Tim Holtz dies: not just for grown-ups

This month my little boy and his two best friends turn 3 years old, a fact I'm struggling to get my head around! The first of the birthdays was for a little boy who loves diggers, so I made this textured muddy building site scene, complete with brick wall.

First I separated a kitched towel into layers, scrunched it up and stuck to plain card with PVA glue.

Then I painted it with two colours of brown chalk acrylics, blending them on the project, to make a nice mud effect.

Next I cut a brick wall from thin grey card using a Tim Holtz decorative strip die. Taking care to keep all the pieces in place, I stuck the wall to plain card. I coloured each brick with a mixture of red, orange, black, and brown watercolour pencils, then blended with a self-moistening brush.

I made a landscape stepper card from two A6 card blanks. I cut a wavy edged section of the 'mud' off to cover the short step and stuck in place. I put the remaining 'mud' onto the back step of the card. As the 'mud' is quite heavy, I added folded card bracing strips to the sides to make sure the card would stand up properly:

Finally I cut out sections of the brick wall and added these to the short step using foam pads, then added a selection of diggers etc and a greeting.

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Amanda x

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