Christmas – iGirlZoe, Crafter & Tim Holtz Addict

‘Christmas’ Category

Christmas Cutouts

2nd October, 2022 by iGirlZoe

Hello friends, hope you’re having a nice weekend. I’ve been humming Christmas tunes all day, probably because of the amazing Tim Holtz Sizzix Christmas LIVE launch yesterday. You can watch the replay and see all of the incredible makes over on Tim’s blog.

I loved the Christmas cutouts set as soon as I saw it. I love the tiny scene you can build. I decided to make a little box that can be filled with gift tags that you could have on hand during the Christmas season or gift to someone who loves handmade, but may not be a maker themselves. And of course you can make them pretty pretty or grungy.

I used the curio box bigz XL die which is still available and linked at the end of the post. I cut from distress kraft heavystock to give a nice sturdy base and top. I secured the word dies from the Christmas Cutouts set with tape and ran it through my machine.

I covered the sides with candied apple distress paint mixed with a little ground espresso distress paint.

I cut a second curio box top from idea-ology backdrops christmas paper to line the inside of the top.

I cut a piece from the same paper to line the base of the box.

The inside lining of the curio box gives you a base to glue in letters so they’re inset.

I cut them from the new seasonal woodgrain black cardstock. I set aside the outer piece to make a tag with later. I cut the center shapes from the seasonal woodgrain white cardstock and glued them into place with distress collage medium.

For the top of the box I embossed a piece of distress kraft heavystock with the new Tree Rings 3D embossing folder. I simply added gathered twigs distress ink to the top of the embossed tree ring.

I added the embossed piece to the top of the box and decorated with some of the cutouts inked with distress ink. The houses were cut from idea-ology metallic kraftstock, sanded and inked with walnut stain distress ink.

Box Side Panels

I made some little gift tags to fill the box with. I cut the mini tree ring (twice) using the bigz die, still available and linked at the end of the post. I carefully cut away the inside with a craft knife and embossed the center piece with the Tree Ring 3D embossing folder.

I used the complete piece as a base and reassembled the other pieces on top. You could slip a piece of ribbon between if you wished. I punched a small hole in one side and added an idea-ology o ring to thread onto ribbon.

I should add that the mini tree ring bigz die comes with an embossing folder to specifically fit the tree ring. However, the 3D embossing folders are so incredibly detailed, it was worth the extra effort to use the new Tree Ring 3D embossing folder.

I used leftover idea-ology metallic kraftstock from the cutout houses and backed the PEACE outer cut from seasonal woodgrain black cardstock used for the inserts on the side of the box top. I used the new Layered Tags and cards cut from the postale chapter 3 die set to create mini gift tags and cards.

I will be sharing more gift cards/tags later in the season.

Thanks for stopping by and let me know if you have any questions.
Zoe

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Category Christmas, Ranger Ink, Sizzix, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 12 Comments | Views: 3,771
Mr Frost

7th January, 2022 by iGirlZoe

Hello friends and Happy 2022. I took some time away over Christmas to relax with my guy who took some much needed vacay days. We watched some good TV, ate like kings, built a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, completed some home projects and celebrated with friends over zoom. I enjoyed taking time out to rest and now that the first crazy busy week back to reality is done, I’m ready and excited to have some making time this weekend. I hope you’re taking some making time for yourself and what better day to make than on Tim Holtz’s Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM!

It feels like a long time ago in “maker years” but when I first saw the Tim Holtz Sizzix Christmas dies, I LOVED Mr Frost. He just looks like he’s causing trouble. Like maybe he wouldn’t melt when he was supposed to! Remind you of anyone? LOL

I made this framed panel for the Tim Holtz Sizzix Christmas LIVE launch. You can see the replay and all the makes over on Tim’s Blog. Here’s a few of the details for my make…

I created a background by spraying antique linen distress spray, edging with walnut stain distress ink and adding drops of snow flurries mica spray.

