 Hi everyone and welcome back to another mixed media project this is the last one of my Christmas countdown so let's start today I decided to work on a six by six paper and I am going to play with my distressed ink I will use one of my favorite techniques which is smoothing ink on top of a non-stick mat the colors that I am working with today are shabby satters and vintage photo I have applied lots of ink on my mat since I am going to cover up a six by six paper and by the way the paper that I am working with is mixed media paper by ranger so this is the first layer I am going to use my heat gun to make sure that this layer is completely dry and then I am going to repeat the process with the leftover ink that I have on my mat I am not going to add any new color after all I do have enough there and I want my background to be quite subtle just like it looks at the moment I am super happy with how it looks it does have some texture some visual interest so I am going to dry it completely and move on to the next step on this step I am going to do some stamping I am using stamps with text that I have been using again and again throughout the years and I am going to stamp that with brown ink this is archival ink and the tag is actually vintage photo I am going to stamp all over the background making sure that I don't get a complete rectangles perfect rectangles of stamping back there I just like everything to look quite organic and then I am going to use another stamp with a smaller text and this time I am working with black ink again archival ink and I am going to go all around the borders this way I am creating kind of a darker frame which is a technique that I absolutely love and I repeated on my pages again and again I also grabbed this coffee stain stamp that I had for ages it's one of my favorites and I am going to stamp a few times again by using brown archival ink and then as this is my last project for this Christmas countdown I decided to add the 2021 on one side of my page so I am going to stamp with these big numbers this is a very old stamp set that I had for ages this is by team holds and stampers anonymous another way to go for something similar would be to use die cut numbers that you can stick on top I'm not going to stamp the numbers a second time on top to get a perfect impression and super vibrancy on the black ink because I like the imperfections since it happens to be a background and I am going to cover up a part of it but you will still be able to tell what's there so I'm happy with the background I'm going to zoom in for you so you can see how it looks and I'm going to move on and do my die cutting for my focal point today I decided to go with this typewriter I had it in my stash for a few months now and I have been meaning to use it so today I think is the perfect opportunity before the year ends I decided to go with red and black for my typewriter after all this is going to be a Christmas page and I absolutely love the traditional Christmas color combo so that's why my typewriter is going to have red accents on top so as I'm putting together my typewriter I need to let you all know that this is going to be the last video for 2020 I am going to take a break to enjoy holidays with my family I will be back next year with more videos I'm not going to stop crafting through the holiday season this is my therapy after all but I am I am going to stop filming and I won't have to do any editing or writing blog posts so this is a great vacation for me that I really need I did use vintage photo to wing up the edges so it doesn't look super flat this way I add shadows on the edge and it makes it look more dimensional and for the back of the keys I'm going to use the same cardstock and stick it back there I did ink it to darken it up a little bit and I do have another step for these keys which I'm going to keep for the last minute because I don't want to make a mess you will see what I mean later on when you die cut this typewriter you will see that it has a line an embossed line at the bottom I'm going to follow this one from the red color typewriter I'm going to cut out this piece and stick it on top of the black one just to add an extra accent of red at the bottom I absolutely love die cutting and I always like to be quite creative with the dies that are included in a set so you see here I just got two die cuts but I did create more of them so that I can put together a typewriter that has many accents on top now I'm going to cut out lots of Christmas foliage from this die set this is from a previous year and I have been using it a lot I'm not going to show you how I put them together I just die cut different colors of cardstock and stick one on top of the other following the guidelines on the packaging these diesets are still available and I think that they are a great add-on on your stars because they can be used as little accents and fillers on so many different Christmas projects so I'm sticking down my typewriter and I do have some dimension by adding some foam tape at the back and then I'm going to tuck underneath the typewriter the foliage that I die cut I'm going to create a couple of clusters one on each side of the typewriter and you can go wild here you can add as many as you like I decided to keep it quite simple and if you notice I did use lots of different shades of green so one element on top of the other is going to pop and they are not going to all blend together and you won't be able to tell what's there so I'm going to create the other cluster on the other side exactly the same way and I don't really mind if I have things sticking out of my six by six area I am planning to frame this one on a bigger shadow box so it doesn't really matter plus when I put it back on my diskbound journal it's not a problem if you have things sticking out of the main six by six book and to tell you the truth having things sticking out of the pages on an art journal it really adds more character on your book okay so I'm happy with that for now I'm going to go ahead and create a paper that comes out of my typewriter for that again I'm using mixed media paper and I'm going to use my deckled edge trimmer so they have a lovely and interesting edge on that I'm going to trim it down making sure that this is going to fit inside the typewriter and it is easy for me to tag it behind since I do have some dimension now this is quite long so I'm going to chop off the bottom and I think that it looks fine now you can actually instead of this piece that I am creating use a piece from a book or you can write down whatever you like your wishes for the new year for example I decided to do some stamping on top and then add a combination of stickers so I wanted this to look as if someone did type that that's why I used some wash tape on the edges to have a border I am stamping with this rubber stamp that has a sayings of Christmas it's all about Christmas on this text and I didn't go for the perfect impression just like I always do with my art journals I'm going to ink up the edges just a touch and then I'm going to use my bone folder and add a curve on this piece this way I'm going to make it look more dimensional and I absolutely love to have some movement on my elements and just to make sure that I'm not going to lose that dimension on the paper I'm going to use foam squares at the back of where I want the mountain to be and I'm going to use a glue of where the valley is going to be so I'm going to stick that down tag it inside my typewriter and now my project is pretty much ready but let's add some few details here and there which are going to bring everything together and they are going to take this project into the next level so I'm going to bring in my sticker book and I'm going to pick a few sentences which I'm going to stick on the paper that comes out of the typewriter this is all about our Christmas sayings and wishes and you will take a close up look on what they say in the photos at the end of this video I do add some more foliage on the clusters that I have just because I want them to look fuller and then finally it's time for what you have been all waiting for the white gel pen so I'm going to bring it in and add some highlights on the typewriter as well as on the berries and even the leaves and if you noticed I did stay away from white splashes all over the background this time but you never know I may decide to add them before I frame it just the touch of that white highlight really helps these elements to pop and finally I'm going to use glossy accent on the keys so I'm going to fill them in this is going to make them look shiny and at the same time it's going to add some dimension there it does look milky at the moment but it is going to dry completely clear and I'm going to zoom in for you so you can see the finished project and that was the project for today you will find the links to everything I used down below in the description area I hope that you had fun that you got inspired I wish Merry Christmas to everyone who is celebrating and I'll see you all next year