A Classic Christmas Shoppe Display

Hello friends! Welcome back…hope all is well with you and that you are enjoying the fall season. I am gradually getting out my holiday and Christmas displays. This year has flown by..can’t believe its already that time of year.

Today’s project features a vignette that I created for the Tim Holtz idea-ology 2024 Christmas release. It features many of my favorite things and is all wrapped up in a little vintage shoppe display. I mean, I just had to!

When I was little my sister and I would play store with our toys, by keeping tags and collecting post-it notes, then pricing our “goods” so that we could pretend that we owned a little store. We used our mom’s printing adding machine as the checkout and “sold” our goods and always gave a little “receipt”.

I ALWAYS loved shopping and creating the little things that go into a shop, and have so many good memories of those times, so as I began creating for the release, the idea for a little Christmas Shoppe with vintage looking decorations lined up within a display sounded like so much FUN! As I created it, the idea of a little store display featuring “handmade by me supplies” all decorated and situated on my table for future use or just simply as a little vignette to display at Christmas time became so appealing to me. I could hardly contain my excitement for making it!

I couldn’t wait to finish it off with tiny tags on each of the tiny figures. To create them, I used my computer by printing the “cost” onto a piece of cardstock in a tiny font size, then by cutting out the tags using a tag diecut that I found in my Tim Holtz Chapter 3 Sizzix die set.

The other accessories in the display included… wood slices (found at a large sale that someone cut from scrap branches), idea-ology vials that contain mica flakes and sugared idea-ology confections, tied up with vintage string and adorned with a tiny sugared candy cane (also from the idea-ology confections) and tiny packages all tied up with string… 😉

…and what would a tiny Christmas display be without some inky bottle brush trees all adorned with idea-ology baubles, glittered and painted up for the tiny vignettes.

Here’s a look at how the project came together… I gathered up the trees, snowmen, Santas and reindeer, Distress Paints and a vignette box…at this point, I had no idea how I wanted the project to be, I just knew I wanted it to have several of the Salvaged idea-ology pieces..so that’s where I began. The snowmen, Santas are the larger size, not the small.

I adhered the Santas to some large wood Popsicle sticks using two sided tape. This makes it easier to paint the pieces without smudging the paint and so that they stand up well when you need to set them aside to dry.

You’ll notice in the photo that I adhered them to the sticks on the left side, but after this point, you may notice that they move to the right side in the photos…I just found it easier to handle them with the salvaged pieces adhered to the right side of the stick. 😉 but, you do you and see what works best for you.

The colors that I used for Santa included Distress Paint in Candied Apple, Lumberjack Plaid, Black Soot, and Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo. I also used some Alcohol Ink in Mushroom and Alcohol Ink Statue Alloy, plus a Walnut Stain Distress Crayon to add the grunge look. To start, I painted the red parts of Santa…to do this, I picked up some Candied Apple on my detail water brush (without water in it) and applied small amounts of the paint. When the brush needed more paint, I dipped it into Lumberjack Plaid and went back and fourth adding those two colors into the red sections. This gives Santa an old world look and adds to the color variety that an actual antique would have. Once the red was all painted on, I set him aside and did the same to each of the Santas. This way, it gave the paint time to dry as I worked on the next one.

The next color I painted on was the Black Soot. This was applied to his mittens, belt and boots. PS- you don’t have to be perfect with this application because once you are done, we’ll be adding grunginess to him so don’t freak out if you go “outside the lines”.

Once all the black pieces were painted and dried, I went on to painting the sack on his back. I applied the brown paints as I had done the reds using both Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.

After the Santa was all dry, I used my Sanding Disk and tool to “rough him up” and give him a worn look. A little sanding here and there and then I used a small piece of Alcohol Ink felt (left off of a blending tool) to apply some Mushroom Alcohol Ink and Statue Alcohol Ink Alloy. This combo was done lightly around his face and white areas to show the details of the piece. If you apply too much, use a dry cotton towel to remove some of the ink. Once I had applied the alcohol inks, I used the sanding disk to remove a little of the ink and rubbed a little Walnut Stain Distress Crayon into the textured areas by scribbling the crayon onto my craft mat, then picking the color up with a damp brush. The brush makes it easier to work the color into the details on the Santa and gives Santa a true vintage look.

