Christmas All Ready??

Hello friends!It's time for a new challenge at The Funkie Junkie Boutique and Cec is hosting "Christmas in July"! 

"If you are like me, you are anxious for 2020 to be over and done with. To speed things up let's pretend Christmas is around the corner even though it is only July and get a start on creating shabby chic or vintage inspired cards. This challenge is all about cards so please save other Christmas creations for later."

As always, the winner will earn a chance to be a Guest Designer at a future date at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. There are also Top 3 Badges for three additional outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team. Please see the blog for details.

I embraced this challenge as I'm tired of the heat of the summer and just thinking about Christmas cools me by 20 degrees. Like Cec, I'm also ready for the calendar to turn to a new year, hopefully a better one than 2020 is shaping up to be. But not before celebrating Christmas, so I also welcomed the challenge to get an early start on my handmade cards. Here are the steps I took to create my first Christmas card of the year. This was so fun and easy to make, I may just have to mass produce them. Let's get started...

Create the wood grain back panel by embossing card stock with Lumber 3D embossing folder. This folder is no longer available in the shop, so I've linked to Distress Woodgrain cardstock in the link list below. It will save you a couple steps. (wink, wink) Ink edges with Ground Espresso Archival ink, smudge with a damp finger and Walnut Stain crayon and then blend with Walnut Stain ink to accentuate the grain. Adhere panel to brown card blank.

Stamp plaid image from the Lumberjack set in Ground Espresso ink on water color paper using stamp platform. Clean the stamp while it remains in the platform and apply Distress Embossing dabber and repeat impression over first. Remove the inked panel from platform and heat emboss with Walnut Stain Embossing Glaze. When cool, spray with water and then Evergreen Bough Distress Spray Stain. Blend with more water and allow to dry.

After it's completely dry, remove shine from the glaze by buffing with steel wool. I added a bit more pressure with the steel wool than I usually do to get more of a distressed look to the panel. Blend edges with Walnut Stain ink.

To make the panel behind the deer, I inked the Holiday Type stamp (Tim Holtz Stripes & Holiday Type) with Ranger Resist ink (unused in my stash forever), making the impression on plain card. I sprayed the card with Antique Linen Spray stain and misted with water to blend, drying with my heat tool. Curiously, the ink seems to be attracted to, rather than resisted by the ink. Hmmm...I see possibilities! I cut the panel with one of the Stacked Archway Thinlits dies and cut a second archway from chipboard.  I edged both archways with Ground Espresso ink and adhered the stamped one to the chipboard die cut, offsetting slightly.

I  colored card scraps with Mowed Lawn and Evergreen Bough inks and sprayed with Tarnished Brass Distress Mica Spray. I cut two wreaths from the scraps using the Wreath &Snowflake Thinlits set. I cut a few more sections of the holly leaf portion and tucked these in between the two layers to make a fuller wreath. The berries and bow from the same set were cut from an inky red scrap from my stash. I used the Distress Embossing pen and Fired Brick Embossing Glaze to add some dimension and shine to the berries and set the bow aside. I assembled the wreath/berries and adhered everything with Distress Collage Medium Matte and then adhered the wreath to the ink resist panel.

I stamped the deer from the Yuletide set on the stamp platform, inking his antlers in Vintage Photo and the rest of his head with Ground Espresso Archival inks. I blended his antlers with Frayed Burlap and his face with Vintage Photo, both regular inks and used a white gel pen to add some highlights. Lastly I fussy cut him and adhered him and the bow on the wreath.

Using the Merry Christmas stencil from mini set 32, I blended Candied Apple ink through the word 'Merry' and Ground Espresso through 'Christmas' onto water color paper I had previously blended with Frayed Burlap ink. 'Merry' was then heat embossed with Fired Brick Embossing Glaze and 'Christmas' with Walnut Stain Embossing Glaze. Both were cut, edged in Walnut Stain and adhered to the card.

Here's one more look at the completed card. 

I hope you will take some time to stop over to the blog to see what wonderful Christmas cards my talented teammates have made. Then why not take this opportunity to get a head start on your Christmas cards and link them up to the challenge. You will be happy to have a few already made before the real rush starts in December. I can't wait to see what you will make! Happy crafting! Sara Emily

Challenge shares:

Countryview Challenges - July 2020 - Do What Makes You Happy Just finding good quality time to craft this week made me happy, but combined with my favorite Tim Holtz products and Christmas card making is the icing on the cake!

Creative Artiste Challenge #62 Anything Goes Mixed Media

We Love 2 Create at Polkadoodles Challenge #7- Anything Goes Mixed Media

Christmas 24 #13 Holiday Foliage

Die Cut Divas Christmas in July!

