SSS Fun and Festive Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am happy to join the blog hop to celebrate the release of the Simon Says Stamp Fun and Festive collection. This is the last stop on the hop, and you should have arrived here from Mindy Baxter, and I am sure you got beautiful inspiration there. Don't miss all the inspiration in the hop, and of course, there is a giveaway too.

Fun and Festive is a versatile collection with both Christmas and more generally themed products. You can see the full Fun & Festive release here. I also have a special code to share with you, if you use the code FEST587, you get a free Festive Stickles with your order. The offer is valid until Sunday, 10/14 at 11:59 pm ET.

I have two projects to share with you today, and both are tutorials. The techniques can be used on almost any type of project.

The cute Winter Scene stamp set made me want to make a little dimensional winter scene and I thought it was the perfect size for an altered tin. I hadn't done an altered tin in quite a while, and it is such a fun little format. It's an Altoids tin - I have a good friend in the US who sends me Altoids and I am saving the tins for projects. This tin can hang in a Christmas tree, or from a hook, or be tied to a gift. 

Here'a look at the front of the tin, which is also decorated.

These are the Fun & Festive products that I used for the altered tin: Snowflake Tags, Lined Circles stencil, and Winter Scene.

Start by stamping the background from the Winter Scene set on watercolor paper and use a torn paper as a mask to cover the hills when you stamp the mountains. The rest of the images were stamped elsewhere and later cut out. The background to the right ended up not perfectly stamped, so I just stamped images in the sky instead.

Use a masking pen to mask the stars, top of the mountain and areas on the snowy hills.

Smear Distress Inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. Watercolor the background.

When dry, rub off the masking fluid.

Paint the stars yellow and watercolor the rest of the images. I like to use stamping mistakes to test out colors, as you can see in the middle.

Add snow to the sky with a white gel pen and a little bit of White Opal Liquid Pearls on the mountains and the top of the hills.

Cut two pieces of Heavystock paper and round the corners. Apply embossing paste with a palette knife, through the Lined Circles stencil and leave to dry.

Paint with Distress Paint. Let dry.

Dry brush Blueprint Sketch and Picket Fence on the pieces to add texture and make the lines more visible.

Die cut the snowflake tags from watercolor paper. These are such fun designs. I especially like the one with the circle cut out.

Apply Distress Micro Glaze to the snowflakes to keep them white. Press Distress Inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and place the tags into the ink.

I painted the tin with gesso and then Gathered Twigs Distress Paint. Cut the background to size and round the corners, glue into the tin. I cut out the shapes with scissors, but it will be better to use the coordinated die set, especially since these shapes are small and detailed. The house, deer and one of the trees were adhered with foam tape.

To make the snow, I used embossing paste and covered it completely with Rock Candy Distress Glitter, which makes perfect snow.

Here's a closer look at the gel pen snow. You can also splatter acrylic paint.

Glue the two stenciled panels to the outside and inside of the lid. Inside the lid, I adhered one of the tags with foam tape, first stamping a sentiment on it.

The gumdrop heart was colored with alcohol ink.

One of the other tags were stamped with a sentiment and adhered on the front of the lid, using foam tape. I also added two leftover trees.

There is a Fluted Star in the center of the snowflake.

The edges of the tin were decorated with Design Tape. Add glue under the tape to make sure it sticks down well.

I glued a piece of cream paper and the third tag to the back of the tin. The tag then also functions as a hanger for the tin. All the sentiments are from the Winter Scene set.

My next project is a tag featuring the cute Big Picture Book Jack Russell die. It's a cute die and you can also turn it into other kinds of dogs. Our neighbors have a Jack Russell so she was my inspiration for this tag. It can also easily be turned into a card or perhaps an art journal page, and you can use the same techniques with all the Picture Book dies.

Start by die cutting the Jack Russell from watercolor paper.

Smear Distress Inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush to watercolor the pieces. Leave some whites for highlights and texture.

I wanted a little more white in the eyes and on her nose and used a white gel pen for that. To prevent the black ink from covering the white areas, I applied Micro Glaze to the eyes and nose, before gluing them in place.

To make my Jack Russell come to life, I applied Glossy Accents to the eyes and nose.

For the background, I worked on a Heavystock tag which had already been inked with a mix of Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap. Apply Distress Oxide ink with a blending brush through the Lined Circles stencil. The combination of Distress Oxide and the brush makes for a very soft look.

Distress and ink the edges. Stamp randomly with the SSS Tiny Alphabet background stamp.

Give some shape to the ears and add a piece of foam tape under the lower part of the ear, so that it looks like the top part goes behind her head, and the lower part stands out a little. The hearts in the background was die cut with the Clippings Hearts die.

Here's a look at the eye coated with Glossy Accents. I love Glossy Accents.

I also added some Design Tape to the background, for a quick extra detail.

The sentiment was die cut with the Big Friend die from the Good Vibes collection, and accompanied with a Clippings Sticker.

Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop and of course there are prizes to be one too. On each stop of the hop a $25 gift voucher will be given to a random person who leaves a comment. The winners will be announced on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday. These are all the stops on today's hop:

Simon Says Stamp Blog 

Debby Hughes

Yana Smakula

Yoonsun Hur

Amy Rysavy

Heather Ruwe

Lisa Addesa

Marge Yoon

Lea Lawson

Kristina Pokazanieva

Cheiron Brandon

Mindy Baxter

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

There was also a blog hop yesterday, so don't miss checking out the inspiration there. Did you know that Simon Says Stamp has special inspiration galleries for their releases? Here you can find the Fun & Festive gallery, and if you make something with products from the release, it is fun if you link it there.

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! I hope you will have a lovely weekend and that you will get some creative time.

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.