Free Christmas Collage Printables for December Daily

 

Hi friends! I'm excited to share some new collages with you today.  After much thought, I decided against doing a December Daily journal this year.  I want to free up my time to do more fun things like watch the good Christmas movies and make cookies with  my kiddos.  I LOVE DD and think it is a great project and hope you will find inspiration from my journal last year posted HERE.  I'd love to see links for yours in the comments and maybe by next year I will have my ducks in a row again.  For now, I've spent a small amount of free time working on these collage style cards.  I'm excited to share the links to these free printables with you to help you get your projects together too. 

Y'all know I'm from South Carolina, so this magnolia card really gives me the southern feels.  :)  I paired it with a gorgeous fussy cut deer.  Find the deer image HERE.  Find the vintage magnolia image HERE.  I used my photo storage software (Google Photos) to edit the image and intensify the colors/contrast.  Here is my version.  Right click to open in a new window to save.

 

I used lots of scrap Tim Holtz papers from years gone by for the backgrounds.  I enjoyed using this deer illustration, which I cut as a tag.  I also fussy cut THIS vintage holly postcard from The Old Design Shop.  This blog is a great resource, but it takes time to hunt through.  I recommend pinning each page's graphic to a Pinterest board so you can find it easier later.  HERE's my printable Pinterest board.

I love a good reindeer image for Christmas!  This one was a free Graphics Fairy download with lots of other great deer images on the post HERE.  I love to pair non-Christmas vintage postcard images, labels and postage with my more Christmassy images to make my collection work harder for me.  It takes time to collect images and to prepare your files and cut the printouts, but I love how I can customize my finished work with them!

Finally, my favorite card from this batch features a stunning red bird, the Pompadour Chatterer.  You can find him HERE.  And below is my edited version.  And the gorgeous Rowan berry image is another The Old Design Shop freebie found HERE.  I use recycled cardboard boxes to build up layers in my collages for sturdy finished work.  This year I went to prescored card blanks because I found making 5x7 cards was a big waste of cardstock.  I got two sets with matching envelopes on Amazon HERE.  I hope these gorgeous images will set your ideas a spinning and wish you a very merry Christmas crafting season.  Hugs, Autumn

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Tim Holtz Winterscape Stamped Christmas Scene Cards

 

Hi everyone!  I'm back today to share a couple of inky scenery cards with the gorgeous Tim Holtz Winterscape stamp set.  I loved this stamp so much and never got to buy any stamps last Christmas so somehow over the course of this year I bought two sets!  I'm giving one away on my Instagram page @sewpaperpaint.  I was about to bust to play with these stamps!  I used a combination of ink blending onto Bristol paper and watercolor techniques for these cards.  I added white details with a Posca pen and fussy cut the central images to add extra dimension. 

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz - Christmas - Cling Mounted Rubber Stamps - Winterscape
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The trees were the trickiest part.  I colored them mostly with Rustic Wilderness, adding a little other colors for depth.  I left the snowy sections blank and then went back and added crisp white detail with the Posca pen. 

I used a torn sheet of paper to mask the hills for sponging.  For the sky I splattered water over my sponging and lifted as one effect, then splattered my blue Distress Ink as another, plus added tons of white dots with the Posca pen. 

For the moon I used a small circle punch and a post it note to make a mask, then added watercolor "clouds".  I've been very inspired by the videos of Lisa Taggart on YouTube.  She makes the most delectable scenes.  I cannot do what she does, but I've loved trying to mix my own techniques with some of hers.  And I will share a great tip I just realized.  I always use a Posca pen because I have bad luck with Uniball white pens.  But I just realized if they get clogged you can wet the tops and massage them and they will write beautifully again!  The Uniball is so much better over the extremely water reactive properties of Distress Ink and the Posca sometimes pulls up the color, which isn't always good.  I hope this helps you if you're interested in scenic stamping.  Holiday hugs, Autumn

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Guest Designer Cards for Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps

Happy November friends!  I'm so excited to be sharing some new projects with you for my November guest designer term with Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps.  It's also SNSS's birthday month and they are celebrating 14 years of business!  There are some amazing deals going on.  You can save 20% off of birthday stamp sets now through November 8.  You can also get the Stamp of the Month set free with any $60 purchase.  But the main reason I am so excited to be partnering with this company is their beautiful faith based stamps.  You guys that have followed me for years know how much I loved Verve Stamps for that reason but may not know that Verve owner Julee Tilman now partners with SNSS by designing select stamps and is on their design team.  I especially love to incorporate scripture stamps in my Christmas cardmaking.  So my first project features the gorgeous Oh Holy Night stamp set. 

I was totally giddy to use the Peppermint Stripe stencil with my beloved BoBunny glitter paste.  Look at how beautiful!  I wasn't sure about the gold and black color combo at first, but I decided I really like it and hope you do too!

 

Next I tried using the Peppermint Stripe stencil with ink.  I used Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink and a blender brush to add the color, then added a layer of clear embossing while the ink was wet.  I did the same for the gorgeous tree stamp, also from the O Holy Night set.  I added some red in my matting and with a loopy bow.

 

Once I got in the grove, I fell back to my "go to" messy ink dipping!  I made an inky panel by dipping bristol card into watery Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink and dried it completely.  Then I repeat stamped the large star from O Holy Night in Rustic Wilderness and dried it completely.  After, I stamped the small star from the We Three Kings set repeatedly in Versamark and embossed in gold.  I wanted this to look like patterned paper.  I'm not sure it does, but I hope to keep playing with this concept because I love the star pattern.

