Village Dwelling Gingerbread House

Here is my last post for Christmas projects and 2015! I've had this project in mind for the past few months, ever since I got my hands on the Tim Holtz Village Dwelling die. I can't wait to see what new accessory dies will be coming out in 2016 for it! I want to make a whole town lol. So, onto the project at hand – it's a wee little gingerbread house! I had one lantern left so of course I wanted to make it into a winter setting for my house. (Other lantern projects are HERE and HERE.)

Close up! I had so much fun making this little house and poking around in my stash to come up with "candy" decorations for it.

The trees are made from the Paper Rosette dies. Tim Holtz has a great tutorial on how to make them HERE. I frosted mine with micro bead "sprinkles" and topped them with colored Gumdrops to fit with the theme. Also, be sure to check out Tim's videos on assembling the Village Dwelling houses. They are very helpful.

I used the Village Winter accessory die to cut out the icicles and roof snow patches. The icicles are vellum with Rock Candy Stickles on them and I "frosted" the snow with Ranger Texture Paste and Rock Candy Glitter so it would look like icing. I also used the Texture Paste to pipe frosting details on the edges of the roof lines and walls. I put some paste into a little plastic bag and snipped a tiny bit of the corner off to make a small hole. I used it like a piping bag and added the "frosting" details.

Make your own mini piping bag. ;-)

If you are still reading this looong post I'll show you a few more lantern details:

Left side

Right side

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a happy New Year and that 2016 is full of inspiration and creativity for you! I am also entering this into the Filly and Funkie Holiday Hues challenge. Be sure to go and check out inspiration over there. Lots of great projects to see! ;-)

Village Dwelling	Village Winter	Holiday Greens	Mini Paper Rosettes	Paper Rosette	Towering Tree Die Set
Stitched Fringe Border Die

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Christmas Pocket Letter Swap

December has just flown on by that's for sure. I can't believe it's nearly 2016! I still have a few Christmas themed projects to share before January 1st though. Earlier in the month, I was part of a Secret Santa pocket letter swap in my ATC trading group. A pocket letter is a nine pocket protector page (like for baseball cards) that you fill with artwork and goodies and swap with someone. Of course we filled our pockets with ATCs and crafty goodies. This is the pocket letter I sent to my secret partner:

all the extras are tucked behind the cards

Here's a closer look with the cards out of the plastic pockets:

We all had so much fun with this swap we are planning on doing another in the spring! It's a great way to share artwork. Thanks for stopping by my blog and stay tuned for the last few projects of 2015! ;-)

Make It 3-D Christmas Spool

It's not too late! Christmas isn't quite here yet (thank goodness!) and you still have a few days to enter Eileen Hull's December Art With Heart Challenge, "Favorite Things". I finished up another Christmas themed decorated spool.  (See the first set HERE.) This time I used the extremely useful Make-It-3-D die in combination with the Tim Holtz Sleigh Ride die. The Make-It-3-D die works on all sorts of dies, not just Eileen's! It has three different shapes with various score and tab configurations that you can adapt to make just about anything "3-D".

The Make-It-3-D cutting diagram. I'll be using the shape in the upper left
corner to make the sleigh dimensional.

Here we go! First the finished project:

Ta-da! Let's see how I constructed it.
Step 1: Cut two sleigh pieces out of scoreboard and the Make-It-3-D section in the upper left corner. (I just cut the center part of the strip because that's all I needed and I had a scoreboard scrap that fit perfectly.)

Step 2: I trimmed the 3-D sections and tabs to fit the contour of the sled. Tip: cut the shape out of scrap cardstock first to figure out all your folds and scores. Then you won't make mistakes on your final material.

The solid red lines are where I cut and the dashed lines are where I added a score by cutting
part-way through the board with an X-acto knife.

I ended up trimming the front tabs even more.

Step 3: Bend the pieces gently at all the scores. I used a quick grabbing liquid glue and glued one side at a time, holding everything in place while the glue set up. Once it was all dry, I painted and distressed the sleigh. Then came the fun part – filling it! =)

Be sure to head on over to Eileen's blog and check out more seasonal inspiration from the whole team. Join us in the December Art with Heart Challenge!

