Christmas Documented - Simple Stories - The Holiday Life Collection

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and that Santa brought you some nice scrappy gifts! I had a wonderful family Christmas, and found just enough time to squeeze in one more layout before the year is out. This month I've been enjoying 'The Holiday Life' from Simple Stories. I love that it includes traditional reds and greens as well as lots of florals and elements that remind me of a cosy Christmas at home. You can find the full collection in the shop here.

I started with 3 sections of patterned papers cut in different sizes. After distressing the edges and rolling them over, I overlapped them and arranged them in the centre of a sheet of Premium White Cardstock. 

On top of these, I added my photo with a layer of foam behind it to introduce some dimension. One of my favourite products from Simple Stories is the Foam Stickers. I love that they include different fonts and a range of different options for titles. For this layout I've used the word 'Christmas' from the foam stickers, and paired it with a sticker from the Cardstock Stickers to create my title.

This collection has multiple embellishment options - and I love them all! I selected a couple of the floral Rub Ons and added them to my white cardstock in a diagonal design. I then built on these clusters by adding some Floral Bits & Pieces. 

I had some larger areas of patterned paper which looked slightly bare, so to these areas I added some larger elements from the Bits & Pieces pack.

And that's a wrap from me for 2023! I hope you've enjoyed this layout and all the layouts I've created this year. Thank you so much to each of you for the love and support throughout the year. 

Wishing you all a happy, scrappy new year.

Rebecca x

@preciouspagespapercraft

December Papermaze Kit - Part 2

Lynn back today with my second two design team layouts made using the festive December Papermaze Kit. This year's Christmas kit includes a mix of traditional and contemporary and designs.

Before looking at how the layouts were made, here is what you will find in the kit.

Patterned Papers:
Vicki Boutin - Peppermint Kisses collection - Winter Magic & Christmas Jammies
Echo Park - Happy Holidays collection - Festive Lights & Under The Tree
Echo Park - Have A Jolly Christmas collection - Holly Jolly Holly
Paige Evans - Sugarplum Wishes collection - #2

Image below shows both sides of the six sheets of patterned paper.

Bazzill Basics: Peacock & Coconut Swirl (included). Aqua, Bottle Green, Bazzill Red & Blossom (Extra co-ordinated Bazzill pack)

Embellishments: 2 red doilies, selection of Puffy Rosie's Studio Phrases, 3 Rosie's Studio vellum star diecuts, 1 Woodware Postmark stamp, Pinkfresh chipboard frames, 5 Pinkfresh title ephemera pieces, 3 glittery snowflakes, pinch of Pinkfresh jewels, 2 Prima flowers.

Joy - My great niece visiting the garden centre last Christmas.

I wanted this lovely tartan as a border for this layout, so I gutted the 'Sugarplum Wishes #2' paper to make a frame 1" deep.

The Coconut Swirl Bazzill was trimmed to 10.5" x 10.5", I used a 49 & Market - Gabi's Line Stitch stamp and Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink to stamp faux stitching in a square roughly 8" x 8".

I used Distress Oxide Spray Ink in Lumberjack Plaid and Peeled Paint to lightly spray over the Bazzill - This was concentrated where the photo and the small cluster of embellishments would go later.

I arranged my photo, together with the velum stars from the kit and my own embellishments made by die cutting. I used Sizzix Thinlits sets from Tim Holtz - Big Tidings (for the title, holly and stars) and Santa Greetings (for the smaller letters and numbers). I cut these from green glitter card, gold metallic card and scraps of cardstock from other layouts. 

Using the stamp from the kit I stamped the postmark greeting several times onto scraps of the white cardstock, cut them out and tucked them under the left side of the photo.

Finally, I scattered some star shaped gems and a few old stickers from my stash, around the other embellishments.

Sprout Racing - One Christmas I found some crackers containing little wind-up sprouts in party hats, for racing and we had fun with them after dinner, racing them along the table!

This time I selected the Red Bazzill and made a frame 0.5" deep, over this I placed the Aqua Bazzill, trimmed to 11.5" x 11.5". 

