Thursday, October 07, 2021

Tim Holtz Sizzix Halloween 2021 - Autumn Countryside and 3D Oak Leaves Thanksgiving Card

Hi All! This is my last card to show from the new Tim Holtz Sizzix Halloween release, and I think I saved the best Autumn make for last, as I fell in love with this Thanksgiving card. It took some time to make, but it was a joy doing so. Hope you like it. Enjoy!

 
Choose Kraft Stock for die cutting, cut down to about 4 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, and add the wide two sided tape to the back (I used black and champagne from Metallic 3, yellow from Confections, red and blue from Classic, and regular kraft. My pics show green from Jewel Metallic but I ended up not using it.). Using the Countryside Thinlit, die cut all six of the pieces with it, running each one through the machine three times to make sure it cuts all the way through since there is two sided tape on the back.  When removing the paper from the die, use a die pick to help make sure all the little pieces are in place especially on the yellow and champagne metallic as you will use lots of those little pieces, but the other colors you won't need all the tiny circles. Set each of these aside in a safe place so none of the parts fall out from each sheet.

 
Cut a piece of White Heavystock to about 4 1/2 x 5 1/2 (you will trim it down even further later) to be used as the base to build your Countryside scene. (NOTE: This is the hardest part of making this card, so cut slowly and refer to the pics.) Take the kraft Countryside scene first, and starting from the bottom right, trim above the tree in a rolling hill pattern above the bird, larger tree and house, trying not to cut through any images, using scissors. Do not remove the backing yet. Just lay this down on the bottom of the White Heavystock so you can see things a little easier. Trim the next part, again starting on the right, above the house, tree, house, and larger tree, in the same rolling hill pattern. Lay this above the first part on the White Heavystock. For the last part you want to trim in the middle of the large tree but not through the trunk...just lift it up from the tape backing to trim behind it, and do the same with the three houses and last tree. The backing might not be on the bottom parts where you had to cut behind it so make sure to lay that top part down on a non stick surface until you get things stuck down and have the other backing to stick those parts onto...sounds confusing but you will see what I mean as you cut. Lay this one above the other two. Set the top part aside on a non stick surface for now, making sure the trees and houses are on this piece. 
 
 
Take the top rolling hill from the kraft and lay it flush on top of the black metallic piece where it lines up in the correct way. Trim the black metallic along the rolling line of the top edge of the kraft piece, using that edge as your guide as you trim the black. You will not use the bottom part of the black metallic so you can set it aside for another project. The backing should still be on all four of the pieces. Lay the top black metallic piece above the three kraft pieces on top of the White Heavystock so you can see how the new scene will be laid out.  They should fit together like a puzzle, and you should now make out a night sky and three rolling hills. Go ahead and ink the edges of all three rolling hills with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink from Ranger.  
 
 
NOW IT'S TIME to remove the backing, and you will start with the black sky area first. You will only be using and sticking down the negative space, and all positive pieces will need to stay on the backing. I found using the Die Pick to keep pieces on the backing while lifting the negative space away was the easiest way for me to lift a clean negative piece away. Once you have the black sky piece lifted off the backing and no little pieces are stuck inside, adhere the night sky to the top of the White Heavystock. All the little pieces should be stuck to the backing and you can now set that aside with that piece you will not use and both of those can be used for something else. Next, take the skinny kraft hill and do the same lifting the negative piece away from the tiny pieces inside leaving them on the backing. Adhere this below the night sky just slightly overlapping the edges you can barely feel a raised edge and cannot see any white where the edges meet. Do the same for the next hill, and then finally the last hill that has the bottom edge. You should now have a complete rectangular scene stuck down to the White Heavystock with no pieces inside yet, and so you only see the White Heavystock blanks behind so it looks like a puzzle with missing pieces. Use scissors or a paper trimmer to trim off the White Heavystock border which should leave you with about a 4 1/4 x 5 3/8 inch piece of Countryside, and then ink the edges heavily with Gathered Twigs. The hard part is over!
 
 
Now it's puzzle completing time. Take the yellow metallic Countryside piece first, and using the Die Pick, lift off the stars from the backing and stick them in place where they go on the rolling hills and sky area. If your Die Pick has a rounded plastic end, you can use that to rub over the stars to make sure they are in place and stuck down well like I did...nice to have a tool that does multiple jobs. Next, take the red and blue regular Kraft Stock Countryside, and use the Pick to remove some red birds and add those randomly to the hills where they go, and then add blue birds, mixing the two. Again, use the bottom of the pick to rub over them to make sure all are nicely adhered.  
 
