Oh the Places You'll Go - Sizzix Chapter 1

Wacky Transport from Tim Holtz Sizzix Chapter 1 release is a fun die set. It reminded me a little of the Dr Seuss book 'Oh the Places You'll Go." So I decided to make a little project inspired by Dr Seuss.

I started with how I wanted to cover the outside of the Vignette Drawer with the Typewriter 3D Texture Fade. This process takes a little time but it isn't difficult.

Emboss several pieces of Distress White Heavystock by running it through the folder. Remember that you need to spray the paper with water and run it through only once for the extra heavy instead of the 3 times for other papers.

Cut the rows of letters just wide enough to fit on the sides of the Vignette Drawer. Then choose your Distress Ink Colors. I chose primary colors so that it had a very Seuss look to it. Salty Ocean, Candied Apple, Mustard Seed, and Mowed Lawn. I used a watercolor brush and alternated the colors, coloring in each of the letters

Once they were all colored in, I took the Black Soot Archival Ink pad, and lightly rubbed the pad over the raised letters to make them stand out.

Begin applying the pieces from the bottom of one side and continue in alphabetical order all the way around. Then start from the top down on the back. I adhered them with Collage Medium. Sand the edges and Ink with brown Distress Ink. I did not cover the top of the paper with Collage Medium to seal it, I just left it plain.

Here you can see a bit more of the inking.

I painted a Hardware Pull with Candied Apple Distress Paint and one it was mostly dry, I rubbed some paint off the edges to make it look old and worn.

To decorate each of the sections of the drawers, I tried to make the background fit the wacky transport that would be in it. I painted the inside of the entire drawer with Tumbled Glass Distress Paint.  I added some d=Distress Grit paste on the bottom of each section and painted it with Distress Paint in a color that would go the best with the feeling of each section.

Then I made some white clouds by adhered some of the circle punch outs from the Bubbling die that I used in the bottom section. Then I added some of the Funky Toadstools that I colored to look like trees. 

The middle box was going to be for the camper so I added some mountains from Alpine that were cut from Distress Cracked Leather Cardstock. I added more Funky Toadstools and the grass from that set along the bottom.

In the bottom box I adhered the Bubbling backdrop die which I had colored blue. then I added some Glossy Accents to make it shiny like water. I used more of the circle pop outs from the die as bubbles coming up from the bottom of the ocean. The coral is just several of the Funky Toadstools, but without the toadstool caps. The seaweed is one of the leaf dies from Funky Nature.

I wanted the vehicles to stand up so instead of cutting a bunch of them, I used the leftover paper to draw the shapes on some clear acrylic sheets. I don't remember where I got this, but I have a link to a few options below from Lawn Fawn and Judikins.

Once I had the shape drawn on the protective plastic cover, I cutout the shape and then adhered it to each vehicle.

I also used it as an opportunity to adhere the wheels as they are separate from the rest of the vehicles. Then it is easy to attach some sort of L shaped bracket to adhere to the back of the vehicle and the bottom of the section so the vehicles stand up.

I really like the bit of shine this gives to the windows for the Wacky Transport.

In order to get the sub to look like it is floating through the water, use the Bubbling as bubbles to do that.     

Here is a better photo of the top section of the drawer. I kind of wanted it to feel like a coastal park area. To add a little more interest I tied some twine around the top and a token that says Go See Explore to further the theme.

This middle section is a little bit like "glamping" if you color the camper a little like the one I have here.

From this perspective you can see how I used a line of the punch out circles from the background to make the bubbles that hold up the sub.I added a few more bits of Funky Nature "seaweed" and some of the Funky Toadstool caps as more coral.

This was a fun project to think up and then execute. I hope this inspires you to make one of your own with your own creative twists. 

I really feel like this could go in a child's room, a classroom or library. 

I'll sign off with the hope that we are all traveling again soon,

Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store 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, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Holiday Alpine Village Vignette - Sizzix Chapter 3 2020

I love this beautiful little Holiday Village die set from Tim Holtz and Sizzix. It makes me think about some of the delightful little villages I visited the few times I was in Europe. That's why I needed to pair it with the Alpine dies from last year's Chapter 4 release.

I was imagining what Halstatt, Austria, or Grindelwald, Switzerland (in these photos) would look like in the winter, rather than the summer when this hot weather California girl saw them. So that was my inspiration.

Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start.....(I couldn't help myself!) But really, cut several of the Holly Berries 3D Impresslits from some heavy kraft paper.  Remember when cutting Impresslits that you use the sandwich for embossing and then only one cutting plate. Lightly mist the paper with water and then run it through 3 times for 3D. Once they are all cut, adhere them along the outside edge of a small Vignette Tray. Fussy cut the ends of some so that they fit nicely along each side and the intersections aren't noticeable. If you look closely you can see the intersection just below the berries on the far left side.

In the same manner, cut several of the thinnest Lattice 3D Impresslits from heavy kraft stock. These go along the front edge of the Vignette Tray to cover the unfinished edge.

Next paint the Vignette Tray with Black Soot Distress Paint inside, outside and on the back.

I didn't take step out photos of this next part, but I painted over the Black Soot Distress Paint with Chipped Sapphire Distress Paint and blotted it off before it was dry so that the black showed through in spots. Then I painted the whole thing with Pumice Stone Distress Paint, sprayed it with a bit of water so it would go down in the crevices and then blotted it off as well. I also flicked Picket Fence Distress Paint onto the inside of the tray to mimic snow.