Using a palette knife, spread distress crackle texture paste through a stencil, I used the hocus pocus stencil, one of my faves.

Soak your stencil right away, I use a “lasagna pan” (thanks Mario). Followers of Tim and Mario’s Saturday LIVES will know exactly what I mean! 😉

Once dry, place the stencil back over stars and brush a layer of vintage distress collage medium over the top and remove stencil and soak the stencil again. Once the background is dry, place the stencil over once more and rub with distress crayon and blend with your finger. You can do the second and third steps without the stencil but it maybe helpful for beginners and I do this because I find it keeps my background cleaner.

I altered an idea-ology framed panel. Cover the frame with a layer of white gesso. Once dry, dry brush with iced spruce and vintage photo distress paints. Next add distress crackle texture paste and set aside to air dry and crack. Finally rub distress crayon into the cracks and blend with your finger.

Mr Frost is a mutli-layer die that makes assembly really simple. The black buttons, mouth and nose are simply a layer underneath the top layer which I sprayed with black soot distress spray. It’s much easier than gluing on all those tiny pieces.

I added Mr Frost with adhesive foam to give some additional dimension and to lift his arm to hold the star…

I added a star from the Vault Series Holiday 2021 die set which I glued into Mr Frost’s twig hand! I did try a tiny light inside the star but it didn’t really show up, BUT, you could make one from vellum and add a tiny light or a cluster of tiny lights.

That hat though!

Thanks for stopping by. It’s World Snowman Day on January 18. I hope you’ll join me for a day of fun making and I’ll have some giveaways here on my blog and on instagram.

I wish you a very healthy and happy 2022 and don’t let anyone melt your snowman!
Zoe

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Category Christmas, Sizzix, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 20 Comments | Views: 2,419
Christmas Candy Store

16th December, 2021 by iGirlZoe

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a wonderful December and finding time to do some fun festive things. I’ve been busy decorating and getting ready for Christmas, but I thought I would take a quick break and pop in and share my Candy Store using the gorgeous new Tim Holtz Christmas idea-ology. You can catch the launch replay and makes over on Tim’s blog.

I love candy cane everything and my obsession runs deep (think pumpkins)! I was very excited to see this years Christmas idea-ology release with candy cane stripes appearing in the backdrops, ephemera and the amazing confectionery! This was the starting point for my candy store. So grab a big cup of hot cocoa and a candy cane and let’s get into some of the details…

I covered an idea-0logy vignette shrine with papers from the Christmas backdrops set. I love the size of the backdrop papers and the Christmas selection is simply delicious, you may want to pick up 2 packs, one to use and one to stroke! Just saying!!

I created a couple of shelves for my vignette shrine using etcetera thickboard scalloped trims and the matching trims thinlits dies. The trims die set allows me to die cut trims that perfectly cover the thickboard pieces, game changer for me as I used to cut them by hand. Use distress collage medium to glue into place.

I covered the side of the vignette shrine in matching paper from the Christmas backdrops pack. I love how weathered the paper looks. YUM!

I covered the roof by die cutting roof panels with a die from the village collection thinlits die set from idea-ology kraft stock and embossing with the lumber 3D folder. Glue into place with distress collage medium and cover with distress mica.

It truly is a wonderful life and I love this word plaque from the Christmas set which I added to the vignette shrine by hammering in 2 of the stakes from the vignette hardware set. I added a little picket fence distress crayon to the word plaque.

For the top shelf I added some of the idea-ology tiny vials which I crackled. I have a how to on a previous post, see here (I skipped the alcohol ink step). I added idea-ology ephemera and remnant rubs to the bottles and painted the bottle corks with a picket fence distress paint wash for a wintry twist. I filled the bottles with seed beads, added a little twine and a gingerbread piece, all from my stash.

I added a Christmas tin top and baubles to the middle shelf. To the tin top I added a piece of Christmas mini flair and a piece of ephemera.

