Tim Holtz/Sizzix Chapter 3 - Jolly St Nick...

Hi folks, the weather in my neck of the woods has gone from beautiful sunshine "Summer has arrived" to chilly and wet "tucking your vest into your knickers" days again so I think it's appropriate to share a snowy Christmas project I made for the Facebook Live launch of Tim Holtz/Sizzix Chapter 3 Seasonal release. If you happened to miss it, you can check out all the amazing new products and the fabulous inspirational samples over at Tim's blog...Halloween HERE and Christmas HERE.

I'm holding my hands up and confessing that the Jolly St Nick Colorize Thinlits die is,without a shadow of a doubt, my absolute favourite from the new release and probably my all-time favourite of the Christmas dies that Tim has released over the years.

I started off by trimming white card to roughly the size of a Medium Etcetera Tag and die cut using the Festive Repeats Thinlits. The Repeat Thinlits are so easy to use, just line up the die with what you have already cut and hey presto, you have a seamless repeat pattern and in this case, lots of perfectly die cut dots left over. Paula Cheney has shared a great tutorial on how to use the Festive Repeat Thinlits which you can check out HERE.

I placed the card in my trusty Splat Box and spritzed with Faded Jeans and Broken China Distress Oxide Sprays, followed by a light mist of water to create that oxidised effect and dried.

At this point, I changed tack slightly thinking that fixing the whole panel to the tag was going to be too much so I applied a coat of Gesso to the tag, followed by torn strips of the Festive Repeat card and snow banks die cut from Tim Holtz/Sizzix Home For The Holiday Thinlits fixed in place with Distress Collage Medium Matte. I then applied a light coat of Ranger Texture Paste Opague White all over the tag to create some texture, wiping it back slightly from the Festive Repeat sections.

Then it was time to die-cut the star of the show, the absolutely gorgeous Jolly St Nick and seriously folks, how cute is this guy, look at the expression on his face. I was enchanted as this adorable fella truly came to life before my very eyes, it was a real "I'm in love" moment.

To make the process easier I used a great tip from Tim himself and fixed Sizzix Adhesive sheets to the back of the Idea-ology Classic Kraftstock and sanded back to reveal the kraft core before die-cutting. Colorize is a brand new concept in die-cutting, once again Tim Holtz and Sizzix have pushed the boundaries to allow us to create beautiful layered dimensional elements and believe me, it's far easier than you might think. If you click on the Facebook Live Christmas video HERE and fast forward to 45 minutes, Tim shares hints and tips and explains all you need to know. I'm not going to lie, I did feel a bit apprehensive but right from sticking the adhesive sheets to the Kraftstock to the finished result was just under an hour. Just like putting together an Ikea flat pack, once you've nailed the first one, it will get quicker and you'll be up and running on a fun Jolly St Nick production line. 

And there's also a handy video from Tim explaining the process

I applied a coat of Distress Collage Medium Matte to the Etcetera Tag, added shading around the edges and along the snow banks with Faded Jeans Distress Crayon and fixed Jolly St Nick in place with Tim Holtz/Sizzix Mini Foam Adhesive.

I die cut the wording from Classic Kraftstock using Tim Holtz/Sizzix Handmade BigZ XL die and had no problems fixing the letters to the slightly rough uneven texture of the background, thanks to the super stickiness of the adhesive sheets.

I was determined to use some of those waste die-cut circles so I fixed some back in the negative spaces of the Festive Repeat sections and others just dotted around the edges.

and stored the rest in a pot to use for shaker projects.

I fixed Tim Holtz/Sizzix Adhesive sheets to Classic Kraftstock and white card and die cut the parcels using Tim Holtz/Sizzix Santa's Helper Thinlits. I left the die-cuts in the card until I was ready to assemble each parcel, that way you can easily identify the different coloured bits and pieces that go to make up each parcel and again, having them self adhesive, makes assembly a piece of cake.

My Jolly St Nick seemed to be floating in mid-air so I decided to use up some more of those waste die-cut circles to ground this adorable fella.

I added Idea-ology Chit Chat Stickers

Christmastime Remnant Rubs and Ribbon and Twine Bows

I have to say I was a little sad when this adorable fella left the cubbyhole to make the long journey across the pond and I guess it took him slightly longer than if he'd been travelling by his usual mode of transport - the magic sleigh pulled by Rudolph and Co. (Note to Self - make a duplicate now, don't wait until the "headless chicken" week before Christmas)

I'll be sharing some more makes with the "I just couldn't stop" Nordic Winter Thinlits tomorrow.

Toodle-oo for now

Hugs Kath xxx

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