Once that is finished, using your finger, apply some Vintage Collage Medium over the entire tray. That should add just the right touch of age.

You need to drill a hole from the middle bottom of the back of the tray to thread the Tiny Lights through. I usually add a little box to hold the battery pack. Here is the tutorial for that.

On the inside of the tray, you an add some Opaque Grit Paste to look like snow, BUT, before you do that, seal the paint again just in the area where the snow will be going. Then once it is dry, apply the snow. Let it dry while you assemble the village. Once it is dry you can add the Alpine mountains. I colored some Distress Cracked Leather by lightly rubbing some Distress Paint on the raised areas and then spraying them with Distress Stain.

I wanted the mountains at different levels so I cut one set of the mountains in half. I also raised some up, and put some lower on the bottom of the tray with dimensional adhesive. The outside mountains need the dimensional adhesive so they stand out away from the back of the tray and make a little space for the tiny lights. Speaking of tiny lights, I wound them around a thin piece of chipboard and attached them to the tray between the two outside mountains.

I used the same paint technique on some Distress Woodgrain Cardstock as I did on the Cracked Leather Cardstock for the mountains. Put a bit of Distress Paint on the raised areas of the woodgrain and let it dry. Then color the paper with Distress Spray Stain. I made both gray and brown versions of the woodgrain.

Begin by cutting the Village base from the grey Woodgrain Cardstock. You will see that there are these boxy indentations on each of the buildings. Use an Tonic Craft Knife to cut out those indentations. It should look like the image above, I just put black behind it so you could see what the cut away area looks like. You also need to cut some yellow vellum from the window die set pictured to the left above.

Looking at the photo of the village will help you to determine which windows get vellum and and which stay dark. I attached the velum to the backside of the windows and the trees that fit over the openings.

Then attach the buildings with the windows already in place, onto the grey woodgrain background. If you flip it to the backside, you can see above how the windows are covered with vellum and will allow the light to shine through.

On the front side you will notice that I did not attach the tree yet. I did attach a separate star for the  tree that is cut from yellow paper. It won't matter later, but I did it anyway because I didn't realize that at the time.

When you apply the snow and the walkway pieces, you will need to trim the tree shape once again so that the light will shine through it, once you attach the tree. Then lay the completed village in the splat box and flick it with tiny specks of Picket Fence Distress Paint to mimic snow.

At this point the lights are in place, the tray with the mountains and snow are ready and it is time to attach the village. I gently bent the village so it would bow a bit and the ends would bend in toward the mountains, and bent the front of the snow at the bottom so it would slope into the Grit Paste on the bottom of the tray. I added a few pieces of chipboard to attach it to the back of the tray, and then added collage medium to the bottom, ends and the chipboard and held it in place until it stayed securely.

I love the way the light not only shines through the windows but also up onto the Alps. I was thinking that would naturally take place if light was shining out the back windows of the buildings. I love it!

You can kind of see some of the dimension in this photo. It really makes a lot of difference if you pop some of the items up. Also, I cut several more of the large tree (without the holes for the lights) and more the the small trees to scatter round on the snow around the village. I trimmed the bottom off some of the larger trees too so that there were different sizes.

I like it lit and unlit too. I may need to make a summer version of this Holiday Village so that it matches my memories.

I hope that wasn't too much detail all in one post, but I couldn't find a good place to break it up so I just went for it.

Thank you so much for stopping by, for reading this far, and for your encouragement support here and on my social media posts. It just means so much to me!
Thank you!
Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store 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, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Happy - Colorize Mr Snowman

 The Mr Snowman Colorize die from Tim Holtz and Sizzix is certainly a happy little fellow. For this project I have him nestled among the Alpine peaks, happy that it is snowing all around him. I was kind of imagining him as the snowman voiced by Burl Ives in the Rudolph Christmas show. I think these peaks and mountains are really reminiscent of that era of animated claymation shows.

For today's post I'm just going to point out a few things about this piece, but it isn't a full tutorial because there really isn't a technique to this, just a lot of cutting and assembling. Regardless, I do hope it still provides some bit of inspiration.

 Begin by cutting coloring and assembling the Mr. Snowman. I cut him all out of Distress Watercolor Cardstock and then colored the bits that needed it.  I did edge the white parts with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink with a touch of Hickory Smoke here and there. If you haven't assembled Mr Snowman or a colorize die yet, here is a video that might help.



Once I had my snowman cut, colored and assembled, I was ready to start on the background.

I covered the vignette box with some snowflake paper from the Idea-ology Christmas 2019 paper. Then covered the front edge of the box with the smallest 3-D Lattice die that I cut multiple times to cover the raw edge of the small vignette tray.

I used the Alpine die and cut it multiple times so I could have mountains all along the back and I also cut some of them shorter to layer in front. I did shape the mountains once they were colored by bending them in half and arranging them so some were higher and some were shorter to give a little variation.

The trees were cut and some of the trunks were trimmed off to again allow for variation in height. I added the word happy in green because I just felt like it needed it and it ties in the hat band and trees with a third piece in that color.

The snowflakes were cut from Distress Watercolor Cardstock and I glued two together. I just wanted something to add interest to the box shape, and these snowflakes did the trick. The added thickness of two glued together keeps them from getting bent too easily.

I did add some lights behind the mountains but it was difficult to photograph, so that is an element to be enjoyed in person.

That's it for this quick little wintry vignette.  If you have any questions about something I didn't cover I'd be glad to answer them. Just contact me through the form in the column on the right of this post.
Thank you for stopping by!
Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store 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, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!