You might as well not believe in fairies!

Sharing a countdown calendar I’ve made up for Christmas featuring some Tim Holtz dies and other bits and bobs from his Idea-ology range.

I have the honour of guesting over at Fussy and Fancy for their Christmas challenge, which starts today.  We’ve all still got Christmas crafting left on our to do lists so have a bit of fun creating and then go link up to join in the fun.

To make my countdown calendar I started with one of Tim’s Etcetera tags and added some burlap layered under a sheet of BoBunny Double Dot Vintage cardstock in Passion Fruit.  I went with pink and blue on this to play along with the Christmas in unusual colours challenge at Creative Friday.

I cut the houses, mountains and trees from Tim’s Snowglobe die and the Santa with his reindeer from the Village Christmastime set from Yupo paper and then used alcohol inks to colour them up.  I topped the trees with Mirrored Stars I coloured with a drop of the alcohol ink.  Before I added the die cuts to the tag I stencilled some snowflakes across the top in lovely blue glitter paste.

My countdown element was added using Tim’s Countdown Coins and a hook from the Vignette Hardware set.  I formed the words ‘days to’ from the Halloween Typography set (it’s the only one I had), with a bit of the glitter paste on top.  I also added glitter paste to the Make it Crafty chippie Christmas.

As this was made for a friend I wanted it to be a bit special so I also made my very first foam flower, which turned out pretty good.  And, as a nod to the base tag, I added in a little ribbon for a tie behind my flower.

Over at Let’s Craft and Create they’re looking for any Christmas creations so I am linking my countdown calendar there.  I’m also entering the ’Twas the Challenge Before Christmas at Moving Along With the Times where they wanted you to be inspired by the classic poem.  I’ve taken the scene of Santa flying away in his sleigh and recreated it on my tag.

Ingredients:

Chalks & Powders etc

Ranger Embossing Powder ~ Extra Fine Detail Clear

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Rosy Owl Flower Making Dies ~ Type 2

Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Thinlits ~ 661603 Snowglobe & 662424 Village Christmastime

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Layering Stencil ~ THS050 Snowflakes

Embellishments

Make it Crafty Chipboard Layered Words ~ 2" Christmas

Pearl Stamens from stash

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Findings ~ Countdown Coins, Mirrored Stars, Typography Halloween & Vignette Hardware

Inks & Paints etc

BoBunny Glitter Paste ~ Frost

Nuvo Crystal Drops ~ Autumn Red & Bright Gold

Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink ~ Honeycomb, Lettuce, Pitch Black, Raspberry, Stream & Valencia

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Picked Raspberry

Tim Holtz Distress Markers ~ Black Soot

Papers

BoBunny Double Dot Vintage ~ Passion Fruit

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Etcetera Tag ~ Small

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paperie ~ Textured Surfaces Burlap

Wild Orchid Crafts Flower Making Foam ~ Green & Pink

Yupo Paper ~ 250gsm White

Ribbons & Trims etc

Pink & White Polka Dot Satin Ribbon from stash

Challenges

Creative Friday #194 ~ Christmas in unusual colours

Let’s Craft and Create #132 ~ Anything Christmas goes!

Moving Along With the Times #60 ~ ’Twas the Challenge Before Christmas

Thanks for stopping by!

There is something haunting in the light of the moon…

I’m sharing a card today featuring the Scarecrow die from Tim Holtz.

It may be November but I’m still making Hallowe’en cards, no surprises there, happens every year!  For this one I took inspiration from the current board over at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge, using the bottom row.  My stripes come from the Hallowe’en Deco Sheets by Tim Holtz, I heat embossed both the die cut scarecrow and the Make it Crafty chippies I used for embellies and I have lots of black on my card.

I had a lot of fun making the various layers of this card, I was going to go with a darker theme but in the end the card pulled me toward a more friendly Hallowe’en style.  Over at As You Like It they want to know if you prefer Christmas or non-Christmas cards and for me it is definitely the latter.  My absolute favourite season is Hallowe’en, even if I am always late with my cards.  I have to make a gazillion Christmas ones so tend to do them in a production style process with lots of the same design, which is probably why I don’t enjoy making them much at all.

Being so late with this card I am also just under the wire to enter the current Hallowe’en challenge at Always Fun.

Ingredients:

Chalks & Powders etc

Ranger Embossing Powder ~ Super Fine Detail Clear

WOW! Embossing Powder ~ Clear Braille Ultra High

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Thinlits ~ 662382 Scarecrow

Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies ~ S4-116 Standard Circles Small

Embellishments

Little Things from Lucy’s Cards Shaker Selections ~ Pumpkin Patch

Make it Craft Chipboard Set ~ Spooky Night

Inks & Paints etc

Ranger Perfect Pearls Mists ~ Perfect Pearl

Tim Holtz Distress Crayons ~ Black Soot & Peeled Paint

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Embossing

Tim Holtz Distress Markers ~ Black Soot, Carved Pumpkin, Peeled Paint & Wild Honey

Tim Holtz Distress Oxides ~ Black Soot, Broken China, Faded Jeans, Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, Salty Ocean, Seedless Preserves, Spiced Marmalade, Twisted Citron, Wild Honey & Wilted Violet

Papers

Arches Watercolor Paper ~ 185gsm Smooth

Bazzill Criss Cross Cardstock ~ Lily White

Bazzill Monochromatic Cardstock ~ Raven

Couture Creations ~ Acetate

Stampin’ Up! Cardstock ~ Pumpkin Pie

Tim Holtz Distress Deco Sheets ~ Halloween

Stamps

Sunny Studio ~ Pretty Pumpkins

Challenges

Always Fun #30 ~ Hallowe’en

As You Like It ~ Christmas or Non-Christmas & WHY

Tic Tac Toe #22 ~ Stripes, Black, Heat embossing

Thanks for stopping by!

