A Tribute to Tim Holtz - 12 Cards of Christmas - Card 1

The Stamp Man's current challenge is to make a card based on one of Tim Holt's "12 Tags of Christmas" designs (of which there are currently 48!). I had a look at Tim's tags from last year and had a go, then got a bit carried away. So far I have made five! Well, here's the first card based on Tag 1 from 2010.

"12 Cards of Christmas - Card 1"

Of course, I don't have access to the same huge array of equipment and consumables, so made do with what I could find. The house is cut from the Sizzix 3d pop-up house, instead of a fence we have an iron gate, and the die-cut tree was a present from a friend of mine, Linda (thank you!). The house and gate were cut from empty cat food boxes (no grungepaper available here).

"House die-cut from an empty cat food box"

A brick embossing folder was used to dry emboss the house, before painting with Picket Fence distress stain, leaving to dry, then going over with Brushed Corduroy distress ink to bring out the raised areas. The door was painted with Barn Door distress ink. The back of the door and behind the door were covered in scraps of V&A paper, and the window lined from behind with acetate. (If you're going to do this, learn from my mistake and do any heat embossing first!!). I used liquid pearls to add dimension to the frosting on the roof and windows, then heat-embossed alternately with hi-puff and bright white embossing powders to get a snowy effect. A small red pearl makes a good door knob.

"Inhabitant"

Behind the door lurks a little boy (from the Graphics Fairy of course), he's just turning to the others in the room with something in his hands. Did you give him a present?

"Iron fence and tree"

The fence was also die cut from an empty cat food box, and both the fence and gate repeatedly embossed with alternate layers of hi-puff and bright white embossing powders to build up the snow.

"Sentiment"

The "Let it Snow" stamp (from a Crafty Individuals set) was stamped in green distress ink and heat-embossed in clear, then punched into a circle and mounted on a die-cut circle of silver mirri card. The holly sprig is made up from a couple of holly-shaped sequins (thanks again Linda!) and some small red pearls. You can see the background quite well here - made using the technique in Tim Holtz's tag with inks, stamps and Perfect Pearls for shimmer.

Entered for the following challenge:
The Stamp Man