Choose your front door colour and another for the ‘wall’ on the other side. Paint the page using vertical brushstrokes for the door and horizontal for the wall. Don’t worry too much if you can see the brushstrokes, it all adds to the illusion.

• DecoArt Americana acrylic paint: Plum / Antique White

Using a rule, draw vertical lines on the door with a watersoluble pencil. Ideally, I discovered, end up with a dark line on the door edge to add to the illusion…

With an almost dry clean brush, sweep up and down the pencil line and slightly to either side. The damp brush will lift some of the black pigment and, with care, you can create a wood grain effect. Drying the page tends to lighten the watercolour a little.

• Stabilo Woody 3-in-1 black pencil

Once the page is dry, lay the wreath outline over the door. Dab dark green paint through the paper stencil using a cotton bud. Try not to go over the edges – you want an uneven edge.

Remove the stencil, add a few more dots around the edge of the wreath and dry.

• DecoArt Americana acrylic paint: Hauser Dark Green

Repeat with a lighter green paint. There’s no need to use the mask, just keep your dots within the border of the darker green. Dry thoroughly.

• DecoArt Americana acrylic paint: Holly

Lay the wreath offset outline stencil over the green background and tape down if necessary. Peel off the foiled leaves and stick them down using the stencil as your guide.

Lift away the stencil and your foliage is complete.

Time for some sparkle. For a little dimension, use an alcohol marker to dab colour onto some glitter dome embellishments. I found the alcohol would weaken the glue holding the glitter on, so dabbing is best. Dry thoroughly.

Making sure you snip through the glue layer that tends to run between the domes before transferring them to the page and sticking down.

• Crystal Stickers glitter domes
• Promarker: Cardinal Red

Space out your berries in clusters of 1 or 3 to end up with this result.

I painted the engraved MDF with two layers of metallic paint to get an even coat.

• DecoArt Dazzling Metallics acrylic paint: Splendid Gold

To add some patination for a full brass effect, water down a drop of turquoise acrylic paint and dab onto the letter box, working it into the nooks and crannies. Whilst wet, dab a damp baby wipe over the paint to lift some and create an uneven and light coverage. Dry.

• DecoArt Americana acrylic paint: Peacock Teal

To enhance the 3D effect, add some watered down black paint/wash, particularly around the ‘flap’. Again, dab off with a damp baby wipe until you get a good effect. Drying will lighten the wash slightly, and you can build up layers if you need to.

Glue into place on your page.

• Vallejo Model Wash: Black [76.518]

For a bit of a shine and to break the clean appearance of the paint, I spritzed some fine mica pigment over the ‘wall’. I chose a colour to closely match that of my door. Use scrap paper to mask the other page and surrounding area. Despite my best efforts, there was more splatter than mist. I think it looks like a mouldy wall, but it does have a nice shimmer.

TOP TIPS:
Store Distress Spritz on its side to stop the pigment setting as a sludge around the spray tube. It’s easier to mix the pigment into the liquid when you need it.

After using Distress Spritz, take the spray top off the bottle, dip the tube into some clean water and then spray until the tube and nozzle are clear. This helps prevent clogging.

• Ranger / Tim Holtz Dsitress Spritz: Seedless Preserves

I used a stamping platform to stamp the sentiment card in the same colour as the spritz. Using the platform enabled me to stamp several times, concentrating ink into the corners for second and third prints, leaving the centre clear of ink. This creates a lovely ombré effect.

With a barely damp bit of tissue, dab over the ink to move it about and subtly colour the white card. Darken the corners more than the middle.

Dry and cut to size.

• Darkroom Door Word Block Stamp: Christmas [DDWB006]
• Ranger / Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Seedless Preserves
• Tonic / Tim Holtz Stamping Platform

Cut a mat slightly larger than the sentiment card from metallic gold paper, and patinate the edges with the turquoise paint in the same way as before.

Finally, mount the sentiment and mat onto your page. I created another sticker for the ‘Happy Christmas’ text to finish it off.