It's that time again!

 Well its nearly the festive season again and here's some inspiration to get you into that festive spirit.

 

Hopefully we have all caught up from last Christmas before this one comes around!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

Wow only 1 sleep to go!!!!! How excited is everyone? My Christmas celebrations will be lasting over a week as we catch up with family and friends..I can't wait.

Memory Maze Designs keep coming up with such great designs and I love all their Christmas ones. I've been catching up on some old photos before the ones for this year are taken.

NAUGHTY OR NICE?

Both of the titles on this layout suit my husband and our sons!

Both of these titles go together quite well and the Santa stuck in the chimney was perfect to fit above our own fireplace in the photo! The frame was wrapped in Washi Tape.

This title comes already coloured in the green and applied glitter glue straight over the top. The tree was coloured in with marker pens then gems were adhered on it.

The Santa piece was coloured in with marker pens then coated with crystal glaze. The "snow" is Stickles in Picket Fence.

 

This title was painted with Smooch in Siren, Green and Solar Gold.

The swirl was misted in gold then embossed in patches with gold embossing powder. Clear Utee was embossed over the whole piece to make it nice and shiny.

All these pieces were quick and easy to do and very effective.

MEMORY MAZE PRODUCTS USED

Santa let me explain KW006

Naughty or nice CO093

Tree CO096

Santa in Chimney

Frame

Swirl LO057

 

Other Products used

Kaisercraft Christmas Carol collection-Away In A Manager, Graphic 45 Christmas Past- Letter to Santa

......................................................................................................................................

CHRISTMAS

I love the snowflake frame with the inner frame as part of the set. As Christmas in Australia is hot I decided to make the colours I chose warm and not the cool ones normally associated with snow.

The frame was misted with Perfect Pearls Mist in Heirloom Gold then sprayed in patches over the snowflakes with Radiant Rain Mist in Persimmon and Solar gold. Small pearls were stuck in the middle of the snowflakes.

Since the frame is quite elaborate I kept the embellishments simple to balance it all out. I sprayed white flowers with the same mists so they would match in perfectly.

MEMORY MAZE PRODUCTS USED

Christmas Frame

Other products used

Flourish With A Bling-Chloe-Antique Gold, Green Tara

.........................................................................................................................

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

 

The frame was coated with Adiriondack dabber in pearl and the window in Distress Stain in black soot with Distress Stickles in gunmetal. The top part of the frame was covered in Petal Soft in polar white to make it look like snow had settled there. The snowflakes were base coated in Distress Stain in Brushed Pewter and Stickles in frosted lace were applied over the top. The Merry Christmas is already coloured so I  applied Distress Stickles in clear rock candy over the top.

 

 

Wishing everyone a very safe and Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2014.

December Goodies

It's how many days 'till Christmas!! I love this time of year and always take lots of photos so now I have a few Christmas albums. I have found that Memory Maze chipboard features in a lot of my layouts as it is so easy to work with and you can do so much with it.
Best Buddies
As I often take series of photos I like to make double layouts to fit in all the photos. These photos are of my husband and grandson and I love the interaction they are having.

I layered the fussy cut flowers with the chipboard pieces to create a frame around the photos.

This word banner is part of a set of 9 banners. I used marker pens to colour it in....quick and easy!

The large lily was coloured in with a marker pen to give it a base coat of colour then painted with glitter paint. The center was embossed with embossing powder.

The 2 corner pieces are from a larger set so you get lots of wonderful pieces. I embossed this with Distress embossing powder then embossed in patches with the glitter embossing powder for a rustic look.

Another quick way to embellish the chipboard is to ink it in one colour and then ink the edges in a darker colour to give it a shadow effect.

Memory Maze Products used

Lily (150x150) LO060

Swirl corners ZO029

Best Buddies SO048

 

Other Products Used

Kaisercraft Rhinestones & Just Believe-Hymn & Glisten, Christmas Carol-Away in a Manager.

.......................................................................................................................................

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

Each Christmas I like to make a decoration or two for our home. I used the same base piece for each of these decorations but did a girl and a boy theme. The other chipboard pieces are not Christmas themed but were painted to fit in with the decoration colours.

The decoration on the left was base coated in Distress Stain in brushed pewter. The frame was painted in Smooch-taffy and the swirl in Smooch-grape.

The decoration on the right was base coated in Distress Stain in tarnished brass. The star was made from a banner that was cut down and bent to create the star frame. It was coated with Radian Rain in spiced pumpkin. The small plaque was painted with Adirondack Acrylic dabber-snowcap. The numbers and the crown were painted with Smooch in blue and gold.

Memory Maze Products Used

Christmas Candel SO108

Frame

Small Swirl

Banner

 

Other products used

Ribbon, holly. paper flowers and angel.

 

With only a couple of weeks until Christmas I hope that these help to bring the Christmas spirit to you. Have a safe and Merry Christmas.

IT'S STARTING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas! In case you haven't checked lately, Memory Maze has loads of great Christmas chipboard for Scrapbooking, card making and off the page projects. Not only does the Christmas chipboard look great on your projects but you can also alter their other chipboard to make it Christmassy! I have some examples to show you today so enjoy.
SANTA PHOTO
It took awhile for my grandson not to be afraid of sitting on Santas knee and have his photo taken. Now he stops and poses whenever he sees a camera!!

