Self Made Winter Decoration with Tim Holtz dies and Quarterly StencilGirl Column Invite

Servus, dear creative friends!

I hope you've all had a good start into the new year! 

Today I am sharing a little self made winter decoration and I am also inviting you over to the StencilGirl Talk blog, where I am sharing my quarterly project and post as a columnist. The picture below shows the stencilled map papers I have made and used for this project (just to lure you into clicking the link at the end of this post to learn more about the how and what I did). 

The three months before Christmas have been meaning a lot of struggle for me in these last years - mainly caused by hormonal imbalance and menopause issues not going together well with my thyroid illness. But this year I've made progress at how to deal with that and I have managed not only to do a little seasonal crafting but also bake three sorts of Christmas cookies (which is three sorts more than in the last years actually ;) - despite trembling hands and panic attacks.

Even though I am not crafting a lot these days I still fall in love with a lot of Tim's 

dies and feel I am spoiling myself by buying them. ;) Especially the two Paper Village dies sets were a must-have for me (honestly - who does not love tiny houses?).

I have also been hoarding some wood chunks that came with the firewood for our fireplace and that I had other ideas for than burning them, as they had a special shape that reminded me of little hills. There were also some wood discs in my stash that I wanted to use as bases for two or three small advent home decoration pieces. 

In the end I decided to keep it quite simple and let the raw substrates do their own magic and just add a little snow and a red dimensional star (the smallest from Tim's "Dimensional Stars" dies set) and a small faux fir branch (bought at a dollar store) to the scenery. 

I did some more of these to give away as little presents. They were all done the same way: 

I die cut the parts of the houses from heavy Kraft cardstock (varying window shapes and positioning, as the dies sets offer this possibility), assembled them using tacky glue and glued them in place using the tacky glue quite generously around the houses' edges. I later covered any traces of dried glue with Opaque Distress Grit Paste and also added more of that to the roofs and bases to create the look of snow. To add even more texture to the paste I mixed in a bit of bird sand. 

The tiny houses on the wood discs also got a little red star to accompany them. I used two die cut star shapes to create one dimensional star and then just put the assembled star into the still wet grit paste. As the wood discs were flat I did the same with the assembled houses, so no additional glue was needed here. 

To fix the fir branches to their spots I first drilled a hole (using a hand drill) to insert the cut to size branches into, filling the hole with tacky glue. I also added more grip paste around these little "trees" as an additional support. 

I really like how the wood, the Kraft cardstock and the texture of the Grit Paste snow go together with the bark of the discs and the wood chunk! And the hints of green and red make for pretty highlights that add that bit of Christmas feel. 

Now I wonder how a summer-y version could look like.... ;) 

 

And here's the promised link to the StencilGirl Talk blog. 

Hope to see you over there too. 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia 

xxx

A Little Bit of Xmas Crafting

 Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by today! 

How's everyone getting along with Christmas preparations? I hope you can all enjoy the advent season and find some relaxed time off real life with Corona pandemic and the usual hectic rush before Christmas! 

This is another invite over to the Calico Craft Parts blog where I am sharing some really quick Christmas projects today - all done with wood shapes from the wide range of winter and Christmas themed craft parts! 

The list with the craft parts (and few DecoArt products) used and some short explanations (honestly not a lot needed regarding the simplicity of the makes) can be found on their blog too. Hope to see you over there! 

Hugs and happy Xmas crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Snarky Cat's Dapper X-mas - for SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Winter Special Challenge 2020

 Hi, servus and thanks so much for stopping by! 

I am sharing my make (and tutorial) for our annual two-months-long Winter Special Steampunk Challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges and as you can see I am already in Xmas swing. 

I recently bought a cheap Christmas themed dome kit and decided to customise it by using one of the absolutely adorable and fun cat stamps from the Tim Holtz "Snarky Cat" stamp sets (in this case I've used one of the cats from the "Snarky Cat Halloween" set). 

And of course I wanted to have lights - so I used one of Tim's Tiny Lights as well! 

Snarky Cat had to dress up for the festivities on Christmas Eve (as is the custom in my family...well, not for the pets actually, but for the human family members of course) - so I decided to give it a dapper hat and bow tie (from the Tim Holtz "Distinguished" stamp set)! 

You can tell from his look that he obviously doesn't like wearing a hat and a tie, but there is a little present for him under the tree - so it is worth the little suffering, right? Or maybe he is already planning on some climbing the tree with its temptingly dangling baubles and the shiny star at the top and doing what most cats love (or would love) to do at Christmas ;) 

Our Winter Special Challenge at SASPC will ("Same procedure as every year, James!")  be open from 1st November until 31st December and instead of the usual three entries each player is allowed up to five this time. Two more chances to win one of our two prizes!!!! And if you need some inspiration, there is a link to the challenge blog at the end of this post, so you can hop over and check out my teamies' fabulous makes too! 