If you want to see a more step-by-step guide to applying the paints to Santa, you can CLICK HERE and check out a tutorial for him on my blog from a previous post. He is less grungy in the facial area of that project. 🙂

Is he not the CUTEST?? I just love him! The alcohol ink, alloy and crayon combo darkens his suit and gives him such a beautiful patina!

Next…the snowmen! (See how they moved on the stick?) LOL… I painted all of them up in batches using Lumberjack Plaid for their mittens and earmuffs, Black Soot for the top hats, eyes and buttons, Vintage Photo for the broom handles, and Scattered Straw for the broom. I also used a combination of Forest Moss, Wilderness and Crushed Olive for his scarf.

As the paint dried and became a little tacky, I used a dry cotton towel to remove a little of the paint and give them a worn look. You can see that effect in the next photo. I also decided to embellish his top hat with some holly. This is such a tiny area that using a tiny detail brush and some little squiggles and dots make it look like holly. His nose was also painted using Spiced Marmalade Distress Paint.

I set the snowmen aside to dry and then went onto the next step of adding the grunge.

To add the grunge to the snowmen I scribbled some Walnut Stain Distress Crayon onto my craft mat, then using a damp paint brush, dabbed layers of the crayon onto them. The paint brush needs to be just slightly damp NOT wet, as the color would rub right off of him because he is slick. Once I had applied enough of the color, I sat him aside and worked on the next.

After they were dry, I used my blending tool and sanding disk to scratch up the grunge that I had applied. Again, by doing the sanding, it creates a really vintage look, if you have too much color, use it to sand it off…easy peasy!

After the snowmen and Santas were all dry and grunged up, it was time to add the festive sparkle!

To do that, I have a jar of pre-inked grungy rock candy and mica flakes mix that I have at the ready for these type of projects. To make the concoction, I used a small jar and several scoops of Clear Rock Candy Glitter and added a bit of Mica Flakes. I dripped some Mushroom Alcohol Ink into the jar, then using a spoon or popsicle stick, mixed the glitter and flakes until I had some grungy glitter. To dry the glitter/mica combo, pour the contents of the jar onto a piece of paper towel and spread it out to dry, then add it into a jar to keep for future uses.

For the figures below, I rubbed them with a little glossy accents in random places, then using the glitter, sprinkled the pieces and set them aside to dry. I was super random with where I applied the glossy accents because again, I wanted them to look as if they had been many years old.

Below you’ll see them all glittered up and ready for display…the reindeer were painted with a combo of Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo Distress Paints, set aside to dry, then while they were still tacky, rubbed with a dry cotton towel to remove some of the paint. The reindeer were then rubbed with Glossy Accents, then glittered in the same random way.

They have my heart! I love these little guys!

The bottle brush trees were next… and they fit into the largest idea-ology square vignette box. I tested out about how many trees could fit into the box, then began altering them. I used a variety of both the idea-ology Woodland Alpine and the Tree Lot packages.

The red trees were sprayed with some water then a combination of both Lumberjack Plaid and Aged Mahogany spray stains, then dried with a heat tool.

The green trees were sprayed with water and a combination of Rustic Wilderness, Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive and Forest Moss, then set aside to dry. After all the trees were dry, I painted the wood bottoms using Candied Apple Distress Paint, then rubbed them with Walnut Stain Distress Crayon…you can’t see this in the sample photos because of the tray, but it was done in case I wanted to create tiny vignettes using them down the road.

Here’s a look at them all dry and back in the square vignette…once I had settled on how they would fit into the box, I began decorating them.

Some of the trees were decorated with idea-ology baubles that had been colored using alcohol inks to match the trees. Some of the trees were sprayed with Tim Holtz Resist Spray (spray glue) so that I could add glitter and mica flakes, but also to coat the tips of the trees so that I could rub the trees with some white texture paste to give them a snowy look. Decorating the trees is a personal preference, just have fun and make them to match your style!

