Vintage Book Box-Secret Santa Reveal at Anything But Cute

 Hello friends and visitors! We decided to do a Secret Santa at Anything But Cute, and the recipient of my gift was the super sweet and talented Anne Redfern of Redanne. I was thrilled to get Anne's name as my Secret Santa, but a little intimidated, too, because she is the Queen of perfectly crafted 3D projects! I wanted to make something for Anne that she could use, so I altered a book box for her to store her special Christmas cards she receives this year.

It started out looking like this. Since there are so many photos, I'm not going to burden you with lots of details on how I made it.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will get back with an answer as soon as possible. I left the book free of dimensional embellishments for ease in shipping.

Some of you may remember my simple 'Greetings At Christmas' tag from last year. I decided to pattern my book after that tag, since I used one of my favorite techniques on it. I thought I might be able to sneak this by Anne, because I thought she may have missed this post last year.  I chose one of my favorite Distress colors for the background--Evergreen Bough, and used Tim Holtz' Pine Branch Texture Fade to add texture.The trees fading into the background are stenciled with a stencil from Tim's Mini Stencil Set 21.

Of course, you'll recognize Tim's Woodlands tree die, another of my favorites. They are tipped with Liquid Pearls.  I swiped on embossing ink at the corners and embossed them and the Flonz Craft greeting with gold powder.

 You can really see the shine in the photo below. I gave everything a coat of sealer mixed in with Rock Candy Distress Glitter for a snowy sparkle. (So difficult to pick up on camera, as we all know!)

The back was finished without raised texture, so the box can sit on a table. But I was able to get a little texture by using Tim's Christmas Mixed Media die in opposing corners. I can't remember how exactly I did it, but I colored backing paper with (I believe) Festive Berries and gesso, making sure some of the variegation showed through the openings. I saved the little holly leaves that fell out when I cut this. I colored them with Evergreen Bough Distress Marker and replaced them in the openings. As you can see, I am not the perfect crafter that my gift recipient is! Ha! Ha! I have to blame it on poor eyesight! It might be time for readers!

I painted my "book pages" with Sepia Color Bursts mixed with glaze. I kept the spine simple using Sticky Back Canvas colored with more of the Evergreen Bough Distress ink and a die cut (Top Dog Dies) embossed in gold.

Inside the front cover, another greeting, this time a Tim Holtz Texture Fade highlighted with metallic wax rub over a background shimmery with Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold mist. The embossed poinsettias get their sparkle from Ranger embossing tinsel and a bit of platinum Stickles in the centers. I used Tim's Poinsettia Layering stencil and Ranger's Emboss It Dabber.

Here's the view when you open the box--plenty of room for those Christmas cards! I know Anne will get a ton of them! I brought out the Christmas Mixed Media die again and edged this panel in some festive ribbon. I've included my first 12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style with a handwritten message of holiday cheer on the back.

Here's another look of the front and back of the book box.

                        

Christmas Greetings, Anne!

And now I'm so excited to give you a sneak peek of what my Secret Santa made for me.

 Hop over to 'Sew Paper Paint' to see the details of this absolutely amazing richly colored and textured work of art that my incredibly creative and talented teamie and sweetest bloggie friend, Autumn, made especially for me! I'm still pinching myself! I sit and stare at it every day, and now I'm going to see how it all came together! Yippee! AND  she shared one of her beautiful Christmas cards with me with the loveliest note inside! There's more! I will be opening gifts for 12 days starting Dec. 14th, as she sent me 12 MORE wrapped gifts to be opened on each of the 12 days leading up to the day Jesus was born. He IS THE  reason for the season! I am so thrilled that you will get to see this gorgeous make Autumn blessed me with! Autumn, I cannot find words to express my gratitude to you for your lovely artwork and gift of friendship!

Ladies, this has been such a fun experience, and I'm so happy to be a part of this wonderful team! Anything But Cute will be taking a break in December, but we will be back on December 12 to announce the winner of our 'Rustic Glam' challenge, and starting a new challenge January 5th.

I'd like to humbly share my gift to Anne with the following challenges:

Frilly and Funkie 'Home For the Holidays'

A Vintage Journey December Challenge-'Winter Magic'

The Artistic Stamper December's Creative Challenge-Christmas I stamped and embossed my sentiment on the front cover.

Scrapy Land Challenge #55-Anything Goes (with a die that Scrapy Land sells) I used 2 Sizzix dies.