The supplies I used for this project can be found at Sizzix, Inspiration Emporium or Amazon. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE at Inspiration Emporium to save 10% if you go shopping there. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10 at IE.

Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Box, Make-it-3-D	Sleigh Ride	Holiday Greens	Sizzix Layered Snowflake Bigz Die with A2 Texture Fades Folder by Tim Holtz	Sizzix Little Sizzles - 6" x 13" Mat Board Pack	Perfect Pearls Mist - Interference Red
Tim Holtz - Distress Stains - Festive Berries	Tim Holtz - Distress Spray Stains - Pine Needles	Tim Holtz - Distress Ink Pads - Aged Mahogany	Tim Holtz - Distress Ink Pads - Fired Brick	Tim Holtz - Distress Ink Pads - Vintage Photo	Tim Holtz - Distress Glitter - Fired Brick
Mini Stash, Yuletide	Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Adornments, Ice Skates	Ephemera Pack, Christmas	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Salvaged Dolls (Pack of 3), 1.75

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AJVD Guest Post – Winter ATCs

Hello everyone! I'm back on the AJVD blog with a guest post featuring a pair of winter themed ATCs. Keep your eyes on my blog because I'll share the rest of the set soon. ;-) Check out the post for more details about these.

Merry Christmas!!!

Quick & Easy Gift Card Holders with Eileen Hull

This is the time of year when I'm always in need of quick and easy yet stylish ways to dress up little gifts. I discovered that Eileen Hull's Luggage Tags die makes a perfect holder for a gift card! I think it's just right tied to a bag of gingerbread biscotti. I hope my son's teacher and class aides think so too! It really is a quick project to make – take a look:

I whipped these up in an afternoon (the baking took longer!) I started off by adhering the patterned paper to a piece of Sizzix Scoreboard. Using my Xyron sticker maker to apply the dry adhesive made it super fast and easy.

Die cut the luggage tag. Make sure the patterned paper side faces down when making your sandwich!

Nice fit! I love it when a plan comes together.

It's easiest to decorate the tags while they are still flat. I used stamping and embossing to jazz these up a bit. A little Distress ink around the edges gives them some nice depth.

Look at how nicely that gift card fits. I wrote a little note under each card on the inside of the tag before I stapled them shut. Make sure the card is pushed right back against the fold when you go to staple it. You can set the staple in about 1/16th of an inch and still have room. The card is in there tightly enough that a single staple holds it firmly in place. If you use a thinner chipboard or cardstock you would probably need to fasten the bottom as well so the card wouldn't fall out. Check it and see!

I thought, why stop now? I like to give a bag of cookies to the bus driver too and thought his gift should look nice as well. Fortunately the Place Card & Flowers die makes a great bag topper! I just cut it out of patterned cardstock, did a little stamping, and cut out the scalloped circle to cover up the "flower" part. (being non-seasonal and all ;-) ) Now the cookies are tasty and festive.

Are you thinking those gingersnaps are looking mighty tasty? You are in luck because last year I shared a free download of this recipe and other family favorites. You can find the link HERE at the bottom of the post.

Be sure to head on over to Eileen's blog and check out more seasonal inspiration from the whole team. The December Art with Heart Challenge is also going on right now and we want to see your creativity!

Dies Used:

Sizzix: 
Eileen Hull, Place Card & Flowers (Sizzix )
Eileen Hull, Luggage Tag (Sizzix )

Stamps Used:
Tim Holtz (S.A) - Season's Silhouettes

Tim Holtz (S.A) - Grunge Flakes

Tim Holtz (S.A) - Mini Holidays 4
AJVD - Pine Branches

Other:
Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, Embossing

Ranger Archival Ink - Fern Green, Pale Ochre, Red Geranium
Embossing Powder - white, gold, Ranger Antiquities Red Cinnabar, Moss

Sizzles mat board
Sizzix & Simon Says Stamp links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks! (My husband also thanks you!)