I used an envelope die from a Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits set - Postale, and cut nine envelopes. I cut these from several different papers from the kit:
both sides of Christmas Jammies
both sides of Festive Lights
both sides of Under The Tree
both sides of Sugarplum Wishes #2
and the red side of Holly Jolly Holly.

These were arranged in three rows of three over the layout. Then I cut seven tags from scraps of white card, using the Tim Holtz, Sizzix Framelits Tag Collection. I printed my photos nine to an A4 photo paper sheet, and trimmed them to fit the tags. Seven of these were portrait format so they were stuck straight to the tags.

 The two landscape photos were mounted onto white card with a space for journalling under each photo. I added the reinforcement rings cut from scraps, using the Tag Collection die set. Each tag had Baker's Twine threaded through the top and tied into a bow. 

Each photo was slotted into an envelope, the embellishments were added. I used the foam snowflakes and puffy phrase stickers from the kit. 

I added some old Simple Stories Sn@p stickers, some of which were used for journalling the date. The title was made with some puffy letter stickers from a previous Papermaze kit.

That's all for today, I'll be back with part three soon.
Thanks for looking.
Lynn x

Vicki Boutin Peppermint Kisses - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Hello, Karen here with my final layout using Vicki Boutin's Peppermint Kisses collection which is also my final layout for 2023.

I've been working with the 12x12 paper pad this month and started my layout by layering the red candy cane striped paper and text paper onto a sheet of white 12x12 cardstock with another layer of white cardstock between.

With white thread I machine stitched a straight stitch round the edges of the papers. This is quite a flat layout, so the stitching added some texture. Before adding any elements, I also splattered some gold ink onto the background

Using some of the green papers from the collection I cut four simple triangular Christmas Tree shapes and punched some holes in a couple of them. After machine stitching round the edges of the trees, the trees were glued to the centre of the layout in a row.

I die cut some stars from gold card and added one to the top of each tree.

A piece of gold ribbon (from a recent gift) was stuck horizontally across the bottom of the layout. Three small photos, from Christmases past, were matted with more of the red striped paper and placed at the bottom of the trees.

To create a title I took the phrase 'Merry Christmas' from a sheet of Mintay Papers Chippies Christmas Words and cut it in half. Using embossing powder I transformed the bare chipboard into gold and added the two words to the layout.

The other words in the title were made by die cutting letters from gold card which I backed with some self-adhesive foam. 

At the top of the layout I placed a phrase from the pack of Journaling Ephemera and also added some phrase strips from my stash. 

The layout was finished with a scattering of gold sequins to add some Christmassy sparkle.

I hope you like this layout and that you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2024 and I'll be back in the New Year with another project.

Take Care, Karen x x

Echo Park - Christmas Time - Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone,

With just one week to go until the big day, today I'm going all out festive to document a picture of the Christmas Trees at our local garden centre! 

I'm using the Christmas Time collection from Echo Park - It's a stunner and is such a perfect match for all those festive memories. You can find it in the shop here.

For a change, I'm not using my white cardstock background at all! I'm diving straight into this beautiful patterned paper. I tore two strips to create a 2/3, 1/3 design, using the Let It Snow and Festive Floral papers and ruffled the edge for texture.

I wanted to create one large cluster on the bottom left overlapping the two papers.

I printed two photos and sized one slightly smaller than the other to add more scale to the design, and backed them with the Snowflakes Falling paper and mounting them on foam before adhering to the page.

to create the floral clusters, I fussy cut the flowers from the Festive Floral paper making sure to have a range of different sizes from the paper.

To create a focal point, I added a small circular element from the Ephemera Titles and Phrases and nestled this amongst the flowers along with some smaller stickers from the Ephemera Stickers and Puffy Stickers.

To echo the circular element on the right of the cluster, I added another Puffy Sticker and a cute truck from the Element Stickers, extending the design across the page.

To help bring my photos to life, I reached for the Sticker Book and found lots of different trees in all shapes and sizes. These were perfect to add context to my story. I raised these on foam and slotted them in behind my photo - almost as if I was stood in a forest of Christmas trees.

To balance the layout, I added a small cluster at the to right of the page. I used a scalloped border sticker to act as an anchor for the cluster, and then added some fussy cut florals, floral puffy sticker and a lovely birdhouse from the Element Stickers to bring the cluster to life.

The Happy Holidays sticker from the Elements Stickers sits proudly on top of this cluster on foam, providing a lovely title for my page.

As a finishing touch, I added a few Nuvo Crystal drops and the layout was complete.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how this project came together and it has given you some inspiration for documenting your festive memories.

That just leaves me to say thank you for all your support this year. As always, it is very much appreciated.

Wishing you all a wonderful festive season! I will see you in 2024!

Claire xx

@scrappysoulamte  

December Papermaze Kit - Part 1

 Lynn here today with my first two design team layouts made using the festive December Papermaze Kit. This year Vanessa has chosen a cheery collection in traditional colours with the addition of turquoise and pink.



Before looking at how the layouts were made, here is what you will find in the kit.

Patterned Papers:
Vicki Boutin - Peppermint Kisses collection - Winter Magic & Christmas Jammies
Echo Park - Happy Holidays collection - Festive Lights & Under The Tree
Echo Park - Have A Jolly Christmas collection - Holly Jolly Holly
Paige Evans - Sugarplum Wishes collection - #2

Image below shows both sides of the six sheets of patterned paper.

Bazzill Basics: Peacock & Coconut Swirl (included). Aqua, Bottle Green, Bazzill Red & Blossom (Extra co-ordinated Bazzill pack)

Embellishments: 2 red doilies, selection of Puffy Rosie's Studio Phrases, 3 Rosie's Studio vellum star diecuts, 1 Woodware Postmark stamp, Pinkfresh chipboard frames, 5 Pinkfresh title ephemera pieces, 3 glittery snowflakes, pinch of Pinkfresh jewels, 2 Prima flowers.

12 Days of Christmas - This layout features 12 photos of the felt ornaments I mad using patterns designed by Larissa Holland.



I gutted the 'Christmas Jammies' paper so I had a frame of 1" deep. The Bottle Green Bazzill was trimmed to 11" x 11", then gutted to make a frame of 0.5". I used a sheet of Smooth White Bazzill which I trimmed to 10.75" x 10.75". These three were layered up, one on top of the other.

I splattered some Distress Oxide Ink (Salvaged Patina, Lucky Clover and Candied Apple) over the white card.

Using scraps of the Bottle Green and Red Bazzill to die cut my title and numbers, using Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits sets - Retro Merry Christmas and Santa Greetings.

I trimmed all the photos to approx. 2.25" x 2.25" and mounted them all onto the spare Bottle Green Bazzill. These were arranged around the edges of the layout in a sort of grid!

I added the die cut numbers to each of the photos. The title was placed to the top left of the central space. with my journalling underneath. I used the puffy sentiment stickers from the kit to add the word 'December' and the holly leaves. The date numbers were die cut from Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits - Alphanumeric Label set. 

Oh, What Fun! - photos of my children unwrapping gifts on the occasion of their second Christmas.

The base for this layout is the sheet of Coconut Swirl Bazzill. I cut an 8" circle from the centre of the 'Holly Jolly Holly' paper, then trimmed all four edges, by tearing off very thin strips.

I stencilled tinsel over the centre of the card using a Tim Holtz Layering Stencil THS094 (Tinsel), and Forest Moss Distress Ink.

I stuck the paper over the cardstock and then tucked my photos in place inside the circle, tucking them under the paper slightly.

Using scrap cardstock in a selection of greens I cut fir leaves using Festive Gatherings Tim Holtz - Sizzix Thinlits set.  I arranged these all around the circumference of the circle. Then with more green card and some red and gold card, I cut holly and poinsettias using Seasonal Sketch Tim Holtz - Sizzix Thinlits set. The holly and flowers were mounted onto the 'wreath' with some 3D foam pads.

I used the puffy sentiment stickers from the kit to add the title. Then I scattered cream, white and gold pearls on and around the wreath.

Finally, I added the year with Sugarplum Wishes - foam and cardstock Thickers.

That's all for today, back with more from this kit soon.
Thanks for looking.
Lynn x