Friday, December 14, 2018

Christmas Greetings - Glorious Gatherings Etcetera Tag

The Glorious Gatherings stamp from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous is so beautiful! It is made to be used by stamping only part of the image on cards, but its so lovely that I wanted to use the entire stamp. So here is how I did it.
 I measured a piece of plain Collage Paper to be big enough to cover one of the Small Etcetera Tags from Stampers Anonymous.
 Using the stamp platform and either Black Soot or Ground Espresso Archival Ink, I stamped the image into the middle of the piece of Collage Paper.
 Here you can see that I centered the paper and have it secured with the magnets.
 I positioned the stamp onto the collage paper.
 Then I inked up the stamp and made sure the entire image was clear. If you feel the image isn't as dark as you would like, then add a little Black Soot here and there for definition.
 I dried the ink and then pulled out a bunch of Distress Markers in the colors I wanted.
Scribble them onto the Glass Media mat and then water color the image.
Use a watercolor brush and the markers and color in the image.
When that was finished, I painted the Etcetera Tag white, let it dry, and then applied the collage paper over the tag by brushing a generous, but even layer of Collage Medium over the entire tag and then laying the image over the tag. Don't set it down until you are positive it is in the right position. Then gently smooth it down with a soft, dry cloth from the top to the bottom as quickly as possible. There will be NO COLLAGE MEDIUM ON TOP OF THE IMAGE.
As you can see, I sanded around the edges, and inked with brown Distress Ink just on the sides. Then at both the top and bottoms. smear some Grit paste or Opaque Crackle Texture Paste, both from Ranger, to look like snow drifts. Set it aside to dry. Then spray the entire piece with Distress Resist Spray and dust it with Distress Rock Candy Glitter before it dries. You want the entire tag to have a slight shiny, glittery feel but not to cover or overwhelm the image.
Get some seam binding ribbon and dye it green with Shabby Shutters or Bundled Sage Distress Ink. Ink up the Music CMS358 background stamp with Black Soot ARCHIVAL and lay the ribbon over a line of music. Carefully press down so the line of music is centered on the ribbon.
To make a sentiment that looks like it was painted on wood It takes several steps.
Stamp the sentiment on plain Distress Mixed Media Heavystock.
Emboss it with Superfine White Embossing Powder from Ranger Ink.
Color it with various Distress Stains.
Start by swiping several colors from left to right and keep adding until you get the color you like.
At this point it looks pretty good, but it can look even better with just a couple more steps.
You need the 3-D Lumber Texture Fade, Archival Ink and your sentiment.
Ink the raised areas of the Texture Fade with Archival Ink in Black Soot or Ground Espresso.
Spray the sentiment with a little water on both sides, then run it through your die cut machine 3 times for 3-D
Voila! You have a wood grain sign that looks like it was painted and distressed with years in the elements.
It's amazing how much depth you get when you ink the raised areas so that the dark ink is in the woodgrain.
I love how the ink goes into the embossing powder to make it look weathered.

I added more distress around the edges, and cut the ends so it looked like a plank. NOTE: the reason I didn't use my favorite Planks die for this is that the sentiment is too big and it doesn't fit on the biggest plank. I added a few Tiny Fasteners and I was done. 

Have a creative day! 

Tami 

 I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp. The links below send you to their store. If you wish to purchase something and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog and my YouTube channel, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Dreaming of a White Christmas - Winter Scene

This is a class I'm facilitating next week. Everyone gets to make their own winter scene so they will all be different, but here is my little winter scene on a book base using Tim Holtz Christmas 2018 Ideaology products.

The Dollar Store Book base was painted white and then covered with Holly Collage Paper. The Binding has a Christmas Quote Chip on it.
Decorated Woodland Trees
Salveged Deer and Design Tape Covered presents
Decorated Woodland Wreath on one of the Tiny Houses covered in Christmas Stash Wood paper.
Salveged Snowman painted and dusted with Rock Candy Glitter
A little pile of fire wood with a couple of retired Greenery leaves and a Beaded Berry (I hoard these because I love them!)
Salveged Snowman with more Design Tape covered presents with Crafter's Thread bows.
Two more tiny Woodland Trees and two pieces of fencing from the Village Cottage die.

The whole thing got a bit of Distress Resist Spray and a dusting of Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

I'm looking forward to seeing how different everyone makes their scene when starting with the same basic supplies. That's always the best part of a class.

Monday, December 10, 2018

Christmas Card Inspiration Winners

Thank you all for commenting and participating this weekend! It makes it so much more fun to post when you get feedback. So many thanks!!

The following person was picked from the Instagram posts

Kdcrum50
I love the vintage feel of this card! As always you such great work with Tim’s stamps & Inks! I love your work! #timholtzchristmas2018

The following folks were picked from the comments on my blog posts, please email me your mailing address at teatimetamera a yahoo dot com

PeculiarisDecember 8, 2018 at 10:54 PM
Absolutely adore this! Such a unique card but with all that Christmasy feel ❤
Love the contrast of the pale (and beautifully crackled) background with the wood details and red berries, so so lovey. Thanks for sharing!
#timholtzchristmas2018

Megan SwainDecember 9, 2018 at 6:43 PM
  1. I actually bought the lumber die set after I saw this card so I could try similar techniques for my cards. I really appreciate everything you share with us and recognize your work from Tim’s video last October. #timholtzchristmas2018

