Believe!

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "House Rules".  I took the opportunity to use a lot of Tim Holtz vintage Christmas imagery for this piece.

My Christmas memories of a 60s childhood in the USA feature imagery perfectly matched by Tim Holtz's seasonal stamps and papers.  Some of my tree decorations are even in the original Shiny Brite boxes that feature in his designs!  Wishing to echo that style, I decided to create a vintage themed Christmas house to display here at home each holiday. 

I started by painting the house with A Dash of Red paint, which I darkened a little with Gathered Twigs distress ink.  I stamped snowflakes from the Winter Sketchbook set on the sides with gesso.  The triangular panel was cut from a piece of Dear Mr Claus paper and it acted as a base for the stamped ticket and the "Believe" lettering, which I had cut on the Cricut.  The Twinkle Tone Santa was taken directly from the Seasonal paper stack, with added Rock Candy stickles to highlight his beard and white fur.  The numbers were metallic numerals coloured with Tarnished Brass distress Stain and sanded in parts for extra texture.

The two Santas at the bottom were stamped then coloured with Promarkers.  I used distressed copper brads to add interest to the wooden frame, first using a craft pick to create a hole for each one.

The roof tiles were cut on the Cricut, from a sheet of Retro Grunge card stock, and edged with a white pen for a snowy effect.  The icicles on the front and sides were given a liberal application of Rock Candy stickles for extra sparkle!

I'm really happy with how this turned out, now I just need to make sure that I pack it away securely each year so that it will last a good few years!

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!

Check out Jim's amazing Tricycle Heart!

Jim the Gentlemen Crafter is the guest designer for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge and this is the amazing project he's made for our "Project with a Heart" Challenge!

Over on the Challenge blog there are more photos and a great tutorial showing how he made it, why not head over there and check it out?  While you're there, you could also enter this week's Challenge for a chance to win a $50 shopping spree in their amazing online store!

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!

A Heart-y Wreath!

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "A Project With Heart".  As you may have read here a post or two ago, this year I want my Christmas to have more of a hand-made feel to it, so I decided to make this wreath.

I don't know about you, but I like nothing better than finding a new and unlikely use for one of my stamps.  In this case it's the heart stamp from Tim Holtz's "From the Heart" stamp set.  If you squint and look at it in just the right light you could almost swear that it's an ivy leaf, and that was where the inspiration for this wreath came from.

The Retro Grunge card stack is one of my favourites (I'm onto my 2nd one), and the back side of several of the pages have great distressed greens, perfect for the leaves.  I traced around a plate to cut a big circle from a sheet of card stock and then cut out the centre, leaving a two inch ring to use as the base.  (I didn't trace around anything for the middle, the leaves hide any wobbly cutting so it's no big deal!).  I found a set of battery operated red led lights in my local pound shop (or dollar store if you prefer) and used my crop-o-dile to pierce 20 holes around the base to feed the lights through then taped all the wires in place on the back side.

Next, I stamped lots of hearts and cut them out.  Did I say "lots"?  I mean "LOTS" lol.  I swiped some with Tarnished Brass distress stain for a little variation and then fixed them in place with my ATG gun, at various angles, making sure to hide any wire showing from the bulbs, just leaving the tip peeking out.  The berries were cut from white card with a circle punch, coloured with Festive Berries distress ink used a Black Soot distress marker to add a calyx (ooh, science!).  Finally they were given a coat of Glossy Accents for extra shine.

The ribbon I had was too bright so I gave it a good soaking with Aged Mahogany distress stain to knock the colour back a little.  I twisted some wire through the back, used my craft pick to pierce a hole at the bottom of the wreat and fastened it in place.  And there you have it :)  I'm really pleased with it, it looks great with the lights on, now all I have to do is decide where to put it!

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!

It's great to be grateful!

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "Thank You".  I don't know about you, but I love typography - in fact, I'd say I looooooooove it, and I can spend hours sifting through font sites drooling over all the goodies that are available!  I decided to make a bold typographic statement with this card, though it didn't quite turn out the way I had planned.

Originally, I was going to colour the letters but after stamping them I decided I really liked the in-your-face starkness of the black and white characters and left them as they were.  It also makes for a great contrast with the richly coloured background, so RESULT! :)  In case you were wondering, the font is Rockwell Extra Bold, though I think I stretched it vertically a little before cutting it out on my Cricut.

I started out by stamping the number background in black and then coloured it by playing whach-a-mole on my card with some colours of Distress Stains.  After cutting out the letters and the shadow layer, I stamped on the letters with the Going Somewhere, Dance Card and Steampunk stamp sets.  The whole thing was matted onto black card and then onto my white card blank. I think if you're going to say "thank you", you might as well say it as loudly as you can, and I think this card certainly does that! :)

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!