So look at me doing the same thing. Ha ha ha. I guess I'll have to forgive the retail industry and if not forgive, at least understand. For as all we scrappers know, the Christmas lines have been released on the scrapping world and woo boy are there a bunch to choose from this year. Let me introduce you to the Tis the Season line by Kasiercraft...yes, the company that makes all the wood mdf projects we love to alter. Tammy, from Lil' Lambs Boutique, created a wonderful Deluxe Scrapping Kit with this paper line. So after receiving my kit, I went in search of some Christmasy goodies to go with it. I'm sure most East Coasters will remember the blizzard of 2010...my girls certainly did. And even though it was way past Christmas, it did not bother them to keep wearing their favorite Christmas outfits. The photos below were taken from a "dress up" day where they were Santa's Helpers during our blizzard that caused cabin fever to set in. It's a bit hard for 3 1/2 foot kids to play in 5 feet of snow. But in this case, I took them outside and captured a little North Pole action with all the snow.
My first step, since I wanted to pick up the red of the dress in the photograph was to cut the tan background off the sheet with the scrolling die cut. I cut around the edges and used a dark red background to replace the old one. The edges of the red cardstock are inked with the Mudslide Colorbok pad included in the kit.
TIP: Since the Colorbok pad is ink instead of Chalk ink, you can dab a makeup sponge onto the ink pad and use the sponge to ink your edges for more of a brushed and softer look. Using the ink pad directly on the edges of your paper can give harsh, dark lines that do not give an aged look to your project.
Next, I created a Christmas tree of sorts by cutting out wavy triangles out of the green damask paper and distressing the edges with the Mudslide ink using the tip above. I wanted the scrolling die cut to work as a frame, so I used my Swivel Exacto knife to cut out an edge on the inner part of the die cut...this is known as fussy cutting. I set my Christmas tree inside the cut and removed any green edges sticking out the other side.
The mat for the bigger photo was created using the Martha Stewart Deco Fan around the page punches. I only did two sides since I was tucking the photo behind the tree and another cut edge of the die cut at the bottom. The snowflakes are made with the St Nick/Newspaper sheet and Joys of the Season Cricut cartridge.
To give the snowflakes a more vintage and finished look, I inked the edges with the Mudslide ink. I used both sides of the St Nick paper to create the snowflakes. The fatter ones above were made with the Newsprint side and the skinnier ones were made with the St Nick side. I used Mudslide over the skinny snowflakes to darken them up a bit to contrast with the fatter snowflakes and yet still keep the design visable underneath. My next step for all the snowflakes was to coat them with Rock Candy Crackle Paint. While the paint was still wet, I grabbed some translucent sparkly embossing powder between my thumb and index finger, and gently rubbed my fingers together over the snowflakes as it lightly dusted them with the powder. Using your fingers to rub the powder over top of your snowflakes will keep it light and even. I used my heat gun lightly over the snowflakes to just melt the embossing powder so it wouldn't leave a milky sheen on the snowflakes and Crackle Paint, then I let the rest air dry to create the crackling effect.
So now I feel obligated to go buy some Halloween and Christmas candy today.
