Sizzix Holiday Blog Hop

Hello everyone! Today we are having a Sizzix Holiday blog hop, with both the US and European Sizzix Design Teams. So there is going to be a lot of Christmas crafting inspiration! Don't miss checking out all the projects. And there are prizes to be won! 

I made a mini-book, using the House Album die as my base, and there are many surprises on the inside, namely pop-ups. I used a lot of different dies.

This house album would work for lots of different topics, not only for Christmas. The title translates 'Christmas 2011'. This is a very long post, especially since pop-ups are quite photo heavy, otherwise you don't really see the effect.

Here you see it at an angle with all the house shaped pages inside. I took a few photos while creating the covers.

Attach kraft resist Christmas paper to one side of white mat board, then cut out the parts of the house. Cut two of the structures, with the kraft resist paper at the back of each one.

Ink the white mat board with red distress inks. Mat board inks beautifully. You actually don't need to ink the roof parts, because they will be covered up.

Dry with a heat gun, then stamp a woodgrain pattern on the houses. Paint the chimney black.

Die cut the roofs from kraft cardstock and stamp with a texture stamp and white paint. Always clean stamps immediately after having stamped with paint.

I cover the lower part of house (below the roof) with Tim Holtz's new Frosted Film. This gives a great subtle shimmer to the house, and also protects the covers from dirty little fingers.

Die cut inside pages from kraft resist cardstock.

The white parts were covered with Crackle Accents and when dry I added some snow with Enamel Accents, also adding some to the chimney. The heart was inked red, stamped with a snowflake stamp and covered with Glossy Accents.

This heart was inked with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap, misted with Biscotti Perfect Pearls mist and then stamped with alphabet stamps. I used a piece of kraft resist for the door, and covered up the '25' of the paper with letter stickers, also coated with Glossy Accents. In Sweden, the main family day of Christmas is Christmas Eve.

On the back, I just stamped a sentiment and some snowflakes.

I used photos from last year's Christmas photo shoot with my son, I had developed them all, but not scrapped them yet. It's the same photos that I used on my Floating Floor pop-up tutorial from a few days ago. I decided to keep the insides relatively simple, using mainly kraft, red, and black.

For some of the sentiments I used a stamp with Swedish Christmas songs, cutting the titles of the different songs out. Lots of stamping too of course. From scraps of the patterned papers I used, I die cut a lot of stars, and different hearts. The secret inside the album, are the pop-ups, turn the flap to the left and you find this:

I used a whole bunch of Karen Burniston's Hearth & Home Pop 'n Cuts dies. Pop-ups aren't only for cards, but can add a real fun interactive element to mini-books and layouts. It is also a great place to add extra photos or journaling. This is the Square Ornate 3-D Frame pop-up.

Here you see it better from the side. The frame is a perfect place for a little photo.

Here you can see how it opens up.

I also used the new Bell Jar w/Pedestal die, cut it from a left over piece of acetate that had already been stamped with Platinum Stazon ink, painted a bit of white around the edges and placed a cut out photo inside.

Here's a little pine tree, a tattered banner and more hearts. If you lift the flap to the left, you find this:

Love this pop-up die and it looks great with the coordinating Sizzlits 'Love', forming a perfect matte.

The little shelf on these pop-ups is a great place for sentiments, this one comes from Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Words set. The little heart comes from the Love set die too, it's got the sweetest shape.

The frame was cut with Karen's Bracket Frame & Label die, which was the perfect size for my mini-book. The stamped text reads 'Santa is resting'.

Tim Holtz's new Holiday Wreath was die cut from ledger paper and I added some white pen marks to define the leaves. The bow was die cut from kraft core and sanded lightly. You don't always have to mount pop-up on another sheet of paper. Here the star of the pop-up shows on the outside too, since I didn't mount it on another paper. When you lift the flap, you see this:

The Star 3-D pop-up is a perfect place for another photo and some more stamping.

The star looks like this at the back. The stars from the Party Set coordinate perfectly with it.

The Fancy Frame, frames another little photo. I didn't mount the ribbon tree pop-up on another paper either, but had to trim the sides a bit to make it fit into the album. It is tucked in under a star, so that it won't fall open on its own.

Here's the tree when it is open, popping up from the page.

The trees come from the Tree Line die and behind the flap hides another pop-up.

Love this Noel 3-D pop-up. The 'noel' from the Sizzlits coordinating set was die cut from red and glued on top. I added some Rock Candy Stickles too, for shine.

And some stamped sentiments.

I used the left-over inside label from the Bracket frame here.

Again, the Poinsettia pop-up was not mounted on another paper, but shows on the outside too. I cut papers from the coordinating Noel Sizzlits Set. The Poinsettia was cut from kraft core cardstock, sanded and stamped. The page on the right was inked with Picket Fence Distress Stain because I wanted the resist pen nibs to show. You could have done this on the entire album too.

Here you can see the poinsettia pop-up, with another photo.

You could add layers of Poinsettia leaves, but I didn't want too much dimension in the album, since it is pretty chunky as is already.

The last page and the back cover, here the little Santa was starting to get tired of the photo shoot. I am so glad I got these photos scrapped before developing this year's photos.

Here's the line up for the day, make sure you check them all out to get some truly festive inspiration.

Tammy Tutterow
Paula Pascual
Amy Friend
Elina Strömberg
Anna-Karin Evaldsson (me)
Loredana Bucaria
Gretchen Schmidt
Hilary Kanwischer
Jan Hobbins
Jeanne Streiff
Tammy Roberts
Tiffany Johnson

Thank you so much for looking!

Happy Christmas crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Dies: Sizzix: House Album, Fancy Frame, Bracket Frame & Label, Ribbon Tree 3-D pop-up, Poinsettia Flower 3-D pop-up, Noel 3-D Phrase pop-up, Noel Sizzlits Set, Star 3-D pop-up, Square Ornate 3-D Frame pop-up, Party Set #2 Sizzlits, Love Set Sizzlits, Love 3-D Phrase pop-up, Birds on a Wire, Tattered Banners, Mini Bird, Tree Line, Holiday Wreath, Bell Jar w/Pedestal, Mini Pine Tree & Holly Set,

Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz: Mini Holidays, Mini Holidays 2, Mini Holidays 4, Classics #9, Classics #10, Holiday Wishes, Christmas Time, Wallpaper & Wood, Ultimate Grunge; Artistic Outpost: MidWinter, Frosty & Friends, Snowy Woods; Hero Arts: Starry Sky S5448, Merriest Christmas Wishes CG377, Classic Holly CG229, Printer's Lowercase alphabet stamps; Impression Obsession: Star background; Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Words; Reprint: Julefrid; Inkywings julsånger; FancyPants sentiment; Prima train stamp

Surfaces: Sizzix Little Sizzles mat board;Tim Holtz Idea-ology Christmas Kraft Resist, Frosted Film; 7Gypsies Postale Ledger; Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium 8x8; BasicGrey 6x6 pads Aspen Frost, Nordic Holiday, and more; MME Lost & Found Christmas; BoBunny dot paper; Core'dinations Tim Holtz kraft core cardstock

Ink: Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black; Distress Ink:  Festive Berries, Barn Door, Aged Mahogany, Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap; Stazon Platinum ink

Stain: Distress Stain Picket Fence

Stickles: Rock Candy Distress Stickles

Paint: Adirondack Snow Cap and Pitch Black

Mist: Ranger Biscotti Perfect Pearls mist

Other mediums: Ranger Glossy Accents, Crackle Accents, Enamel Accents; Claudine Hellmuth matte multi medium

Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trimmings; lace trim