well. Remove the backing on the moon and cloud and stick them down over their respective lights. Using a craft pick for the stars really helps as they are tiny, fyi. Take some Clear Foam Tape (Ranger makes this.) and cut small pieces to fit the back of each star. This is tedious but you need the clear so the lights show through. Remove the backing and stick each star down over their respective lights. If some of the bulbs show around the stars or the stars are not level, it's okay, just as long as they are stuck is the important part.

 

 

Take all of the trees (I have six on mine because I used the tiny extra tree from the words.), and use your finger or a palette knife to apply Opaque Distress Grit Paste on the top and the branches to look like snow. Let dry a few minutes. Then take the largest one and adhere it to the left side of the box so it reaches into the sky. Add a medium sized one to the opposite side so it will be the side of the house but showing above it as well, so use the house as a guide. Add another tree next to the large one on the left. Leave everything else off for now and set it all aside.

 

 

Take the colored Tiny Lights and remove the tab and make sure they work. Add the velcro to the back of the battery pack as before and stick the lights down long ways next to the other light pack. Wrap the plastic wire part around and stick the light string through the largest hole, gently pulling the whole string out through the hole. Cover if you wish, but you don't really need to this time as the lights will be on the top front of the box. 

 

 

This next part is the hardest part of this project, so go slow, take nice deep breathes, take breaks if you need to, and DON'T cuss me out! ;0)  Just pretend you are helping Clark Griswold put up his lights!!! Take the house and lay it where it will go (over the largest hole and two remaining lights) so you know exactly where it will be positioned, but don't stick it down yet. Take the colored lights and cut off the last 10 on the string as these won't be used (Save them I tell ya!)...make sure it's the last ten lights on the end of the string. With the other 10 lights you will be folding down the wire on each side of bulb, and zig zagging them so that five are on each side of the roof (3 on the longer and two on the shorter side, all while the wires will be folded behind the house and the bulbs (which now will be called cobra heads)folded down along the pitch of the roof. I KNOW...take a minute to process that and study the photo, but no cussing at me. You CAN DO THIS!!! So you will start with the first light coming from out of the hole, fold each side down and then take the bulb part (with the wire folded behind it) and fold the cobra head down until the very bottom right corner of the roof. Nothing is stuck down yet. At this point the house will just be your guide so you know where to make the folds. Repeat for the next two lights as three will be on that lower part of the roof on the right. Then do the next two for the upper part of the pitch of the roof, all the while folding the wire to the back and folding the cobra heads down (wire behind the light not seen) onto the pitch on the front. Once you have the first five you feel like a champ, but the turn and doing the other side if you are righty is a little harder ;0)!  You are going to curve the wire over the other side of the roof top and fold it down next to the chimney, while folding cobra head down closest to the point on the roof, then do the other on the other side of the chimney. The last three are much easier. NOW, keeping the lights in place on the house (nothing stuck down yet), turn on the lights and look through the windows of the house to see if you can see wires. If so, try to move and fold them so you can't see them through the windows...very hard to do, so if you don't care I don't care. You can actually see one of my wires through the window. Gently remove the house from the wires leaving them intact, and marvel what your fingers just did!

 

 

Add a thin strip of two sided tape to the bottom of the house on the back, and remove the backing on it and on the foam tape piece. Place the lights back on the house and really push the cobra heads down and stick the house down where it will go (to the left of that tree on the right and kind of matching up with the bottom of the tree). Hardest part is over, and now when you turn on those lights you become Clark!!! Take one of the largest snow hills and figure out where it will go so it just covers up the bottom of the house and tree trunks of the trees that are already adhered. Trim off on of the end edges so that it will fit perfectly between the tape borders, and remove the back and stick down. Remove the backing on the trees and add tiny strips of foam tape to the back of the tops of the three remaining trees. Stick the tiny one down to the left of the house. Stick another on the left side of the box spaced evenly with the other two nearby. Add a medium hill lining up with the left side slopping down some. It won't reach to the other side. Then take the other medium hill and cut it in half. Stick one down on the left and the other on the right slopping down some and making sure that when you stick the last large hill down that it will cover up the remainder of the box between the tissue borders. Stick the last tree down on the right side, then stick the last large hill down making sure all is covered up and trim off any overhang. Then take the tiny hill and stick it where it goes on that large hill where the indented lines are that outline the hill.

 

 

Take the white wire and cut off about a foot of it. Slightly round it in the middle your with hands so there is a center part seen, and use a pencil or craft tool to curl the left end around a few times. Then wrap the portion above the curls around the left side Tack sticking up on the top of the box about three times. Wrap the wire above that around the pencil a few times to make some curls, then leave a little space (hopefully that center part) and make a few more curls, and then wrap some wire around the other Tack about three times. Curl the end of the wire on the right and cut any extra or keep curling. Take the sentiment and ink the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink, and stick down onto some cardstock leftovers ( I used the blue.) Trim around it leaving a blue border, and use two sided tape and Collage Medium to stick it down in the middle of the tiny hill. Take the Paper Dolls and use the new Distress Watercolor Pencils and the Detail Waterbrush to color in any parts of the characters. Add two sided tape (or foam tape if it will need it) and adhere the trio to the left bottom side of the box. Finished!

 

Supplies: 

(Scissors, Two Sided Tape (two inch and 1/4 inch), Die Cut Machine, Die Pick, Glass Mat, Paintbrush, Splatter Brush, Detail Blending Tools, Detail Waterbrush, Craft Hammer, Hand Drill with two sizes of bits, Scotch Tape, Craft Pick, Foam Tape, Clear Foam Tape, Palette Knife, Ink Blending Tool) 

-Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Classic Kraftstock, Mini Paperdolls, Square Vignette Boxes, Trims Design Tape, Tack Nails, Tiny Lights, Christmas Tiny Lights, Clippings Sticker Book 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Heavystock: White

-Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits (Christmas 2022): Christmas Cutouts 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint: Uncharted Mariner, Picket Fence, Mowed Lawn, Victorian Velvet, Fossilized Amber, Barn Door 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Mica Stain: Snow Flurries 

-Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: Diamond Dot 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Collage Medium: Matte, Crazing 

-Ranger Surfaces: Black Cardstock 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils: Black Soot, Hickory Smoke, Barn Door, Tattered Rose, Peeled Paint, Prize Ribbon, Vintage Photo 

-Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits: Colorize Papercut Chicks 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste: Opaque 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Weathered Wood, Gathered Twigs 

-White Pen, Yellowish Tint Vellum, Double Stick Velcro, White Felt, White Wire  

Hope you are not too worn out after all that! Thank you truly for stopping by today! Until next time, I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!