Dies R Us Challenge #148 - Anything Goes

These products were used and are available for purchase at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits Die Set - Wreath & Snowflake
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Yuletide
Tim Holtz Cling Stamps - Lumberjack
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencils - Set 32
Tim Holtz Distress Woodgrain Cardstock, 4 1/4 x 5 1/2
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads - Ground Espresso, Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Candied Apple, Evergreen Bough, Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Archival Mini Ink Pad - Ground Espresso, Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayon- Walnut Stain
Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain - Evergreen Bough, Antique Linen
Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Dabber
Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Pen 2pk - Bullet
Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Glaze - Walnut Stain, Fired Brick

Mixed Media Layered Card

Hello and welcome back after a nice long break! I hope you all are doing well, and having a crafty start to 2020! Today starts a new challenge at The Funkie Junkie Boutique blog hosted by Cec. She calls her theme 'Let's Play Tic Tac Toe!', and here is how she describes it:

Let's play a game of Tic Tac Toe for this first challenge of the year. Choose any vertical, horizontal or diagonal line from the graphic below and create a vintage or shabby chic project using all three items on your chosen line. In addition to using all three items you must include a copy of the graphic in your post and tell us which line you chose.

As always, the winner will earn a chance to be a Guest Designer at a future date at The Funkie Junkie Boutique blog, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. There are also Top 3 Badges for three additional outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team. Please see the blog for details.

I'm sharing one of my thank you cards I've made and sent as a special message of gratitude for wonderful Christmas gifts I've received. I used the top horizontal line: Layers, Winter, Heat Embossing. Here are a few close up's of my card and a brief tutorial follows.

Here's how it came together. Please forgive me for leaving off a few photos, but I think you get the idea.

Click on any image to zoom in.

1. I found this winter themed designer paper in my stash, and blended the edges with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink to make it work with my other layers. 

2.  I heat embossed a water color paper panel with my new Wrought Iron Boho Blends powder by Gwen Lafleur using Tim Holtz Lumberjack plaid stamp. I ended up dipping this into watery puddles of blue inks/oxides left over from the next step and allowing it to dry on it's own. After this panel was completely dry, I splattered it and the previous snowflake patterned paper with Picket Fence Distress paint using my Splatter Brush.

3. I die cut some snowflakes using Tim Holtz Wreath and Snowflake Thinlits set. I colored a couple with Distress oxides (Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire), and one I heat embossed with the Wrought Iron powder. I layered up a few to give them dimension and rigidity. I ended up blending the embossed one with Chipped Sapphire ink, because it had some remaining white areas.

4. I cut one of the colored ones in half and layered it as above. Distress Collage Medium Matte is the best adhesive for making these finely cut layers, because you have a little bit of open time to get everything lined up, and it STICKS! I heat embossed the top layer with Versamark and Fractured Ice by Emerald Creek. I love how adds an icy look and allows the colors to show through.

5. (Not pictured.) I matted some of the layers with white card and dipped another panel in the blue inks to serve as a background to my central snowflake. I saved one of the snowflake centers and blended it lightly with Chipped Sapphire ink and then blended more of the ink through the snowflake stencil from Tim Holtz Mini Stencil set 45. I heat embossed a 'thank you' die cut as my sentiment.

Lastly I layered everything up using fun foam sheets to add dimension to my layers without adding too much bulk or weight. I'm really trying to focus on cards that can be sent inexpensively through the mail, since that is where most of my cards go.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you will visit The Funkie Junkie Boutique blog to see how my teammates found their way around the Tic Tac Toe board -- there's plenty of inspiration. And then I hope you'll play along with this fun challenge for a chance to be our special Guest Designer or to win a generous shopping spree to The Funkie Junkie Boutique. I can't wait to see what you will create! Happy crafting! Sara Emily

Challenge shares:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Something New I used my new Wrought Iron Boho Blends powder. 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Something New I used my new Wrought Iron Boho Blends powder.
Scrapy Land Challenge #129 Anything Goes I used a Sizzix and a Poppystamps die.
Bleeding Art December Challenge - Anything Goes
Dies R Us Challenge #136 - Anything Goes using any brand of metal die that DRU sells I used Sizzix and Poppystamps.
Die Cut Divas New Things I used new Wrought Iron Embossing powder.

These products were used and can be found at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Tim Holtz Cling Stamps - Lumberjack
Sizzix Chapter 3 Sizzix Thinlits Die Set - Wreath & Snowflake
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencils - Set 45
Emerald Creek Gwen Lafleur Boho Blends Embossing Powder - Wrought Iron
Emerald Creek Allure Powders - Fractured Ice
Tim Holtz Distress Splatter Brush
VersaMark Watermark Ink Stamp Pad
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte
Distress Ink Pads -- Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire
Distress Oxide Pads -- Faded Jeans Chipped Sapphire
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Picket Fence