To grunge up the idea-ology Christmas tin top, I scratched and added a little translucent distress grit-paste and once dry, rubbed in distress crayon which highlights the scratches.

I rolled idea-ology baubles in the distress snowfall grit-paste from the distress holiday texture set and glued together in a stack with distress collage medium.
TIP: Make sure your inky fingers are clean to prevent ink transfer.

For the lower shelf I really went to candy cane town and added a candy cane from the ephemera set using adhesive foam to mount it onto the back of the shrine, ready to add the bottles in front of it.

I crackled a bottle from the idea-ology corked vials set and used the glass dome from the idea-ology snowglobe, turned upside down to create a candy bowl. I added a sticker from the christmas sticker book which I burnished onto the glass using distress collage medium. I added candy cane twine that I saved from some Christmas gifts last year and finally added the gorgeous new idea-ology christmas confections. I grunged them up with distress crayon and glued them into place with distress collage medium.

I used one of the vial labels from the new idea-ology snippets ephemera set which I completely swooned over! I LOVE labels! I added some red seed beads I had in my stash to the bottle and cut a sticker with candy down to size and added on top of the label. Finally I pushed a star from the idea-ology mirrored stars set into the cork and covered everything with distress mica, held in place with a little brush of distress collage medium first.

Everything is better with lights… so I covered a bottle in distress collage medium and once dry, distress crackle paint. I filled the bottle with tiny lights and then used the end of a paintbrush to push stuffing filler into the bottle to diffuse the lights. This was an idea I got from Tim last year when he did that awesome crystal ball, see Tim’s Blog for details. I didn’t use anything to wrap my tiny lights around like Tim did, I simply thread them through a hole I made in the back of the vignette shrine and up into the bottle. I attached the battery pack to the back of the shrine and the wire is hidden behind he back of the bottle. I cut the loop off the snowflake with wire cutters and glued it onto the front. I love this light diffusing idea, thanks Tim!

I’m going to carry on decorating for Christmas. This year I’m making my own garlands and trying to get the kind of lights I want for them is proving rather tricky, but I’m persevering because it’s all about that perfect twinkle! 😉

Thanks for stopping by.

Zoe

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Category Christmas, Ideaology, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 15 Comments | Views: 4,070
Jolly Santa

6th December, 2021 by iGirlZoe

Hello friends. Happy December. I thought I would pop in with a little Ho Ho Ho and share one of my makes for the Tim Holtz Christmas stamp release, all the details, replay and inspiration makes are over on Tim’s Blog.

I love Santa and this stamp from the Jolly Santa CMS442 stamp set stole my heart. He really is a very jolly looking Santa indeed!

I crackled up an etcetera thickboard tag, you can see the how to for the crackle on a previous post, click here. I added idea-ology velvet trim and tiny bells, hung from a hook clasp. The holiday greeting was stamped from the Jolly Santa stamp set in distress archival ink, fussy cut and mounted onto the tag with adhesive foam.

I stamped the text from Jolly Santa onto plain collage paper with distress archival ink and pasted it on with distress collage medium. I love how the collage paper “melts” into the background when you add collage medium. If you want to give it a more vintage hue, add vintage collage medium.

I used distress reinkers to watercolor the santa, which I had stamped with distress archival ink. I blended in a little walnut stain distress ink and spritzed with water. I fussy cut the santa and mounted with adhesive foam.

I added a frame and more stamps from the jolly santa set using distress archival ink and covering with a layer of vintage collage medium.

You could easily adapt this to a card, but I think it’s so fun to have a gift with a massive gift tag and bells on.

Thanks for stopping by and happy making.
Zoe

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Category Christmas, Stampers Anonymous, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 7 Comments | Views: 1,915
The one that Tim finished…

21st November, 2021 by iGirlZoe

Hello friends and welcome to the final day of my week of Christmas makes. Thanks for hanging out with me for the week and for all your kind comments, it means a lot. This post is aptly titled like an episode of “Friends” because this make is representative of friendship.

