Tim Holtz Flip Frame Christmas Display

Hello and welcome back to the blog today. I had a bit of free time last week, (just a small bit) and I know I haven't been crafting a whole lot lately due to my busy schedule so I wanted to really sit down and go back to some of the things I love to do. 

Tim Holtz has always been one of my favorite styles and designers and as soon as I saw his flip frame, my brain went into overdrive. I love the idea of a flip frame for multiple uses but for today I made a Christmas display.

This Christmas display is loosely based on one of Tim's older 12 tags. It's from his post way back in 2011, if you want to check out Tim's tutorial here is the link

12 Tags of 2011 Tag 2

On the edges of the frame I added some snowflake paste so it looked like there was little snow, I sat that aside to dry.
(Snowflake paste is something that my store Simple Pleasures where I work sells it and  has gotten it in stock like 3 times and it keeps selling out, we cannot keep the stuff on the shelves.)

Next, I added some of Tim's Holiday letterpress blocks to the outside of my frame with my glue gun BUT first I added some really nice red glitter to each letter. I simply added a little glossy accents to the front of the letters and dipped them into the red glitter face first, setting them aside to dry

my last step was the centerpiece, which was mostly explained on Tim's Blog with his 12 Tags of 2011 Tag 2 
I used the general idea for the reindeer and background for my display. Tim used Seasonal Craft Resist for the background behind his reindeer and I am out of the seasonal SO, I used some of the butterfly craft paper that I had. To add the resist, I used versamark and stamped the word "Believe" from the stamp set called Handwritten Holidays.  I then used clear embossing powder to heat set. This way when I went over the entire background with white distress stain, the word "believe" resists the stain, so it pops. 
Once my middle section was mostly complete I added two Jingle Brads to the bottom and also made a poinsettia for the bottom right side. 
My poinsettia was made using Tim's Tattered Poinsettia Die
and for the leaves I used Tim's Holly branch die. I also used these little things called "Prills" in the center of my poinsettia
They are these tiny little beads that you just adhere with glossy accents or any other clear glue. They are fabulous, we have them at Simple Pleasures and we ship!! They are the best thing and they give the center of my poinsettia a realistic look. I also added a touch of gold glitter to them
 Check it out:

I just added a bit of greenery around the reindeer to mimic a wreath and attached an ideology snowflake with burlap ribbon
I love how it turned out, so festive!

This makes a super fun display piece for Christmas. 
I hope you have enjoyed the little tutorial, I'm off to take it to work with me and share it with my co-workers!! 
CHEERS!!

Steampunk Ornament Swap

Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog today. 

I wanted to tell you about a little swap that I did with some friends from Virginia. We have been swapping ornaments off and on for about four years now and since we are all into steampunk and we decided to do a steampunk Christmas ornament swap this year. 

Steampunk is always so fun and creating something in this theme isn't the easiest thing but it sure was fun to do.

This was the ornament I made

I used a old vintage key as my butterfly body and then just added some other elements. I added a vintage looking snowflake to the back of each and a vintage button to one wing

I can't tell you how fun this was to create.

Here are the ornaments that my friends sent to me:

From my friend Chris - the details on this is amazing

and from my friend Deanna - this one is so elegant and beautiful

This was such a fun swap to do and I'm glad I took part. 

Thanks for coming by and enjoy your day. 

Merry Christmas!!

Stampotique Challenge 223 - Quick and Easy Christmas Cards

Welcome back to the blog today everyone. I hope you are all having a great Thanksgiving week and are ready for some turkey and fixings tomorrow!! 

Today is Wednesday and that means another wonderful challenge over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge Blog

Nellie is our hostess and she is challenging us to "Quick and Easy Christmas Cards"

Here is what she says about this challenge:

"It's that time of year again, that you know you should have started earlier with making your Christmas cards. So now you have to come up with some quick and easy (yet stunning) Christmas cards."

So let's see your best, quick and easy (yet stunning) Christmas Cards.

For this challenge I decided to go little silly yet fun, this card was pretty easy and quick to make.

Stampotique Stamps I used 
Global Warming - By Daniel Torrente

I sure hope you will join us over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge Blog this week for this fast and easy challenge. 
Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Stampotique Challenge 221 - Take a Box

Hello all and welcome back to another week of Stampotique's Designer Challenge... this week Samantha Read is our hostess and she has challenged us to "Take a Box"

Here is what she says about this fun challenge:

"I think we all have boxes that we throw away and so this week I'm inviting you to take an empty cardboard box and and later and decorate it to your hearts content.I can't wait to see your boxes, have fun!"

I decided to take an old box and use it as a box for a gift I wanted to give someone for Christmas. I made my own wrapping paper for this with my Stampotique Stamps

It was so fun to do this wrapping paper, I used a pice of thinner paper rather than cardstock so that it would be easy to bend and maneuver to wrap my box. 
I just randomly stamped my images all over the paper and colored them with Copic markers
Stampotique stamps I used are:
Christmas Cubed 5 sided by Daniel Torrente
Tree-O and Candy Cane- By Jo Capper-Sandon
Cross Hatch Swirl - By Maryse Carrier

On the tag I used Stampotique Stamps:

Christmas Ornaments Cube  and Snowy Fran - By artist Daniel Torrente

I hope you have enjoyed my project for this challenge. Come by the Stampotique's Designer Challenge and join us, you could always win a 30.00 gift certificate to the online store. We give away 2 a month. :)
CHEERS!!!