Tim Holtz CHA-S 2011: Christmas Calendar

07/20/2011

Tim Holtz CHA-S 2011: Christmas Calendar

Day two of Tim Holtz projects! Today I am sharing a little Christmas in July! After I made this project, I realized that it was the second count down calendar I made this year. . . oops. I guess I just love the idea of this type of project for the holidays so much that I can't help but make them. Last year I made one too that featured a chalkboard. Last Christmas Emma really enjoyed changing the number on the countdown each day. The chalk ended up bing a little messy so I thought this year we would try numbered tags. By showing two very different looks for the same concept I hope you will get a little spark of how you can make something similar that you can customize to fit your decor. (Going way, way back in my project archives in my Flickr Gallery, you can also see a dry erase version, a mini dry erase version, and a magnetic version.)

Okay, back to this vintagey Tim version! This base of this board is a 10.5"x8" piece of foam core. I love using foam core for this because it is light, making it easy to display the piece in a number of ways. (I have a Grungeboard easel cut from Tim's Small Easel Sizzix die attached to the back of this board but have it displayed in a plate stand for the photos.)

Count14

The foam core is covered with a piece of Tim's new Holiday Memories Kraft Resist paper. I added color to the paper by using an assortment of Distress Stains. I used a wet paint brush to pick up color off of the applicator top and brushed it onto the paper like water color paint. I cut the paper about 2 inches larger than the foam and adhered the paper to the board with Glue N Seal adhesive by Ranger. I wrapped the paper around to the back. After the the paper was dry, I placed two holes in the front for two Hitch Fasteners. The foam was a bit thick for the fasteners so I cut a bit of the backing away around the holes. Once the fasteners were in place I covered the back of the board with a piece of solid color paper. The paper on the back covered all of the raw edges and gave the back a nice finished look. I brushed Walnut Stain Distress Ink onto all of the edges.

Count5

For the text, I used a combination of different letters. For the word "Dear" I used Grunge Blocks. I painted both the letter and the block black with Adirondack's Pitch Black Paint Dabber. After the black was dry I added Gold to the letter. Once the Gold was dry I brushed Walnut Ink Distress Stain over the whole piece.

For Santa I used Tim's new Kraft Resist Chipboard Letters. I love these letters! They come embossed with a clear design that resists color when applied to them. I colored mine with Fired Brick Distress Stain. They take color so nicely! I added a touch of Black Soot Distress Ink to the edges and then adhered them to the board with 3D Foam Squares.

Count10

The third section of text is created with Tim's Ransom Alpha Parts letters. These letters are all black. To make them white, simply place them where you want them and tap a pigment ink pad onto the raised portion of the letter. To make them glossy, I added a layer of Glossy Accents to the tops of each letter over the white. The strip that the letters are on is a scrap of grungepaper that I colored green with Peeled Paint Distress Stain. I brushed the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. Once the ink was dry I adhered the letters. They are self adhesive but I added a bit of extra liquid glue to the backs of them. After the Glossy Accents were dry, I misted the whole piece with Perfect Pearls Mist Green Verdigris. The mist will dry on the Glossy Accents so if you don't want it there you will need to blot it away.

Count12

I adhered the strip to the board using Super Tape. I only applied tape to the center of the strip, leaving about an inch on each end free so that it could lift up away from the back and add extra dimension.

I embellished the letter D with a Christmas Adornment. The Adornments are plain silver and can be easily colored with alcohol inks or alcohol ink based markers like Letraset Promarkers or Copics. Once the marker ink was dry, I dabbed on embossing ink and added embossing powder. Once the clear powder is melted it seals the color and leaves a shiny finish.

To mark the days on the board, I recovered manila tags with paper from the Seasonal Paper Stach. Each tag was inked on the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. For a calendar, you need 2 tags for numbers 0-3 and one tag for numbers 4-9.

Each tag was embellished with a sticker (or two) from the Seasonal Salvage Stickers book, a Kraft Resist Chipboard number (colored with Peeled Paint Distress Stain and edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink), a leaf and "berry" cluster, and a few Tiny Attacher Staples.

I used Fired Brick and Peeled Paint Distress Embossing Powder to add color and texture to the leaves and "berry" brads. I applied embossing ink to the leaves, added the powder and heated them to melt the powder. To apply the powder to the brads, I held the brad in a pair of tweezers, dabbed the tip on my embossing ink pad, dipped it in the powder, and then heated it. Once it was hot I re-dipped it back in the powder and re-melted it the powder until it was built up like I wanted. I added 2-3 coats to each brad.