2 Christmas layouts with Basic Grey for Scrapbook USA Expo

Hi all! I'm back with a couple more Christmas layouts- this time using some beautiful Basic Grey product. I was sent a paper pack of their 25th and Pine collection. This collection includes a TON of pretty papers as well as an embellishment sticker sheet and an alpha sticker sheet. The thing I love the most about Basic Grey product is the fun and unique patterns and the how well they coordinate together. I always find it inspiring to find different ways to incorporate as many of them as I can into my projects. This collection is no exception. Here is the first layout:

This is the Christmas photo we're using this year. Our baby is due January 12th, but he could be here any day really! I have asked him not to come on or before Christmas, but anytime after that is all good! Hence, the "Do Not Open Before Christmas" tag. Because this photo had some darker colors, I liked that the paper patterns had some darker colors in it as well.

The "special delivery" tag couldn't be more perfect, right? It even says "Do Not Open Before Dec. 25"! I love it. Both this and the gold tree tag were cut out from a page with lots of different tags and journaling blocks.

The upper sticker said 'Christmas Greetings'. I only wanted the 'Christmas' part so I covered with another sticker and layered the second part of my title over the rest. The 'bliss' font is the sticker alphabet that came with the pack.

There were several cute, coordinating border stickers as well as some fun shape and journaling stickers. Because the background pattern is so bold, I decided to keep the rest of the layout more simple so there wasn't too much distraction on the page.

Here is my second layout:

The color palette is a little subdued and almost vintage-y looking. I cut out some snowflake-like shapes from my Cricut and used the insides as well, showing the reverse paper patterns. Always looking for ways to incorporate more paper onto my layout!

I used some border strips here- I love incorporating these in my layouts and Basic Grey's are very unique! This ticket was cut from a page of cute tags, tickets, journaling tags and other cute images.

This cluster includes another tag cut from a page, as well as some of the cute stickers.

I found some coordinating thickers and used them for my title.
Again I had enough paper and embellishments left over to at least do another layout or two as well as several cards! Lots of fun, cuteness to work with! Thanks for looking!

Christmas Tree Decoration with DCWV

Hi all! I have a fun (and easy!) home decor project to share with you using unfinished wood shapes, acrylic paint and DCWV paper! DCWV has some really cute holiday stacks this year and the nice thing about this project is you can customize it to suit your taste and decor (traditional, whimsical, vintage, etc.).

To start with I got some unfinished wood Christmas tree shapes with dowels on blocks. Here in Utah we have a local store that sells these fun shapes, but I know that a lot of craft supply stores sell things like these now.  They look a little something like this when you're first starting out:

Next you're going to choose your paper. I chose some papers from the Jolly Whimsy stack. I like the whimsical look for these trees, but as I mentioned earlier, there are several stacks to suit your personal taste!

Once you have your papers chosen you're going to mark the FRONT of your tree and flip it so it is facing the BACK of the patterned paper you chose. Then you're going to trace the outline of the wood piece on your paper and cut it out. Don't worry if it isn't perfect or if you couldn't get to some of the really tight nooks and crannies. You can always trim it up after it's adhered to the block with a razor or sand paper.
Next you're going to choose your acrylic craft paint color and paint it up! I color the entire back and most of the front where the paper is going to go, but you can paint just the part that is going to show if you wanted to save time (and paint!)

Once this is dried you are going to adhere the paper onto the front of your shapes. You can use Mod Podge for this, but I was once recommended to just paint on wood glue and that has always worked great for me. I just paint on the glue the same way I would the acrylic paint and then carefully place the paper. The glue takes a few minutes to dry so if you need to reposition the paper it's not a problem. I use a squeegee type of tool to make sure there aren't any air bubbles and then lay it paper side down to let the glue set so it doesn't pucker.

While that is drying I paint my bases and dowels. I found some fun glitter paint that I used on the bases. I drop a little wood glue in the hole on the base and then place my dowel to help secure it. I do the same thing when securing the tree to the dowel.
Now all you have to do is add some embellishment. The possibilities are endless- ribbon, craft wire, glitter glue, etc. Whatever suits your fancy! I used some tinsel ribbon on mine.

I hope you enjoyed the project- thanks for checking it out today!

2 Christmas Layouts with Echo Park for Scrapbook USA Expo

Hi friends! It's that time of year again! Time to start making Christmas crafts and projects! I love how I am always so much more motivated to do projects during this time of year- gives me a chance to catch up! So I was privileged to receive some wonderful product from Echo Park. I was sent the Tis the Season paper pack. This pack has some very nice traditional elements as well as some fun, modern trends (like chalkboard!). I have included 2 full layouts that I created with the pack, but easily could finish a couple more as well as some cards! There is a LOT to work with including 2 sticker sheets and some journaling tag/card pages. There is one page that has numbers 1-25 in different fonts which would make an adorable advent calendar project. Here is my first layout:

With this layout you can see a little bit of that fun chalkboard element that is so trendy right now. The rest of the colors and patterns really complement each other very nicely.

I created a little cluster with fun stickers in the upper right of the page, and added some border stickers in the corner.

I thought this chalkboard style card was so cute I decided to use it as my title. I love when products can do double duty- really makes my layouts come together quickly.
Here is the second layout:

I cut the music style piece on my Cricut. I love that it was done in the chalkboard style as well.

I created the title using one of the cute journaling cards, and the letter stickers from the pack.

The little banner was also fussy cut from one of the pages and popped up on foam dots for dimension.

I hope you enjoyed my projects, and be sure to pick up Tis the Season for your holiday projects- so much versatility and inspiration in this pack!