I made this Christmas display dome (with a little help from my friend) for the Tim Holtz Christmas idea-ology launch. You can see all the details, replay and inspiration makes over on Tim’s Blog.

I was suffering from a little bit of maker burn out after a 12 week maker marathon. I was tired and one of my makes wasn’t working and what I thought would take me 3 hours, took 3 days, which left me short on time to finish this one. I somehow threw a dome together in under 30 minutes and with the paint and collage medium just about dry, the Fedex truck rolled up. But it wasn’t finished and as soon as I had shipped it, I wished I hadn’t!

An email later asking Tim not to include this dome in the LIVE and he offered to help even though it was on the eve of the LIVE and he must have been pretty busy. But like in the movies on Christmas eve, it brought it’s own magic and a little later Tim sent me a beautiful photo of my transformed dome.

It’s a perfect example of how idea-ology can transform a piece, and that craft friends are the best friends. Plus I get to keep the Holtz/Hillman collaboration piece! LOL This one was most definitely #mypile and thanks to Mario, who packed it up with his usual care and shipped it back to me. Big thanks to Tim for adding his special brand of magic and friendship… and that freaking incredible word plaque …and mica flakes …and candy cane string …and a little pixie dust!

Thanks for stopping by (for a week)! Please take time and make yourself a Christmas dome and even better, make one with a friend, either in person or virtually. I hope you’ll share what you make and celebrate this season of magic, friendship and making.

Zoe

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Category Christmas, Ideaology, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 20 Comments | Views: 3,495
Vault Series Christmas 2021

20th November, 2021 by iGirlZoe

Happy Saturday friends. Day 6 of my week of Chrismas makes and I feel ready to bake some Christmas cookies and put up my Christmas tree. I’m sharing one of my makes from the launch of Tim Holtz Sizzix Christmas die release. You can see the replay and all the inspiration makes over on Tim’s Blog.

I LOVE the vault series. Both the Halloween 2021 set and this Christmas 2021 set. I really hope that Tim and Sizzix release more of these die sets. I love that “new to Tim Holtz” makers can now own these gorgeous dies and the more seasoned Addicts can add them to our collections.

Speaking of collections. I used the older (but still available) alphanumeric tiny upper dies mixed with the new festive bouquet and vault series christmas 2021 dies. I love how my die collection works together and how fun it is to mixy matchy the old and new. Let’s get into the details of this make…

I took an idea-ology framed panel and covered the frame with a layer of white gesso. Once dry, I dry brushed with iced spruce and vintage photo distress paints. Next I added distress crackle texture paste and set aside to air dry and crack. Finally I rubbed distress crayon into the cracks.

I created a background on a piece of distress watercolor cardstock. I painted on layers of gesso and distress paint and stamped with distress archival ink. I stitched a border with my sewing machine before adding to the panel base and mounting the frame over the top.

Using my Dremel Micro I drilled a hole where I wanted my light to sit for the street light.

I only wanted 2 lights so I cut and discarded the excess. I love that you can cut the idea-ology tiny lights, just remember to cut the right end! I thread the lights up through from the back and secured the battery pack to the back of the framed panel.

I die cut the street light from the vault series christmas 2021 thinlits die set several times, glued the layers together and sprayed with black soot distress spray. Added a piece of vellum covered with fossilized amber distress paint to the back of the die cut.

Die cut several more street lights, glue together and cut the center bar out and mount underneath the light die cut pictured on the right. There’s an easier way to add layers by using a piece of fun foam! Tim shared this game changing tip with me after I had made this but you can see the how to here.

Place the street light over the tiny light and once you’re sure it fits, glue into place with distress collage medium.

Die cut the carolers, spray with black soot distress spray and add adhesive foam to the back of the die cuts. I left one side without foam as it was sitting it over the top of the other caroler and the foam was under his leg.

