Echo Park ~ Christmas Express #2

Hello everyone and Happy Christmas! Hope you’ve all been enjoying the festive period and making memories to document!

I’ve been enjoying some crafty time in amongst all the Christmas fun. So I went back to using Echo Park Christmas Express to create another page. 

I began with a sheet of white bazzill as my base. I then created a star template in various sizes on my silhouette cameo. I used the template to draw around North Pole Plaid and then a slightly smaller star from Holly Jolly Stockings, so that I could layer them on top of each other. I then cut out some smaller stars from the b side of Red Snowflakes. 

After distressing the edges, I adhered my large stars off centre to the left and trimmed off the excess. I then layered my photo on to some red coordinating bazzill cardstock and Red Snowflakes. 

I placed my mounted photo in the centre of the star and alongside it I added a 3x4 journal card. 

I added the smaller stars randomly around the rest of the layout and also added in a few Element stickers. 

I used some stars, snowflakes and sentiments from the Vicki Boutin Peppermint Kisses, Ho Ho Ho Phrase Thickers. 

Thanks so much for looking! 

I’ll see you again in January when I’ll be working with Simple Stories Take Note.

Happy New Year! 

Anna 

@acraftylifewithanna

Winter - Simple Stories - Simple Vintage Fresh Snow Collection

Hi everyone,

Rebecca here, back on the blog today to share my second layout of the year! This month, I’ve been working with the gorgeous Simple Vintage Fresh Snow collection from Simple Stories, and it’s absolutely perfect for winter. I’ve been hoping for snow every week just to gather some beautiful photos to scrapbook with it! (I'm still hoping!!) You can find the full collection in the shop here.

To start, I cut strips from both the Snug & Warm and Winter Wishes patterned papers. After rolling one edge of each strip for added texture, I arranged them horizontally across a sheet of premium white cardstock, overlapping them slightly.

Next, I added my photo, which I matted with a lighter patterned paper to help it pop. To the left of the photo, I placed an element from the Ephemera Pack, and above it, I added a tag which I'd fussy-cut from the Tag Elements patterned paper.

At this point, I felt the white background was washing out the lighter grey woodgrain patterned paper, so I tested out a few patterned papers as my background before settling on the Cabin Fever paper. I really love the leafy pinecone detail in the corners, and wanted to incorporate more of that to help my design flow with the background. I chose some beautiful elements from the Floral Bits & Pieces and added them diagonally, following the natural design of the background. To add some dimension, I raised the edges of these pieces with foam.

To bring a touch of sparkle to the layout, I added a few clusters of metallic silver thread. I love using silver with snow layouts, as it reflects the silvery glisten that snow often has, creating a nice cohesive feel.

For the title, I chose the word "Winter" from the Bits & Pieces pack. The darker letters really stand out against the soft tones of the layout, making the title pop.

To finish the layout, I created two small clusters of stars and snowflakes using die cuts from the Floral Bits & Pieces and Foam Stickers, and added a couple of Rub Ons for that final touch.

Thank you so much for reading! I hope this layout has inspired you to create something beautiful. The Simple Vintage Fresh Snow collection is selling fast, so be sure to grab it before it’s gone!

Take care,
Rebecca x 
@preciouspagespapercraft

Photoplay Paper - Holly & Ivy - Ho Ho Ho

Hi everyone!

Claire here today with another fun festive layout using the Holly & Ivy collection from Photoplay.

I'm loving creating with this collection. The colours and patterns are so beautiful and the ephemera includes so many adorable pieces as you'll see in my layout. Let's jump in...! 

I started with a piece of Premium White cardstock and lightly applied a coat of Gesso to prime the surface as I knew I wanted to add mixed media. Whilst it was drying, I cut four large snowflakes from the Noel paper. This is one of my favourites in the collection - a gorgeous traditional red tartan - a pattern I really enjoy at Christmas. I cut my snowflakes on my cricut but you could replicate the design with any large shapes of your choosing, perhaps using dies or hand draw for that extra special hand crafted feel.

Once the gesso had dried, I grabbed some gold watercolour paint and applied it with a brayer, mostly in the centre of the page, but also created pols of colour top right and bottom left to act as an anchor for some clusters i'd be adding later. I also added some random background stamping using a stamp from my stash. You can find similar in the shop here.

I mounted my photo three times to pull in those pretty patterns and colours from the Holly (a and b sides) and the Santa Supply Co papers, and adhered the photo on foam to the centre of the page. Around the sides, I added my snowflakes, sticking just the centre to the page so I could lift the edges to create dimension.

Using some of the Element Stickers, I added fun centres to the middles of the two main snowflakes to help them stand out. Next, I just had to use that gorgeous Christmas lodge sticker and the fun Ho Ho Ho title, placing them around my photo corners to draw the eye into the picture.

With my final snowflake, I cut it in half, placing one top right and the other bottom left. To the top, I made a small banner from the 'This house believes' sticker and adding an eyelet and string.

To the bottom cluster, I  added some foliage, a candy cane and green snowflake sticker pulling in all the colours of the collection.

As a final touch, I added some tiny star stickers from the Element Sticker sheet across each cluster in both red ad black, and sprinkled some gold Pinkfresh Studio Gold Jewel Essentials.

I hope you've enjoyed my posts with this beautiful collection. Don't forget to check it out in the shop here.

All that leaves is for me to wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Claire xx

@scrappysoulmate