Snowflakes

 Hopeful

Snowflakes for Country View crafts

Under New Ownership

The first project for 2026 with CVC having a new owner and Zoe Hillman choosing the first theme.

Every year I am hopeful of a white Christmas but we rarely see snow these days in the south of England - just hoping we might see some in the new year.

The snowflakes were cut using one die and one colour. i altered two of the snowflakes to give them slightly different shapes.

I used acrylic paper and coloured up three pieces differently, 1 - just using the distress ink pad, 2 - blending the same blue over the card and 3 - again the same colour but dip. drip and dry technique.

Ink the edges of the snowflakes with Brown Distress ink and then paint a thin layer of wet glue over them and dip in some sparkly glitter

The backing paper is a piece of Tim's splattered with white paint.

The mount was created using the back of a stencil and some handmade tape added to it.

Other papers I gathered from bits boxes to build a collage

The tapes were made by sticking strips of Scotch Magic Tape onto vellum - you could use greaseproof paper. Blend over distress inks and then stamp with archival ink.

Stamp the 'Hopeful' label with blue archival, cover with clear embossing powder and heat. Ink the edges with blue and brown inks.

Layer up the pieces to put the project together.

Supplies used from https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/

Distress Archival ink – Ground Espresso – Reinker only available in the shop at the moment- https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz---mini-distress-archival-re-inker---ground-espresso-139012-p.asp

Tonic Studios Tim Holtz - Stamp Platform 8.5"X8.5" - https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tonic-studios-tim-holtz---stamp-platform-85x85-75973-p.asp

Tim Holtz paper – from my stockpile but Brenda might be able to purchase it for you.

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint – Snowflake - https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/paperartsy-chalk-paint-fresco-finish---snowflake-175174-p.asp

DecoArt Americana Decou-Page Sealer/Glue Matte 4OZ  https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/decoart-americana-decou-page-sealerglue-matte-4oz-69604-p.asp

Distress inks – Uncharted Mariner, Black Soot, Ground Espresso  https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-ink--re-inkers-103-c.asp

Sizzix TH dies – Vault Winter Wishes which sold out before Christmas, but Brenda will gladly help you out if you contact her.  https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-152-c.asp

TH Rock Candy Glitter - https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-rock-candy-crystal-glitter-clear-179-oz-179113-p.asp

Clear embossing powder - https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/wow-embossing-powders-15ml---clear-gloss-regular-t-171662-p.asp

49 and Market – Winter Stories Rubons - https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/49-and-market-1673-c.asp

Glittery Christmas Bauble

 Using glitter for Country View Crafts challenge

This is my first inspiration project for our Country View Crafts November Challenge, with the theme of ‘Fireworks' - use glitter or embossing powder to make your project 'sparkle’ hosted by our lovely Cassie.

I attended the amazing InkC retreat recently where the workshops included so many amazing projects and I am sharing my finished Christmas bauble that our very own fabulous Susan Seabert taught on the sunday evening. We had a huge collection of napkins to choose from to create a decoupage background and then I added snowtex and glitter. The blue snowflakes caught my eye almost immediately and I love the finished effects.

Process Steps

Paint the bauble with gesso to seal it and give a white surface Dry and then seal.

Pull the snowflakes out of the napkin by painting water around the image first which allows you to tear images with a rough edging. This ensures there are no straight cuts left when the image has been adhered to the bauble. I used the decoupage glue which is a sealer as well.

Leave the bauble to dry. Then using a coffeestirreror brush add snowtex around the images. Leave it to dry again.

Use the decoupage to cover the top half of the bauble and add the glitter. Leave to dry.

Repeat with the bottom half.

Supplies

Bauble and napkin supplied by Susan.

Gesso, sealer and glue (I used Decoart's Decou-page), glitter - distress rock candy

A Winter's Tale - Alison Bomber

 I bought some of Alison's mini stamps in the Country View Crafts Advent sale and I've had fun using this gorgeous image of Star Anise and using it in creating this frame .

Background - a scraped layer of gesso using a palette knife leaving a gap around the edges. Dried, dipped in pumicestone DI, dripped and dried again. Blended gathered twigs around the edges and added some text stamping using hickory smoke.

2nd layer using vellum, tear the edges and stamp with textured stamp from Alison's pressed grasses set, using versamark and embossing powder.

