Keep the Home Fires Burning

Coming home to a house glowing warm with the smell of wood smoke in the air. What more could one want for the holidays? This card is the fourth house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

Blue house Slider-side

The card is a slight deviation from the die set’s easel card. This card uses a DIY slider base with the ribbon smoke and chimney as the pull tab. The house still is an easel card, but one that is operated by a slider tab. (A good video on DIY slider easel cards is by Maggi Harding.)

The house is cut from heavy card stock in a pale blue that has been in my stash from a card kit. The dark blue and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections. Note that there is a pale-yellow outline layer of the house that provides the window inside color as well as framing the outside edge of the house. The card base is cut from heavy weight white cardstock and white glitter paper.

This card goes together easily by looking at the photos on the Poppy Stamps packaging. It does involve a lot of die cutting as there is only one die of each window type.  (I cut lots of the small pieces and store the extras in a tiny plastic bags that I keep with the die set.) To add depth to the porch and dormer windows I cut those pieces twice and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper and some of the window frames and siding have Nuvo Glitter Drops used thinly to give the illusion of melted snow.

I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Salty Ocean Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A tiny drop of gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the doorknob and a wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set, complete the door.

Blue house Slider-welcome mat CU

The welcome mat was stamped and heat embossed using a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up set. I used a blend of Ranger Black Sparkle and Recollections Ebony Detail Embossing powders that give the welcome mat a snowy sparkle. Once heat embossed, the mat was weathered using Antique Linen Distress Ink on a sponge dauber and cut out with the coordinating die. Foam tape was used to adhere the mat to the sliding tab.

The windows all have a piece of pale blue organza ribbon taped behind the window frames to give the shine of glass and the rosy glow comes from some shading with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink on the pale-yellow cardstock. The boy and woman decorating a Christmas trees that can be seen in the windows are from an older Tonic Studios Toy Emporium die set. Also, from the Tonic set is the outside fir tree and door wreath.

Blue house Slider-chimney CU

The slider tab was first embossed using a brick stencil (See video by The Paper Boutique on dry embossing with stencils) and then inked with Fired Brick Distress Ink. To make the mortar lines standout, I used a white gel pen. I cut the chimney extra-long so I could fold it over and strengthen the pub tab and so I could punch a hole to thread the ribbon through and secure it to the back side.

Blue house Slider-pull tab CU

The “Season’s Greetings” was stamped in red and is revealed when the chimney tab is pulled up. A personal message can be written below the “From our home to yours” heat embossed sentiment on the tab below the chimney.  These stamps are from the Winter Woodland stamp set by Sheena Douglas. (NOTE: I would recommend stamping the revealed sentiments before assembling the card. I tried to do mine after assembling the slider and it was impossible to get a good enough impression to heat embossing the Season’s Greetings using a stamping platform.)

IMG_8568

I used another stamp from the Winter Woodland set on the envelope flap to give a hint about the chimney pull on the card.

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 – Keep the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies/Stencils

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

14 thoughts on “Keep the Home Fires Burning

  1. Enjoying the different house themed cards. This with the chimney pull tab is great and I love the glitter paper, which is so suggestive of a frosty winter. We have our final delivery of winter wood tomorrow, in readiness for the wood burning stoves we have for our main heating when it is cold (we have two in the house). xxx

    Liked by 1 person

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