Christmas Peek-a-Boo { with Christmas Stamps by Darcy Wilkinson}

Hi everyone, Darcy here to wish you all a wonderfully Merry Christmas. I hope all your rushing around is done and you are able to relax and enjoy the holiday. I am almost ready, but first I wanted to make this... and Oh what fun I had. It is not often I make things just for me, but this is... and I love it. 

This incorporates a layer of acetate, so while in real life the details are clear, it is difficult to show you the finished piece in a photo. Hopefully you will see all the details in the step out photos. 

I started by buying a childrens Christmas board book from a charity shop, 25p.. a bargain. I glued the first page to the front cover, and the last page to the back cover, and then removed the rest of the pages. They are sturdy greyboard and will come in handy for something else. 

Next I glued some Christmas fabric to the inside, trapping in a length of ribbon. 

I worked out what size pages would fit inside, and cut 4 from heavyweight smoothy.  Then using the measurements of the pages I cut 2 more pieces of smoothy and scored/folded them concertina style. The folds are half an inch apart. I decorated these 2 pieces to look like brick walls. To create the wall effect I used a base of Chocolate Pudding, topped with Stone and Cinnamon, then stamped the bricks from  Mini 95 using more Chocolate Pudding. 

Mini 95

These were decorated on both sides, and will become the inner walls of the book. 

Now to create some pages. I started with the back page. On a piece of heavy smoothy I first drew and painted the square of the fire. Using Mini 95 again to make the bricks. I then painted flames on a separate piece of smoothy, cut them out and stuck them in. over this I stamped a grate made up from the tiny row of trees on Ink and Dog Noel 3. From the same set I stamped the ornamental pediment. I added this to the top of the fire, and Voila we have a mantlepiece. Around these I painted the background, various greens and reds for the carpets and rug.. and then greens on the walls topped the damask stamp from  Ink and dog Xmas 1 this gave a nice subtle wallpaper. 

 Ink and Dog Noel 3.

I stamped some of Ellen Vargo's designs onto painted smoothy, then cut out some stocking shapes. I also stamped the toy boat from JM17, and the hanging bows from EDY04.

I glued my back page to the end fold of the concertina walls.. one wall on each side of the page. I used regular matte gel for this as it can cope with heavy card and dries quickly. 

Once both sides were dry, I then glued the whole page into the book. This results in this back page being glued down flat and just the walls hanging loose with the end fold trapped under the page. At this point I added some stickles and liquid pearls to various areas and set it all aside to dry.

Onto the next page. on another piece of smoothy I stamped the tree from HPXM02. I then added  the bubble garland from EDY03. The baubles are also from HPXM02, they are embossed and coloured in with Fibralos.  Finally I cut away all the inside sections.effectively giveing me a frame/window. 

HPXM02

I painted what was left of the white card with the same greens as the back page. Top tip here.. keep your background simple.. In my case the carpet and wallpaper, as this needs to be replicated on each page. 

I turned over this page and decorated the back using the same brick wall technique as the concertina side walls. You really don't see the back, but doing this tidies up any smudges of paint that have seeped under to the back, and keeps uniformity throughout the project. 

Because the middle section of these pages is cut out it makes the page a little flimsy, so to add a little strength and stop them caving inwards i glued a skinny coffee stirrer to the top and bottom of each page. 

Now we can glue this page into place. I missed out one fold of the wall and glued this page to the next one, this allows a good space between pages and adds depth. Again once this was glued in place I added details with stickles and liquid pearls and set it aside to dry. 

i thought the rug looked a little bare, so added the little dog. 

Next page, this one is nice and simple. most of the page is cut away leaving just a border, this was painted to match the carpet and wallpaper. From the ceiling I hung some holly from Ink and Dog Xmas 1 and a bell from HPXM03. 

Ink and Dog Xmas 1

Again I turned it over and painted the brick pattern on the back and added a painted coffee stirrer to the top and bottom. 

This page was glued into the concertina walls ( again I missed out a fold) I added liquid pearls to the holly and put this aside to dry. You can see the layers building up quite effectively now. 

Onto the last page. I started with smoothy card and cut out the window panes. Then I painted the brick patterns around the edges. For the window frame i wanted a really dark Victorian green. So I began with a base layer of Little black Dress, once dry I added a layer of Hyde Park. This is a semi opaque, so allows some of the black to show through giving a really nice dark green. 

I then went to town with Snowflakes from Ink and Dog Noel 4 and some white embossing powder. I added holly in the top corners using Ink and Dog Xmas 3

 Ink and Dog Xmas 3

I painted the back with the brick pattern and attached a piece of acetate. Finally I attached the little boy ( I painted the back of the boy in brickwork too)he is from Mini 38

Mini 38

I attached this page to the last fold of the concertina walls. once it was set in place I added some drifts of snow in the corners of the window panes. I mixed some grunge paste with Snowflake and dabbed it on, while still wet i sprinkled on some pearlex powder. 

The last job on the inside was to print out and glue in the poem 'Twas the night before Christmas'

I  really liked the outside pictures and didn't want to cover those up, but I didnt want all the publishing info at the bottom. Board books are usually very glossy, so I added a layer of matte medium just tot he bottom section and then painted over that with Mermaid, Beach hut and Inky Pool. These colours matched in really well with the baubles in the picture. I then added stamped holly from HPXM02

The front had a much smaller section at the bottom, and as I wanted to keep the title I just used the matte medium and the Beach Hut and Inky Pool as these are translucent. Again I added the holly. 

Finally the spine.. it was a grubby off white fabric, so I painted it with Eggplant, Pansy and Claret, mixing them till I got a shade of purple that matched the covers. once dry I embossed the words from Ink and Dog Xmas 4 using a silver embossing powder. 

Here you can see the concertina walls.

and a final photo peeking through the window to the layers behind 

This was so much fun to create, and I love peeping through the window. I know it's a bit close to Christmas for you to make one but hopefully it has inspired you.. perhaps just to decorate the cover of a book. 

See you next year
Darcy x

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