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #137-Christmas I used a stamp for my sentiment.

Country View Challenges December 2016-Christmas

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge-Christmas Gifts

Noor! Designs December Challenge 25 -'Sparkle'

Southern Ridge Trading Company Christmas and and New Years

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #260-261-Anything Goes

Thank you for your visit today, and for your awesome comments! I read and appreciate each and everyone of them. 

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

Pink Poinsettia Greetings-12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style-Week 4

Hello from balmy North Carolina (well it was when I started writing this post)! We've been having the craziest weather with temps and humidity that feels like August sandwiched between "jacket weather" days! Recently I had a warm, sunny day off and spent it mainly in the garden, cleaning up our very unproductive veggie garden and devastated perennial garden from our October storm. I rewarded my hard work with a little crafty time and finally came up with my week 4 card for Linda Coughlin's 12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style.

Please stop by The Funkie Junkie to see Linda's inspiring vintage Christmas tag, and check out the details of her challenge here.  It's a super fun challenge and the rewards are many! It is generously sponsored by Linda's shop The Funkie Junkie Boutique, where you will find an amazing inventory of the finest crafting products!  I have been struggling with this tag, because I knew immediately I would be making my version with pink poinsettia's--my favorite! I just didn't know how all the rest would come together, because I wanted to include the bit of plaid and the glitz Linda got with the Deco Sheets and foiling.

I picked up the gold and silver Deco Sheets earlier this year, and they have been sitting unopened at the top of my Tim Holtz Goodie Bin screaming at me to use them. I watched Tim's video to find the best way to color them, and in the end used Picked Raspberry Distress ink, the same color I used on my poinsettia. I used Worn Lipstick ink to lightly color my die cut panel (Tim Holtz Christmas Mixed MediaThinlits) and sentiment tag (Tim Holtz Labels Thinlits) and edged in Frayed Burlap for a vintage look. I colored the little holly leaves from the die cut "waste" with Mowed lawn and added green Stickles for sparkle. Linda mentioned how it was like a jigsaw puzzle putting the little leaves back into their assigned spots, but I found the most difficulty with getting the Stickles on these little pieces of paper! And my Biskit kitty got into them before they were dry!

Like Linda's beautiful fabric poinsettias, my Tattered Poinsettia (Tim Holtz die) was cut from crinoline. I spritzed with Goosebumps spray to act as a resist and when dry stained the layers with Distress stains in Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar, and Mowed Lawn and Crushed Olive Distress inks.  I highlighted the edges of the green leaves in Picked Raspberry ink. The center is a gem from my stash colored with Stickles in yellow and platinum. The Goosebumps didn't work so well to give good contrast to the stain (it worked well with Dylusions spray on my test piece), so I went back in with watered down white acrylic paint and my splatter brush.

The greeting is from Flonz Craft and is embossed in Ranger Silver Embossing Tinsel. I popped it up on adhesive foam tape over a plaid ribbon from my stash.

 Another card ticked off my list, and this one is going to be hand delivered to one of my local besties who adores pink and green. She lives a block away, and we met right after I had my boy/girl twins over 18 years ago. She saw my 6 ft. tall wooden storks a friend had erected in our yard, and she was expecting boy/girl twins herself. She brought over a tin of cookies and spent mornings with me to see how the "routine" was done. Eventually she baby sat for me while I took time to go to the gym in the early weeks. We've been best friends ever since. Our kids spent every holiday and birthday together and "helped" with our bi-annual yard sales until they hit high school, but now they've all gone in their own directions.

Most of the products I used can be found at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

I'm sharing my card with the following challenges:

The Funkie Junkie-12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style-Week 4

A Vintage Journey-December Challenge-Winter Magic

Scrapy Land Challenge #55-Anything Goes (with a die that Scrapy Land sells) I used 3 Sizzix dies.

Your Next Stamp Sketch and Color Challenge #53 Greeting was stamped.

Time Out Challenge #71- Christmas With an Optional Twist of Glitter/Shimmer

The Artistic Stamper- December's Creative Challenge-Christmas The greeting was stamped.

Fussy and Fancy Challenge 176-Christmas in Tones or Pastels

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #137-Christmas I stamped my sentiment.

