Tim Holtz Vault Christmas 2024

Hello friends. Tim Holtz has officially kicked off the Christmas season by opening the vault once more with his awesome Christmas Vault Collection from Sizzix. If you missed the LIVE, you can catch the replay and all the incredible inspiration makes over on Tim’s blog.

I can’t tell you how much I love the Vault Christmas Magic set. Lucky for me, I loved and collected the OG (original) cityscape sets, but I love that others have the opportunity to own a cityscape set too. For those of us who have the OG’s, we have a new size available which will be perfect for giving depth of field when layering with the other cityscape dies.

I used an etcetera tag in the small size for the base of my project. Adding distress watercolor cardstock sprayed with distress spritz and blending in walnut stain distress ink with a mini blending tool.

The Vault Christmas Magic set has a small moon based on the OG big one from the Moonlight die set, that I used here, which I mounted onto 3D foam squares. I added clouds from Halloween Vault collection die set Fright Night, I love that the clouds are so atmospheric. And of course I added Santa and his reindeer flying over the city. All die cut from distress watercolor cardstock and inked with OG distress.

I wanted a layered city so die cut the cityscape multiple times from distress watercolor cardstock and dragged it through a distress ink wash of black soot and frayed burlap with lots of water spritzed over the top. I layered and staggered the cityscape die cuts so the buildings looked different. Once I had the placement I was happy with, I took a photo on my phone so I could remove them and refer to the photo later when adhering them to the tag. The background in the above photo wasn’t the one I went with, it was too dark so I made another using distress spritz.

I cut a second set of cityscape die cuts from idea-ology metallic kraftstock and layered offset behind to give the appearance of lit windows. Starting from the top and working down the tag, I attached by adding 3D foam squares at the bottom of each row so the top of the die cuts sat up and away from the tag. I added each layer and then trimmed the excess with my scissors. Ignore the other random things on my desk. I was making multiple samples at once, you can see a skull from the skullball card which I will be sharing, along with my other makes, over the next few days. I’m also still using my new Glass Studio Mat which I LOVE.

The moon, santa sleigh, clouds and cityscape were cut from distress watercolor cardstock and inked with distress ink. For the lamp posts, wreaths and vehicles, I used idea-ology kraft cardstock which I sanded using a mini blending foam and sanding disks and blended in walnut stain distress ink. The lamp posts were mounted onto a couple of layers of die cut distress kraft heavstock to give them more stability. The idea-ology kraft cardstock appears to be a little bolder and I liked that it gave the piece more dimension as these items were in the foreground.

I used the decorative trim die to cut a trim that fits the etcetera thickboard trims to mount Merry Christmas onto, cut from the Alphanumeric Labels dies. These letters were cut from idea-ology metallic kraftstock, sanded, inked and overlayed over idea-ology black kraftstock. The decorative trims die is one of my most used dies and an unsung hero. I used to have to trace around the etcetera trims and fussy cut! Having these dies has been a game changer.

I am OBSESSED with this little truck. It’s going to appear on every card and gift tag I send out this Christmas. I love the siding to it. Tim absolutely ROCKED every detail of this set!!

I mounted a tree on top of the car, I wish I had tied string around it to secure it to the car as there could be an accident if the driver has to hit the breaks! lol

A big thanks for the kind comments during the LIVE, your support and encouragement means a lot. And a MASSIVE thanks to Tim for always being prepared to listen and delivering the most inspiring products to create with.