Halloween Ideaology - Thimble Urns

If you haven't already seen the Halloween Ideaology release from Tim Holtz, you should stop right now and go directly to Tim's blog and watch it. Such a fun release and seriously, I was so wowed by the awesome creativity by the designer samples that I know you will be too. Then come back here to see how I made the urn from the Cemetery Friends sample below.

 In keeping with my new blog format, in this post, I am just focusing on how I made the urn for the funeral arrangement.  There are step by step photos below with basic instructions. Then at the end of my post I have links to all of the Halloween product as well as everything I used to make the urn.

 Begin with a sprocket gear, a handcut piece of cardstock just a tiny bit bigger than the inside of the gear, and one of the Mini Hardware knobs.

 There are three types of knobs in the Mini Hardware set. One is a circle pull and then these two. For an urn base, I feel that the knob on the left has a better shape for viewing from the side. Save the other type for an actual knob on a project.

 Remove the screw from the bottom of the knob.

 This picture shows how the cardstock will attach to the gear, but it needs to go on the bottom of the gear. If it doesn't, the knob won't fit in the center. In the photo it is sitting on the top so you can see how it should be positioned. You can tell it is the top of the gear because the edges are a little beveled and the finish is smoother than the underside.

 Add some collage medium to the cardstock circle. then put the gear on top, making sure that none of the cardstock shows, except in the very center.

 Add more collage medium to the center of the gear.

 Press the base of the knob into the center of the gear. Some of the collage medium will squeeze out.

 Wipe away some of the excess collage medium.

 It will look something like this when you are done. Set it aside to dry.

 Meanwhile you can choose the thimble for your urn.  The thimbles come in a pack of 5 and are different sizes and styles.

 They look different on the urn base because of this. I prefer the 3rd and 4th ones from the left in this picture. I think the others are too big or too small for the base.  But go with what feels right to you and what you like.

 Now we are going to attach the urn to the base with Collage Medium.

 Squeeze a good amount onto the center top of the knob.

 Gently place the urn into the collage medium.

 I mean gently too! As opposed to the base, you don't want the collage medium to squeeze out and around the thimble.

 You want it to be enough to hold it in place when it dries and to cushion it so that it sits evenly on the top of the knob. At this point you should set it aside for a few hours or go to bed and finish tomorrow. It needs to be really dry before the next step.

 I made two of these for my projects, One of them I painted a very dark metallic gold and left it just as it was for a steam punk urn. So if that is the style you want, an old metallic urn, then stop here and paint it or alcohol ink it or whatever you want for your project. 

 But I wanted this to look like old, aged, pitted, bumpy cement kind of urn you would find in an old cemetery. So I added some Distress Grit Paste.

 I just put a little bit on my finger and tapped it on here and there.

 The more grit paste you apply,  it will cover the details on the knob and thimble, so keep that in mind. You might just want to lightly tap it here and there as opposed to a heavier covering.  On the one in my graveyard piece I kept it fairly light, but I went heavier on the one for this blog.

 You can see the grit in the grit paste is rough and kind of sticks out all over the piece.

 Once it is completely dry you want to seal it.

 I brush a layer of collage medium all over it. Again, if you do this generously it will lose more definition. If you do this sparingly it will seal it but leave details visible.

 You can see how the layer of collage medium really tamed some of the grittiness. Let this dry. I am impatient so I use a heat tool. This tends to do two things. It dries the collage medium and it kind of puffs the grit paste. I love the added texture, but you may not so if not, set it aside to dry on its own.

 Once dry you are going to be adding the colors to make it look like aged concrete.

 I painted it with a layer of Distress Hickory Smoke paint. No need for perfection. We are adding layers.

 Once dry now we need to make it look like it has been in the elements and seasons for many years. that's where our browns and black come in.

 Put a few drops of Walnut Stain or Ground Espresso paint on your Media Mat, then spray water on it. We want the paint very runny. We don't want full opaque color. Watery!

 Then brush it all over the urn. You can see how really runny the paint is.

 But I didn't stop there. I simulated a rain storm and sprayed it from above so it would run down the sides and aged the urn like it would if it was outside in the dirt.

 See, even more water.

 Take the corner of a paper towel and gently let it soak up the water. Don't wipe, just gently touching here and there to clean up.

 Let it dry or use a heat tool if you don't mind the added texture of puffiness.

 Do the same step with a drop of very watered down Black Soot paint.

 Brush it on.

 Let it rain.

 Soak it up

 Let it dry.

 You can see on my sample urn that it is much less chunky and than the sample for this post. But I love them both! 