I mounted the carolers in such a way that the guy doesn’t look like he’s running off somewhere by hiding his “running off” leg behind the lady. I added the wreath and bow to the street light, the bow was coloured with seasonal mica spray to match the star. I love that Tim and Ranger released these seasonal mica sprays and crayons. Can’t wait to see what’s to come next year.

I created some snowballs by adding snowfall grit-paste to idea-ology baubles. Making sure your hands are ink free, put some snowfall on your fingers and roll the bauble between them. Lay on your non stick craft mat to dry. Repeat until you’re happy with the look.

I added scallop thickboard etcetera trims which I treated with the same technique as the framed panel. I glued them with distress collage medium and added idea-ology hardware heads to each end. This created the shelf for the carolers, street light and snowballs to sit on.

I added a star cut from the vault series christmas 2021 die set and sprayed with seasonal mica spray and splattered with picket fence distress paint.

I die cut some foliage from the festive bouquet thinlits die set and sprayed with seasonal mica spray.

Thanks for stopping by.

Zoe

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Category Christmas, Ranger Ink, Sizzix, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 10 Comments | Views: 2,770
Cozy Christmas Snowman

18th November, 2021 by iGirlZoe

Hello friends. Welcome back for day 4 of my week of Christmas makes that I’m sharing with you. I wasn’t kidding about loving the new Cozy Christmas stamp set by Tim Holtz. You can see the stamp launch and other inspiration makes over on Tim’s Blog.

I do love that you can use these stamps in parts and pieces. I decided to make a mini card to go with an envelope I had created that was the wrong size for my curio box cards (which I will be sharing tomorrow).

I used distress reinkers to watercolor onto distress watercolor cardstock. I stamped the cozy christmas stamp in black soot distress archival ink. I love this ink as it’s permanent when dry and perfect for watercoloring over.

I created this envelope using my mini envelope punch board. I added frayed burlap distress oxide spray, some of the seasonal mica and then dried with my heat tool. I added crackle texture paste through the hocus pocus stencil and once dry, added vintage collage medium through the stencil onto the stars.

I liked the envelope so I decided to make a tiny card to fit. That’s the great thing about having the cardstock and these tools, you can customize anything. I used the envelope as a template to cut an envelope liner using some leftover idea-ology paper I had. How fancy right?!

Seriously?! How cute is that snowman with his pot for a hat? I love him.

Thanks for stopping by

Zoe

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Category Christmas, Stampers Anonymous, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 7 Comments | Views: 2,108
Mountain Pass

17th November, 2021 by iGirlZoe

Hello friends and welcome to Day 3 of my week of Christmas makes. Today we are up in the mountains with the tall pine trees and charming chalets with the help of these amazing dies that Tim Holtz designed for his Sizzix holiday release. You can see the launch replay and all of the inspiration makes over on Tim’s blog.

The mountain top and tall pines dies made me think of winters spent in the snow capped Swiss mountains. We would drive up nearly every weekend and had the most incredible views. I decided to create a scene inspired by those memories. I really loved making this piece, here’s how…

I took a small idea-ology vignette tray and covered it with a thin layer of gesso. Once dry I covered the inside back panel with speckled egg distress paint. I dry brushed the sides, inside and out with vintage photo distress paint. I covered the outside and front edges with distress crackle texture paste and once dry, rubbed distress crayon into the cracks.

I die cut the pieces from the mountain top thinlits die set from distress watercolor cardstock. I sprayed the pieces with hickory smoke and frayed burlap distress spray and blended walnut stain distress ink into the edges and then assembled using distress collage medium.

I posted this in the Tim Holtz Addicts group to help a couple of Addicts with their first time builds. In case it helps you… Working up from the base A and 1.

This is the finished puzzle taken from the packaging because I didn’t have a photo of the assembled piece!

Once you have assembled your mountains, add to the back of the vignette tray with distress collage medium.

To extend the base of the vignette tray I added thickboard etcetera trims. I used the thin trims from the bat web trims set and a wider trim at the front from the pinking trims set. Using distress collage medium to attach them. It doesn’t have to be pretty, you’re going to cover them.