I've created my Christmas tree using an older Tim Holtz Bigz die - the "Evergreen" one (which is still my favourite tree die to be honest). As a base I die cut one tree shape from thick grey board. That was going to be mounted to the dome's base by cutting a wood slice (found at the home decor section of a Dollar Euro store) in two and gluing the finished tree between these two. 

Then I cut two more tree shapes from a piece of white card stock that I had first coloured using Distress Inks, Distress Oxide Inks and Distress Oxide Sprays and Tim's technique of creating this kind of beautifully splattered backgrounds with loads of lovely depth. (Make sure you die cut one of the two tree shapes with white side face down and the other with the coloured side face down so you get two different tree shapes for the front and back sides!)

I added a bit of Distress Glaze on top to preserve the colours and speckles and to intensify them. 

Finally I glued the coloured trees to both sides of the grey board tree using Tacky Glue. 

Next I die cut my dimensional star for the tree top using my beloved Sidekick and the smallest die from Tim's "Dimensional Stars" Thinlits dies set. 

I then folded the little star into shape and glued it to a piece of left over white card stock. Only AFTER I had painted the star with DecoArt Extreme Sheen "Vintage Brass" acrylic paint, I cut off the excess! This way the small star was easier to hold while being painted and my fingers stayed clean. 

Snarky Cat was stamped onto white card stock using black archival stamping ink and then I used my coloured pencils to colour him (as I find it easier for me to use these instead of Distress Inks and a watercolour brush). 

I also coloured the bow tie and dapper hat and then fussy cut all my shapes. Snarky Cat also got his tail chopped cut off - which explains the look on his face I guess. 

But he got to keep it of course - I just needed it to stick out at a different angle. 

So far, so good. 

Time to prepare the decoration for the tree! I used more white card stock, Tim's "Deck the Halls" Colorize dies set, his "Festive Things" dies set, Distress Oxide Inks and the ink blending tool on my media glass mat. 

I also added a generous amount of DecoArt media Liquid Glass on top of the baubles (to give these a dimensional and glossy look) and put everything to the side (on the central heating to be more precise) to dry naturally while I went on with decorating the dome kit base. The inner platform got a coat of DecoArt Americana Arbor Green acrylic paint, while the edge was painted using DecoArt Extreme Sheen "Vintage Brass". 

I die cut some cogs in different sizes and shapes from white card board, painted these with more Vintage Brass (on both sides) and glued three of them to the back and one as a front piece around the base. 

I also added a self adhesive gold foil trim around the base that was die cut using Tim's 

"Star Trim" 3-D Impresslits folder. 

To create a stand for the Christmas tree, I sawed the wood slice in two (but first I made sure the tree would still fit into the dome when being put between the two pieces) - the smaller wood slice piece pointing towards the back. Next I used my rotary tool to drill two holes - one into the smaller wood slice piece and another through the base (at the exact same spot where the wood slice hole was going to be). 

I also engraved a notch into the bottom of the base - leading from the drilled hole to edge right at the centre of the three glued on gears at the back of the base. I made sure it was wide enough to hold the thicker part of the Tiny Lights' cable. 

Then I glued the wood slice pieces with the tree pinched between them (and more glue) in place and after that had dried I inserted the string of Tiny Lights. 

I used my small hot glue gun to glue the thicker part of the cable into the notch and to fix the Tiny Lights chain to the wood slice in some places. As it got wrapped tightly around the tree it stayed in place pretty well and I only needed two glue spots to fix the lights chain to the wood slice base and one at the tree's back. Snarky Cat, his present and the stamped quote got glued in place using little pieces of MDF left overs at the backs as little stands. 

Before I filled the dome with "snow" (from the kit) and glued it in place permanently, I checked the lights of course. Then I added glue around the dome's edge and put the base with the tree face down in place (otherwise the snow would fall out from the dome) and let that dry. 

Finally I added four pieces of self adhesive felt floor protectors to the base. 

Done! 

Our steampunk/industrial style challenge is open until the end of December - the team and I hope to see you play along with us! Simply click HERE to get to the challenge blog with the actual challenge post. 

Stay safe, enjoy the advent season, merry Christmas and a happy new year! 

Claudia

xxx

A Special Monday

Hi, servus and once more "Happy New Year and all the Best for 2020" (just in case you have missed my post for SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges' January challenge on 1st January ;)

Today is not only an "every other Monday Monday" to present my Calico Craft Parts project but if you check back later today you will also see me guesting at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenges with a project created especially for this week's Monday challenge.

If you want to find out what I've made using these two beautiful hinge wood shapes, a few DecoArt paints and products and some cardboard packaging left overs, simply click HERE.

