Mr. Snowman Decks the Halls - Sizzix Chapter 4

I am overjoyed that Sizzix The Making Journal has asked me to share a project with you from the Tim Holtz Chapter 4 release. There are some delightfully whimsical dies to choose from and that makes for equally whimsical projects.

It’s that time of year when we are all decking the halls and getting ready for the big day! Well, Mr. Snowman didn’t want to be left out so he decked out his cabin too. If you would like to make your own version of this framed wintry scene, I’ve detailed the steps I took to make it and hope it inspires you to make one of your own.

Just head on over to The Making Journal for directions and step-out photos as well.

 

 

Cover the panel of the frame with the wood paper from the Idea-ology Christmas Paper Stash. I adhered mine with Collage Medium on the panel and then gently pressed the paper onto the panel and smoothed it onto the panel pressing out any bubble with a bone folder.

 

Paint the frame white with one layer of Picket Fence Distress Paint. Then put some Ranger Opaque Crackle Texture Paste on your finger and smear a thin layer here and there all over the frame. Let it dry and crackle.

Spray with Distress Resist Spray and a thin layer of Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter from a Glitter Duster. Attach the frame to the panel with Distress Collage medium. Set a few books on it once it is in place and set aside to let it dry.

Cut out all of the pieces of the FIRESIDE die. I cut the fireplace pieces and flames out of Distress Watercolor Cardstock so they stayed white. I cut the grate from black cardstock, and the tile surrounds from Watercolor Cardstock coloured with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. Assemble the entire mantle.

Cover the whole piece with Clear Distress Crackle Paint.

When it is dry, scribble some Hickory Smoke Distress Crayon on the mantle and rub it in with a damp finger. 

Cut a piece of watercolor cardstock big enough to fit behind the fireplace opening. I colored mine with a few blue Distress Inks that were on the darker side. Then cover it with a thin layer of Distress Crackle Paint as well. Rub some Picket Fence Distress Crayon over the dark blue insert and attach it to the back of the mantle behind the opening.

Lightly color the flames with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and then put them on a non-stick surface and slather some Distress Crackle Paint all over it and let it dry so that when it is dry it is stuck in the curly bits like frosty ice.

Attach that in the fireplace opening and then curve the grate a little bit and put the black grate in front of the ice flames.

Cut three trees and a wreath from the FESTIVE THINGS die set in Dark Green cardstock. Flick some Picket Fence Distress Stain onto the them. When dry, spray with Distress Resist Spray and add some Clear Rock Candy Glitter. Make sure to cut the bases from silver metallic paper and adhere them to the trees.

The trees are put on the frame with one in each lower corner and the third up behind the tree on the right. The lower part of that tree will be covered by Mr. Snowman soon. Attach the completed Fireside piece to the right of the tree in the left corner. I popped it up a little with some pieces of chipboard behind it.

Adhere some Sizzix Permanent Adhesive sheets to a few pieces of Distress Watercolor Cardstock. Cut all of the MR. SNOWMAN pieces. 

Lightly edge the white Snowman part in Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, then assemble them.

Color the black pieces with Black Soot Distress Ink. Adhere them to the snowman body.

Color the scarf, mittens, and hatband the colors you want and adhere them, as well as the nose. Cut a buckle from silver metallic Kraftstock. Once the snowman is complete, lightly spray him with some Distress Resist Spray and then some Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter. I adhered a few pieces of chipboard behind him to pop him up off the frame and then placed him to the right of the fireplace.

The last thing to do is to DECK THE HALLS! Color Watercolor Cardstock with several fun, wintry colors. I used Chipped Sapphire, Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac, Faded Jeans, Dusty Concord, and Milled Lavender. I also colored a few pieces green with Pine Needles and Peeled Paint, as well as some brown with Brushed Corduroy and Ground Espresso.

Cut the greenery, pine cones, bows and garlands from the appropriate colored papers. I cut four of each color garland - three across the top of the frame, and the one on the mantle.

Start layering the garlands. You will need to trim the garlands along the top of the frame to get them to fit. I glued the ends in place with Collage Medium.

Once all the pieces are in place, cover the ends with greenery pieces, two pinecones and a bow.

I also added two pinecones and a bow in Mr. Snowman's hand to make it look like he is decorating.

Add the bow and some of the sparkles from one of the garland dies to the wreath, then attach it above the fireplace.

The final touches are to cut two ice skates from the Festive Things dies and adhere them to the mantle in place of stockings. Put a few of the sparkle pieces in the top of the skates, cut two mugs and put them either side of the mantle.

I painted a little bit of Distress Collage Medium on the top of the mantle and all along the bottom of the frame and sprinkled some Distress Mica Flakes onto them to add a snowy, wintry touch to Mr. Snowman's festive cabin.

With so many options in the three die sets used in this project, it's easy to make a whimsical wintry scene that is uniquely your own. I hope you let your imagination go and create some fantastically frozen fun!

Tami

P.S. Since this is technically #5 of my 12 days of Tim Holtz Christmas, here is the recipe to my Grandma's Penuche, or Brown Sugar Fudge. It's so good!

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!

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Christmas Tablesettings - Sizzix Ch. 3 & 4

How about some quick table setting ideas for Christmas parties? I used several of the Bigz Dies from the Tim Holtz Sizzix Chapter 3 and 4 releases to make some very quick nameplates for a festive party, Christmas tea, or for the meal on the big day.

Let's start with the Wood Slices from Chapter 4.

This die has two sizes and comes with an embossing folder. The larger slice is the one I used for this standing nameplate.

You will do the following few steps for each name plate shown below:

1. Score and fold a piece of kraft paper cardstock in half, then score 1/2" on each side of the fold.
   
2. Fold them to form a W shape.
   
3. Lay this on the die with the fold just inside the cutting edge, and cut.
   
4. Glue the top together. 
   
5. You end up with a little base at the bottom that allows the piece to stand up on it's own. 
    
   
   Now back to the wood slice, before you glue it, run it through the embossing folder. Line up the little tab so it's going the right direction.

Ink the rings before you emboss so that they really show.

The Holly is from the new Deck the Halls thinlit set. So many good bits in that one!
The name font is the brand new Alphanumeric Classic Uppercase. It's so bold, I love it! The shadow effect was just from cutting the letters twice and off-setting them as you attach them. Super fast and super easy

 While we are on the Wood Slice, I made a gift tag out of the small slice.

I folded a small piece of Kraft paper cardstock in half, (only in half.)

Again, put the fold just inside the cutting edge and run it through the cutting machine.

 Emboss it, punch a hole in the top where the fold is for tying jute or string through to make a tag. Add a few holly leaves and berries from Deck the Halls.

Chapter 3 dies that I used to make name place settings were the Tree and the Cauldron.
Follow steps 1-5 above and then decorate as you see fit.

 For these name place settings I used Kraftstock,  and sanded the edges.

 The alphabet on both of these place settings is the Bigz XL Handemade alphabet.

 The presents on both of these are from the Festive Things die set . 

There you go! A couple of quick ways to deck your table for the holidays.
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!

Jolly St Nick - Colorize

Sometimes a die deserves a whole scene and I felt that was the case with Jolly St Nick.  This new type of detailed die cut, Colorize, was dreamed up by Tim Holtz and was a showstopper as part of his Chapter 3 release this month. It's such a fantastic concept and I adore the result!

Although this may look like a difficult scene to create, it really is just a matter of enjoying the time cutting, coloring and assembling this piece. There really isn't any technique involved save the assembly of St Nick. With that in mind, I have really just posted a lot of close ups and will add a tidbit here and there that might help in the assembly.
Starting with the basics, it is a large Vignette Tray, two large finial bases, and a pull from Mini Hardware Pulls. I covered the inside of the box with paper one of Tim Holtz's paper stashes.

The tree is one of the Layered Pines. I cut it from chipboard and Distress Water Color Paper. I colored the watercolor paper with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss Distress Ink. Then sprayed it with Distress Resist Spray and dusted it with Distress Rock Candy Glitter. Then decorated it with some of the candles, stars and bows from the Festive Things die set. 

This is a Steel Rule Bigz die so it can be cut from all kinds of things. That's why I cut it out of chipboard as well to give it some thickness so it could stand away from the wall. You can see it has a base that was part of the Festive Things set. It is cut from silver metallic Kraftstock and aged with Mushroom alcohol ink.

This Festive Things set was one I used quite a bit in this scene. I used a majority of the dies in the set. I used Distress Watercolor Cardstock, a little bit of the silver and gold metallic paper, and some papers from various past Ideaology Christmas paper pads. I found it easiest with those to back them with Sizzix Permanent Adhesive sheets and then when I cut them they were easier to assemble.

Behind the tree is the new Window Frame. It's a fun, quirky window. In this scene I used Watercolor Cardstock so that it would look like a painted window frame. The night sky was made with black cardstock with Picket Fence Distress Spray to make the stars. Then a thick coat of Distress Resist Spray to mimic the window glass. the wreath is again from the Festive Things set and it is popped up off the window with foam dots.

The Window Frame die is a Bigz Steel Rule die so it can again, be cut out of thick materials for dimension.

 

The decor over the mantle was made with a few pieces of spruce cut from the Large Funky Festive set. I added two bells cut from metallic kraftstock and a bow. The bells were added with foam dots.

The Large Funky Festive set has some really nice sized florals that can be used for any season depending on how you color them. I used this set on several of my Halloween projects as well.

The Fireside mantle was also made from Distress Watercolor Cardstock to look painted. The bows and swags are part of the die set and it also comes with two small stockings.  The stocking I put on the mantle is the one from the Festive Things set however.

Below you can see all of the many detailed parts of the Fireside die set. This is also one of the Colorize dies, so it helps aid you through the cutting and assembly.

The brick surround is part of the die set. I colored the paper with Fired Brick Distress Ink and then Inked the raised portions of the die with Black Soot Archival Ink before I cut it so it would add the detail in the depressions. The bricks in the back behind the flames are from the Mixed Media 3 set and adhered over some black cardstock. The grate is part of the Fireside set and was cut from metallic Kraftstock.

Now to the main attractions - Jolly St Nick. He may look intimidating at first but I have linked to some videos that will help with the concept of Colorize and with assembly. Just cut it out of cardstock with SIzzix Permanent Adhesive on the back. Trust me, this will make it so much easier to put together in the end!

There are several ways you can do this. I cut the white parts all the same white Watercolor Paper and lightly inked the edges. I colored the other papers with Distress Ink before I cut them and inked the edges.

In this video Tim discusses these dies and how he puts them together.

 You may be curious as to how I got Santa to stand up. Well what I did was after he was basically assembled, I added some scrap pieces of chipboard on the back to hold it all together and to make it sturdier. Then I attached him to a piece of the packing foam that comes in the Vignette Trays that keeps them separate. I adhered the foam piece to the back wall and then to the back of Santa so there was a lot of dimension to this piece.

I always figure that the more I know about something the better, so this is a colorize assembly video by Pete Hughes. I've just recently found out about him. He is delightful and has an interesting technique for this die.
I hope having all three of those videos helped. It's nice to see so many different perspectives.

Now on to the goodies that Santa brings. He has to have something to hold them in, and the moment I saw the Halloween Cauldron die, I couldn't help but see a Santa Sack. I stuffed it full of gifts, stockings, and a tree from the Festive Things set.
It needs to be attached to the base or back wall with a piece of the packing foam and also attached to the side of the tray first, then attach Santa last because he overlaps the side of the cauldron and can be attached to it for stability.

The Cauldron die is a Bigz steel rule die, so I cut it from Watercolor Paper and chipboard. The handle was only cut from gold metallic kraftstock.

Often when working with the Vignette Trays, we use tape to cover the raw edge, but I wanted something a little more fancy, so I made multiple of the small 3-D Star Trim cuts. The I attached them all around the outside of the tray with some Collage Medium. It fits perfectly on the thick edges. I used gold Metallic Kraftstock.

Because this is a 3-D Impresslit die, that embosses and cuts, you have to lightly spray the paper with water, and then run it through the machine three times. Also only use ONE cutting plate.

There you have it. The basics of this Santa's Delivery scene. It was so much fun to put together and I hope you are inspired to make a scene of your own!
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!