Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Hobbit House Ideaology 2022

 This is a sample project I made with the new Tim Holtz Idea-ology 2022 release. I thought the new Curio Clock needed to be a Hobbit House, so I made it into one. I really enjoyed this make and hope you enjoy hearing about all the details that went into this make.  I have to confess that I have never read The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings or seen any of the movies. But my husband has watched the movies dozens and dozens of times as has my mom, who used to watch them with my sister and dad. So I leaned heavily on their knowledge of hobbits to complete this make. When they both approved then I knew I had done a good job. You may be asking yourself, "If she had never seen the movies or read the books why did she even think of a Hobbit House?" That is a very good question, and the answer is, I have no idea. I don't control the things that pop into my brain as inspiration and need to be made, it just happens and I go with it.

I am able to say more in the Youtube tutorials than I am in these blogs, so I hope you will pop over there and watch the video for more detailed explanations. Begin by popping the silver rim from the front of the clock, then cover the outside with a layer of Distress Grit Paste. I used the white Opaque Grit Paste, because I was out of the Transluscent, but either one will work. The Translucent may be better because it won't take so much paint to cover it.

      Once the entire clock is covered, set it aside to dry.  

There is no need to cover the back with grit paste, just pull it off and set it aside to make the door. Also, I almost used these Small Paper Dolls that were just released because they were the closest ones that looked like Hobbits because they had bare feet, but their scale against the door seemed off so I decided not to use them.Once the grit paste is dry, paint it with a brown Distress Paint. When the paint is completely dry, add some color variation with Distress Crayons. Smooth them out with a damp finger. The door begins by coloring some Woodgrain Cardstock green or whatever color you want your Hobbit door. Then paint the silver rim whatever color you want the door trim to be. You need to cut a piece of scrap paper the size of the rim and find the center for the Hitch Fastener door handle. Cut the woodgrain paper into 1/2" strips and then ink and distress the edges and adhere them to the paper circle. I followed the lines I used to find the center because I wanted the boards to be straight up and down on the door. When the woodgrain is adhered, attach the circle to the back of the painted rim and adhere the entire piece to the center of the back panel of the clock. It should look something like this at this point. Adhere some texture paste along the edge to place some faux bricks around the edge. Wait, where did the the faux bricks come from? Well, while you were waiting for the door to adhere to the clock, you made them like this...

Using brick colored Idea-ology Kraftstock, emboss a piece through the Tim Holtz Sizzix Brickwork 3D embossing folder. Cut out all of the whole bricks. Then I sanded the edges so they would look old and not like pieces with sharp edges cut from paper. I'm not gonna lie, the cutting and sanding was a bit tedious, but worth it. Then I ran the raised tops over the Hickory Smoke Distress pad. At that point the door was dry, so I put some of the Seasonal Grave Texture Paste on the outside edge of the clock and press the bricks into it. Let it completely dry then cover the whole back piece with a layer of Collage Medium and smooth it out with your fingers. Once that is dry, add some Walnut Stain Distress Crayon to the bricks, door frame and door to add age and dimension.

The inside of the back panel needs to be decorated so I added some Backdrops Vol 3 paper, Woodgrain paper, and two of the Baseboard Windows with a piece of the Vellum Scenes behind it.
I made several books out of scraps, old book paper, the new Design Tape, and Curator Snippets because I heard Hobbits like books.
I also heard that Hobbits like adventure and maps, so I took this circle map (there are two in the new Memoir Ephemera packs) and torn it into pieces, inked the edges, rolled them up, and tied them with some string.

  I felt the Hobbit in the house needed a broom to clean up, so I took one from my Halloween stash and cut  off the bottom stitching and then trimmed it short for a Hobbit. Next I made a little desk for the Hobbit out of an Idea-ology Matchbox. I cut it in half and covered the front of the "drawers" with some of the new Patchwork Fabric Tape. The outside of the matchbox pieces was covered with the Marbled Design Tape.  

I drilled a hole in the bottom of the clock with my Dremmel, and then built up a flat base around it with foam and chipboard for the floor of the hobbit house. It's time to thread the lights through the bottom, attach the battery pack with foam tape, and foam dots to the underneath of the bottom base of the clock.

Here you can see the flat floor created for the house.
 
 I needed a channel to thread the lights up through so I could light the clock from the top. So I layered foam tape on the front and back all the way around the clock.
 
 I attached all of the lights in the top of the clock and covered them part of one of the vellum scenes.
 
 Here you can see the lights rolled up behind the vellum and between the foam tape.

 I covered the sides with a piece of the Backdrops Vol 3 paper that looks like burl wood. This helped finish the inside and cover the lights on the one side.
 
Here it is with the lights on so that you can see the lights only go on one side.
 
 Next I covered the bottom of the clock with additional strips of the brown woodgrain cardstock that I used on the back panel.

It's now lit up and has walls and a floor so we are ready to start moving our Hobbit in.
I put the desk in the center with the smallest book made with the Curator Snippets, and I added a Key addornment and a drippy candle.
Here is a close-up to show how it looks with the window in the background.
I place the broom in the corner.
And I had a vial from a garden shed project a couple of years ago that I added a Curator Snippets label to and then added the rolled up maps. You can see the technique I used to make the vial look old in this post.
That's it for the details and explanations. If I missed something you were curious about, please contact me through the form at the right. I cannot figure out a way to reply to your comments so that you see them. I do read them all. I've searched and tried everything in this platform and just can't see why it's not possible. But I can reply to your contacts through the form at the right.

I am always so thankful when you stop by my blog and grateful for your comments and support. Thanks you all so much!

Have a creative day,

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 youThis 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!

