ALL HEARTS COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.

Speaking of blessed ... here at Simon Says Stamp and Show, we are honored to have Jim The Gentleman Crafter as our Guest Designer this week!  I am such a fan of his work!  He's always coming up with something utterly amazing!  And just when you think you've seen it all ... he comes up with something else to knock your socks off!  Check out his blog and his very cool piece he's created especially for us this week.  Or you can click on the Simon Says Stamp and Show link above to see The Gentleman Crafter's creation as well as the other beautiful pieces made by my Design Teammates, just for YOU!

This week, our theme is "A project with heart". 

Since it is now officially the Christmas season, I decided to create a sweet little vintage Christmas box using a plain paper mache heart shaped box as my base.

Here is my finished top; complete with snowman, snowflakes, poinsettias and a Merry Christmas wish!

I began with a plain paper mache heart shaped box with embossed hearts on the side.

I painted the box with a basecoat of Claudine Hellmuth's Modern Red acrylic Studio Paint.  Then I sponged a little of Claudine's Dash of Red Studio Paint over the entire box.

I wasn't quite sure where I was going with this project when I started.  But, I knew I wanted it to have a vintage feeling. So, I added gold highlights to the box.  I mixed Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls Powder with a little water to create a "paint" and then I carefully painted over all of the embossed areas.  Next I lightly dry brushed some perfect pearls powder over the entire box.  Finally, I added even more gold highlights with a Gold Paint Dabber by randomly swiping it over the box.

I got so engrossed with this project that I forgot to take a picture of the paper that I used to cover the top of the box.  It is from the new Kaiser 6.5 x 6.5 Turtle Dove Paper Pad.  Those papers are amazing....very vintage and beautiful! The one that I used has a semi metallic gold sheen with red metallic sheet music on it....beautiful!  I hated to cover it up!  Then I die cut Tim Holtz' new Tattered Poinsettia out of some Kaiser Christmas paper that I already had.

I added some gold paint dabber to leaves and edges and then edged the leaves with Platinum Stickles.  When that dried, I glued them together and placed a Turtle Dove Giant Rhinestone in the center.  I tucked some cream colored tulle underneath, tearing it into strips and then tearing the edges. (You can also see bits of that beautiful Kaiser paper peaking out from underneath the poinsettia).

Here is another poinsettia that I created using Tim's new die cut.  This time, I did not use the largest set of leaves in the flower.  I used sheet music to cut this flower and then inked it with Fired Brick and Evergreen Bough Distress Inks.  Then I edged the leaves with the Platinum Stickles.  In the center of this flower is a small bronze metallic button from Tim Holtz' Accoutrements.  It is located in the upper right side of the heart, tucked underneath the "Merry Christmas" tag.  Again, ou can see the beautiful Kaiser paper that I used to cover the top of this box.

The "Merry Christmas" tag was heat embossed using Queen's Gold Embossing Powder onto manila cardstock that was lightly inked with Fired Brick Distress Ink.  I then colored inside of the letters using a Peeled Paint Distress Ink Marker.  Finally, I lightly swiped an embossing ink pad around the edges of the tag and sprinkled the Queen's Gold Embossing Powder over it.  I brushed away the excess with a regular small paint brush and then heat embossed the edges using a Heat It Craft Tool.  I love the "Merry Christmas" design of this stamp.  It is also from the Kaiser Turtle Dove collection.

The snowflakes are die cut using Grungeboard and Tim Holtz' Mini Snowflakes.  I covered them with DecoArt Snow-Tex to give them a white texture.  I then lightly sprinkled them with Martha Stewart's Crystal Fine Glitter.  When that was dry, I lightly sprayed them with a honey stain spray to "age" them a little bit.  Then I edged them with Platinum Stickles.

My festive little snowman is Tim Holtz' Winter Wonder Sizzix die cut.  He it cut out of plain grungeboard.  I also cut the Mini Heart in his tummy and added the vintage picture of Santa and a little child (taken from a vintage Christmas post card).  The snowman was texturized the same way as were the snowflakes.  I used Platinum Stickles around the mini heart.  Mr. Snowman's face was created using Black Diamond Stickles for his eyes and mouth.  His little carrot nose was colored in using a Spiced Marmalade Distress Marker and topped with a touch of snow.  His arms were colored in using a Frayed Burlap Distress Marker and then I added a little snow.  The scarf he is wearing was an old piece of vintage ribbon that I've had forever.  I thought it looked really cute on him...very festive.  The Tim Holtz Tattered Banner that he is holding is stamped using Jet Black Archival ink onto manila cardstock distressed with Fired Brick Distress Ink.  The edges of the banner are highlighted with Platinum Stickles.  The stamp is part of the Kaiser Turtle Dove matching stamp collection.  

Here is a look at the finished side of the box.  I added some gold metallic Dresden trim to the top of the box and also the bottom of the box.  I love the vintage feeling that it added.

And here is a better dimensional view of the completed box.  Very vintage, very Christmasy and very fun to make!

Now it's your turn to put on your creative thinking caps and enter our projects with heart challenge.  You could be the lucky winner of our most generous sponsor's 

   
$50.00 credit voucher!  You could also be selected as one of our TOP THREE PICKS for the week....a very nice recognition!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and remember to take time to play!  It's SOUL FOOD!

Here are all of the products available at Simon Says Stamp that I used in this project:

InLinkz.com