Sugar and Spice

 When Simon Says Stamp released their Sugar & Soice line, I knew then I had to have the bird dies. Beautiful Cardinal + Perched Bird paired with Charming Berry Branch + modern loop embossing folder is a match made in heaven. I made two Christmas cards. One with traditional colours and the other has a wintery vibe.

Starting with mixed media heavy stock white for the card base, SF541 modern loop embossing folder to add texture.

Swipe distress oxide in antique linen on embossing folder, place card stock in folder and run through machine. I used my Sizzix foldaway. It has great pressure for embossed backgrounds. Tho any machine will do. I repeated the process with distress oxide pumice stone for the wintery card. Adding more dimension with TH/SA cms324 sparkles and Christmas stamp set. Using the Christmas background stamp and distress ink, to randomly stamp on background.

Playing with leaves is always fun! Especially with the Charming berry branch die. Inked with traditional and wintery colours.

I love birds. They are natures wonder. Bringing the beautiful cardinal and perched bird dies to life using a blend of distress inks.

Captions are everything. They give a nice final touch to your makes and sometimes tell the beginning of a story. The sayings from cms429 sketch greenery have the perfect font to go with the beautiful cardinal. White on black makes a nice focal point. Tim Holtz sticker book Christmas 2024 is great for sayings. So much to choose from. Different fonts, sizes and colours to fit any make. I chose a Christmas Dream for the wintery perched bird. 

A machine stitched border adds the perfect touch to any make. I especially love it on Christmas cards. Leaving loose threads adds character. 

Which one is your favourite? I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and it leaves you feeling inspired.

Christina 

Faux Wood Tutorial

 Yesterday I was outside in our backyard in the raised beds digging out the weeds, when I came across some beautiful wood that has been slowly chipping away. Or maybe it’s how our deck was built. I couldn’t resist and had to take a picture. Something about it inspired me to make something.

This is what I came up with. 

Using the right tools can give you many options to make faux wood. Starting with distress watercolour card stalk emboss with 3D texture fade in lumber. Choose your favourite distress inks and blend them in to cover the surface. And your choice of which tools to use for hi lights. Picket fence is my go to. Next tear the wood grain in random sections then do a soft blend in a lighter shade on top. My go to is walnut stain. 

Making the illusion of wood chips. Watercolour card stalk emboss with 3D texture fade cracked and a few distress inks to make an intense blend. Adding highlights with distress watercolour pencils (dry colouring). Used scorched timber and wild honey. Then cut to fit the under layer part of the wood. 

Thought I’d replicate part of the wood and add one of Tim’s hardware heads and make it look like it was poking out of the wood. However, after looking at it for awhile I found it to be too much of a focal point so I grabbed some embossed wood grain from my stash and overlapped the wood piece over the hole. To make it look more authentic.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial on how to make faux wood and it leaves you feeling inspired.

Christina

Berry Wishes

 Winter is here. We had our first snowfall warning for the season, up to 25cm for this weekend. There is a mountain ash tree out front (it has always been a late bloomer) and looks so beautiful especially with all the snow on top of the berries.

I was inspired to make a Winter + Christmas card with all the warm + cozy vintage feels.

The Base:

Distress watercolour card stock is my go to for card bases. Smoosh distress ink lost shadow, distress oxide in pumice stone, distress sprayer for movement, heat set between layers. Spray distress spritz in weather wood in random areas of card base, then heat set.

It's all in the layers:

Creating depth on the card base using texture fades birch trees and falling snow. Distress ink pumice stone for definition.

Adding more layers for depth. Branch birch die + 3D texture fades lumber. Using the poking tool from my sidekick to get all the negative shapes out of the branch birch die. 

Giving the trees a little more character by adding a blend of distress inks frayed burlap + lost shadow. Ending with an even blend on top of lost shadow. This gives a soft wintery effect.

I love the size of birds from the vault series lovebirds. They are perfect for this make. Die cut the bird twice, blend distress inks pumice stone, old paper, distress oxide antique linen to the body and feet of the bird. Distress inks lost shadow + scorched timber for the wings (cut out wing from second bird) and head. Use pop up dots to adhere wing on top of bird. Make sure to leave an opening white on the face of the bird. 

Giving the illusion of snow on the birds wing, using a splatter brush + distress paint picket fence.

Making twigs for the winter bird to perch on with wood planks from my stash + vault wildflowers.

Tim's + Stampers Anonymous new stamp set Florist Floor is definitely another favourite. I love the scale of these stamps. I chose the twig of berries. Stamped in archival ink + coloured with distress watercolour pencil crayons, on the branches and berries. 

Tim's new recoil scissors makes fussy cutting a lot easier. The comfort grip gives you more control when cutting the details of a stamp. Fussy cut the berries from florist floor, then apply texture paste sparkle. Let it air dry. The results are amazing. Gives the right amount of sparkle and give an elegant look of snow + frost on the berries.

The Finishing touches:

Adhere the winter bird with pop up dots, twigs + berries for the bird to perch on with collage medium. Tim's idea ology label stickers 'wishes' 

The final touch that ties everything together, a machine stitched border, leaving a few loose threads at the corners. 

I hope you enjoyed all the warm + cozy vintage feels of this make and it leaves you feeling inspired.