Christmas Cutie for ScrapbookPal.com

Hi everyone!! I hope you are having a festive holiday season! I am back today with another Christmas themed layout for ScrapbookPal.com! You might be aware of a very popular trend in paper crafting right now, and that is chevrons. I love this look, and have seen so many fun ways to reproduce it on projects. This is my version of a chevron look using the Teresa Collins Sophisticated cartridge! If you use the 'border' function on the cartridge there are both a zig zag and what looks like a rik rak shape border cuts. I chose the zig zag and then used my gypsy to weld two of the shapes together. Here is the end result:

My layout design was inspired by a fun sketch over at Creative Scrappers (#233) and I used some cute holiday patterned paper from Echo Park. To begin I took a basic white piece of cardstock and sprayed it with some red and green glimmer mist. I tried to depress the spray nozzle a little slower in order to get the bigger splatters as opposed to a finer mist look.

I cut the zig zag shape 5 times using different coordinating patterned papers, and then laid them out on my background page. Because the zig zags were on the thinner side, I used my zig glue pen to easily apply adhesive.

I created a little cluster in the lower left corner using coordinating stickers and embellishments.

I also used coordinating stickers to create my title. I like to use sticker letters for my title to finish my layout quickly and easily.

Lastly, I fussy cut some cute phrases from one of the patterned papers using myCutter Bee fine tip scissors, and then layered them in a cluster in the upper left corner over some fun washi tape and stickers. I adhered some of the phrases with foam dots to add some more dimension.

Thank you for stopping by to see my project today, and be sure to check out my complete ScrapbookPal.com supply list:

Cricut Cartridge - Sophisticated	Queen & Co. Trendy Tape	Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist- Forest Green	Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Red Velvet	Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares
MS Paper Trimmer	Zig 2 way glue pen	Color Bee Titanium Scissors - Pink	Scotch ATG	Tombow Mono Adhesive Dispenser - Permanent

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A Very Merry Christmas for Sketches in Thyme #97

Hello my friends! Today I have a project to share with you for Sketches in Thyme! This weeks fun sketch is another double pager, but I condensed it into a single page. Here is the awesome sketch I got to play with:

And here is my (single page) layout:

Playing again with the SUPER fun Winter Wonderland Collection from My Mind's Eye. I have already gotten 3 layouts out of this pack, and I lOVE it.

The circles had been cut out for a previous project, but I really liked the look so I decided to recycle it! I topped them with some chipboard stickers that coordinated with the papers.

I used another chipboard sticker for my title, and added a cute journaling block behind it. I love time saving elements, like when you can find your title in a coordinating chipboard or sticker set.

I added a whole bunch of fun brads and chipboard in the upper left to embellish further.

Thank you for stopping by and looking at my project today- I hope you enjoy it! Be sure to stop by Sketches in Thyme and play along!!

98% Nice 2% Naughty...

Hi! In case you missed my guest spot over on Every Day is an Occasion a couple weeks ago- here is a rerun :)

Hello my friends! I am thrilled to be here doing a guest post for my good friend, Jill! My crafty project of choice is doing scrapbook layouts so I have a Christmas layout to share with you today! Here it is:

So I realize that the font in the title can be a little bit deceiving, but for clarification it says: '98% Nice, 2% Naughty' ;) which perfectly describes not only the photo, but my nephew in general! I thought the photo had just a little bit of a vintage element with the old fashioned Santa and the colors, so I found some great vintage-looking Graphic 45 product to complement it. Here are some close ups and additional details:

I cut out this adorable garland from Joys of the Season and added some matching jeweled brads to enhance it a bit.

Here is a better look at the title- I mixed the fonts, and also shadowed all the letters with kraft paper to make them stand out a little from the busy background paper. The stamps and postcards were fussy cut from some of the Graphic 45 papers. I love the vintage look of it!

Here is a closer look at those gorgeous vintage postcards and stamps. On one of them I did try to create that typical stamp border with a hole punch- but it was WAY too time consuming, lol so only one of them has that border on it, but I felt they looked good either way.
I hope you have enjoyed my project- thank you so much for taking the time to look at it! Please stop by Everyday is an Occasion and leave Jill some love!

Christmas Cousins for ScrapbookPal.com

Hello and thanks for stopping by today! I have a Christmas Layout to share with you today using the popular Teresa Collins December 25th cartridge, available at ScrapbookPal.com. Be sure to head over and grab a copy before the season is over- only $22.99!! Here is my layout:

I used some fun winter/holiday papers from Basic Grey and a sketch by Creative Scrappers (# 218). 

I love how well this sleigh cut fit into my layout. It is a really fun and versatile cut that could be used for all sorts of projects. I layered a few different strips of washi tape underneath the cut, and then added some coordinating little stickers on top. Because of the delicate filigree design on the bottom of the sleigh, I like to use my Zig glue pen- it makes it easy to place a coat of adhesive on those delicate cuts without damaging it.

For my title I used a phrase cut from the cartridge that said 'Merry Christmas' but used just the 'Christmas' portion, then I added some letter stickers for the second word. I like to mix up fonts, colors and styles on my titles- it makes it more visually interesting. Also, when I have a vey intricate cut like the "Christmas" I like to run it through my Xyron Sticker maker. Makes getting an even coat of adhesive very quick and easy.

To finish off I added some more coordinating stickers. Overall a very quick and easy layout!

Thank you for stopping by today- make sure to see my complete ScrapbookPal supply list:

Cricut Cartridge- December 25th	Xyron Create-a-Sticker machine	Queen & Co. Trendy Tape	Queen & Co. Trendy Tape	MS Paper Trimmer
Zig 2 way glue pen	Scotch ATG

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