 

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Mini-Slimline Accordion Card

 I really enjoyed working out the design for this Mini Slimline Accordian Card to showcase the new Silhouette Birds, Artsy Stems, and Bold Text 2 dies from Tim Holtz and Sizzix.

It would be best if you watch this Youtube tutorial for making the card, but I have included below some stepouts and close-ups to help as well.

Start with an 8.5x11 piece of heavystock or watercolor cardstock. Score from right to left at .5", 3.75", 7", 10.25" (there will be a .75"piece left.) There should be 3 - 3.25" sections in the middle and a .75" piece on the left and a .5" piece on the right. 
Then mark it at 3.5" up from the bottom tight corner, and 5.5" from the bottom left corner. then cut the piece on the diagonal.
 
 Here is what it would look like once you cut it on the diagonal and then fold it. You should end up with two pieces that are quite similar.
 Once you have it folded accordion style, then trim off the extra flap on the front, leaving the flap on the back of the accordion.

You need to cut a piece from the same type of paper as the accordion, that measures 3.23x6.25. Attach the accordion flap to the back of this piece by lining up the bottom of the card.
This is what it should look like when you are finished.
And this is what it will look like when it is closed.
Cut another piece from a different color of coordinating paper that is 3.5"x6.5" for the back of the card.

 Attach the accordion card as show with the coordination back leaving a 1/8" mat around the card.
 
Now you can decorate it as desired. I'm just posting photos of how I decorated this card if you are interested.

 

 
 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through the space in the right column.

Thank you so very much for stopping by and reading though this post!

Have a creative day,

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 youThis 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!
 

Monday, April 4, 2022

Wonderland Vignette - Sizzix Ch 2

Whoooooooooooooo are yooooooooooooou? I made this Alice in Wonderland inspired vignette with two of the newest Tim Holtz Sizzix chapter 2 releases - Artsy Stems and Abstract Faces.

 I recorded myself as I planned and made this project, so I compiled it all into this walk-through tutorial.

 To begin with I covered the sides of a large Idea-ology Square Vignette Box with the Abstract Faces scribbles cut from Distress Kraft Heavystock. Put a thin layer of Collage Medium Matte on the box, then press the die cut into it and make sure it is securely fastened onto the box. Next cover with Collage Medium and smooth it out with your fingers. Repeat with another die cut until the outside of the box is completely covered.
Then paint the outside of the box with Villainous Potion Distress Paint. Once it is completely dry, rub Shaded Lilac Distress Cranyon over the paint and rub it into the crevices with a slightly damp finger.
 Paint the inside with a mixture of blues, keeping the darker on the outside edges and the lighter toward the center.

 To make the toadstool, cut two of the rounded triangle shape from Watercolor cardstock. Then cut the bottom off one of them using the bottom of the die as you see in the photo above.
 
 Here are the various bits I used to make the main toadstool and caterpillar parts. I hand trimmed around the circle (head) and segmented piece I used for its body.
 
 I colored the pieces for the toadstool this way. The two scalloped segments will be layered to make the stem.

All of the pieces like this were mostly cut from left over pieces of green heavystock and cut apart in various ways to make blades of grass.
 
Another die cut that was trimmed to make various blades of grass. I got three blade shapes out of this piece if you count the piece that falls out in the middle of the blade.

 Here is the toadstool ready to be put into action in the vignette.

 For the toadstool I cut one of the half-circle rocks in half so it would poke out on both sides and then I added some of the grass strands I made. I use a variety of things to make pieces have dimension and for this one I cut a piece of thick foam. Another thing you can use is old bingo or scrabble chips, or layers of chipboard scraps,
 
Here is the piece put together as we have it so far. Now we need the flowers out front.

 

I cut a few extra Artsy Stems from the green heavystock and then cut them each along the top to cut off the flowers and make it seem like a vine.

I attached the vines, stems, and grass to the front and back of the rock and then made a little easel to hold it up at the front of the vignette box.

Here is another set that shows the grass, vines and stems with the rock.

To get them to stand up I used the easel and the edge of the vignette box as you can see here,

Here is the finished product from the side.

I added a Word Plaque from the recent Tim Holtz Idea-ology release, colored it with Mustard Seed Distress Paint, and then attached it with Idea-ology Tack Nails.

 

I discussed in detail in the video how I made the caterpillar. As I said earlier I used the segmented shape and circle from Abstract Faces to make the shape of the caterpillar, then cut around them with scissors. The horns are the knockouts from the lips, the arms and feet are the ends of one of the eye lashes, and the face is just jumbled together from the knockouts.

One more detail I added was the Idea-ology Word Key that says Curious because Alice keeps claiming things are curiouser and curiouser.

 

I used the same Mustard See Distress Paint to make sure the details stand out.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through the space in the right column.

Thank you so very much for stopping by and reading though this post!

Have a creative day,

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 youThis 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!

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Tim Holtz Sizzix Chapter 2 Release

  

Hooray for the new Sizzix Chapter 2 Release! I was honored to get to make with this fun, artsy release and I used the dies to make three projects. I recorded tutorials already so they will be coming this week.

For this card I used Abstract Faces, Cracked Leather 3D, Artsy Stems, and Bold Text 2.
I had so much fun coming up with this card style and my tutorial will show you how to make it. I used Bold Text 2, Cracked Leather 3D Folder, Artsy Stems and Bird Silhouettes.
For this Alice in Wonderland inspired make I used Abstract Faces and Artsy Stems to make alll of the parts of this wacky make! I will show you how I made all the parts in my tutorial later this week.
 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through the space in the right column.

Thank you so very much for stopping by!

Have a creative day,

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 youThis 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!