Focal panel - stamped with Alison's Winter Tale stamp in coffee, painted in the image using lost shadow and walnut stain DOs and brown distress watercolor pencils. The image has watery tea dye roughly painted around it and hickory smoke blended around the edges.

The winter greenery was die-cut with white card and snow-tex daubed over it for texture,

I found the snowflakes (which are glued to the underside of the frame) and icicles already cut in a bag ..........

..... and used those with the other miscellaneous oddments to add interest to the frame.

Supplies

Alison Bomber - PaperArtsy  -  mini Winter's Tale stamp,EM90, pressed grasses EAB40

Tim Holtz - Sizzix - Festive Gatherings, Paper Snowflakes,

Tim Holtz Ranger Distress inks - pumice stone, gathered twigs, tea dye, hickory smoke

 Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Watercolor Pencils Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso

Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Oxides -  lost shadow, walnut stain

Ranger - Seafoam White embossing powder

Miscellaneous - vellum, star anise, silver berries, twigs, pinecone, 

Ranger Coffee Archival ink

49 and Market Garden rub on transfers

Winging It 2 for Country View Crafts

Create a piece of home decor for a shabby display. 

This is my second inspirational project for the 'winging it' challenge on the Country View Crafts facebook page. It was inspired by looking at home decor projects on Pinterest.

Die cut two wings from the 3D Impresslits 'Winged' embossing folder.

Create a small puddle of watery white acrylic paint and brush over each wing. Heat dry for about 15 seconds and then use kitchen paper dipped into hand gel to rub the paint away from the raised surface. 

Take a block of wood, give it a coat of gesso, dry and then a coat of white acrylic paint and dry.

Using gold embossing powder and stamps create simple designs on all four sides of the block.

Sand the edges and rub the exposed areas with a dark brown distress ink. Paint a bbq stick with gold paint and drill a hole in the cube to take it and glue it in.

Cut the snowflake strip and make up ready to add to the top, also give it a light wash with watery gesso. Punch a hole through the middle and in the extra star. Add these to the cube.

Glue the wings together leaving the central space open to use hot glue to adhere it to the stick and two small stars back to back at the top.

Stamp the label, cut and ink the edges, everything is now ready for the final assembly.

xxx

Materials used -

Tim Holtz -

3D Sizzix Impresslits 'Winged' embossing folder, snowflake rosette strip die

Stampers Anonymous - Simple Sayings CMS155, Christmas Magic CMS247, Letter to Santa CMS053

TH small star punch

Idea-ology Kraft Stock Sparkle Classic

Miscellaneous -

white gesso

white acrylic paint

a bbq stick

Colour theme at Tando -

It's a colour theme this week and here is the gorgeous palette. Winter is definitely heading our way.

I've created a canvas board and the process steps and more photos are over on the Tando blog today.

The canvas board background went through a couple of transformations and although started off quite 'pretty' my muse decided to take me off in a different direction when I came to finish it off.

I used an acrylic media board shape for the focal element ......

and stamped and painted it to get to this almost night sky look.

An embossed star and a hand made grungy word band ........

 and I was ready to assemble.

So if you'd like to see how the background got transformed and how this came together please pop over to the Tando blog for more information.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Winter Wonderland stand up card

It's Winter Wonderland over at A Vintage Journey with this being the theme for the December challenge.

My sample for the challenge is one of my Tando stand up cards.

Di at Tando Creative has cut me boards to the exact size I wanted to make these cards using the white backed greyboard. The grey side was painted with a thin coat of gesso and when dry dipped into watery decoart dazzling metallics crystal green and ice blue paints and dried, then stamped with archival cornflower blue using a stampendous vintage text stamp. As always I distressed and inked the edges.

The snowflake background and snowflake have been created the same as a card I made in 2015 which can be found HERE. You can see I added some shabby seam binding ribbon to it before adhering it to the background.

The stand is soooo easy to make out of two pieces of card.

 I added the Lin Brown sentiment from PaperArtsy which fitted perfectly across the board and when all was assembled I splattered with some titanium white media acrylic paint.

I hope we'll see you enjoying entering your winter projects with us at AVJ and now I need to get myself in full Christmas mode with getting cards made and out, decorations up and some traditional sweet treats made for my kids and grandchildren.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx