WIth many of the colorize dies, I think, I don’t have 4 different papers of the same color, and then I get stuck. They’re not the right shade of … whatever. Analysis paralysis as they say! I came up with an idea that I’ll hope you try. If you want to make a red Harvey, you’ll need 3 different shades of red for his top, and 3 different shades of gray for his pants. What I did was to start with white watercolor cardstock, two different red inks, and one gray, and simply use a blending tool to get the colors I needed.
For the red, I started blending the lighter red on one end of the paper, and the darker on the other end. In the middle, I overlapped them until I got a medium shade between the two. I used Fired Brick Distress Ink, and Aged Mahogany. You could even go with a lighter red, like Festive Berries to get more of a contrast. The point is that you only need two different colors of red ink pads to make this work, a lighter one and a darker one, and then blend them together for the middle shade.
It’s kind of hard to tell in this photo, and clearer to see with the gray. I only have one gray ink, Hickory Smoke, so I just applied it to the cardstock lightly, darker, and darkest, to get the three shades I needed for his pants. Some of the colorize dies need 4 different shades of the same color family. I have a bit of a paper stash, but I just never seem to have the “right” colors. Starting with white paper and making my own shades seemed to make it a bit easier for me. I used black alcohol ink paper for his boots, and gold metallic kraftstock for some of the accents. I didn’t really have any skin color tone paper at all, so I just used Antique Linen.
Once I had all of the pieces diecut, I played around with different color choices for the cuffs and shoulders. I had to cut more cuffs and shoulders out of white. It seems like Harvey goes together better with either the cross piece OR the shoulder pieces. But I wanted to use both, so I did! You could use the shoulder pieces and the belt. I just glued the shoulders on where I wanted them, even though they don’t sit flat.
I was going for more of a toy soldier look, so I didn’t use some of the pieces, like the feather plume, and I really am not a fan of facial hair, even on my cards, so no mustache on this guy!
There’s a helpful video on sizzix.com as to the order to assemble him. They start with the pants, which I did as well. When you get to the shirt, you’ll see that it overlaps the top of the pants, so the shirt doesn’t sit flat on his body. This wasn’t clear in the video, but that’s the only way it fits. I convinced myself that was the way it was supposed to be, but it bothered me a little. I guess he’s more of an “untucked” guy!
I knew I wanted to use the Pine Branches 3-D embossing folder. I embossed a piece of white Neenah Classic Crest 110lb Solar White cardstock with the folder, spritzing the back of the paper, and running it through my die cut machine 3 times. I colored the raised branches with Pine Needles Distress Ink and a domed foam blending tool. I then added a little Rustic Wilderness, and went over the branch parts with a Vintage Photo Distress Pencil. A marker would work just as well, or you could skip that part.
Now what to do with Harvey? Is he just going to be standing under the tree? Should he have something else around him, like presents? Toys? Santa? This card had the potential to get really complicated! I decided to make him into an ornament. I used the ornament top and hanger from an older die set, Circle Words Christmas. You could easily shape a little piece of wire, or (I just thought of this now) use a real ornament hanger! To have it look right, I had to use a 5×7 cardbase so he would fit with the hanger.
For the sentiment, I stamped and embossed Merry Christmas from an older stamp set I had in my stash on a piece of vellum, and wrapped that around the card front. I attached Harvey to the card with foam squares for dimension. I layered that onto black alcohol ink paper (I love that stuff), and added some metallic droplets to complete the card. I really wanted Harvey to stand out on this card, and I think I accoplished that. Thank you for stopping by my blog. Please leave a comment if you are so inclined. I love answering your questions and hearing your feedback and comments!
Products used, available at ScrappyShak:
Tim Holtz Harvey Colorize die set
Tim Holtz Pine Branches 3-D Texture Fades Embossing Folder
Idea-ology Black Alcohol Ink cardstock
Distress Watercolor Cardstock
Metallic Kraft Cardstock
Idea-ology Metallic Droplets
Distress Ink Pads (Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick, Hickory Smoke, Pine Needles, Rustic Wilderness, Antique Linen, Iced Spruce)
Distress Oxide Ink Pads (Tattered Rose)
Distress Watercolor Pencils
Also used:
Tim Holtz Sizzix Circle Words, Christmas #664205
Vicki Fedor 