And I dare also share a little sneak peek to lure you into returning to my blog in the afternoon (well, at least it will be afternoon already over here in Europe)...

But for starters I would like to invite you over to the Calico Craft Parts blog of course. Hope to see you there!

Hugs and happy Monday crafting!

Claudia

xxx

An Almost Ready for Christmas - Card

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by my little creative corner close to the beautiful Austrian Alps!

I just wanted to share another Christmas card I've finished today, done with a lot of Tim Holtz goodness this time.

I haven't taken any steps images this time, 'cos this card meant joyful me-time, but I will of course love to share with you what I've used and how.

The room shown on this card reflects the actual state of Christmas preparations over here at the moment...well, actually the actual state I hope to be in after next weekend to be honest ;)
With the tree already bought and put into its stand (but we keep it on our balcony and only get it in on the 23rd as over here in Austria we do not put up the Christmas tree before that (instead we love to keep it for as long as possible afterwards...lol...I remember my mom having ours one time so long it dried out and one day just fell off to the side while we were away shopping), the presents all wrapped up and piled up in some corner of our flat - as these will also only be put in place on the 24th right before we celebrate Christmas - which over here is on the 24th in the evening.

I have put up a list for you of dies and Distress products used. I inked all the die cut pieces using Distress Ink and Distress Oxide Ink Pads and my blending tool. Most parts were die cut from white cardstock, only the inner of the fireplace was done using black paper instead (with traces of fired brick Oxide Ink on top).

So here's what I've used:

Thinlits dies:

Fireside
Santa's Helper (the books sitting on top of the fireplace and the Christmas crackers)
Handwritten Holidays
Frightful Things (the little candle in front of the books)
Festive Things (the cup with hot chocolate, the tree, the wreath and the present)

Background "wall" paper:
Dapper paper stash

For the floor I've used a strip that I blended with Distress Ink vintage photo and ran through my Big Shot Plus using Tim's
Lumber 3-D Texture Fades embossing folder and Distress Ink gathered twigs on top.

Distress Inks used:
vintage photo
pumice stone (for the fireside)
black soot
chipped sapphire (on top of peeled paint Distress Oxide Ink to mix a different green for the tree and the quote)
gathered twigs

Distress Oxide Inks used:
peeled paint
broken china
fossilized amber
fired brick
ripe persimmon

Distress Stain brushed pewter was used on the fireguard and on the garland the tree is decorated with.
I also used my little Tim Holtz Sidekick for die cutting the smaller parts while creating the scene and coming up with more ideas on what to add to it. I love that you can put the Sidekick directly on the media glass mat and quickly die cut whatever small pieces you need.

I enjoyed creating this card a lot and I hope you like it too!

Hugs and happy Xmas crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Quick Christmas Card for Calico Craft Parts

Servus and thanks for stopping by today!

This is the usual every-other-Monday-invite to check out my latest Calico Craft Parts project over at their blog and this time I have a Christmas card for you that is really quickly done and creates a lovely, magical winter-y Christmas forest scene...

A lot of new tree and deer woodshapes as well as gorgeous Christmas themed ones have arrived in the Calico Craft Parts online shop lately and I have used some of these to create my little winter forest scene on a kraft card.

To see the whole card and check out the really short and easy how-to simply click HERE to get taken the the post at the Calico Craft Parts Blog. Hope to see you over there!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Christmassy Home Decor with Calico Craft Parts

Hi, servus and welcome to my usual invite every other Monday to check out my latest project and how-to over at the Calico Craft Parts blog!

I am slowly getting in Christmas mood and over here in Vienna the advent or Christkindl markets have opened their gates this weekend (some even already last weekend) - the only thing missing now is some snow (but very likely we will have that after Christmas only...in the last years we've had almost spring like temperatures in the week around the 24th of December...). Anyway I've decided to create and put up some home decoration already - mainly the light chains on our balcony, so it isn't so dark outside.

Actually I really miss the snow since I have moved to Vienna, which is more east than my hometown and has a more southern climate. I love the icy glittering and how it covers grey, muddy streets and houses with white, puffy layers that look soft and cosy. So I decided to create a snow covered house to decorate my home with...

I am only sharing a sneak peek as usual - but it shows the cool icicles I've made and of course I am giving away the secret of how I made these over at the Calico Craft Parts blog ;)...

...as well as the products I have used to add a bit of icy glittery bling to my piece. As always this is hard to capture in a picture, but if you click on it and enlarge it you should get  the idea ;)

How are you doing with Christmas crafting? Are you well in time? Ginger bread and Christmas Pudding already made?

Hope to see you over at the blog!

Hugs and happy Christmas crafting!

Claudia

xxx