Welcome to the Grand Christmas Exhibition...

Hello everyone...

Today, I'm sharing my latest Christmas project that I've created for the Tim Holtz Holiday Inspiration Series. I hope you've been enjoying all the inspiration so far and you're loving everyone's projects just as much as I am ~ haven't they all been amazing but if you should have missed any of the wonderful creations so far, then Tim will be doing a recap of all the week's projects, HERE on his blog every Saturday.

So, it's time to take a look around my project and for this particular one, I've showcased some of the brand new idea-ology products from the seasonal release and used them to create a home decor project, using a Vignette Tray and telling the story of two children visiting the Christmas Exhibition full of excitement ahead of the big day. When it came to choosing the colours of this project, it was so easy as I've always loved the combination of these colours and the beautiful holly paper is probably my favourite in the stash ~ I adore it and when it's combined with all the gorgeous products, this really does make me want to start decorating my house and get ready for Christmas.

So, let's get started and here's how I created this project...

To begin with, I took the smaller of the two sizes of Vignette Trays and gave the tray a coat of gesso, inside and out. Once the gesso was dry, I then painted my tray using Barn Door Distress Paint and mixing it with a small amount of Festive Berries. Once I was happy with the colour and the coverage, I dried the tray before dry brushing the wood with a small amount of Black Soot Distress Paint. Again dry the wood thoroughly.

To line the box, I chose two of the papers from the Christmas Paper Stash, the floral paper on the back and the striped on the sides. I cut each panel to size and adhered them to the inside of my tray using Matte Collage Medium.

At the bottom of my tray, I added a small step. I created this by cutting a panel of card, the same width as the tray itself, approx 11cm. I then scored and folded the card to create a cube shape that will measure the same depth as the tray and measure 1.5cm in height. I covered the front of the cube with the red and white polka dot paper from the stash and attached my cube step, along the base of my tray. Cut a small amount of cheesecloth and drape the cloth over the top of the cube to look like snow. Attach with Collage Medium.

Now that my box is covered and complete, I moved onto the next stage of decorating...

I started with the poster that is placed behind the children and for this, I used one of the Ephemera pieces and matted it onto a piece of Woodgrain Watercolour card which I coloured using the same colours of Distress Paint as I used on the tray ~ Barn Door, Festive Berries and a dry brush of Black Soot.

I then placed a small Hex Fastener in each corner of the poster and attached the poster to the back wall of my tray using foam pads.

For the garland across the top of the tray, I used some of the Christmas Fringe and draped it across the top of the box, attaching it at the two ends and in the centre.

I then added three of the Tiny Bells to the middle of the garland and added a small bow.

Now for the trees and to colour my Christmas trees ~ I took one of each size Woodland Tree and spritzed them with Peeled Paint Distress Spray Stain. You can let these dry naturally or if you're impatient like me, gently heat dry them with a heat tool. Once they are thoroughly dry, I then rolled the trees in some Glossy Accents, before sprinkling them with Rock Candy Dry Glitter ~ leave them to one side to dry.

To decorate my trees, I coloured some of the Baubles with Turquoise Alcohol Ink and attached them with Matte Collage Medium, I also added some small gems to create a bit more shimmer and shine.

As a finishing touch, I placed one of the fluted stars on the largest tree.

For the paper dolls, I applied a coat of Matte Collage Medium over the top. Once dry, I gave  them a light colour wash by using Distress Crayons and blending them out with a semi dry baby wipe. To attach my children safely into the tray, I used foam pads on the back of the figures and then placed them so they would stand on the cheesecloth covered step that I've previously attached. I also added my trees at this stage, placing them either side of the children.

I then applied some Grit Paste around the feet of the children and around the base of the trees, before sprinkling the wet paste with Rock Candy Glitter. At this stage I also added some snowball baubles, that I coated with Collage Medium and sprinkled with glitter.

To complete the decoration of the tray, I used a Christmas Word Band altered with Picket Fence Distress Paint to accentuate the wording and attached this to the front of my step.

As a finishing touch, I added a Curio Knob to the top of my tray.

So, that completes my tray and as you can see, it really has plenty of dimension, sparkle (which is really hard to pick up on the camera) and a beautiful vintage feel.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I'll see you again on Friday with another project!

See you then...Emma x

Recipe for project:

Vignette Tray

Distress Paints: Picket Fence, Black Soot, Festive Berries, Barn Door
Distress Spray Stain: Peeled Paint

Idea-ology: Mini Woodland Trees, Small Woodland Trees, Tiny Bells, Christmas Paper Dolls, Christmas Ephemera, Christmas Word Band, Baubles, Fluted Stars, Christmas Fringe, Hex Fasteners, Metallic Trimmings, Curio Knob
Alcohol Ink: Turquoise

Mediums: Collage Medium, Rock Candy Dry Glitter, Glossy Accents, Gesso, Grit Paste

Surfaces: Christmas Paperie, Woodgrain Card Stock

Ranger Craft Sheet

Splatter Brush

Heat Gun

Cheesecloth and gems from my own stash