Followers

Click on photos to enlarge.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

On the Third Day of Christmas...

Hello!

It's time for the mid-month challenge at Heather Hudson's challenge blog My Artistic Adventures, and the mid-month challenges are geared towards Christmas with the theme being "The 12 Days of Christmas."  Well this being, March, that means it's "3 French Hens," and the requirement, besides using at least one image from Heather's shop is to use three of something on your project. WELL.  I became so involved with my fun project that I FORGOT to use three things!  Yikes!  So... I am lamely going to claim that my sentiment "JOY" on the front satisfies the requirement of three.

Well it does... 

Heather's such a darling girl that she let me slide, but you can bet I'll be all over "Four Calling Birds" next month.

In the meantime, I had a fabulous time making my block!  It started out as a piece of a 4x4 cedar post that I had the home improvement store cut down into 4" square pieces, and I sanded this one until it was silky smooth, rounding the edges and corners for that well-loved vintage look.  Then I painted it red, applied a layer of crackle glaze, painted it with two coats of white (with just a touch of burnt umber mixed in), then sanded that down until parts of the red and cracquelure showed through.  Then I wiped on a thinned burnt umber and immediately wiped it off to give the block the final well-worn look.  I knew I'd succeeded when my husband walked into my craft room and said, "Wow, that looks really old."  YES!

Then I started decoupaging images, all from Heathers store, to the sides.  Well all but the words, those were computer-generated and cut from card stock.

This is the holly cluster from the Vintage Candy Cane collage sheet.  Actually, the cluster is found on the candy canes and I did a bit of fussy cutting to remove the holly cluster.  I also enlarged it a bit using Photoshop so it would fill more space.



Here are two of the candy canes from the same set.  I did a bit of creative cutting so there was only one layer of holly for a cleaner look.  (All collage sheets will be shown below.)


Isn't she just adorable?  She's from the Vintage Christmas Angels collage sheet...


...as is she.  These retro images just warm me to my toes.

While the candy canes and holly were cut out, I tore these angel images around the edges and aged them with distress inks before decoupaging them to the surface of the block.

BTW, all images were printed on plain computer paper which is so much easier to decoupage than heavier card stock is.  Just remember they're also more fragile.


And here are my "threebies."  I spent nearly an entire day trying to discover how to convert true type fonts into stencils so I could cut my own stencils and apply the letters that way, to no avail.  So these are decoupaged on.  

If anyone knows how to convert fonts to stencils or knows of a program which can do it, PLEASE contact me.  I'm nearly ready to pull my hair out.

 Of course I had to elevate the block.  What better way than on jingle bells!  Now it tinkles whenever it's moved.  

And last but not least, I glittered all of the edges and corners with white glitter, the really super cheap kind that looks more like snow than glitter and that I kept planning to discard but never quite did.  I KNEW it would come in handy someday!

Thank you so much for joining me and I urge you to go visit Heather's blog to see what she and the rest of the super talented Design Team have created.  And don't forget to join the challenge! 

Happy crafting!



This item is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Challenges:

Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - March
 
Heather's Collage Sheets:

Victorian Vintage Christmas Angels Shabby Images  Digital Collage sheet Printable

 Vintage Classic Candy Cane  Christmas  tags Ornament  Digital Collage sheet Printable



13 comments:

Carol Salisbury said...

Heeheehee, your box "tinkles"!
This is gorgeous! Thanks for the tutorial...smart move using regular printer paper for the decoupage...I probably would have used cardstock and gotten frustrated with it! LOL
Good thing you kept that glitter it looks wonderful...perfect addition!
Hugs!

Sandi McLean said...

Vintage Christmas..makes me feel all happy and nostalgic. I am LOVIN' your block!! All that sanding and layering, it looks like velvet and I want to touch it! Hugs,

Sandi McLean said...

Vintage Christmas..makes me feel all happy and nostalgic. I am LOVIN' your block!! All that sanding and layering, it looks like velvet and I want to touch it! Hugs,

Paperesse said...

Isn't that just gorgeous!!! And girllllll you did an excellent job on that block!

Paperesse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paperesse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Catherine Pooler said...

Iv ebeen dying to see this project Shea, I LOVE IT! The jingle bells are the perfect touch!

Kristie Goulet said...

This is so awesome, Shea!!! The jingle bells are so stinkin' perfect!!! LOVE!!!

Heather said...

You are too funny Shea!! This turned out adorable!! I love how you painted the piece... I so want to do some painting!! I love that you used the images from my sheets as the focals on each side!! Cool beans...FABBY idea to use the bells as little feet!! Genius!!
Hugs!!
Heather

Heather North said...

Jingle bells for little feet? BRILLIANT! This is just so pretty. :)

Hazel said...

Thanks for entering your lovely creation for my CHNC challenge extra for March - hope to see you again soon x

Suze said...

This is a great project and I loved reading through the tutorial. Love the jingle bells for the feet. Thanks for joining in the challenge at CHNC Extra for March.

Unknown said...

Great Project and thanks for joining us at Altered Eclectics this time. Jax (DT)