SIMON SAYS RECYCLE

It's another Monday and you know what that means....another SIMON SAYS STAMP AND SHOW CHALLENGE!  This week, Simon Says "RECYCLE!"

I chose to recycle a couple of things; a plain wooden frame, a Christmas napkin and some Tim Holtz packaging from his Muse Tokens.  Combining all of those things, I came up with this cute little "glitzy" vintage/retro Christmas decoration.  As a child, I remember lots of shiny tinsel and sparkly things at Christmastime.  So, I tried to incorporate some of my childhood recollections into this piece.

I started with a plain wooden frame that measures 8 1/2" x 6".  The opening in the center is suitable for a 4" x 6" picture or, in this case, my own little recycled packaging collage of retro Santa faces.

I began with just the wooden frame, a Christmas napkin and some Ranger Natural Melt Art Beeswax.  Instead of using my craft sheet underneath this piece, I used a piece of wax paper on top of newspaper.  If you get beeswax on your craft sheet, it's a dedicated beeswax craft sheet from them on!  So, when working with beeswax, use wax paper underneath your work.  I heated the beeswax in my Ranger Melting Pot and then brushed two or three light coats onto the front and sides of the plain wooden frame.   (When you do this, use an old craft brush because once it comes in contact with the beeswax, it will be a dedicated beeswax brush!)   
Then I gently used my heat tool to smooth out the beeswax. 

Next I laid the Christmas napkin on top of the beeswax and positioned it how I wanted the design to appear on the frame.  Then I took my Hot Wax Art Stylus (similar to a little quilter's seam iron) and pressed it onto the napkin until the wax began to seep through.  I repeated this all over the front and sides of the frame until the napkin was soaked into the beeswax.  Then I turned the frame over and adhered the napkin to the back of the frame using the same technique.

To give the frame some extra "umph", I lightly brushed Perfect Pearls over portions of the frame with the larger Perfect Pearls brush.  First Sunflower Sparkle followed by Forever Red on some of the poinsettias.  Finally, I added a little Kiwi and then some Forever Green to some of the leaves.  I wish you could see the shimmer and iridescence that the Perfect Pearls add!

I added a snowflake in the lower corner of the frame by adding a little more beeswax in that area and then pressing a rubber stamp snowflake into the hot beeswax.  Let it cool and then pull up the rubber stamp.  I then smoothed out the remaining beeswax around it with the hot wax stylus and added some Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls to the snowflake.  It's a subtle but neat way to add detail to beeswax pieces.

To further add some "glitz", I added some sparkly accents to the frame with Patina and Platinum Stickles.   (If you wanted to just make the Christmas frames, you could stop here, stick a 4x6 picture in it and have inexpensive but lovely Christmas frames to keep for yourself or give as gifts.)

Now that the basic frame was finished, I began to alter the The Muse Token packaging to fit in my open space.  It has twelve 1" round bump ups that accommodate the Muse Tokens.  So, I chose to take advantage of those little bump ups to showcase Retro Santa faces.  I went through my files of Vintage and Retro Santas and found several that I liked.  These Santas are so familiar to me!  When I was a child, these were the Santa faces I remember.  

I cropped them into circles and sized them like inchies ....1".  Then I printed them out on a sheet of quality paper and punched them out using a 1" Round Punch.  I inked the edges with a Chestnut Roan Cats Eye Ink Pad.  

Next I laid them one at a time underneath where the bump up would be and glued them into place.  When I had all my Santas in place, I made or found little knick knacks to put inside of each bump up that is reminiscent of Christmas.  A couple of the Santas are completely covered...but they are there.  Some have little candy canes, little sleigh bells, little Christmas bulbs.  There is a little present, a poinsettia, a little pine cone, a sprig of holly and even snow and a snowflake.  

To keep the items in place, I ran a piece of 1/8" Wonder Tape between the rows of bump ups.  Then I laid the packaging over the Santa faces and pressed it into place.  You could see the Wonder Tape through the clear packaging so I decided to put more 1/8" Wonder Tape on top of the packaging; between the rows of bump ups (just as I had done underneath the packaging).  Then I pressed some sparkly gold and silver Christmas ribbon on top of the Wonder Tape.  I love the result.  The sparkly ribbon better defines the bump ups and adds more sparkle and glitz to my piece!  Gotta love the glitz when you're doing Retro Christmas!

I slipped my new glitzy Retro Santas into the frame but it still needed something to complete my vintage retro look.  I found some gold tinsel pipe cleaners that I rolled up into a sort of flourish design and hot glued them to the upper portion of the frame.  Then I tied three little gold bells to some shiny gold cording and staggered them down the left side of the frame. 

Finally, I took 5 corsage leaves and wired them together.  I sprayed them with my own color mist of Broken China Reinker and water in a Mini Mister to make them match the leaves in the napkin.  Then I lightly brushed over the leaves with Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls and barely touched the edges of the leaves with Antique Gold Rub On.  Finally I hot glued a Prima Poinsettia on top of the leaves and my vintage/retro Christmas decoration was complete!  Every time I look at it, I am taken back to my childhood Christmases with the old fashioned light bulbs on our Christmas tree, dripping with long silver tinsel.  I can almost hear Bing Crosby singing "Jingle Bells".  I have to admit, when I was working on this piece, I wasn't sure where it was going or if I would like it all that much. But, when it all came together ... I love it!

Isn't it amazing what you can do with packaging?  I blogged a few months ago that Tim says never throw packaging away...because it really is useful in projects.  This is a perfect example of that!!  Now, go look at your Tim stuff and see if you don't start to see all of that packaging in a whole new light!!  (smile) 

Here is a piece I made last year using Tim Holtz' Ideaology Time Piece packaging, a 5x7 canvas, Ten Seconds Metal that I dry embossed and sanded, a scrap of Tim Holtz' Seasonal Paper Stash, some green tinsel garland beneath some little die cut flowers (I think they were the smallest of Tim Holtz' Tattered Florals) that I alcohol inked.  The pictures in the round bump ups are very special ones.  They are family pictures starting with myself and my brother when we were very young, sitting on Santa's lap; then of my children sitting on Santa's lap and then of my three grandsons' first Christmases on Santa's lap.  Like I said, it's amazing what you can do with some packaging!

Now, let's see what YOU can recycle into something wonderful! If you need more inspiration, stop by SIMON SAYS STAMP AND SHOW!  My Design Team buddies are so creative!  You will be amazed at what they have recycled!!!  Then enter your creation in our challenge.  You could be the lucky winner of our most generous sponsor's weekly random drawing for a .......

and....you could be selected as one of our TOP 3 creations for the week!  So...get that creative thinking cap on and GO FOR IT!!!  Recycle!