Saturday, October 17, 2020

Saturday Showcase - Tim Holtz Chapter 3 Christmas Thinlits Dies

 Hello! It's time for our bi-weekly Saturday Showcase feature. Sara Emily here, and I will be shining a spotlight on five of the Tim Holtz Chapter 3 Christmas dies. These were released in late summer, but fortunately, are still available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique and shipping now so you can get a bit of a head start on your Christmas card stash.

First, I'll share photos of each of the cards and some tips for making them. Then, I'll take you through the easy steps I took to make the backgrounds. Using limited products and working in a simple palette makes quick work of these cards--just what we need as we head into the busy time of year.

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First, I used the Merry & Bright Thinlits die set to spell out a bold greeting.



Here's an easy tip to prevent tearing delicate die cuts when you are distressing them. After cutting, leave them in the panel you cut them from. Sometime, if they pop out, you may have to reinsert them, like I did here. After sanding and inking them while they remain in the panel, you can remove them and adhere to your card. 

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Next, I paired the little elf from the Thin Ice Thinlits set with a burst from the Ornamental Birds set and an old (but never yet used) Tim Holtz Mini Globe die. In retrospect, I should have clipped the elf's hands and turned them palm up.


A sticker from the new Christmas sticker book makes an easy sentiment.

Just a little pouncing of an alcohol ink blending tool with a few drops of Gold Mixative and Mushroom alcohol ink gives gold metallic kraft stock a vintage look.

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The Stunning Snowflake Thinlits die set has so many combination possibilities with just 2 separate dies. So simple, yet so effective on this easy card. The snowflake is very elegant; it needs little else in the way of embellishment, but I added a half pearl to the center.

I stacked up the different die cuts from the set in gold metallic Kraft stock and plain white card and colored the pearl with Gold Mixative and Mushroom alcohol inks before adhering. I used another of the stickers for the greeting.

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For the next card, I sprayed a kraft panel with Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Spray, and after drying, cut with the Falling Stars die. (This set also comes with three stars in graduated sizes.) I darkened the sky with Ground Espresso ink and layered over a panel of hoarded Deco sheet. This time I used one of the trees from the Thin Ice set along with a shadowed silhouette elf.  I chopped up a few of the stickers to tell the story.



Tip: Don't be afraid to mix your embossing powders. Here, I've mixed some old Soft Fallen Snow powder with Eileen Hull's White Wonder dimensional powder to get the look of  fluffy, shimmering, fresh fallen snow on the trees. Another tip: the tree bough die cuts have embossed markings on them to guide where to apply glue and then stick on the snow die cut pieces. 

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For my last card, I chose to use the Ornamental Birds set. I cut the birds and one of the ornament layers from a kraft panel I colored with Distress Oxide sprays: Cracked Pistachio and Faded Jeans. All the other pieces were cut from sanded Metallic Kraft Stock in Confections and Jewels. This kraft background is heat embossed with the sparkles stamp (Sparkles & Christmas), Versamark embossing ink and Princess Gold powder.

The sentiment is a stamp from the Modern Christmas set - one of Tim's last year's releases, inked in Faded Jeans Archival ink. I embossed a panel to frame the sentiment  as well as one of the ornaments in Princess Gold powder.

Tip: I use a ruler to help align the tiny die cut dots that make up the ornament hanger. I just add a dot of collage medium at each of the markings so they are evenly spaced and then drop the die cut dot on the medium with tweezers. Don't touch until it's dry.

And now a quick tutorial on how I made my backgrounds:

I spread Transparent Matte Medium on a couple of kraft panels and Translucent Grit paste on a third panel through the Sparkle stencil and allow it to dry thoroughly.

On one of the Transparent Matte Medium panels, I smear  Prima White Gold Metallique Wax over the raised areas with my finger. One the second one, I replace the stencil and apply the wax through the openings onto the raised areas after spraying with Distress Oxide sprays - Speckled Egg and Cracked Pistachio and drying (see first photo in collage directly below for this step). I used this stencil/wax method on the Translucent Grit paste panel as well.

One of the stenciled panels is sprayed directly with Oxide sprays, while the other two were painted. I poured a little bit of the shaken spray out of the bottle and use a paintbrush to apply in layers around the stars. I did get two different results, because I used two different kinds of kraft paper.

Thanks for taking time to visit today to see today's Saturday Showcase featuring Tim Holtz Chapter 3 Christmas Thinlits dies. I hope you are inspired to make some simple Christmas cards to have some on hand for the holidays.

There's still time to enter the current Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog challenge 'Purple, orange, green! Eek! It's Halloween!' to be in with the chance of winning one of the great prizes. We look forward to seeing your fabulous creations. Happy Crafting!  Sara Emily

These products can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Frayed Burlap, Ground Espresso
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray  - Speckled Egg, Cracked Pistachio, Faded Jeans

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful Sara Emily! Great idea to use the late summer release to get a head start on the Christmas Cheer! Love the shades of blue and gold!

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  2. Gorgeous cards. Thanks for inspiration

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  3. I love the colours of these cards - I think the large snowflake is my favourite, but they're all lovely.
    Alison x

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  4. Gorgeous cards I love those rich golds with the deep rich blues, teals and greens. The backgrounds alone are beautiful and lots of great ideas for the great TH dies. Thanks for all the details. xox

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  5. You've truly spoiled us with these fabulous festive cards and so many tips and techniques Sara Emily. Really helpful tips about sanding delicate die cuts and mixing those embossing powders that I need to remember. Thank you for sharing so much of your creative know how with us xx

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