I used the new decorative trims dies to cut pieces of distress watercolor cardstock. In order to get the correct depth I hung the decorative die straight cutting edge over the edge of my cutting plates so that it wouldn’t cut and then used my paper trimmer to cut that edge to fit the vignette tray. This is a hack and probably not advised by Sizzix… but look at me going all rogue! LOL

I ran the strip through the mini 3D cobblestone embossing folder. I had to do one end at a time but it worked. I lined the stones up the best I could. You can see the join line just in front of the pine tree.

I meant to hide the join underneath the paper village buildings! I realised after I had glued the first strip down so I used a little snowfall grit-paste to cover the join and rubbed in a little distress crayon to blend. It worked pretty well but if I had to do it again, I would put the join under the buildings! Also, look at the detail of that cobblestone embossing folder! It’s AMAZING!!

I drilled a hole in one end of the vignette tray trim to thread tiny lights through, securing the battery pack at the back of the tray. I gathered the lights up into a strip (as pictured) and then ran them under where the next building would be and made another one. This helps to light up each structure.

I love the decorative trim dies because you get such a perfect clean edge when mounting die cut paper over the thickboard etcetera trims.Total game changer as I used to trace around them, fussy cut, mount and then sand between each point! THANK YOU TIM!!

I used the paper village #2 thinlits die set to create these little faux Swiss chalets. I built each structure out of distress kraft heavystock and then used corrugated cardstock for the sidings. Oh my gosh these windows that open slightly are the cutest! They really look like the shutters on Swiss chalets. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

I added a little snowfall grit-paste to the roofs and splatted with white gesso using a splatter brush.

This is what the underside of the vignette tray looks like with the extended trim platform. You can see the crackle texture paste that I added to the front trim of the vignette tray. You can decorate the underside of the trim, but I didn’t for this.

I die cut trees with the tall pines thinlits die set and sprayed with peeled paint and rustic wilderness distress spray. I used adhesive foam to mount the trees.

This conveniently hides the mountain join and gives some perspective by mounting the smaller trees at the front.

I added the moon from the vault series halloween 2021 thinlits die set. I LOVE this moon and it was perfectly sized for this scene.

Thanks for stopping by.

Zoe

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Category Christmas, Sizzix, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 11 Comments | Views: 2,782
Oh Christmas Tree… Stand!

16th November, 2021 by iGirlZoe

Hello friends! Welcome to Day 2 of my week of Christmas makes. If you read yesterdays blog post (thank you) and you’ll see there’s a slight change of plans. The cute snowman will be back later in the week because I want to add a little something something before posting. So today it’s all about Christmas trees. I was so excited when Tim shared the new idea-ology tree stands. The entire product range this year is incredible, but the tree stands stole my Christmas tree loving heart. You can catch up on all the details of the Christmas idea-ology product launch and inspiration makes over on Tim’s blog.

I love Christmas trees and have some wonderful, fond and fun memories of them. Baling my first real tree when I moved to Switzerland and strapping it to the top of our car and driving up the snowy mountain while playing driving home for Christmas. Sitting in front of the tree with a big cup of hot cocoa looking at all the ornaments and lights. I just love the precious memories that Tim’s idea-ology envokes and the new idea-ology tree stands just stole the show for me and it was top of my list to make with, here’s what I did…

Using a paintbrush, I picked up antique linen distress paint from the non stick mat portion of my glass media mat and brushed onto the idea-0logy tree stand.

Please don’t get excited about my craft mat, I love it, use it and it’s stained. Relax, you’ll be just fine and there’s a replacement mat for your glass media mat linked at the end of the post! 😉

Anyway… you should be looking at the AWESOME idea-ology tree stand. It even has the little tension screws the real stands have! Tim’s just rocks the details when he designs, it blows me away!

