Happy Monday!!  Thank you for starting your creative week with me and THANK YOU and Welcome to my new followers!!  I surely appreciate your visits and comments–Thank You soooooo much!!  I love making all of these new creative connections–I have bloggy friends all over the world now!! 🙂

OK–You may be asking, ‘Making Spirits Bright-Again?’  What’s with the “again” part?  Well, I posted a blog with the same title last year (there may be a yearly theme starting here?) and I couldn’t think of another better title for this posting.  But, the card is completely different–kind of–there may be some similarities–but purely by coincidence!!😉

What does make this card a little different this year is, it’s not only a card in the DONE pile of Christmas cards-early!, it’s a challenge card that I made for A Vintage Journey-All Sewn Up.  Another inspiring challenge to get me creating for Christmas!!  Thank goodness for challenges–I Love Them!!

With A Vintage Journey’s theme of All Sewn Up, we’re to use the inspiration of  Tim Holtz and incorporate the theme of sewing or sewing related, into our projects.  Well, I think I may have actually channeled Tim directly when I made this card, because it came together so smoothly and quickly.  I didn’t find myself overthinking it and adding those final touches of stitching really brought that vintagey, Tim Holtz style full-circle, right on my own card!!

I don’t have any step-outs for this card, but there are so few ingredients that went into making this card, it’s the technique’s end results that are the stars!!

My card base is kraft stock, cut and folded as a top-fold card.  The first layer is a piece of red TH Kraft-Core stock that I ran through one of the TH/Sizzix Holiday Knit set texture fades.  I then lightly sanded the embossed design, distressed the edges with my paper distresser and rubbed Walnut Stain DI over the surface and edges with my ink blending tool.  I secured the panel to the card base with double-back tape, then ran through my sewing machine to stitch the border.

Isn’t this lantern image fun?  It’s from Tim’s Christmas Blueprint 5 set and here, I’ve heat embossed it onto multi-media paper that I had first inked with Chipped Sapphire & Squeezed Lemonade DIs and my ink blending tools.  I then water colored the lantern with my water brush and DMs in Barn Door, Squeezed Lemonade & Pumice Stone.  The blue paint splatters in the background is Bolivian Blue Twinkling H2Os and the water spots are my own concoction of Walnut Stain re-inker in a spray bottle that I spritzed & flicked over the panel.  I finished with painting a thin layer of Diamond Glaze over the ‘glass’ portion of the lantern image and set aside to dry.

I improvised this little snowflake sticker for this TH/Idea-ology file tab by using a snowflake from the Christmastime Remnant Rubs and a piece of label paper–I rubbed the snowflake onto the label paper, rubbed a little Broken China DI over the top and punched out with a 3/8″ circle punch.  I inked the edges with Walnut Stain and placed into the depression on the file tab and sealed with the acrylic dot.  Ta-Da!!

I made these little banners from a set of Christmas sentiments by Hero Arts called Sunny Holiday Messages (circa 2006).  I stamped the words onto manila stock with Jet Black Archival, cut out and inked the edges with Walnut Stain DI and my mini ink blending tool.  They were stitched into place on the top panel before final assembly.

I’m creating a few cards with this Christmas Blueprint 5 set, so I’ll have-at the least-3 more cards to share in the next week.  That’s fun when the mojo is in full swing and I can create several cards in one sitting!  Especially Christmas cards and especially challenge cards!

 A Vintage Journey-All Sewn Up is running until November 27th (UK time) so get your Tim Holtz mojo in gear and create your own sewing themed creation for the challenge!!  Hope to see you there🙂

Thanks again for stopping by!!  Cheers to a creative week and until next time–Stay Artsy Fartsy!!

SUPPLIES I USED:

• Surfaces: Mixed-Media Paper (Strathmore); Manila Stock; Kraft Core (Tim Holtz/Core’dinations); Label Paper (Avery); Kraft Stock (Papertrey Ink)
• Stamps:  Christmas Blueprint 5 (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous); Sunny Holiday Messages (Hero Arts)
• Distress Inks & Markers (Tim Holtz/Ranger); Colorbox Black Pigment Ink (Clearsnap); Black Embossing Powder (WOW)
• Holiday Knit Texture Fades (Tim Holtz/Sizzix); Big Shot Machine (Sizzix); Paper Distresser (Tim Holtz/Tonic Studios); Sewing Machine (Kenmore)
• Remnant Rubs & File Tab (Tim Holtz/Idea-ology)
• Craft Sheet (Ranger); Embossing Heat Gun; Heat Tool; Double-Back Tape (3M)