Winter - Ice Flake Etcetera Tag

The Ice Flake Bigz die from Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations is pretty amazing. The detailed points on a steel rule die are WOW! I really wanted it to stand out, so I used a small Etcetera Tag as a backdrop.
There are several steps to this background, but they aren't difficult
  1. Paint the tag white.
  2. Cut all the branches out on the Branch die with white Distress Woodgrain Cardstock.
  3. Adhere the white Branches to the painted white tag with collage medium. I put them all coming in from the sides pointing toward the center.
  4. Liberally smear some Ranger Opaque Crackle Texture Paste around all the edges and in places in the center of the tag as well. Let dry and crack.
  5. Cover the entire tag, branches and crackle paste with a thin layer of Distress Collage Medium. Let dry.
  6. Paint the entire tag with a layer of Weathered Wood Distress Paint and lightly wipe away from some areas so the white underneath shows through.
  7. Once it is dry, add another layer of Collage Medium.
  8. Sand the edges so that the base of the tag shows through in places along the very edge.
  9. Scribble a little Ground Espresso and Black Soot Distress Crayon on the edges and rub it in to distress the tag.
Now for the Ice Flake. This is a technique I used for a card for Creativation 2018. So I'm linking the tutorial here if you want to know the details for achieving this Antiqued Distress Mirror look.
The basic idea is to cut an Ice Flake out of a piece of black cardstock and a Ideaology Mirrored Sheet. You will want to wear away some of the mirror from the back of the Mirrored Sheet, so this is where you really want to check out the tutorial linked above. It's a little messy but one of my most favorite techniques.
You want to attach your Antique Mirror Ice Flake to the black chipboard one and then adhere it to the center of the tag, leaving room for a word at the bottom.
Here you can see the antique mirror, the icy looking wintry background and the raised letters.
The word I chose was winter and I cut it from the Bigz XL Alphabet called Wonderland. It's a very stylized alpha but detpending on the project it can take on many different feelings. It can be wintry, like this one, or Haunted Mansiony, or Feliz Navidady, hahahaha ok, so much for making up adjectives. All I did here was cut the letters out of black chipboard and out of a bluish paper and then adhered the paper to the chipboard and then to the tag.

And there you have it. One of my favorite new decor pieces of the season.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Best Wishes for the Holiday Season - Collage Paper Stamping

Christmastime CMS352 stamp set has several sentiments with fabulous vintage fonts. For this card I wanted the font to be in the forefront in a different way than the others, so I used the following Collage Paper technique.
Using my Stamp Platform, I stamped the sentiment on Plain Collage Paper, and then embossed it with silver embossing powder. 
I stamped over it a second time  and embossed it with black embossing powder.. Then I stamped over the back ground with the Music background stamp from the Music and Advent stamp set in Hickory Smoke Archival Ink. I stamped it in many different directions so it looked kind of like a collage.
I wanted to overlay it on something soft and vintage in a different color scheme,  so I pulled these older stamp sets, Festive Sketch CMS283 and Holiday Drawings CMS284. I stamped them in Hickory Smoke Archival Ink onto Distress Mixed Media Heavystock, then watercolored with Distress Markers.
The next step was to adhere the collage paper onto the stamped background with Distress Collage Medium. Once it was dry I cut the sentiment out with one of the small Stitched Rectangle dies. I then cut a larger piece of silver metallic paper to be a mat and popped it up with dimensional adhesive over the place where I cut it out.
I added a little shimmer to the card with Brushed Pewter Distress Crayon.
The last few touches were to sew around the edge with silver metallic thread and attach some Ideaology Nailheads.

🎄🎄
I have another giveaway! It’s a pile of vintage ephemera and trinkets I got from shopping Tim Holtz’s Vintage Stash Sale at Carson. ❄️❄️
If you want to be entered, to win some of Tim’s Vintage Stash, comment on any of my posts here with #timholtzchristmas2018 ☃️☃️
🎄🎄
I’ll pick a couple of names on Monday Dec 10 at 12 noon PT. 🌟🌟

Christmas Wishes - Holiday Greetings and Shifter Stencils


I had a ball with the Christmas Shifter Stencils this year! This card is made using the Mini Layering Shifter Stencil Set #37 - trees, stars and mint, from Tim Holtz and Stamper's Anonymous. They are so much fun and so addicting. Once you start making shifter background, you can't stop.

Note: I used the Distress Brushes with these stencils. It allowed me to get color into the points on the trees and the stars easier than I could with Blending Foam.

The color scheme in Distress Inks and Distress Markers were: Dusty Concord, Milled Lavender, Shaded Lilac, Chipped Sapphire, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet
The focal point sentiment on this card comes from a delightful new stamp set Holiday Greetings CMS353. It has four greetings with vintage holiday illustrations.
I used my stamp platform for this card and positioned the stamp on a piece of Distress Watercolor Cardstock. Then I colored each snowflake and the sentiment with my Distress Markers. Once a snowflake was colored with a marker, I then had to breath on it, and stamp it. Then I went to the next color and the next. 
When the image was finally all colored, I wiped the stamp off with water and a towel, and then applied clear embossing ink and clear embossing powder. This really brought out the color and gave it a nice wintry shine.
I added some machine stitching, colored some Crafter's Thread to match the purple theme, and attach a Snowflake Charm. with a little Picket Fence Distress Paint wiped on it.

This card could be duplicated fairly quickly since it has a limited color scheme, and you could finish several Christmas cards at once if you did them in assembly line fashion.

🎄🎄
I have another giveaway! It’s a pile of vintage ephemera and trinkets I got from shopping Tim Holtz’s Vintage Stash Sale at Carson. ❄️❄️
If you want to be entered, to win some of Tim’s Vintage Stash, comment on any of my posts here with #timholtzchristmas2018 ☃️☃️
🎄🎄
I’ll pick a couple of names on Monday Dec 10 at 12 noon PT. 🌟🌟