Altering the vignette boxes were next…

To create the vignette base I used a combination of one large square vignette box (5.5″x5.5″) plus, two vignette boxes 3.75″x5.5″…to equal the entire piece. Here’s a look at it before they and all the goodies inside were altered.

I started by painting the boxes using Dina Wakley Black Gesso. This Gesso is THE BEST and the blackest black ever, plus it dries super quick, so it’s always my go to when I want a deep black fast. I painted all the boxes leaving the inside bottoms plain as they would be covered in paper. Once they were dry, I sanded the edges using my blending tool and sanding disk.

Then I trimmed thin pieces of the plaid sparkle paper to adhered the the edges of the vignette boxes. I adhered them using Distress Collage Medium.

After the trim pieces were dry, I cut a couple pieces of patterned paper from the new idea-ology Christmas Backdrops to fit the inside edges and bottom of the vignettes. These were then adhered inside and the edges of the vignettes were rubbed with Distress Walnut Stain ink using a blending tool.

I then adhered the 3 vignette boxes together using collage medium, then set it aside to dry over night.

The sign for the project was found in the new Emporium Layers…could it be more perfect for this project?? And the 2 for 25cents and Co-op ephemera pieces were found in 2024 Christmas Ephemera pack. I scratched up the ephemera using my sanding disk then blended all of the pieces with Distress Walnut Stain ink using a blending tool. Then I spritzed them with water to create distress marks and dried them with a heat tool. The round 2 for 25 tag was adhered to the front of a wood slice (from an old idea-ology pack), then rubbed with a walnut stain distress crayon.

To create the sign, I used 2 wood vignette panels (again, from my collection of old idea-ology). The one for the base of the sign was painted black, and sanded, then the sign was adhered with collage medium.

Once the sign was adhered to the base, I nailed some vintage nails to the right and left top and adhered the 2 for 25 to the front. I painted 3 idea-ology file drawer pulls black, set them aside to dry, then hammered those to the fronts of each box.

The Christmas sign was then adhered to the back of the middle vignette box. I rubbed the edges and sides using a walnut stain crayon to add more grunge and age.

I adhered the 3 Santas to 3 wood slices to keep them upright while they stood in the tray. Santa’s sack is full of lots of toys, lol, so he is a little wobbly when he was standing inside the tray..small wood slices were a quick fix and perfect in case I wanted him to stand on his own.

The candies and bells were up next… the candies were all rubbed with Glossy Accents, then dipped into some clear rock candy glitter and dried. The bells were rubbed with Mushroom Alcohol ink and Statue Alloy.

The gifts were decorated with paper strips cut from paper in the backdrops pack then adhered with collage medium. Once they were dry, the edges were rubbed with walnut stain distress crayon.

I adhered the packages together to create a stack of gifts, then once they were dry, tied them together with string to give them the look of tiny stacked packages.

I filled 3 test tubes with mica flakes, added the cork to the top, then rubbed the cork with some distress crayon. I tied the 3 mica filled test tubes with a candy cane and bell. the 2 other test tubes were filled with confections and bells.

To create the separation inside the vignette box for all the goodies, I used some Etcetera trims that were cut to size to fit, painted with black paint, then adhered within the box. I made sure to test the area for each section, marked it with a pencil, then adhered the trim.

All the pieces were put into place and if you look closely you can see that I added tiny clipping phrases from the idea-ology Christmas Sticker book. “making spirits bright” “Santa will know” and “the Toyland shop”.

I tied the printed price tags onto all the Salvaged pieces and stuffed them into the center section. To keep the figures in place and give the look of vintage packaging, I used wood Excelsior, found in the floral section of hobby stores, it gives that perfect vintage look!

The tree section…

The Santa, Snowmen and Reindeer Section…

And the Christmas goodies section…

Thanks so much for the kindness and love shared with me for this project..it was definitely a big project, but one that I can use pieces from or just enjoy it as a piece all my own that brings me joy! Happy Christmas making! Creatively yours, Stacy

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