Christina 

Favourite Things

'brown paper packages tied up with strings ~ these are a few of my favourite things' 

Tim Holtz + Stampers Anonymous cms498 Home for Christmas is an awesome stamp set. It has all the vintage feels. I chose the wrapped parcel for my make. I was inspired by my friends Nico Scrap and Vicki Evans. You can find his make on his IG post. and Vicki's make on her IG post here. This is what I came up with.

The Base:

Starting with distress watercolour card stock, and distress inks in antique linen, old paper and frayed burlap, I did a watercolour wet-on-wet technique. 

It's all in the Layers:

Building up the layers on the base. Distress ink in frayed burlap with background stamp ticking and grain. Randomly stamp on base.

Layering stencil sparkle fade with texture paste in sparkle adds the right amount of bling to the make. Let the paste air dry.

Tim + Ranger distress spritz adds the perfect amount of shimmer to any make. Antique linen is my favourite and it pops out nicely on the background. Distress ink in walnut stain, blended around the edges for a more defined yet softer look.

One of my favourite pass times is colouring. It's very therapeutic and good for the soul. I used distress watercolour pencil crayons. They are easy to colour with and blend like butter. I chose walnut stain + gathered twigs for the shading and old paper + antique linen for the hi lights. This colour combo is perfect for the parcels from the stamp set Home for Christmas.

One of my favourite stamp sets from Tim + Stampers Anonymous is Classic Favourites ~ Classic #10 SCF010. It's one of the first stamp sets I owned. The saying from this set is perfect for this make. 'brown paper packaging tied up with strings ~ these are a few of my favourite things. First mask out the bottom wording of stamp, then ink the top with distress archival in frayed burlap.

The finishing touches:

Have you ever had a 'what if' moment? Those ideas can be very surprising. I grabbed some twine, then tied them up into little bows to go on top of the parcels. Died the bows using distress spray stains in my splat box, then heat set. 

I chose mermaid lagoon, uncharted mariner and speckled egg. Machine stitched the border in cream thread.

Sometimes it's fun to think outside the box and be inspired by others. You never know where it will take you.

Christina 

Dashing Through the Snow

 Tim Holtz + Stampers Anonymous Home for Christmas stamp set has all the vintage feels. Especially the vehicle with the Christmas tree on top. I made a Christmas card using this stamp with a twist.

The Base:

Distress watercolour card stock as the base. Distress inks in antique linen + pumice stone, distress oxide in antique linen, spritz with water dying between layers. Next add droplets of distress spritz in antique linen for a nice sparkling finish.

It's all in the Layers:

Alterations texture fade in falling snow has been my go to this year. It adds the right amount of texture to any make. Another go to for me is distress ink walnut stain. It's perfect for blending edges.

I had a 'what if ' moment. Making a wood panel for the side of the car. Using distress wood grain card stock + a blend of distress inks in antique linen, gathered twigs + vintage photo.

Stamp the vintage car twice, masking out the tree. Distress watercolour pencil crayon in aged mahogany for car base, then cut out door panel from wood grain background. Adhere panel to car.

I chose a different tree to place on top of the car from the stamp set Into the Woods, with distress inks in forest moss + vintage photo.

Finishing Touches:

Tim's re-coiling scissors are awesome for fussy cutting, especially being left handed make it easier. Fussy cut the tree, then adhere to top of car. I love the type written font stamps from Home for Christmas. I chose the saying ' dashing through the snow' masked out the word 'snow' then stamped the top portion to the card. The font from Tim's new vault seasonal sketch dies is awesome. Die cut the letters 'S' 'N' 'O' 'W' from Kraft stock classic in red and place them under the saying. 

To complete the card, I machine stitched the border using cream thread.

Hope you enjoyed all the vintage feels and it leaves you feeling inspired.

Christina

Beauty in Nature

 A couple weeks ago I was driving by the main street where I live and came across these beautiful planters on the medians. They had been switched up for the Winter + Christmas season. 

This planter inspired me to make a card.

The Base:

Distress watercolour card stock embossed with 3D texture fades brickwork.

Giving the bricks more dimension and an authentic look using distress paints in pumice stone and frayed burlap. Let it air dry. I discovered this technique from my friend Zoe Hillman, you can find the how to here on her blog post. 

It's all in the layers:

Bigz die potted works well with this make. Using light weight chipboard as a base, paint it with distress paint pumice stone and heat set. next add a generous amount of grit paste translucent, let air dry. Next take a dry paint brush and apply distress ink pumice stone in the crevices of the planter for added depth.

Using kraft stock in cool tones, die cut various greens with vault holiday classic, funky festive, vault wildflowers (twigs), and holiday green mini. 

For the berry leaves kraft stock classic in red and blend on top with distress inks in aged mahogany, fired brick and walnut stain. Thinlits in vault holiday classic and funky festive.

Giving the birch twigs more texture, I used a background from my stash. Two toned wood grain in grey with 3D texture fades sparkle, then die cut them from thinlits thin ice.

Finishing touches:

Once everything is die cut, randomly place in planter using collage medium to secure in place. Tim's word phrase stickers add the perfect touch to the make. Adhere with pop ups for dimension. Lastly, machine stitch the border with cream thread and adhere to two toned woodgrain grey card stock.

There is beauty and inspiration in nature, take the time to embrace it.

Christina