Thank you for sticking with me for all the steps. Tomorrow I will explain how I made the dead floral arrangement in the urn.
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 and the ideas and tutorials I post here, and your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you! 

Santa's Helper Part 3 - Snow, Santa Sack, and Assembly

I'm finishing up with the remaining techniques on this card today, including the snow sewing as I was asked about that. If I don't cover something you were curious about, please check the previous two posts and see if I covered it in those.

 To make the card you need a base piece in 5x7, an inside piece at 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" and the front piece that starts out the same size as the inside but is scored along the top and 3/4" and will get cut up into two pieces.
 I used Distress Watercolor Cardstock on this card, BUT for my stepout photos here, I just used some printer cardstock. You can tell it is cheap paper because you can see the ink doesn't blend well on it.
TIP: If you are going to go to the trouble of making a beautiful card for someone, it really starts with the paper. Don't skimp on it! It's worth it to get the good stuff. I only use the Distress Mixed Media Heavystock, Distress Watercolor, or other papers in Tim's line as they are specifically designed to work with the Distress products and really allow the inks, oxides and other products to do what they were meant to do.

 Here you can see that the inside piece will eventually be adhered to the 5x7 base. But first we have some work to do.
Fold the top piece along the score line at 3/4" Then hand cut some clouds as shown. With the remaining piece, hand cut some snow drifts. You want some space between the two because they will be attached by the gifts and Santa sack later on. Throw away the left over middle piece.

 At this point I sewed around the outside edge of the clouds and along the top below the fold. Then trim the corners of the fold so they don't show on the next step.

 You are going to adhere the inside to the flap by lining it up with the crease of the fold.

 It should look like this when it is done.

This is what it will look like when it is done, except I had sewn on the clouds on my card.

 I had some ask me to show how I sewed the snow drifts on my card. I tried to make a video to show you but didn't realize how hard it would be to hold my phone and sew. LOL!
Hopefully you can get the idea from this less than perfect video. I sewed in black so you could get the basic idea.

 When the sewing is in white on white paper, and much of it is covered with gifts and the Santa sack, you won't see the errors so don't stress about getting it perfect. Just have fun with the crazy sewing.

 Before we put the card together we need to make the sack to hold all the gifts we made in the last post.  I used the Sizzix adhesive sheets. I didn't want to waste them, so I cut the 6x6 down to 4x4 and saved the extra pieces for smaller things another time. Also I purchased some red corduroy from Hobby Lobby.

 Peel back the printed adhesive cover and adhere it adhesive side down to the back side of the corduroy fabric. SAVE THE NON-STICK COVER SHEET! We will use it later.

 I love to use my Tim Holtz Haberdashery scissors to cut fabric, ribbons etc. They cut so beautifully and cleanly. I trimmed around the adhesive square so I had an adhesive backed piece of corduroy.

 You could die cut it right now if you were just adhering it to a card, but we aren't. Even if we were, I always do this next step. It just makes a huge difference in how fabric looks when it is die cut adhered to cardstock.
So peel back the other non-stick cover on the back of the corduroy and adhere it to some cardstock.

 Trim away the excess cardstock and run it through the Cauldron die in the die cut machine. You will come away with a very cleanly cut Santa Sack.

 Now we need to assemble the rest of the card. You will need to align the bottom of the snow drift with the bottom of the inside piece.
Remember that leftover piece of non-stick sheet I had you save? Place that over the background, but under the clouds and under the snow drift in the area where you will be attaching the Santa sack and the gifts. This keeps any stray adhesive from causing the front of the card to stick to the inside of the card. When the adhesive is dry, you will remove the non-stick sheet and you'll be good to go.

To hold all the pieces in place while I adhered the front pieces, I used Judikins low-tack tape as shown in the picture.

 I put adhesive at the bottom of the cauldron where it would attach to the snow drift, and only on the very top lip where it would attach to the clouds. I wanted to be sure that the bottom lip of the cauldron was not adhered and I wanted to be able to tuck some gifts into it.

 Here is what it looked like when I put it down onto the front of the card,

 Once dry I removed the tape and sheet and you can see that the Santa Sack is holding the top and bottom together and allows us to see through to the inside. I love this Split Card technique from Jennifer McGuire. She is a genius!

At this point you would add the gifts and the elf in the same manner as the Santa Sack. Once the front is done, you will need to finish the inside. If you haven't see the inspiration video for this type of card, please be sure to watch Jennifer McGuire's tutorial below.


I hope these three posts were helpful in figuring out some ways to make your own Santa's Helper card or home decor piece.
Have fun!
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 and the ideas and tutorials I post here, and your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!