Hi all, Michelle here and it’s my turn to get all festive with you today. I thought I would share, in detail, a project I made a couple of festive seasons ago! I think it’s a really fun project, it has some techniques you can employ elsewhere and it’s a great way to share some Christmas memories with your family and friends as it would look great on a small easel on display in amongst all your other decorations!
Do Not Open Until December 25th
Supplies
2 sheets of A2 cartridge paper or 2 12x12 heavy weight cardstock in chosen colour. Brown gummed parcel tape (the brown paper type you have to wet to adhere) Water spray, Acrylic paint, Glitter, Cardboard box, Acrylic Gel Medium (a gel used to thin acrylic paints, can be found in art shops), Stamps and embellishments of your choice.
I made my own 12x12 paper for this by stretching some cartridge paper and painting it, you could also use a heavy weight cardstock in your chosen colour if you don’t want to stretch paper and just add extra colour with dry brush tones over the top of it.
If you want to have a go at stretching paper though here’s how to do it.
You need a solid wooden board, plywood is best, don’t use hardboard, it’s not solid enough! Lay a piece of A2 paper on the board and cut 4 strips of tape to go all round the edges. Spray your paper with the water and as quick as you can put your tape round all 4 sides adhering the paper to the board with about ½ width of tape on the paper ½ width on the board. Top tip don’t try and lick all that tape!!! Spray it with your water bottle!!. Once it’s in place score all the way round the edge of the paper with your thumb nail and criss cross lines over the paper edge, to really secure the tape and paper together onto the board. Leave it to dry flat. The paper will bubble and crease but as it dries it will be perfectly flat again, the reason to stretch paper is to allow you to wet it as many times as you like but ensuring it will always dry perfectly flat with no curling! It depends how warm it is as to how quick your paper dries, I usually prepare my paper the night before I want it!
To paint it I used acrylic paints slightly watered, nothing fancy just paint from a cheap shop!! I used three shades of red on one sheet and 3 of green on the other.Using a broad brush I ‘washed’ over the paper with the main colour then added the shades while it was still wet so it all blended and gave more tones. Build up your colour how you want it! Paint the whole sheet, after you’ve cut out the 12x12 square for your page you will have off cuts needed for this project and some left for other projects! For added Christmas sparkle while the paint is still wet sprinkle some glitter over it, it will stick to the acrylic as it is drying!
While your board is laying flat drying again cut some card from a cardboard box into a 12x12 and cut out the windows. The 3 vertical windows along the top are 5cm x 8cm and the horizontal one is 5.5cm x 7.5cm spaced evenly apart and staggered up and down. The big window is 14.5cm x 10.5cm.
I then typed out the poem ‘the computers first Christmas card’ remembering to reverse the lettering so the transfer I will tell you how to do reads the right way!! I’m sure everybody has there own way of doing this, I do it by inserting word art into a word document then using the draw button on the bottom tool bar to flip it! The text needs to be printed onto glossy photo paper.
Next find your photos. I made a collage of each year I wanted to remember by cutting round photos and piecing them together in the rectangle sizes of the windows, you could of course use one photo and fill the window. Once the paint is dry on the green sheet cut out a 12 x 12 square off the board using a knife and a metal ruler, remember to keep your off cuts to line the window flaps! Lay the cardboard piece over it and draw round the window frames adhere your photos in the rectangles, I used gesso round the edges of mine and journalled on that when it was dry.
Then cut a 12 x 12 from the red sheet. Apply an acrylic gel medium to the glossy paper sheet of writing and lay it in position on your red 12 x12. Brayer this down, you could do this with the back of a spoon if you don’t have a brayer, leave it to dry.
While that was drying I printed my father xmas image onto card (it is a vintage image I found on a web site) and coloured him in with my watercolour pencils.
Now gently peel away the gloss paper from your red paper and the text should have transferred, if paper fibres are left that you don’t want, wet them slightly and gently rub them away. As I have done this on to acrylic there are places that the transfer has resisted as it is a plastic paint but I like that effect for this LO. Practice this technique before doing it on a piece of work! (the UKS library has some great tips on this technique)
Lay the cardboard on the back of the red 12 x 12 and draw round the window frames. Using a knife and metal ruler cut round three sides of the windows leaving the top side intact for the hinge, then cover the back of the flaps with some of the green paper.
Using a glue stick I put some glue round the edge of the big window frame, quite thickly covering it with some gold embossing powder and heating it to create the rough metal frame. I made the little calendar to look like the ones we used to use at school every year but you can buy these, I inked it to age it. The postmark is from a stamp do not open until xmas which I then photocopied onto ordinary paper and using some sticky back plastic (or wide packing sellotape) I layed it over the image, not pressing too firmly then peeling it off to get a transparent transfer, using its own residual sticky to adhere it to the calendar and front of the window.
I stamped stitches round the other frames and some swirls in black and gold. I added some dymo words to the window flaps and stapled on some ribbon.
The red LO is ready to stick to the cardboard 12 x 12 then in turn stick this onto the green one. Finally Santa was added with some foam pads, I did a larger text transfer onto some red paper, adhering this to a strip of cardboard box for the top of the big window and attaching it with brads and added a dress up brad holly leaf for good measure to pull the top corner of the LO in!
And that’s it a bit of festive decor full of memories, why not make your own memory advent calendar this year? Thanks for stopping by and until soon Happy Crafting
Love
M x
I really like the idea of a memory Advent calendar and this is a transfer technique I'd like to try too...tfs!
Mandy
Posted by: Mandy | October 16, 2010 at 12:02 PM
Wow, what a beautiful decor project.
Posted by: Suzanne | October 19, 2010 at 09:56 AM