Once the distress paint was dry, I rubbed in walnut stain distress crayon with my finger. When I was ready to put the woodland tree into the stand, I removed the wood stand the tree comes in, added hot glue to the center of the tree stand and placed the tree wire in and held in place until it cooled, it doesn’t take long.

I covered the cork base of an idea-ology display dome with paper from the christmas backdrops. Covered with distress collage medium and once dry, rubbed in walnut stain distress crayon. I used my Dremel micro tool to put a hole in the middle of the cork base.

I thread idea-ology tiny lights up through the hole and created a channel in the underside of the cork base for the wire so it sits flat.

I trimmed a piece of text from the music sheet of the idea-ology christmas backdrops and glued it around the top of the cork.

I covered bells from the idea-ology tiny bells pack with candied apple distress paint, mixed together with a tiny bit of ground espresso distress paint. I sprayed a woodland tree with peeled paint distress spray and once dry, rubbed with distress collage medium and dipped in distress mica flakes. I pushed the bells into the tree with a dab of hot glue to hold in place.

I tucked tiny lights into the tree and glued the tree stand to the cork dome base with distress collage medium.

Give the glass dome a little polish inside and out with a cloth (because dusting matters), put the glass dome on and it’s ready to display.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m definitely in the mood for trees and snowy mountains now, so I’ll be back tomorrow with a little mountain magic.

Zoe

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Category Christmas, Ideaology, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 14 Comments | Views: 2,259
Cozy Christmas

15th November, 2021 by iGirlZoe

Hello friends. The weather outside is frightful here today, which is perfect to get cozy inside and start sharing my Christmas makes. I made quite a few cards with the new Christmas stamps that Tim Holtz released a few months ago. You can see the launch replay and all the inspiration makes on Tim’s blog.

I was very taken with the Cozy Christmas CMS444 stamp set and couldn’t stop making with it. It really tapped into my love of coloring. I stamped onto distress watercolor cardstock with distress archival ink and used distress re-inkers and a water brush to watercolor. Each of the cards is mounted with the following layers: idea-ology kraft stock + idea-ology metallic kraft stock + distress kraft heavystock.

If you look closely you will see there is text underneath the stars and the paper looks wrinkled. I stamped onto the background and then regretted it as it was way too bold and overpowering. So I went about fixing it! I added a piece of torn plain collage paper over the stamped text with collage medium.

Once dry I covered with a white gesso wash and then dried and stenciled distress crackle texture paste through the falling stars stencil. Finally, I added vintage collage medium and once dry, rubbed walnut stain distress crayon into the cracks.

This card was also not as planned but the happy accident worked…

The brown mark was the happy accident. I had turned the card over to mount it onto the card and there was a a little wet distress ink on my media mat. I dried it with a heat tool and liked the look so went with it. The one time I tried to make a “clean” card though hey! The universe was trying to tell me something!

By just adding a little brown distress ink you can grunge the same card right up!

These stamps are so wonderful to watercolor. I used distress reinkers and dried with a heat tool and then picked up some frayed burlap distress spray drips from the non stick mat portion of my glass media mat.

For this card I used both the stamps and a little masking magic.

I stamped onto a piece of copy paper and fussy cut. It takes a minute but I enjoy fussy cutting, it relaxes me. The reason I use copy paper is that it’s thin and so you don’t get that ridge when you mask and stamp over the top.

I flicked with a little white gesso.

Something else I love about the cozy christmas stamps is how well they work in parts and pieces.

I turned the stamp upside down and stamped a portion at the top of a #8 heavystock tag.

I stamped one of the sentiments from the set in hickory smoke distress archival ink. I love the sentiments in this set and plan to use them for my December Daily this year.

I LOVE this snowman with a pot for a hat. I’ll be back tomorrow with another make ~~featuring that cute snowman~~. Change of plans… that cute snowman will be back later this week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Zoe

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Category Christmas, Stampers Anonymous, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 17 Comments | Views: 3,829

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