The Merry Moose...

Hello friends...

Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend and ready for the week ahead and of course, a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! This week, our theme is called LET IT SNOW and we can't wait to see how you will interpret the challenge and the DT are already looking forward to seeing all your fabulous creations!

For my project, I created a festive panel inspired by the Merry Moose die from Tim Holtz and Sizzix. As soon as I saw this die in one of Tim's Facebook Live video's I just fell in love with him ~ he is just the cutest and I just knew that he would be perfect proudly trotting through a winter wonderland, set against a night sky and a full moon and all I needed to do was take those thoughts in my head and bring that scene to life and I hope you love the finished piece....

So, it's time for the new challenge to begin and here's how I created Marvin (that's my affectionate name for him) the Merry Moose in his winter wonderland!

 

To begin with I inked the background ~ I cut a panel of white card, 14 x 18cm and I cut a circle from a sticky note, which will act as my mask to create the moon. I positioned the circle directly onto the card and then using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink, blended the ink from the edges of the card towards the centre to create the night sky. Remove the mask from the card and ink the inside of the moon with Antique Linen Distress Ink, adding a touch of Hickory Smoke to add darker areas. To complete the night sky, I inked the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink and then flick small amounts of water over the ink, blotting away the excess before heat drying the card.

Once the background is completely dry, I then applied some Grit Paste through the Speckles Layering stencil to create the look of snow falling and applied this to the top section of the inked panel. Allowing the paste to dry thoroughly, I cut my stars from gold metallic kraft card using the largest star from the Snowy Stars die. I also had a few extra smaller stars left over from a previous project which I adhered to the background together with the larger star, which I placed in the centre of the moon.

Now for those mounds of snow that the Merry Moose is trotting through and for those I used the Home For The Holiday's die from last year and cut two layers of the snow from white card. I then placed the first of these layers onto foam pads and attached it along the bottom edge of my inked background. On the second layer, I wanted to stamp my sentiment in black ink and used the Christmas Greetings stamp from the Yuletide stamp set by Stampers Anonymous before attaching this layer over the top of the first using more foam to add even more dimension.

To add a little texture to the piece, I added some Grit Paste along the top edge of the die cut card and sprinkled with Dry Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

I've now taken you through the steps for the background, which I matted onto gold metallic kraft card to give a border around the edge and frame the panel.

I then cut a Dina Wakley canvas board down to measure 23 x 18.5cm and dry brushed the surface with a layer of Gathered Twigs Distress Paint. Once the paint was dry, I then applied some Picket Fence over the top which created this worn, vintage look around the edge of the canvas. To complete my backing layers, I cut a panel of the red snowflake paper from the Tim Holtz Christmas Paper Stash, stitched a border around the outside, matted it onto kraft card and then mounted the layers onto the canvas. Finally, I wrapped some twine around the bottom section creating a fan shape with the individual strands and secured it at the back.

I then mounted my inked panel onto the centre of the canvas using foam pads for some added dimension.

So, all that's left is the star of the show ~ the merry moose and to make him a little more chunky, I cut him three times from thick card before cutting a final layer from Tim's Substrate Sheets which added some lovely texture.

I layered all my pieces together using Matte Collage Medium and finishing with the substrate sheet layer before inking around the edge of the moose with Pumice Stone Distress Oxide Ink. For the antlers, I cut these from watercolour card and inked them with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Oxide Ink before attaching them to the main image. After adding his reins around his nose, I decided to give him a warm scarf and used Mummy Cloth dyed with Festive Berries Distress Spray Stain and wrapped it around his neck. I then added a couple of bells to complete his ensemble.

You can see how much dimension I've built up using foam pads to layer each individual piece in the photo below.

For the trees in the background, I cut all the pieces from watercolour card and painted the main trunk with Ground Espresso Distress Paint before adding my snowy boughs, which I then covered with Dry Rock Candy Distress Glitter. To add just a little hint of sparkle as if the moon was highlight the boughs, I then added a touch of gold metallic paint to the edges of the trunks and the branches.

Now all that's left to do, is to place all my die cut pieces onto the background to create the scene adding a small amount of white cheesecloth beneath his little hooves.

To complete this panel, I added a Hinge Clip painted with Festive Berries Distress Paint and hung a Christmas Typed Token and snowflake charm from it. I then placed two Mini Hardware pieces in the corners of the panel.

So that completes this week's project and I hope you've loved meeting the Merry Moose and enjoyed the creative process behind this festive panel ~ it sure was a lot of fun to create and Marvin never fails to make me smile wide when I see him!

Don't forget, you can find more inspiration from my talented teamies over on the challenge blog and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

See you very soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Stamps: Yuletide

Tim Holtz/Sizzix Dies: Snowy Stars, Home For the Holidays, Merry Moose
Distress Paint: Picket Fence, Gathered Twigs, Festive Berries, Ground Espresso
Distress Inks: Chipped Sapphire, Antique Linen, Hickory Smoke
Distress Oxide Inks: Pumice Stone, Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap
Distress Spray Stain: Festive Berries
Speckles Layering Stencil

Idea-ology: Christmas Typed Token, Tiny Bells, Hinge Clip, Snowflakes Adornments

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Rock Candy Dry Glitter, Grit Paste

Surfaces: Christmas 8 x 8 Paperie, Metallic Kraft Card, Kraft Card, Media Board
Cheesecloth
Hemptique Twine
Dina Wakley Brushes
Blending Tool

Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Tim Holtz Guillotine

Heat Gun

Mummy cloth, Tim Holtz Substrate Sheets and white card all from my own stash