This wreath started out as plain chipboard and not even a Christmas piece but with a bit of green acrylic paint mixed with some PVA glue and a pile of green glitter on top and left to dry then add some stick on pearls......then WOW!...Christmas wreath. The gold doilley underneath the wreath just adds a bit of brightness to the layout.

The words precious and memories were decorated the same way. I used green, dark green and red marker pens to shade the chipboard. Dimensional Magic coated on top gave the words a nice shiny finish.

MEMORY MAZE CHIPBOARD PIECES USED

vintage lace frame (vow3)

(go197)

Other Materials Used

Acrylic paint, PVA glue, glitter, Kaisercraft stick on pearls, marker pens, Flourish with a Bling swirl(cut in half) & Dimensional Magic

...................................................................................................................

CHRISTMAS PHOTO SHOOT

I decided to do a photo shoot one year( and never again!) outside in our yard for family photos for our Christmas cards.......Well between my hubby and 2 sons it was adventure! I finally had a family shot that was worth printing and decided (I still hadn't learnt my lesson yet!) to take individual shots.

This is my younger son who talks non stop so I just kept taking photos until I had one where he stopped for breath and smiled. It was a fun afternoon because we all spent time together decorating the tree, playing Christmas music and eating Christmas goodies. That's what I love about scrapbooking.....it keeps those memories alive.

I have taken a real liking to the Memory Maze frames and they seem to have one for all occassions. It also makes a layout come together quicker. The frames can be used as one piece or cut apart to use as many different pieces. With this frame I added more pieces onto it. The more the merrier!

The square part of the frame was painted with white crackle paint and the other parts were painted using distress stain and luminare paints.

The sayings were painted with Luminare paints in Bronze Medallion. These were layered onto the frame to add extra touches.

The candle was painted with white crackle paint and the other parts were painted with Smooch and Luminare paints.

To have clearer, brighter colours with the paint you can undercoat the chipboard with white gesso.

I like to paint the chipboard with a brush because you can blend the colours more easily and be more exact where the paint/medium goes. The fob watch was added onto the frame.

MEMORY MAZE CHIPBOARD PIECES USED

(co157)

(co077)

Christmas candle(so108)

Christmas frame(zo051)

Other Products Used

Distress Stain-brushed pewter, Smooch-siren, silverfox, moonlight & gold larme, Luminare-heavenly bamboo, bronze medallion, ribbon flowers, paper flowers, tags, Kaisercraft pearls & gems.

It's been a lot of fun creating for Christmas so I hope I have given you a few ideas you can try yourself. Until next time...Happy scrapping!

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a very crafty, happy 2013. Keep a look out in tutorials (tab top of page) on how to make this frame for your layouts. Remember to take lots of happy snaps over this festive season to have a reason to keep on scrapbooking...not that we really need one! Take care and don't overindulge too much.

Jolly good Season

    Well the tree is up, the cards are posted, the shopping is done and I could do with some "Christmas Cheer"! With the heat that has been around the last few days I think we will be having a COOL Christmas....cold punch, seafood, cold meats and salad....trifle, pavalova and rum balls.....then a sleep! Here's some of the decorations that we have made in our classes.....

The finished advent calendar with the "card tree" beside it. These are both Kaiser products with Kaiser papers used on them. The embellishments are a mixed assortment of Kaiser products and various others.

The decorated candle was made by adhering a strip of paper with double sided tape to the candle. The ribbon rose was taped to the bottom edge and gem strips were adhered to the top edge of the paper. When decorating candles like this it is imperative that you do not leave them unattended in case the decorations catch alight. The other thing you can do is to burn or cut the top center part of the candle out then put in a tea light candle or the battery operated tea light candle.

The base of this bon bon is a diecut shape and then it was decorated using patterned paper, velvet ribbon, organza and plain ribbon and a die cut stamped label. You can create your own from kits or templates.

 

This mini book was created from 1 sheet of paper that was cut and folded. I am in the middle of making the instructions and will hopefully have a tutorial up soon. It can be made in any theme with various embellishments.

Keep cool and Happy Scrapping....

42 days of Christmas

Well with only 42 days of Christmas to go everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit...or trying to ignore it all!!

These gift bags are quick to make and add a nice touch to your gift giving. The chocolate block wrapper can be made to suit the size of the block or box of chocolates you are giving. These are good for using up scrap pieces of paper and embellishments.

Here is an old fashioned Christmas image I found. I will share some others as I find them.

So much stuff, So little time!

Lots of Christmas goodies in store to be organised in the coming months to make cards and gifts and lovely things to decorate your home.

Kaiser Christmas goodies

Card kit available in packs of 1 or more.


 Homemade gifts and cards are always treasured so much more. If you are stuck for inspiration have a look in the magazines that are out at the moment. The have a lot of tutorials and hints on making Christmas cards and off the page items. As ususal the web is a huge source of ideas. A lot of Scrapbook shops have a Christmas club or are making Christmas items at the moment so check out your local store.

Have most of the hard work done for you and purchase kits for your layouts and cards. This will save you time and take the hard work out of trying to figure out what to make. They also make wonderful gifts for the crafty people in your life.

Enjoy the fun of the activities leading up to Christmas and don't let them stress you out too much!

SUSAN