Eileen Hull's December Art with Heart Challenge – A Few of Your Favorite Things…

Merry Christmas everyone! It's getting closer and closer. ;-) I still have so many ideas of projects I want to make. We will see how many come to fruition this month. The theme for the December Art with Heart Challenge is "Favorite Things". Basically that means anything goes lol. Show us your favorite themes, supplies, whatever. Unleash your creativity and take some time for it in this busy month. You could be rewarded with a great prize from Eileen for linking up your project in the challenge post!

My project was an idea that I had last year and never got a chance to make. Nativity decorations are definitely one of my favorite things and I enjoy having them set up around the house for the Christmas season. I knew that an ATB tower would be just perfect for the detailed mini nativity I bought from Retro Cafe Art. (They come in three sizes and I was just amazed at the crisp detail. So wonderful!)

Of course it is so hard to photograph but I used lots of metallic paint, shimmer mists and glitter. This ATB really sparkles and shines!

around we go…

turning…

need to get all the sides!

Please head on over to Eileen's blog and check out all the wonderful projects that my teammates have been cooking up. It's inspiration all month long!

Thanks for stopping by!

Dies Used: 

Sizzix:

Eileen Hull - Block/Cube/Bank 3-D (Sizzix) 

Eileen Hull - Blocks/Cubes 3-D (Sizzix) retired 

Other supplies:

Tim Holtz stamps - Joyful Song, Mini Holidays 4, Christmas Nostalgia

Tim Holtz stencils - Rays, Christmas
Wendy Vecchi Layered Tree Stencil

Distress Glitter - Vintage Platinum

Sizzles matboard

Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Scattered Straw

Ranger Texture Paste
gold embossing powder
Wendy Vecchi Metallic Embossing Paste - Gold
Tim Holtz Foundations Metal Box Feet


Simon Says Stamp and Sizzix links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks! (My husband also says thanks!)

'Tis the Season' for an Inspiration Journal Challenge

It's time for the December Inspiration Journal Challenge! This month the theme is 'Tis the Season' and anything goes!

You may remember the Halloween spools I made in October. I promised that I would make some Christmas versions and I did! (I still have two left so we will see if those get 'Christmasfied' as well.) I really packed on the wintry Christmas goodness with lots of Tim Holtz and various findings from my stash. Onward for some closeups:

detail of top

Number two spool has a front and a back side:

Two sides are better than one!

I'm also going to enter these into the Emerald Creek Dares Christmas challenge and the Frilly & Funkie 'Tis the Season' challenge. =)

Thanks for stopping by! The supplies I used for this project can be found at Sizzix, Inspiration Emporium or Amazon. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE at Inspiration Emporium to save 10% if you go shopping there. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10 at IE.

Prancing Deer	Mini Snowflake Rosettes	Mini Reindeer & 25 Set	Evergreen	Holiday Greens	Reindeer Flight
Mini Stash, Yuletide	Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Gumdrops	Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Dry Glitter - Clear Rock Candy 8 oz.	Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Letterpress	Tim Holtz - Distress Glitter - Tarnished Brass	Ground Espresso
Ranger - Shiny Transfer Foil Sheets - Vintage	Perfect Pearls Mist - Heirloom Gold	Tim Holtz Distress Paints - Antique Bronze	Tim Holtz Distress Paints - Antique Linen	Distress Spray Stains - Mowed Lawn	Tim Holtz - Distress Spray Stains - Pine Needles
Tim Holtz - Distress Spray Stains - Cracked Pistachio	Tim Holtz - Distress Stains - Shabby Shutters	Tim Holtz - Distress Stains - Mowed Lawn	Tim Holtz - Distress Stains - Pine Needles	Tim Holtz - Distress Stains - Gathered Twigs	Metal Memo Pins by Tim Holtz Idea-ology, Pack of 30, 1-1/2 Inches, Antique Finishes, TH92833
Ranger Wendy Vecchi Embossing Powders, Red Geranium, 1-Ounce	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Designer Series Archival Ink Pad, Red Geranium	Tim Holtz Ideaology Ice Skates	Woodlands Ornaments by Tim Holtz Idea-ology, 3 Piece Set, 2 Trees and 1 Wreath, Various Sizes, Fiber	Deco Art Media Modeling Paste, 4-Ounce, White

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