With shining eyes be brave...

Hi everyone and welcome. I'm sharing a new card today that features Tim Holtz 3D Impresslits die 'Provincial' and his Flower Jar stamps and dies. It includes everything I love - texture, layering and delicate die cuts, and I've put together a full step by step tutorial so you can recreate it.

The Tutorial

Start with a piece of Mixed Media Heavystock large enough to fit on your chosen card base and a couple of pieces 5 1/2 long by 1 1/4 inches wide. Cover them all with Ranger's Opaque Crackle Texture Paste and set aside to dry.

Cut and emboss the two small strips with the Provincial 3D Impresslits Folder. I found that a couple of passes were required to get the depth of impression and cut with all that Crackle paste on the top side. If you mist the reverse of the card with a little water this process is also much easier too.

You'll have seen my card is one of those long skinny ones so just one row of embossing was never going to be long enough to span it's full length but that's no problem; the design is such that it overlaps perfectly so I cut the tiniest amount off one end and stuck the two pieces together.

Cover the back of the embossed strip with  a generous coat of Matte Distress Collage Medium.

Use the same Distress Collage Medium to stick the embossed strip onto the crackle covered background, trimming at either end to fit as required.

Once dry spray with Weathered Wood Distress Spray Stain, soaking the whole background; you'll see I do this in a tray to prevent the stain from covering everything else on my desk!)

Dry gently with your heat tool before blotting off any excess with a damp tissue. The darker ink will seep between the cracks whilst the moisture on the tissue will remove some of the water reactive ink on the surface.

To protect the surface and prevent any of the paste peeling off (this happens because it's had wet ink leaking underneath it) seal the surface with a thin coat of Matte Distress Collage Medium.

Use a Mini Blending Tool to brush Archival Ink over the raised areas of the embossing and around the edges of the background. I used Acorn Archival Ink for this card. If you get over-excited and blend too much ink onto your background it is easily removed with Archival Ink Cleaner and a small paint brush.

To create a coordinated matting layer for your background cut a slightly larger piece of card and add Design Tape from the Remnants set onto the edges (thank you to Zoe Hillman for this tip).

Use more of the Design Tape from the same set in a strip to the right of the embossed strip. You may need to use a little Distress Collage Medium to keep it in place.

Stamp flowers and the large jar from the Flower Jar stamp set onto Distress Watercolor Cardstock using Black Archival Ink and colour with your choice of Distress Inks using a fine detail water brush. You may notice I used the stem from the flower closest to the jar to stamp stems onto the jar itself. Use the matching Framelits die set to cut the flowers and jar out, blending a little Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink around the edges.

I then added machine stitching over the Design Tape and at the top left corner of the background before sticking it onto the matting layer. Use the Stamp Platform to add numbers (the smallest from the Merchant stamp set) using Black Archival Ink over the Design Tape. At this stage I slipped an Index Clip onto the bottom edge on the right hand side.

Taking the flower jar I cut a slit at the top to slot the flower stems into and added Black Foam Tape to the bottom half to give it dimension on the card.

Having stuck the jar in place on top of the embossed strip overlap, I slotted the flower stems into the jar before covering it in Glossy Accents. Once dry I tied a little twine around the top of the jar using the gap created by the Foam Tape before adding a couple of butterflies from the Botanical, Layers collection and words (Quote Chips and Clippings) next to the jar. Having mounted it all onto the card base the card was complete.

The Close Ups

Here are some close ups so you can see the details more clearly;

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and try combining Opaque Crackle with the new 3D Impresslits and Texture Fades Embossing Folders. It's a measure of the quality of these products that they work so well and give gorgeous results so easily.

I'll be back with more ideas and projects to share very soon. For the meantime take care and get creative!
Jenny xxx

List of products used;

(MAY PRE-ORDER) Sizzix 3-D Impresslits Embossing Folder - Mini Provincial	TIm Holtz Distress Mixed Media Heavystock TDA53835	(February Pre-order) RANGER CRACKLE TEXTURE PASTE	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Weathered Wood	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte TDAK47933 (February Pre-Order)	(FEBRUARY PRE-ORDER) Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink Pad - Acorn	AUGUST PRE-ORDER Ranger Archival Ink Cleaner	(FEBRUARY PRE-ORDER) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Design Tape Remnants
(June Pre-order) Sizzix Framelits Die Set 16 PK - Flower Jar by Tim Holtz	(March Pre-order) Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Flower Jar	Ranger Inkssentials Glossy Accents	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Brushed Corduroy	(EARLY FEBRUARY PRE-ORDER) Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Merchant	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black Pad #3	Ranger ADHESIVE - BLACK FOAM ROLL 1/2" X 1/16"x 2.1 YDS.	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Botanical Layers
(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Quote Chips	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Clippings Stickers	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adornments, Index Clips Fasteners	(MARCH PRE-ORDER) Tim Holtz Travel Stamp Platform - 1711e by Tonic Studios	(NOVEMBER PRE-ORDER) Sizzix Sidekick Starter Kit by Tim Holtz