 

I used my leftover green ink to dip a much lighter panel and stamped the Three Kings and a sentiment from Best Gift Ever, a gorgeous sentiment collection.

  

 

I wanted to have one everyday card in this mix, so lastly I had some fun with the Succulents stamp set and my Zig markers.  The background was black on black embossed with the Geometric Background stamp.  I pulled the small sentiment from the O Holy Night set and embossed in white on black.  I sincerely hope you've enjoyed these cards and will take a look at the entire Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps collection.  I'll be back in December with another batch of card inspiration.  Big hugs, Autumn

 

Make sure to join the Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps Facebook group for more inspiration and follow on Instagram @sweetnsassystamps.  Follow the BLOG for tons of DT inspiration. 

Tim Holtz Farmhouse Aqua Pumpkins & Free Printable Fall Sentiments

 

Hi everyone!  I'm in full on fall cardmaking mode and I'm back to share a farmhouse inspired fall card made with the new Tim Holtz Pumpkin Patch Colorize dies and a fun freebie: a printable fall sentiment sheet.  Now, I'm not into Halloween, but I bought these dies because the base shape is such a great pumpkin image and I knew I could add my own dimensional touches.  

Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Thinlits Dies - Pumpkin Patch Colorize
Scrapbook.com

 

I coated each chipboard die cut pumpkin with a thick layer of crackle paste and used my awl to scribe ridges into the wet paste.  I let it crackle, then painted over it with Broken China Distress Paint, using a baby wipe to remove color in the middle to create highlights.  Then I sprayed them with Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide Spray, again blotting the centers.  Then I went over the ridges with watery Ground Espresso Stain Distress Ink, wiping away excess color, but letting it soak into the ridges.  I stained the stalks with more Ground Espresso.  I'm trying to work through my 5" stack of fall backgrounds I've made over the years, so I pulled one made with the Lumber 3D embossing folder.  It had layers of crackle paste and Distress Inks.  

 

I always have a hard time coming up with appropriate sentiments for my fall cards from the Tim Holtz products I have.  I almost always turn to old faithful, the Shadow Script #2 set, or more specifically the "thanks" die.  And then I've repeatedly wanted coordinating phrases to build on the thanks sentiment, and more specifically them to be brown to coordinate with my fall designs.  So I finally created a printable sheet of my own and am happy to share it with you.  These are similar to the Small Talk sentiment stickers.  I've added two sizes in black, brown and white so you can find one that fits just right into your designs and cutout lines to help guide you.  You can download the PDF HERE.  I layered the die cut thanks over a the Funky Wreath die and added a sentiment snippet from the free printable. I've shared loads of other freebies over the years so click HERE to see them all.

To finish the design, I dyed a variety of cuts from the Funky Foliage dies with Distress Inks in Weathered Wood, Ground Espresso, Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap and Tea Stain.  I layered them along the base of the pumpkins.  This was such a fun card to assemble and I hope it makes you smile today! 

If you're looking for more autumn Tim Holtz cardmaking inspiration, make sure to check out THIS post, where I shared another aqua pumpkin card.

  

And a more recent post featuring several cards with the Leaf Fragments dies, which you can find HERE.   

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Tim Holtz Leaf Fragments & Mica Spray Fall Cards

 

Hi friends and happy first day of autumn!  The autumnal equinox is one of my favorite days of the year and I like to have a family dinner out of doors with favorite fall foods, and a bonfire if we can manage.  Thinking about the coming fall, I've taken some time to play with the new Tim Holtz Leaf Fragments dies and am sharing a few cards with you today.  I hope you will enjoy them.

Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Thinlits Dies - Leaf Fragments
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For my first card I paired the Tangled Twigs background die, the Postal dies and the largest leaf from Fragments.  I worked and worked at this card, trying to get just the right balance/contrast and am finally happy with it.  I used Tim's old Coredinations cardstock, sanded for the Twigs background.  I gave the finished card some splashes of Distress Mica Spray in Tarnished Brass to add a little shine. 

Next I decided to use reverse cut outs to make a shaker card.  I used a lot of backgrounds I made last year for these cards, something I'm trying to do more of.  Goodness knows I have enough backgrounds made to keep me going for ages.  LOL!  On this one I stamped leaves from the Nature's Wonder stamp set behind each opening and gave the panel a spritz of Distress Mica Spray in Antique Bronze.

I used the Funky Foliage dies for the little branch and the 1" Alphanumeric dies for the sentiment.  I went back and forth about adding more to the foreground, but left it simple.  I do wish I had stitched around the edge though...

The final card is probably my favorite.  Years ago I was playing with Sara Emily at the lake and sharing our supplies and used Tim's ornate stencil and Sara's spray Distress Inks to make a background panel, which I loved but never figured out how to use.  I was inspired by Bernadette Ball's embossed leaves, so I wondered if I could die cut the panel with texture paste already on it.  And it worked!  I was so happy!  I sponged the edges of each leaf with a blending brush and Walnut stain.  I layered over a crackled corrugated cardboard panel and another of the similar backgrounds I had made.  The sentiment came from the Pennants set, which I only bought for the sentiments. 

If you're looking for even more fall Tim Holtz cardmaking inspiration, I did a recap post HERE with lots of other fun ideas.  Wishing each of you a lovely season with lots of cozy times and crafty fun.  xx, Autumn

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