 
Take the red and blue pieces again along with the kraft parts, and figure out what houses you want to use. I made sure the biggest houses on each hill were going to be red and then had a kraft and blue house on the same hill. But before you remove the houses from the backing, use a Black Soot Distress Crayon and Detail Water Brush to color in a roof on the houses you want to use. When dry, remove those houses and stick them on the hills where they go. Make sure the doors go with them or exchange colors of doors on the houses that match the size. Leave some windows out and some in. Use the Die Pick to rub over them and make sure all is stuck. Of the windows you left in, color over those with the Water Brush and Black Soot Crayon so it will look like the light is off in that room. Color in the doors as well. Get the yellow metallic sheet again, and add the windows that match up to the places without windows and stick those on so it will look like a light is on in those rooms. Make sure all your houses have doors and windows. The only white blank parts now should be the trees and tiny circles.
 
 
 Take the champagne metallic piece and four colors of Alcohol Ink: Espresso, Crimson, Sunset Orange, and Sunshine Yellow. Use the Glass Mat without the silicon mat as your palette (the white grid on the mat is perfect for a palette). Add drops of Espresso Alcohol Ink to the mat and pick up with a paint brush and color in the trunks and some of the branches of all seven trees on the champagne piece. If the ink dries up you can add a drop of 91% Rubbing Alcohol to rewet it or just add another drop of Espresso. Clean the brush with the alcohol to remove the color, and then add Crimson Alcohol Ink to the palette. Add drops of Crimson to random places on the branches of the trees to mimic leaves. Clean the brush and add Sunset Orange for leaves, and then repeat with Sunshine Yellow. You want the trees to be colorful in Autumn glory. The dots on the Countryside die are probably for snow, but for this card they are leaves. Color in the dots on the champagne piece with the Crimson, Sunset Orange, and/or Sunshine Yellow to make them leaves. I lost some of the dots on the champagne so I used dots from the yellow metallic as well, so keep that in mind if some of yours are missing. Once all the trees and dots and colored, begin removing them from the backing and sticking them to the hills and sky, pressing them down with the end of the Pick. The puzzle should now be complete. 
 
 
Fold a kraft card base to 5 x 6 1/2 inches and ink the edges in Gathered Twigs. Cut a plaid patterned cardstock piece from the Christmas Paper Stash to 4 3/4 x 6 1/4, and ink the edges with Black Soot Archival and an Ink Blending Tool. Add two sided tape to the back and adhere to the card front. Cut a gold Metallic Kraft Stock piece to 4 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches, add tape to the back and adhere it to the upper center part of the plaid. Adhere the Countryside scene to the gold. Using Gold Stickles, add dots to the branches on the trees and to the dots of leaves over the card. Add a few dots of Stickles below the trees to look like leaves are piling up a little under each tree. Set this aside to dry completely. 
 
 
Using gold Metallic Kraft Stock, die cut and emboss one large and two small of the 3D Oak Leaves. Remember to mist the Kraft Stock lightly with water before running the 3D Fade three times through your machine. Let the leaves dry a few minutes. Take Carved Pumpkin Distress Paint, shake it up, and add a drop to the largest leaf. Rub the paint over the leaf with your finger or paintbrush, pushing the paint into all the embossed areas. Use a paper towel to lightly remove the paint from the raised areas revealing the gold underneath. Add Candied Apple to a small leaf and do the same thing. Add Salty Ocean Distress Paint to the last leaf and do the same. Let the paint dry on all the leaves or use a heat tool to dry them. Take the pad of  Vintage Photo Archival Ink and run over the raised areas of the leaves to further reveal the detail. Add foam tape to the back of the largest leaf and adhere it to the bottom left corner of the card front. Use foam tape and a little Collage Medium to adhere the red leaf to the right of the larger one slightly overlapping it. Add the blue leaf above the largest one with a little Collage Medium. 
 
 
Using the sentiment from the Great Outdoors Stamp Set from Stamper's Anonymous, stamp the sentiment onto White Heavystock using Black Soot Archival. Cut apart 'From Our', 'Family', and 'To Yours' and use the 'Family' for another project. Ink the edges of the words with Gathered Twigs and adhere them to the card houses...'From Our' to the top house, and 'To Yours' to the bottom house. Select the word 'home' from the Big Chat Stickers, ink the edges in Gathered Twigs and mount it onto gold Metallic Kraft Stock. Cut around it and adhere it below the 'From Our'. Select the sentiment 'Happy Thanksgiving' from the Small Talk Occasions Stickers, ink the edges in Gathered Twigs, adhere to gold Metallic, cut around, and then adhere onto a strip of the same patterned plaid paper. Cut around it and fish tail one the front end. Poke or punch a tiny hole in the other end, and tie a bow from string from the Salvaged Tags package. Adhere this to the center of the 3D Oak Leaves.


Supplies: 
(Paper Trimmer, 5 Inch Wide Two Sided Tape, Die Cut Machine, Die Pick, Scissors, Ink Blending Tool, Detail Water Brush, Glass Mat, Paintbrush, Water Mister, Paper Towel, Small Stamping Block, Foam Tape) 
-Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Metallic 3 Kraft Stock, Metallic Confections Kraft Stock, Classic Kraft Stock, Metallic Kraft Stock, Christmas 2019 Paper Stash, Big Chat Stickers, Small Talk Occasions Stickers, Salvaged Tags (string) 
-Ranger Surfaces: Kraft Cardstock
-Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits (Halloween 2021): Countryside 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Heavystock: White 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Gathered Twigs 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayon: Black Soot 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink: Crimson, Sunset Orange, Sunshine Yellow, Espresso 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Archival Ink: Black Soot, Vintage Photo 
-Ranger Stickles: Gold
-Sizzix Tim Holtz 3-D Impresslits (Halloween 2021): Oak Leaf 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint: Carved Pumpkin, Candied Apple, Salty Ocean 
-Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamp Set: Great Outdoors 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Collage Medium: Matte

Thank you truly for following along with all these Autumn and Halloween posts, and of course Christmas. I still have a whole lot of Christmas goods to show you. Until then, I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Sunday, October 03, 2021

Stamper's Anonymous Christmas 2021 - Plaid Jolly Santa Card

Hi Everyone and happy October! Here is a quick Christmas card made with the new  Jolly Santa Stamp Set from Tim Holtz and Stamper's Anonymous and using the Stripes Shifter Stencil to make a plaid background. Hope you enjoy! 

 
For two cards use a full sheet of White Distress Heavystock, and secure it in place horizontally with Sticky Grid Tape or equivalent. Using the thinnest of the Stripes Shifter Layering Stencils, lay the stencil on the edge and secure it in place with tape, and while holding the other end with your hand to prevent it moving, ink in Salvaged Patina Distress Ink with an Ink Blending Tool from top to bottom, working in a straight line to keep the lines of the stencil from moving. Keep moving the stencil over until you've covered the paper all the way across. You do not need to do the bottom area of the paper. Remove the stencil and clean it. Place it back where you started and 'shift' it over covering up the first stripes inked in (this is why Tim says to paint in the shift lines before hand so you can see the lines easier to shift over.) and ink in the new stripes with Antique Linen Distress Ink the same way as you just did. Remove and clean the stencil as you are finished with this one. Give this paper a quick dry with a heat tool.

 
Turn the paper vertically and secure. Take the medium Stripes Shifter Layering Stencil and tape it in place. Ink in the same way as you did holding the stencil so the stripes don't move and inking in a straight line using Festive Berries this time. Keep moving the stencil over following the pattern. After the row is inked in, move the stencil down to lengthen the pattern and cover up the rest of the paper. You will not shift with this stencil so you can clean and put away. Give this a quick dry.
 
 
Turn the paper back horizontally and use a ruler and black Fude Ball Pen to draw lines down the middle of each Antique Linen stripe to continue the plaid pattern. Dry when finished. There are millions of plaid patterns you can create using these stencils, inks, and directions, so feel free to play.
 
 
Cut the plaid paper to have two pieces 5 x 6.5 inches. To distress the plaid paper for a more vintage look, use a paper scratcher working up and down the plaid stripes to make light scratches. Go over this with a bit of steel wool to soften the colors as well. Ink the edges and surface with Antique Linen Distress Ink. In the pic, the one on the left is not distressed and the one on the right is so you can see the difference. Take the telegram words from the Jolly Santa Stamp Set and stamp the image repeatedly down the left side of the plaid using Vintage Photo Archival Ink. Cut and fold kraft cardstock to 5.5 x 7 inches. Cut blue Metallic Kraftstock from Confections Kraftstock to 5 3/8 x 6 7/8 inches and mount on the kraft with two sided tape. Cut black cardstock to 5 1/8 x 6 5/8 and mount onto the center of the blue metallic. Set the card bases aside for now. 
 
