Snowy Woods: gift-spiration

This week we are focusing on gift inspiration at Simon Says Stamp and Show, perfect topic for this time of the year. I hope you will join us and don't miss the gorgeous DT inspiration.

 

In Sweden Santa knocks on the door on the evening of Christmas Eve, which is the main family celebration day of Christmas. We sisters used to sit in a window and see who could spot him first. Santa hands out the gifts one at a time, and there are often rhymes written on the gifts, so the recipient can try to guess what is inside. On the evening of the 23rd of December, the whole family would sit in separate places in the house and wrap gifts and make up rhymes. My project would work great as a gift, but I think I will keep it for myself :) I made this project about a month ago now, I am happy to be able to share it now.

 

I made a dimensional winter woods scene, based on my memories of driving through snowy forests on the way to and from my grandmother during Christmas. This was one of my favourite parts of Christmas, the snow covered forests. We also used to count the lit trees we could see in or outside the fairly few houses along the way. 

The dimensional deer is inspired by my team mate Tracy Evans' fabulous dimensional deers, check here and here. I had lots of fun creating this, particularly making snow in several different ways. I did a step-by-step tutorial:

The base is a wooden box, it is actually toy packaging. I knew I would find good use for it.

Paint the box with gesso or white paint.

Apply multi medium with a paint brush, one section at a time, and glue music tissue wrap on top, wrinkling it up as you go along. Do the outer edges too.

Paint the tissue wrap with watered-down white paint.

When dry, paint it again, with watery blue paint. I used Adirondack Aqua. Wipe the paint off some of the areas, until you are happy with the result. When dry, smear with Distress Stickles Rock Candy.

I used both the large and the small Woodlands trees and painted them with a mix of Juniper, Lettuce and Stream Adirondack paint, for a varied effect. I rubbed the paint into the trees with my hands (very green hands!). When dry, a bit of Avocado Liquid Pearls was applied with a paint brush, mainly on the outer branches.

Three Mini Pine trees, and four Tree Lines were die cut from grungeboard, leaving a fairly large area underneath the tree line. They were painted with the same mix of green as the Woodlands trees. I also used the top part of the Tree Line, after die cutting the Tree Line you will see that you have actually cut two tree lines.

When dry, they were dry-brushed with Avocado Liquid Pearls. The bottom tree line on this photo is the 'negative' tree line from the die. If turned around, it would fit perfectly as a puzzle into the tree line at the top.

Now to the snow. Dry-brush quite a lot of Snow Cap paint on all the grungeboard trees and on the two Woodland trees, focus on areas where you would find the most snow on trees - the tops, the branches, and below the trees.

When dry, apply white Enamel Accents to the areas where you want thick snow. Apply some here and there on the Woodlands trees too (I forgot to include them in this photo).

Immediately sprinkle the Enamel Accents with white flock, giving a fabulous soft snowy look.

Here's a close-up where you might see the flock better.

Here you see the effect on the Woodland tree.

And what is better for even more snow, than to add some glitter. I used faux-snow glitter. Apply Glossy Accents to the bottom of each tree line, to create lots of snow under the trees. Apply just a little bit here and there on the trees, since we don't want to cover up the flocking. On the Woodlands trees, apply Glossy Accents here and there on the outer part of the branches, I didn't use much.

I cut seven deer from mat board, you could use grungeboard or chipboard too. Carefully glue them together to create a dimensional deer. Also check this tutorial by Shelly Hickox where she covers it in book paper. I painted the deer, all around with Sandal paint dabber, and when it was dry, I dry-brushed it with Mushroom and a bit of Brown Sugar, for texture. It was stamped with snowflakes using Saddle Brown Stazon ink, and a sentiment was stamped with alphabet stamps.

To assemble, start by planning where the tree lines will go, starting from the top. Glue them down with hot glue, start with the trees at the back (the highest trees) and go forward, overlapping the trees so that you create the look of a dense snowy forest. The hot glue also adds to the dimension. Continue gluing tree lines all the way down, then tuck the three Mini Pine trees in here and there.

The snowflakes were die cut from grungeboard, painted white and coated with Rock Candy Distress Stickles dry glitter. The little bits of faux-snow glitter on the trees twinkle real nice.

Glue the trees and the deer to the floor of the box using hot glue. I first glued a stack of small left-over mat board scraps to the back of the deer, and glued that to the trees behind, to give it more stability. Squeeze out glue all over the floor of the forest, one section at a time, and apply a generous amount of faux-snow (there is a lot of in the jar, I can't even see that I have used any).

I glued just a little bit of snow to the deer too, snow that has fallen down from the trees as she walked past.

A close-up of the small tree. The snow created from white paint, Enamel Accents, white flock, and faux-snow glitter looks pretty cool.

The scene needed something else, so that the deer wasn't the only warm thing. I die cut the small Star Bright twice from cream cardstock and painted with the same paints used on the deer. When dry it was stamped with the script stamp from the Stamper's Anonymous Classics #9 set (love it). I folded the star and glued the two stars together. A hole was pierced at the top and it is hanging in a jump ring from a screw eye.

Here's a view from the top, so that you can see the dimension better.  

Share your gift-spiration with us this week and you could be the lucky one to win a $50 gift voucher from our sponsor Simon Says Stamp (that would be a nice Christmas gift for yourself).

Thank you so much for the visit! Have a lovely week.

Happy Crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Dies: Sizzix Tree Line, Star Bright 3-D, Reindeer Flight, Mini Snowflakes, Mini Pine

Stamps: Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous: Mini Holidays, Classics #9; Hero Arts Playful letters

Ink: Stazon Timber Brown

Paint: Adirondack Juniper, Lettuce, Stream, Snow Cap, Aqua, Sandal, Mushroom; Jenni Bowlin Ranger Brown Sugar dabber; Ranger Liquid Pearls Avocado

Glitter etc: Stampendous Cotton Ball White Fun Flock; Art Institute Faux Snow Glitter; Ranger Distress Stickles Rock Candy dry glitter; Distress Stickles Rock Candy

Accents: Ranger Enamel Accents

Surfaces: Tim Holtz Idea-ology grungeboard, Composer tissue wrap; Sizzix cream mat board

Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Woodlands Trees, Screw Eyes, Jump Rings

Adhesive: Ranger Glossy Accents, Claudine Hellmuth matte multi medium