Christmas In July Blog Hop...

Hi everyone and welcome to a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, where you are joining the team for a very special week because this week we are getting ready for Christmas with a blog hop! The DT are showcasing some fabulous Tim Holtz Products within their projects, which you don't have to use but I think most, if not all, of us have at least one of his products in your supplies and it would be lovely if you did use some!

Did you know that there are only 21 weeks left to Christmas! I know, scary huh? But with this year going so fast, it's time to make a start on your preparations and what better way to start than to play along with us! The lovely folks over at Simon Says Stamp have been busily packing 4 surprise Christmas gift boxes for 4 lucky entrants and all you have to do is hop around all the stops along the way, leave a comment and find where the hidden gifts are AND you must enter the challenge to be eligible to win.

ORDER OF HOP:

Karolina

Andrea

Anna-Karin

Barbara

Cheiron

Emma (you are here)

Kath

Lols 

Macarena

Maura

Sandra

Zoey

All winners will be chosen randomly from the comments on the blogs with the hidden gifts.

Good Luck to everyone! The Design Team is looking forward to seeing your Christmas makes and will pop around to visit you ASAP!

So let's begin and you should have arrived here from the lovely and very talented Cheiron, if not then you may need to start at the beginning on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog.

For my project, I chose to create a vintage style tag, full of festive cheer and hope you'll read along to see how I made this project using kraft card as a base...

...and told the story of two children with happy smiles and twinkling eyes!

I started with my base and cut a piece of kraft card to the same size as a medium Etcetera tag. I then applied some torn pieces of Symphony Tissue Tape onto the central section of the kraft card before applying some gesso over the top of the tape, always focussing on that central section, allowing the kraft card to still be the star of the show.

Once the gesso was dry, I then added some texture and applied Crackle Texture Paste through the Starry Layering Stencil. 

Set this aside for the crackles to appear and for the paste to set and harden and whilst the magic is happening, I moved onto making my poinsettias!

For these I used the Tattered Poinsettia die, die cutting the small and medium sized flowers from white lightweight card ~ I cut two layers for each bloom and then, I cut an extra layer of kraft card, which will sit underneath the finished flower. I then painted the white poinsettia die cuts using Festive Berries Distress Paint, applying the paint on the back and front of the die cut. Spritz the painted blooms and the kraft card layers with some Mica Spray for a little shimmer and then layer the flowers, slightly offsetting each petal layer to create one bloom. For the centres I added a dome of Glossy Accents, then sprinkled with glass glitter and then using the Tim Holtz Splatter Brush, I added some flicks of Picket Fence Distress Paint across the surface to give a snowy effect.

Moving back to the background which should now have some wonderful crackled texture, I wanted to add just a hint of colour which will eventually shine through the aperture of the baseboard frame. For this I just applied a wash of metallic paint using the blue and gold paints from the Metallic Accents palette by Prima and when applying the paints, I once again concentrated on that central area but allowed the paint to run slightly to give a few drips.

When the paint is thoroughly dry, I machine stitched a border around the edge and then attached my background onto the tag, using Matte Collage Medium to secure it into place before adding few splatters of Picket Fence Paint over the entire surface.

Now that I have my tag base, I can start adding my layers and building up all those lovely layers and dimension and as the starting point, I attached a baseboard frame over the top of some Ephemera pieces and some stamped imagery from the Holiday Postmarks set and the Correspondence stamp set. 

I added foam to the back of my frame to add some dimension to the project and also placed a scalloped border just beneath the frame which is again cut from kraft card using the 3D Impresslits Scallop die. If you look hard enough you can just see a hint of this die peeking out from behind the layers.

I also added a ticket to the arrangement ~ the North Pole stamp actually comes from the Holiday Postmarks stamp set which I then stamped onto a Ticket Booth Die Cut, cut from kraft card and crinkled for a more aged look and then inked around the edges ~ the Ticket Booth dies are essentially for the matching stamp set but I found the images in the Holiday Postmark set work well with them.

Once all my layers were attached, I added my poinsettias over a bed of die cut foliage, cut from Classic Kraft Card, using the Holiday Greens set. To add a little hint of snowy sparkle to the foliage, I brushed some Collage Medium over the tips of the die cuts and then dipped them into some Dry Rock Candy Glitter. I also added some Caramel Cream Crystal Nuvo Drops to some of the pieces to create the look of berries.

 

Now for the Paper Doll and adding these two adorable little children ~ the image is taken from Tim's Christmas Paper Doll set but if you don't have this set, then you can use any image you want ~ maybe even one of your own to personalise the piece! I coloured the paper dolls using Distress Marker Pens and then splattered with a little more Picket Fence Distress Paint before being added to the centre of my baseboard frame, using foam pads on the back. I also added a story stick, 'wish' to the left hand side of the frame.

 

To complete my tag, I added some Christmas Clippings Stickers to tell the story and added some hand dyed crinkled ribbon through the hole reinforcer.

So, that completes this week's project, which I hope you love as much as I loved creating it. It was fun to work on kraft card and I love the contrast of the white and red against the neutral background of the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and from here, you need to go to Kath's blog for some more fabulous Christmas Inspiration.

Gift Box

So now it's YOUR turn to get out your inks, paints and all things arty and start Christmas creating! We are looking forward to seeing what you make!

Follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram

Do you use Instagram ?  If so please add  #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too!

There are fabulous give aways and inspiration from fabulous designers on a daily basis over on the Simon Says Stamp Blog, if you haven't subscribed by email you may want to so you don't miss out

You have until Monday  8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Stamp Sets: Holiday Postmarks, Correspondence
Tim Holtz/Sizzix Dies: Scallop Impresslits Cut and Emboss, Tattered Poinsettia, Holiday Greens, Ticket Booth Thinlits

Distress Paint: Picket Fence, Festive Berries
Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: Starry

Idea-ology: Christmas Ephemera, Snippets, Baseboard Frames, Story Sticks, Symphony Tissue Tape, Christmas Clippings

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Gesso, Glossy Accents, Ranger Ink Crackle Paste, Prima Metallic Accents Watercolour Paint, Rock Candy Dry Glitter, Caramel Cream Tonic Crystal Drops
Surfaces: Classic Kraft Stash, Dina Wakely Kraft Card, Medium Etcetera Tag

Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat
Big Shot Plus

Heat Gun
Sisal Fibres, glass glitter, lightweight card and Paper Doll from my own stash