 
Using the stamp platform and Jolly Santa images stamp them on more White Heavystock...the Santa, Holiday Greetings, and December 25 using Black Soot and heat embossing with Clear Embossing Powder...Special Delivery and 2 for .25 using Festive Berries Distress Ink and heat embossing in Clear Powder...the sentiment and Christmas goods using Salvaged Patina Distress Ink and heat embossing in Salvaged Patina Embossing Glaze. Note: When I heat emboss with Distress Ink colors I often also stamp the last image (I like to stamp a few times for a nice crisp look.) using Distress Embossing Ink to make sure the powder sticks well, so that is why you see the pad in the picture.  
 
 
Cut out all the pieces...straight cuts for the labels and using a medium circle punch to easily cut out the price seal, and cutting around sentiment and Santa leaving a slight border. Set Santa aside for now. Use Antique Linen Distress Ink and an Ink Blending Tool to ink the surface of all the pieces (except the Santa) for a nice aged look. Use Gathered Twigs on the edges of all the pieces except the sentiment. Set the sentiment aside with the Santa for now. Add two sided tape to the back of all the other pieces and adhere to the card front as shown. Use two sided tape to adhere the card front to the base card. 
 
 
Using a Detail Water Brush and the silicon mat as your palette, use Distress Crayons to color in the Santa. I used Festive Berries for the hat and berries of holly, Tattered Rose for his face, Spun Sugar for his checks and lips, Hickory Smoke on the shadow lines of his beard and eyebrows, Speckled Egg on the shadow lines of the white parts of his hat, and Rustic Wilderness on the leaves of the holly. I color in softly first and then add a darker layer for shadows. 
 
 
To make Santa look porcelain, use the Icicle Crackle Paste and a flathead paintbrush, and paint over the whole Santa liberally, especially on his face, and saving the hat and berries to paint over last as some parts might bleed a little (You can spray the Santa with Spray Fixative first to prevent this.). Clean the brush a little incase of bleed, and then paint over all the adhered label pieces on the card taking care not to get any on the plaid parts. Paint over the sentiment as well. Clean your brush well, and let all of these dry about 30 minutes to be safe. You can use a heat tool after about 10 minutes to help out the drying time if you wish. Once dry and crackled, you can use the Antique Linen and a blending tool to push the ink into the cracks to further distress and age the pieces if you wish. I did this to Santa's face and all the label pieces. Use a paper towel to wipe off any excess ink. 
 
 
Using the same paintbrush, scoop out some Snowfall Grit Paste, and working a little at a time, brush the paste over Santa's hat parts that are supposed to be fluffy, brushing while pushing the paste in, working slowly to control where it goes. Once you have a thin layer on it's easier to add a thicker layer on top. Be careful not to cover up any of the holly berries and leaves. Let this dry. Add foam tape to the back of the Santa as well as the bottom parts of the sentiment, and adhere the Santa to the card front and the sentiment partially on the beard area with Collage Medium. Add dots of XMas Red Stickles to the berries. Let this dry. Ink the edges of the card with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. 
 
Supplies: 
(Ink Blending Tool, Heat Tool, Ruler, Distress Scratcher, Steel Wool, Paper Trimmer, Stamping Block, Stamp Platform, Scissors, Medium Circle Punch, Glass Mat, Detail Water Brush, Two Sided Tape, Small Flathead Paint Brush, Foam Tape) 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Heavystock: White
-Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: Shifter Multi Stripes (thinnest  and medium pattern) 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Salvaged Patina, Antique Linen, Festive Berries, Embossing Ink, Gathered Twigs 
-Ranger Fude Ball Pen: Black 
-Ranger Surfaces: Kraft Cardstock, Black Cardstock 
-Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Confections Kraftstock
-Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamp Set: Jolly Santa  
-Ranger Tim Holtz Archival Ink: Vintage Photo, Black Soot 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Glaze: Salvaged Patina 
-Ranger Embossing Powder: Clear 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons: Festive Berries, Tattered Rose, Spun Sugar, Hickory Smoke, Speckled Egg, Rustic Wilderness
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paste: Icicle 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste: Snowfall 
-Ranger Tim Holtz Collage Medium: Matte 
-Ranger Stickles: XMas Red 
 
I'll be back again this week, and this time with a Thanksgiving make. Until then, I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!