The crow wished everything was black…

My second card tonight features the Ornate Owl die from Tim Holtz.

I used the photo inspiration at Hand Stamped Sentiments to design this card.  I picked my owl die cut from one of the images and added the witch’s hat from another.  There was lots of orange and green in the images so I went with that for the colour scheme.  To make sure I could play along in the challenge I stamped my sentiment from the Scared Silly set by Tim Holtz, where I also got the witch’s hat.

To make my main owl feature I cut the die from white cardstock and then covered it with embossing enamel.  In hindsight I should have done the embossing first and then die cut the owl as I ended up with stray bits of embossing that the die cut was too intricate to clean away.  I hand cut a second owl to act as a background and inked that with Distress Oxides then spritzed with water.  I think it turned out great for a feathery owl.

So I could play along at Moving Along with the Times I added a spider charm to hang off the owl’s hat.  For some balance I added another next to the sentiment and filled the hanger of both with Nuvo Crystal Drops.  Unfortunately it was hot as Hades here yesterday so the drops drooped before they could dry so they are not the usual lovely dome shape you get with them.

Over at The Rubber Buggy they are running a Hallowe’en challenge so I am also linking my card up there.

Ingredients:

Chalks & Powders etc

Ranger Embossing Powder ~ Super Fine Detail Clear

Stampendous! Fran-tage Embossing Enamel ~ Aged Silver

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Thinlits ~ 662380 Ornate Owl

Embellishments

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adornments ~ Halloween

Inks & Paints etc

Nuvo Crystal Drops ~ Ripened Pumpkin

Spica Pen ~ Black & Silver

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Embossing

Tim Holtz Distress Oxides ~ Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain & Wild Honey

Wink of Stella Glitter Pen ~ Violet

Papers

Bazzill Criss Cross Cardstock ~ Lily White

Bazzill Monochromatic Cardstock ~ Raven

Graphic 45 An Eerie Tale ~ Patterns & Solids

Stampin’ Up! Cardstock ~ Pumpkin Pie

Tim Holtz Distress Cardstock ~ Watercolor

Stamps

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection ~ CMS311 Scared Silly

Challenges

Hand Stamped Sentiments #275 ~ Photo inspiration

Moving Along with the Times #57 ~ Add a Charm or Tag

The Rubber Buggy #4 ~ Fall/Autumn and/or Halloween

Thanks for stopping by!

…but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl

Well it’s almost Hallowe’en and not all my cards are done but I’ve a trio to share tonight, this one featuring the Moonlit Owl die from Tim Holtz.

Over at Challenge Up Your Life they want to see die cuts on your project so I’ve made my die cut the feature of my card.  I turned the Moonlit Owl die cut into a shaker by cutting around it with a Spellbinder circle.  I cut this from a white bit of card and then coloured with Black Soot and embossed with clear embossing powder to make it shiny.

For my background I inked a piece of Yupo paper with alcohol ink, having masked off a circle to create a large moon.  For my shaker I’ve used some lovely pistachio coloured sequins and beads from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards that I think looked like moonlight.

I’ve added in my sentiment using a chippie from Make it Crafty.  Well, two chippies actually, one a layered word and the other from an Adapt-a-Word set.  I chose to use a chippie so I could play along at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, although I’ve not gone snarky on my card.

As the current theme at Do-Al(l) Creative is Hallowe’en I’m also linking my card up over there.

Ingredients:

Chalks & Powders etc

Ranger Embossing Powder ~ Super Fine Detail Clear

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Spellbinders Nestabilities Die ~ LF114 Grand Circles

Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Thinlits ~ 662381 Moonlit Owl

Embellishments

Little Things from Lucy’s Cards ~ Pale Pistachio

Make it Crafty Adapt-a-Word Chipboard Set ~ Halloween
Make it Crafty Layered Word Chipboard ~ 2¼" Halloween

Inks & Paints etc

Nuvo Crystal Drops ~ Violet Galaxy

Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink ~ Pitch Black, Purple Twilight, Sailboat, Silver Mixative & Stream

Tim Holtz Distress Markers ~ Black Soot

Papers

Bazzill Criss Cross Cardstock ~ Lily White

Bazzill Monochromatic Cardstock ~ Raven

Bazzill Smoothie Cardstock ~ Majestic

Yupo Paper ~ 200gsm White

Challenges

Challenge Up Your Life #78 ~ Die Cuts

Do-Al(l) Creative #10 ~ Halloween

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #96 ~ C is for Chipboard

Thanks for stopping by!