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!!

Playing Around

I was dabbling around in the craft room the other day and messing around with backgrounds and all that jazz. I decided that I wanted to make an ATC for the challenge over at Wicked Wednesday, they always have a fun challenge and this time it's all about "On The Playground"
I am in love with a stamp by Hero Art and everytime I get a chance to use it, I do. So I actually ended up using several Hero Art stamps for this ATC...

First think I did was colorize my background with Archival Ink  I used this light blue.

I then stamped my Hero Arts large background (love this stamp) with Archival black, I used Archival so that when I colored everything it would not run into my marker colors.

I used my Copics to color the background leaves and flowers, the Copics are great for this because they aren't water based they won't run

At this point I wanted to stamp the kids into the background behind the flowers so I needed to make a mask for the flowers.

I stamped onto scratch paper and cut out the flower portion to make a mask.

I then stamped my kids with Versamark ink and added black embossing powder and heat set

I love the way the kids just fall into the background, so cool.

I added the sun in the upper right corner with another Hero Arts stamp and yellow Archival Ink 

Thats it, this was an easy one with minimal steps but I love the outcome.

Thanks again for stopping by and be sure to check out the challenge at Wicked Wednesday

What Makes Me Happy?

Over at my online ATC group we have been doing weekly challenges headed up by a gal named Raeven and for this challenge we had to do a page all about what makes us happy. Not just sorta happy but deep down to your soul happy and to make things even harder, we could not use out Family, children or husband. Well, just throw me off a bridge why don't ya?! haha!! That about sums up what makes me Deeply Happy into the pitt of my soul. 

So I had to think on this one and I came up with a few things that really make me happy and feel peaceful. 

I am entering this journal page into the challenge over at Stampotique Designers Challenge Blog - This week they are challenging us to use "Text" on our pages. I used a whole lotta text on this one. 

Not going to do a long tutorial today, I'm in a bit of a time crunch tonight. 

For starters, I used my Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Journal, love this journal and also some Dylusions Sprays. 

I stamped a text stamp from Wendy Vecchi onto my background with Versamark and heat embossed that with Ranger's clear embossing powder. Once that was done I then used two colors and sprayed the entire background.

I love how the text is choppy in some areas and how it resists the spray.

Then I took some stencils and used the ghosting technique with a water spritzer. I also used various stencils and Archival and distress inks for my background.

Loving this background..

I stamped my Girl With a Heart Purse onto another sheet of white cardstock and colored her with markers. I also did this with my Teddy Bear, I then fussy cut them both out.

I used my 3 In A Round stamp but only inked up the circles and not the boys so that I could use just the circles on my page.

(all of these stamps are by artists Jill Penney and Daniel Torrent)

I also added a stencil made from Tim Holtz movers and shapers butterflies and a corrugated card stock butterfly and lastly some washi tape! Fun!

Here are some photos of my finished journal page....

So what makes you happy besides, family, spouses and kids? (I cheated a little and used my husband hehe)

I actually can come up with plenty more things that make me happy. Maybe I will continue this journey and do more pages of just things that make me happy. This was fun.