Ice Skates!

My latest favourite Bigz Die by Sizzix

 Alterations/Tim Holtz

is the Ice Skates

I bought it with the intention of making Christmas cards,

but today made a birthday card.

 It has a simple background of a doily and

K & Co Scrapbooking paper edged with a little

Old Paper Distress Ink.

I cut the skates from white mountboard

and painted them with Folk Art Acrylic

'Seamist' colour.

The boot laces are embroidery thread.

The heels and blades were coloured

with Distress Markers.  I tried to make

blades shiny by covering them with a layer

of Mod Podge Lustre.

To go with the card, I made a simple

stretch bracelet.

  

It's made up of Shell and Howlite chips

and a little gold coloured charm.

Hope the recipient will like them.

Thank you for looking :)

 

The Toy Soldier

As I mentioned yesterday this is my current favourite

Sizzix/Alterations Bigz Die called

'Toy Soldier'.

I think I like it so much because it reminds me of

the fairytale 'The Tinder Box' by Hans Christian Anderson.

Not that the soldier in the story was a toy one, and having

just re-read the story as an adult it's a little bit unsavoury - lol.

I thought the soldier was a good guy, but he cut off the witch's

head when she wouldn't tell him why the tinder box was so special -

oh well, never mind, I still love this Bigz Die.

I decided to make some bunting with it and it

became advent present number 19 for my swap partner Victoria.

I cut the soldiers from felt and card,

 painted their legs, boots and faces

and grunged them up with some pencil.

I stitched them with military looking buttons onto some navy ribbon.

Following the tutorial on YouTube

'How to make a box from a single sheet of card'

I did just that and decorated it with some

old sheet music and another of the soldiers.

This is probably my favourite of all the gifts I made

and I think I'll be using the die over and over again.

.... shame I'm now dis-illusioned about that soldier in

The Tinder Box story though -

 next I'll find out that Father Christmas doesn't really exist!!!!

Thanks for looking :)

 

Christmas Cards

I used inspiration from Tim Holtz blog

12 tags of 2012 - December

to create these two Christmas cards.

For the snowman I used the stamp from

Stampers Anonymous 'Christmas Blueprint' set.

For the poinsettia I used the Sizzix/Alterations

Bigz Die 'Tattered Poinsettia' and

Sizzix 'Corners, Flourish #2'

I also made this one in a similar style.

I first die cut from mountboard the 

'Toy Soldier'

Sizzix/Alterations Bigz Die,

then stamped the toy soldier onto it from

the Stampers Anonymous 

'Christmas Blueprint' set.

The rubber stamp is slightly smaller than

the die cut shape, but it was much easier doing it

that way than having to cut around the rubber stamped image.

I think the Toy Soldier is my (latest) favourite

and I'll do another posting using it shortly.

Thanks for looking in at this very busy time :)