Noor! Design December Challenge 25-'Sparkle'

Country View Challenges-December 2016-Christmas

Thank you for your visit today and for your lovely comments! they are appreciated even more during this busy month!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

Holly Jolly Christmas-Winter Wishes at Emerald Creek Dares

Hello friends and visitors! Now that Thanksgiving is just a memory here in the USA, our thoughts turn fully toward winter holidays. The theme at Emerald Creek Dares this month is 'Winter Wishes',and we want you to bring your best winter wishes, New Years ideas, Hanukkah or Christmas creations! To give you a little inspiration, I made a frosty Christmas card using a new Holly Branch stamp sold at Emerald Creek Craft Supplies and four of Kim's finest embossing powders. I have no step out photos to share, but I've included links to Emerald Creek products at the end of this post.

I started with manila card stock and using a scrap piece of card as a mask, painted horizontal lines of Golden acrylic paint. I love this paint--it has so much shimmer and glides on smooth. I blended over with Frayed Burlap Distress ink and flicked on some water for those age spots I love so much. This was layered using foam adhesive tape on a manila card blank which I edged with Versamark embossing ink and embossed with Charred Gold and Soft Fallen Snow embossing powders. 

I inked this beautiful Emerald Creek's Holly Branch stamp in Archival Jet Black and dried. I water colored the holly berries with Candied Apple Distress ink and the leaves with Evergreen Bough Distress ink and a water pen. The ribbon portion of the stamp was treated to some more of the gold paint mixed with glaze this time to thin the color and allow the stamping to show through. The shimmer is beautiful in real life--you'll just have to take my word on that. Once all the coloring was done I fussy cut the image and embossed with Soft Fallen Snow embossing powder to give a frosty look to the leaves and berries. I went back in with Ultra Puff White embossing powder to look like little bits of snow. I used the Charred Gold on the ribbon. To stick the powder in such tiny areas I applied Ranger Emboss It Dabber straight from the opened bottle using my finest paint brush. Because the embossing fluid is clear it's really hard to see exactly where it goes, so this was a rather tedious process. If you find you have too much powder on your surface, simply go back with a stiff paint brush to remove some before heating.

For my smaller holly leaves, I painted more of the gold on some card stock and cut with Tim Holtz Christmas Mixed Media Thinlits die. I embossed the 'snow' using the Ultra Puff White, the branches with Charred Gold and the berries with Fine Candy Red embossing powder. Again, I used my tiny brush to paint on the embossing fluid. The red and gold powders melt rather quickly, and the Ultra Puff a  little slower, so doing this was a little tricky. I had to be careful not to overheat the powders or it would melt into the paper. The paint does help to set up somewhat of a barrier to this.

I stamped Tim Holtz  Simple Sayings label on a scrap of the same card as the background (Versamark ink) and heat embossed with more Charred Gold. I applied a Holiday Talk Metallic sticker for the sentiment and inked with Frayed Burlap and Spritz and Flicked for age. Finally, I gave it a snowy finish using the Ultra Puff White. This and the holly stamped image was popped up on more foam adhesive tape. Now I can't get that song out of my head!

Emerald Creek products used:

Holly Branch Stamp

Charred Gold Embossing Powder

Ultra Puff White Embossing Powder

Soft Fallen Snow Embossing Powder

Candy Red Embossing Powder

Other products used and available at Emerald Creek Supplies:

Distress inks

Ranger Emboss It Dabber

That's all for today! I hope you've found some tiniest bit of inspiration in my card, and that you will head over to see what beautiful winter wishesl my teamies have for you. Then it's over to you! I hope you'll link up your winter wishes for a chance to win a generous gift certificate to Emerald Creek where you will find lots of goodies to complete your holiday projects!

I'm sharing my card with the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #136-Die Cuts and/or Punches I used an Emerald Creek stamp and a Tim Holtz die cut.

Time Out Challenge #71 Christmas With an Optional Twist of Glitter/Shimmer

Allsorts Challenge #391-Anything Christmas

Your Next Stamp Sketch and Color Challenge #53 I chose gold, red, and green.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #258-259-Anything Goes

Double D Challenge Traditional Christmas Colors With Optional Gold

Deep Ocean Challenge #-143 "Santa is Coming to Town" I interpreted this as being a Christmas challenge in general. If I'm wrong, please feel free to delete my entry.

Mod Squad Challenge-Holiday Dimension I popped up my stamped image and sentiment and light dimension through use of chunky embossing powders.

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #222-Make Your Mark I used a water pen and my inks to make my marks!

Thank you for your visit and your comments! I read and appreciate each and every one of them!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily