A Nostalgic Christmas 2 – Country View Crafts

This is my second DT piece this week for the new Country View Challenge of Nostalgic Christmas. In my post on Monday I talked about my childhood memories of Christmas but today is more about how we depict that nostalgic feel to our card making. How much better than choosing the wonderful retro ornaments and retro packages dies by Tim Holtz.

I remember well the old fashioned Christmas baubles and how glittery and shiny they were and when I was a child and even in the early days of marriage I used to adorn my tree with lametta – those long strands of silvery foil. I don’t even know if you can buy it anymore. (Oh yes you can just googled it and found some on Amazon)’'.

I started with a piece of music score paper from an old Christmas song book and stamped one of the Holiday Knits in picket fence distress paint.

After drying it I blended tumbled glass, evergreen bough, festive berries and aged mahogany distress inks over it….

….l and made up the packages and baubles.

You can see I even stamped one line of the design on the parcels.

The sentiment was taken from the Christmas ephemera pack and again I blended the inks over it.

The title of the Christmas song on the music background is ‘The Mistletoe Bough’ so I die-cut some mistletoe greenery using the festive greenery strip die.

I’ve really enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane with this challenge so I do hope you will be able to join us at Country View Crafts for the last challenge of the year.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Peace on Earth - Christmas card

Hello everyone.

It’s my turn to post a project over on the Country View Crafts Project Blog today and I have added another of my favoured red, white and kraft collage designs.

I just loved this prancing deer the first time I saw him and at last I had found a chance to use him.

It would be lovely if you could join me at CVC Project Blog to se how this card came together.

Chris is visiting today, so it will be lovely to see her with exchanges of gifts etc ready for the big day.

I hope all is well with you.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

Update - copied from CVC

Hi everyone, Brenda here and welcome one and all to what is my penultimate post here at the CVC Project Blog before Christmas. I hope your preparations are going well, I still have quite a bit to do, but will be ready for the hectic three days we have planned. I just love this time of year.

I have another Christmas card for you today made in the red, white and kraft colours and collage design that I am favouring this year. It uses the wonderful prancing deer die that I also love.

I started by spraying my card with some glimmer mists and home made distress ink sprays mixed with perfect pearls

I was planning the design in my head and on the card and gathered the paper elements I wanted to used, tearing them to size, stamping and inking edges as I wanted.

I gathered die-cut pieces together and made my sentiment …..

.. and coloured up the deer using distress inks and the sprays. I used the stamping block technique for this and will do a quick step by step for it on another project as it’s such an easy way to get this distressed look.

As this is an 8 x 8 card I decided to add a tag to the design and textured it using one of Tim’s embossing folders and distress inks and stamped the gorgeous little gingerbread house blueprint.

I went over the house with a water brush, some distress inks and picket fence distress paint to create that snowy scene.

This is then how it all came together…..

the two deer were glued together so that there was a double aspect to him which gave him both height and dimension ….

… the shabby bow was died to blend in with the colour scheme

… and the collage came together with some additional pieces to balance the composition.

Thanks for sharing in my Christmas card making, I still have a few more to make so you could possibly see one more before Christmas.

A Nostalgic Christmas – Country View Crafts

When Astrid chose this fabulous theme for our new CVC challenge it took me right back to my childhood. We didn’t have a lot of money but our Mum always made sure Christmas was a special time of year with surprise presents, Santa sacks, a beautiful Christmas tree and wonderful cooking. I loved the winter when it snowed and I think those of us in the northern hemisphere long for snow on Christmas day. Other memories are dressing up, getting together with the neighbours, family visiting and sharing gifts. There is always one very special memory for me as a child at Christmas and that is laying in bed on Christmas Eve, excited and unable to sleep and hearing the sleigh bells as Father Christmas made his rounds. I always knew he was on his way. Do you remember that too?

On to my project – no process steps today but it’s a simple collage card using Tim’s Christmas ephemera pack for my images and a stamped December calendar from his Calendar 2 set of stamps. It’s definitely got the nostalgic images for me.

A snowy background which is tissue paper already printed with the design.

Father Christmas in his sleigh - of course, carrying all his presents and I really loved him coming.

Building a snowman, nothing could be better. We had coal fires so we always had to take a piece of his eyes.

Thanks for stopping by to see what a nostalgic Christmas means to me.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Christmas Ephemera pack Sizzix Tim Holtz strip die - Festive Greenery Tim Holtz - Crescent moon & stars Bigz die Tim Holtz Decorative strip die - Washer board

InLinkz.com

November Tim tag

The penultimate Tim tag for 2014, I can’t believe where the year has gone and to think it’s December tomorrow.

It was great fun looking for a different embossing folder and die for this make as I don’t have the layered leaf that Tim used and although I have the insects and the snowflake I wanted to experiment with other things in my supplies.

So I have gone for the French theme with the Eiffel Tower and a fleur de lys mover and shaper.

I have more or less followed Tim’s process steps but I added some foil sheet both to the embossed tower, fleur de lys and the corrugated card using a splatter stamp for the sticky embossing powder.

I also stamped on the corrugated card first which adds a little more interest.

I used some tarnished brass distress paint on the word band and arrow.

I am so pleased I have managed to fit this in before the deadline and am linking to Tim’s post.

Thanks Tim for another inspirational tag, looking forward to see what you share tomorrow.

hugs Brenda xxx

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a feather flock together

Those of similar taste congregate in groups

Hello everyone I am sharing a wall hanging today inspired by Tim’s papers, images and ephemera and the fact that he has a fabulous mixed-media team who create some wonderful pieces for inspiration. Chris has chosen this fabulous theme for our next challenge at A Vintage Journey and I decided to not go the Christmas route although you could do with robins and red cardinals. I have added some quick process steps below if you’d like to try the layered collage look.

Use a piece of corrugated card and a piece of wallflower stash as the main background.

Chop up some scraps ink edges and glue down.

Scrape gesso thinly over.

Add next level of collage pieces giving some strength of colour and starting the levels of dimension. Over that used dot fade  stencil and added texture paste through it using a palette knife. Add some random text stamping using black archival.

Layer further collage elements and the focal image of birds from the wallflower stash which I added to a cabinet card. I also added a bird card from the Thrift Shop ephemera pack.

At this point I die cut the letters using the alphabetical strip die and used this picture of these cheeky chappies who I thought fitted the theme perfectly and imagined they are best friends and very alike in their ways – hence birds of a feather flock together.

Finally use some gesso, walnut stain distress stain and spiced marigold to add layers of watery inks and added some white splatters

My bird wall hanging.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. I hope you like my Tim inspired piece of art and that you will join us this fortnight.

Have a wonderful weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Love Christmas

A found relative, some glitter, bits and bobs and a card is born.

Another of my red, white and kraft designs for this year, I seem to be on a roll, I just love these colours.

The supplies consist of mostly Tim Holtz products, his merriment papers, a gorgeous vintage photo from the occasions found relatives pack, the pediment die, festive berries glitter and the trellis framework.

A few more details can be found over on the Country View Crafts project blog if you have time to pop over.

I hope your week is going well, thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Update - copied over from CVC

Hi everyone, it’s Brenda again with another Christmas card for you.

This colour combination has really captured me this year and I have made several cards in this palette.

The fabulous occasions found relatives pack by Tim Holtz has these gorgeous vintage photos and I have combined this one with the pediments die and the festive berries distress glitter. The clear domes are from my own supplies and have pieces of the merriment papers glued underneath.

The love banner was made using a stamp and die from the framed silhouettes Framelits set and I stamped the word using my own small stick letter stamps. Christmas comes from the holiday words script thinlits dies using the stick it paper to adhere it to the card.

The lamp post was cut last year and not used and the leaves are from the festive greenery strip die. The trellis framework die-cut creates some interest and texture in the background.

How are you doing with your Christmas cards? I still have quite a few to make so I am sure you will be seeing more of them from me before the big day.

Sewn Snow Shoes

Did you know there is a challenge over at A Vintage Journey called ‘All Sewn Up’? Well I had such great fun designing and making my fabric journal I decided to use some new stamps in another sewing project.

This Christmas card has the focal image stamped onto fabric which I then tried my hand at free sewing on the machine. Practice makes perfect but I am quite pleased with the effects.

Sorry I got so wrapped up in using the sewing machine using the fabric and corrugated card I completely forgot to take any process photos. I had dipped the fabric in some distress inks to get the grungy colour on the fabric. I used the same inks on the corrugated card. I stamped the snowshoes using Tim’s stamps and did all the sewing through both layers of fabric and corrugated card. I finished off with a black pen to add the finer details.

I hope the photos tell the story.

Some lace, a painted snowflake charm and an offcut of paper folded and tucked in completed the card.

I am hosting the All Sewn Up challenge so I would love to see you over there with a project.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx