Christmas - Last Year

Is anyone really caught up and scrapping current photos because the old ones are all in albums?  I can't imagine - so when I had the urge to pull together a Christmas layout, I dug out a favorite photo from last year.

My husband has read The Night Before Christmas right before bed on Christmas Eve since our oldest son was 6 weeks old.  He uses the edition I had when I was growing up with Grandma Moses illustrations - this is one of my favorite holiday moments each year (and the reason this photo will show up in my December Daily, my family album and my daughter's album).  Last year only my daughter showed up to hear the story.

I didn't have much time, so I knew I wanted to use a sketch as my starting point - it makes everything faster.  I started with the current sketch at My Creative Sketches.

It had lots of layers so I knew it worked well with my style.  And I really liked the banner detail.  I used papers from a basket of small scraps on my desk - I'm not sure why but more and more I prefer using papers without a holiday theme on my layouts.

 I finished my layout off by layering some vellum banners from an older Pink Paislee collection.

The last detail was the title.  One of the Christmas caroling challenges at My Scraps and More asked that you use words from the Night Before Christmas poem as your title.  This was the perfect inspiration here and I chose "The Night Before." 

 Hope you had a great holiday.  I really enjoyed all of our celebrations, but have to admit that I am looking forward to the new year and having more time to scrap.  Thanks for stopping by - I will have more to share soon.

Christmas - but not Christmas product

When I first started scrapping back in the dark ages, I was obsessed with Christmas themed supplies.  And I still have a huge holiday themed stash.  But lately, my holiday layouts seem to be built with little or now themed products.  Instead I seem to gravitate toward classic patterns and colors when I am working with holiday photos.

This layout was inspired by last week's project life sketch at Studio Calico. 

And this layout goes back to one of my go to designs - a basic grid.  But I trimmed a piece of pale blue ledger paper and turned it on the side for the base.  Then I let the columns and rows on the ledger paper shape the grid.  It was a fun technique that came together really quickly - I will definitely try it again.

And that jillibean soup flash card was perfect for my photo!

I'm curous - are you still using lots of themed supplies or have you moved in a different direction too? 

Thanks for stopping by.

Washi tags

Every year I decide to make my own tags.  Some years they are pretty elaborate.  One year I cut tag shapes with my cricut and called it good.  This year, I've made a few pretty elaborate tags, but for the most part I am using shipping tags and washi tape.

I have tons of washi tape - does anyone ever finish a roll? So this is a great way to use some of it up and add a personal touch to my packages.  So I am layering on the washi, adding an embellishment or two, and calling it done.  Here are some examples.

You can create really different looks by mixing different washi tapes and placing differently.  And you can coordinate perfectly with your wrapping paper.  (Or just make tags you like and buy wrapping paper that matches your tags - I've done that before.)

Thanks for stopping by.

Tag!

For the first time in more than 20 years, I wasn't hosting Thanksgiving.  So I had some extra time.  So I decided to make some special holiday tags.  (It was the perfect project because I could work easily in small bits of time and finish each tag pretty quickly.)  Plus I made a dent in my never-ending holiday stash. 

I started with 10 plain white shipping tags.  I laid them out on an old piece of cardboard like this.

 I pulled out my favorite multi-media product ever - the gold martha stewart liquid gilding and a foam brush.  (I've learned that foam brushes work really well with this product and, because they are so inexpensive, you can just throw them away when you are done.)

 I painted the tags with the liquid gilding and had 10 shiny gold tags that would serve as the base for my project.  The liquid gilding dries super fast, so I was ready for the fun part in no time.  I pulled out a box of miscellaneous christmas embellishments and started to put together different combinations of paper scraps and embellishments. 

The best part of this project was the ability to create a really different feel for each tag.  Here are some of my favorites.

 I love the vintage feel of this one.  And the soft texture from the scrap of handmade paper that is behind the Santa.  Initially the red twine was not a bold enough finish but when I doubled up, it was perfect.

 These colors are way less traditional, and the effect is much cleaner than the first tag.  I doubled up the twine again here for a stronger impact from the trim.

Tags are also a great way to experiment with different techniques.  I experimented with silkscreen and acrylic paint over the liquic gilding on this tag.  The result wasn't as clean as I wanted, but it still created a fun look.  Tags are a great place to experiment with techniques!

This is my favorite - I had been looking for a chance to use that plaid washi from Freckled Fawn.  And the deer from the Gossamer Blue Get Happy wood veneer is awesome (I used a couple coats of black color shine to color it).  I finished it off with wide red satin ribbon which helped to balance the visual weight from the deer.

And here is a picture of all 10 tags. 

Some of them will end up on gifts and others will end up as part of holiday projects (like my December Daily-ish album).  They were so much fun to make, that I will probably make more - and maybe with the silver liquid gilding.  I've never tried it.

If you have a chance experiment with some tags - they are fun, quick and inexpensive - and a great way to use up bits and pieces in your stash.

Thanks for stopping by.