Step Into Christmas....

Hello friends...

Well, here we are ~ the most wonderful time of the year has arrived and hope you're all ready for Christmas! I know I've got a few last minute things to do, to be honest I could do with another two weeks to get everything just how I'd like it but the food has been bought, the presents are wrapped and under the tree, the table is planned and the tree is sparkling ~ so, what's not done won't have to be mentioned!

But as always, the start of a brand new week means the start of a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week the challenge will run for 2 WEEKS! The theme is all about Party and we hope you will find some time to join us and play along....

I know we're all really busy at this time of the year but with the theme in mind ~ I decided to create some last minute table setting ideas that will be perfect to add to any festive table and you don't have to create all these pieces, just choose the one you love the most. These projects aren't too time consuming, some of you might have some bits and pieces left over from your Christmas crafting that card be used up on these and of course, you don't have to use them just for Christmas, by changing the colour scheme and the decorative elements, they could be made for a new year table or maybe a birthday party. So,if you do have a couple of spare hours, I hope I can inspire you to give them a go...

So, let's get started and here's what I've made!

THE PRESENT BOX

To begin with I'll start with this little box ~ this is made using the smallest of the Tim Holtz Vignette Boxes, with the addition of the matching size of Vignette Panel. I started by covering the raw edges of the box and the panel with some of Tim's Design Tape, the holly leaf design and just ran the tape along the edges to give a nice neat finish.

I then covered the outside of the box with some paper from the Christmas Paper Stash, attaching each panel of paper with Matte Collage Medium. I also covered the vignette panel, top and bottom with matching paper.

Once the medium was dry, I ran the Gathered Twigs crayon along the edge and blended out the colour with my fingertip.

Cut a strip of seam binding or maybe you might have some leftover Crinkle Ribbon in your stash and dye the ribbon using a combination of Candied Apple and Frayed Burlap Distress Spray Stain. Scrunch the ribbon into a ball and allow to dry before wrapping it around the lid to form a cross, just as if you're wrapping a present and tie the ends of the ribbon into a bow. With the remaining ribbon, wrap around the box, securing the ends inside.

To hide where the ribbon is attached, cover with some more of the paper from the paper stash.

For the decoration I used a small woodland tree, spritzed with Peeled Paint Distress Spray. Once the spray was dry, I used my finger to smear Collage Medium over the ends of the tree and then sprinkled with Rock Candy Distress Glitter. Once again, set aside to dry before adding small gold Metallic Droplets, attached with some Matte Collage Medium.

Place the sparkly tree in the centre of the bow, attaching it with hot glue.

For the foliage, I used a combination of Tim Holtz dies ~ Festive Foliage, Garden Greens and the holly leaves from Deck The Halls. All the foliage is cut from green card, I used inks to colour my card but of course you can use green kraft card from the Classic Kraft Stash.

After smearing each of the pieces of foliage with collage medium, dip into Rock Candy Distress Glitter and allow to dry before arranging all the foliage in a spray, around the base of the tree.

Finally, I added some Nuvo Crystal Drops to give the appearance of berries on the Mistletoe leaves.

THE TREAT JAR TABLE FAVOR

The treat jar is really simple and all that you need for this is one of Tim's Mason Jars, ribbon and some idea-ology ~ plus the all important chocolates to pop inside.

For the lid of the jar, I used Candied Apple and Black Soot Distress Paints. I painted a base of Candied Apple directly onto the lid and also painted the Mini Hardware Knob. I allowed for the paint to dry and then applied the Black Soot paint, dry brushing the paint over the top of the painted lid and knob. Once the paint was dry, I then just used some sandpaper to sand areas of the lid, taking it back to original metal to create that vintage feel. I then punched a hole into the top of the lid and attached my knob.

I hand dyed a strip of seam binding ribbon with Peeled Paint Spray Stain and tie around the neck of the jar, forming a big fluffy bow. I then attached a spoon to my bow, taken from the Silverware idea-ology set and a small metal holly wreath embellishment from the Yuletide Adornments ~ i painted my holly wreath with Distress Paints but you can leave it plain if you prefer. To complete the jar, I attached a die cut holly leaf complete with a small gold Metallic Droplet. All that's left is to fill up the jar with chocolate and it's ready to place on my table.

PLACE NAME HOLDER

Finally I made my name card holder...

The base of this name holder is actually made from cinnamon sticks, yep that's right and I just stuck five sticks together to form a base. I smeared some gesso onto the ends of the sticks and once they were dry, glittered them with Rock Candy Distress Glitter. I then wrapped them up with some more of the red ribbon.

For the name plate, I used Tim's Stitched Rectangle Die and cut a piece of heavystock mixed media card, which I then inked with Antique Linen Distress Ink. I matted the card onto kraft card to give a border before drawing a thin black line to form an inner border.

For the name, I used the Alphanumeric Label Die to die cut each of the letters from gold metallic kraft stash and after attaching the lettering onto my name plate, I added an arrangement of die cut holly leaves, glittered with Rock Candy Distress Glitter. For the berries I added some Autumn Red Nuvo Crystal Drops before attaching the name plate to a memo pin.

For the finishing touch, I added an Adornment Star to the top of the pin, painted with Candied Apple Distress Paint and glittered with Rock Candy Distress Glitter. Attach the pin into the bow and add to your table setting.

So, I hope you've loved the ideas and the pieces I've made and it's given you some ideas of your own which as always, I would love to see if you do make anything using the inspiration I've given! Just tag me or message me and I'll pop over to take a look!

Don't forget, if you would like to see 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 and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until Monday 6th January, 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon!

Merry Christmas everyone and hope you have a wonderful festive holiday and a happy and healthy 2020!! 🎄❤️🎄

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Deck The Halls, Large Funky Festive, Stitched Rectangle, Mini Holiday Greens, Alphanumeric Label
Distress Paint: Candied Apple, Black Soot
Distress Spray Ink: Candied Apple, Frayed Burlap, Peeled Paint
Distress Inks: Antique Linen

Idea-ology: Silverware, Memo Pin, Mini Hardware Knob, vignette Panel, Vignette Box, Metallic Droplets, Christmas Paper Stash, Mini Woodland Tree, Mini Mason Jars, Star Adornments, Christmas Design Tape, Yuletide Adornments

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Rock Candy Glitter
Surfaces: Mixed Media Heavystock, Metallic Kraft Stash, Classic Kraft Stash
Tonic Nuvo Drops: Autumn Red, Seashell
Glass Media Mat

Heat Gun
Big Shot
Ribbon, kraft card and cinnamon sticks from my own stash

From London, With Love...

Happy Monday friends and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! This week our theme is called CITYSCAPE and we can't wait to see how you interpret this fun theme!

For my project, I was inspired by vintage travel posters, which are something I collect and love and I with this in mind, I chose to create what is probably my last but one Christmas project ~ oh my, where did that time go since all those amazing Christmas products were released and the excitement and anticipation of Christmas crafting began?!?! It doesn't seem a minute, does it!?!

So back to my project and a couple of weeks ago when I made this ~ I decided to bring together a few of Tim Holtz's older dies from Sizzix and combine them with some of the newer dies, to create a canvas panel all about the night before Christmas in London...when the last few remaining people are heading home but one special person is making his journey, yep...you better watch out because Santa Claus is coming to town!

So, here we go and here's how I created this project...

To begin with I took Dina Wakely's Media Board and cut it down to measure 24 x18cm. I wanted the panel to have a really oldy worldy, vintage feel and applied a combination of Antique Linen and Picket Fence Distress Paint onto the panel. Once the surface was dry, I then dry brushed Pumice Stone over the top and again dried it thoroughly. To add texture around the outside of the panel, I added a smear of Crackle Paste, I usually use my finger or a palette knife and once the crackles appeared and the paste was dry, I then took the Embossing Dabber and ran it around the panel, just randomly catching the edges as I went. I then sprinkled Emerald Creek Marshmallow Rock Embossing Powder over the top, and heat embossed.

For the final touch, I used the Pumice Stone Distress Crayon and applied it to the edges, blending out the colour with a damp fingertip.

Now the base panel is ready, I'm moving onto the background and I created this by cutting a piece of Heavystock Mixed Media card and using a die cut circle, I placed this onto the card to act as a mask to create the moon. I then inked the entire card using Chipped Sapphire and Faded Jeans Distress Inks and added a little Black Soot around the edges. After lightly spritzing the card with water and dabbing away the beads, I removed the mask and heat dried the card to set the inks and remove any moisture.

I then inked the moon with a little Antique Linen, adding darker shading around the edges.

For the stars I used the snowy stars stamp from the Great Outdoors set, inked with clear embossing ink, stamped twice across the moon and then added white embossing powder before heat embossing.

The background is ready and after machine stitching a border, I matted onto silver metallic kraft stash, followed by grey pearl card, a layer of champagne metallic kraft stash and final layer of red Classic Kraft card.

I then mounted the layered panels onto the canvas.

Moving on I started to create the scene and to begin with I wanted to add a ledge for my scene to sit on and I used one of the strips that comes with the Web Trims which I painted white before applying a layer of Grit Paste over the top. Whilst the paste is still wet, I sprinkled with Rock Candy Dry glitter and Mica Flakes. After allowing the paste to dry, I attached the ledge along the base of my moonlit background.

Next, using the Village Christmastime die set, I cut Santa and his reindeers from black card and then cut another layer from gold metallic kraft stash. I layered the black die cut over the top of the card, slightly offsetting it to add a glistening shadow.

I repeated this technique on the cityscape scene, cutting the city from Blackout Kraft Stash, but this time I used silver metallic kraft stash behind the city die cuts. I also applied a touch of Old Silver Alchemy Wax to the edges of the die cuts, to create more of a moonlit shadow.

I attached the Cityscape to the ledge, using foam pads to add some dimension between the two die cuts....

...and placed Santa onto more foam pads and attached him onto the background, placing them across the moon.

Now to personalise the panel and of course, this scene had to be set in London and I added the little red Routemaster bus. I cut the bus using the Globe die set and then placed it onto the ledge.

We're nearly there and I just added a selection of stars in the sky that I had left over from a previous project but added gold gems to the centres and now all that's left to do, is to add the banner across the bottom.

For this I cut the letters ~ 'From London, With Love" from red kraft card using the Alphanumeric die and placed them onto a piece of card inked with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks.

I added a few die cut red stars to the banner and then matted it onto a layer of red card, before mounting it across the panel, placing it beneath the scene.

Finally, I placed two Hardware Heads either side of the panel ~ all of which had a frosting of white embossing powder over the top.

So, that's it from me for this week and I hope you've loved this project and the ideas and inspiration...it was such a fun piece to create and of course, you can make it for any city you choose ~ the world is your oyster and if you don't have any of Tim's dies in your stash, there are alternatives that can be used, Paper Rose Cityscape Border and the Moda Scrap Santa Claus Die and these are all available from Simon Says Stamp!

Don't forget, if you would like to see 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 and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Tiny Travel Globe, Alphanumeric Label, 
The Cityscape and Village Christmastime die sets are both from my stash
Stampers Anonymous: Great Outdoors, Web Trims
Distress Paint: Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Picket Fence
Distress Inks: Antique Linen, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Frayed Burlap

Idea-ology: Hardware Heads

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Grit Paste, Rock Candy Glitter, Crackle Paste, Mica Flakes, Emerald Creek Marshmallow Rock Embossing Powder, SSS White Fine Detail Embossing Powder, Old Silver Alchemy Wax, Emboss It Dabber
Surfaces: Mixed Media Heavystock, Blackout Kraft Stash, Metallic Kraft Stash, Metallic Kraft Stash 3, Classic Kraft Stash, Media Board, Pewter Card
Sprayer
Glass Media Mat

Heat Gun
Big Shot

Make a Christmas Wish...

Hello friends and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! This week our theme is all about STARS and all we want you to do is incorporate them into your projects and just have fun playing along!

I love everything to do with the moon and stars, it absolutely fascinates me, so this was my perfect challenge and I created a Christmas card plaque which I will be giving to my parents for Christmas. The theme for this was all about wishing upon those sparkly stars, making their dreams come true and all courtesy of Santa's Helper who is delivering that precious star so that they can make their wish and I hope 2020 will be their year to shine brightly!!

So, here we go and here's how I created my very special project...

To begin with we'll start with the background and for this I cut a panel of watercolour card, 14 x 18cm and started to add some colour using layers of Distress Inks ~ Evergreen Bough, Tumbled Glass and Antique Linen which I applied to my glass mat, spritzed with water before dragging the card through, transferring the colour onto the card.

Once I was happy with my build up of colour layers, I heat dried the card.

After applying some torn pieces of tissue tape to the central area of my inked card, I added a layer of Matte Collage Medium over the top and once again, heat dried the medium before applying some depth of colour using Pumice Stone and Evergreen Bough Distress Crayons and blending out any harsh lines with my fingertip. I then added a touch of Crackle Paste to create a little more texture, just over the taped background and applying it to random areas. Once it was dry, I ran the Pumice Stone Crayon over the paste, just to accentuate the crackles.

To add even more texture, I used the Hocus Pocus Mini Layering Stencil over the taped area and applied some Grit Paste through the stencil. Ofnce the paste is dry I then splattered the background with some Black Soot Distress Paint and machine stitched a border around the outside.

I matted my background onto layers of card, one layer covered with Red and White Design Tape from Christmas 2018, a layer of green card, a layer of kraft card and a layer of gold metallic card. I then mounted my layers onto a white card blank which I inked around the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

I now have my background and it's time to start creating a scene and I started with Santa's Helper. I cut the image twice  from black chipboard and layered the two pieces over the top of one another to create one substantial die cut. I then applied a layer of Matte Collage Medium over the top and sprinkled black glitter over it. Tap away the excess and set to one side. Once the glitter is completely set, I then coloured a piece of Mummy Cloth with Barn Door Distress Spray Stain and once that was dry, I wrapped it around the elf's neck to keep him warm and tied it to create a scarf.

For the stars, I cut four various sized stars from chipboard using one of Tim's older dies, the Crescent Moon and Stars die and also used the Sizzix Dimensional Stars die, both of which are from my own stash, to cut one of the medium sized stars in the dimensional stars set. After folding the star along the score lines, I applied a layer of Matte Collage Medium over each of the five stars and added some Gold Rush Glass Glitter.

Tap away any excess glitter but whilst the medium is still wet on the glittered stars, I added even more glitter and sparkle and sprinkled Vintage Platinum Glitter Dust over the top. Allow for all the stars to completely dry.

Taking the baseboard frame from the Christmas Layers and Baseboard Frame set, I cut a section from the bottom of the frame so that it would fit my card perfectly. The frame measures, 12.5 x 16cm.

I attached the frame to my background using foam pads and then added four Hardware Heads, embossed with a little white embossing powder and placed them onto each corner.

Taking my glittery elf, I placed him onto foam pads and attached him in the centre of the frame. I then added the dimensional star so that he's carrying it.

You can see the dimension that the foam pads give to the elf in the photo below...

At the top of the frame, I added an arrangement of Holiday Greens, cut from Classic Kraft Stash. Each piece was dry brushed with Picket Fence Distress Paint and once I'd added a smear of Collage Medium over the foliage pieces, I dipped them into Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

Allow to dry and then arrange the pieces in a spray across the top of the frame. I also added a few pieces of foliage that I cut from silver metallic kraft stash before attaching a mini plaquette in the centre of the foliage. To complete the foliage, I added some berries and as many of you know if you follow my work, I use Autumn Red Tonic Nuvo Drops to create these and just apply a drop the relevant pieces.

Add the remaining stars by attaching them around the frame.

Finally, I used the 'Christmas Wishes' Quote Chip along the bottom of the frame and used two silver metallic droplets to either side of the chip.

So, that's my card finished and ready to be written and given to my parents ~ fingers crossed they love it as much as I loved creating it and I also hope you love this project and all the techniques that I've used to bring it to life!

Don't forget, if you would like to see 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 and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Santa's Helper, Dimensional Stars, Mini Holiday Greens
Mini Layering Stencils Set 43
Distress Inks: Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass and Evergreen Bough
Distress Spray Stain: Barn Door

Idea-ology: Mummy Cloth, Christmas Quote Chips, Mini Plaquettes, Metallic Droplets, Christmas Layers and Base Board Frames, Hardware Heads

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Grit Paste, Rock Candy Glitter, Vintage Platinum Glitter Dust, Black Glitter, Gold Rush Glass Glitter, Autumn Red Tonic Nuvo Drops, Crackle Paste
Surfaces: Mixed Media Heavystock, Metallic Kraft Stash, Kraft Card, White Card Blank, Midnight Green Card, Chipboard, Symphony Tissue Tape
Foam Pads, 2018 Tim Holtz Christmas Design Tape, Distress Watercolour Card, Black Chipboard
Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Heat Gun
Big Shot