Aussie Scrap Source

christmas reflections: georgia

 

Georgia’s eldest daughter Lucy has always loved Christmas but this year seemed to be even more into the Christmas spirit than usual.  The little things became all important which lead to many photos of small details.  This close up of Lucy hanging an ornament on the tree is one example and the one Georgia chose to capture the story of Lucy’s fascination with all things Christmas.  As there are no faces in the photo Georgia knew she needed to keep the page quite simple to stop her image getting lost.  Echo Park’s Season’s Greetings was the perfect range for the job – lots of bright, layered embellishments which jump of the page, meaning Georgia could create a dramatic look with only a handful of pieces. The end result is a simple yet stunning layout which highlights the photo and tells the story wonderfully.

christmas reflections: suz

 

 

Suz Doyle wanted a double page spread full of photos of her Christmas Day and created this by printing them all on two A4 sheets.  This meant that embellishment needed to be minimal, so she created a simple garland along the bottom of her photos.  This gave her room for playing in a limited area, and so she added gorgeous chip stickers and embellies from the October Afternoon range, Tim Holtz facets backed with the co-ordinating papers and bits of trima nd lace, mostly from Websters.  She added different coloured glitters to outline the embellishments which help them echo the spirit of christmas baubles or decorations.

christmas reflections: iris

 

 

 

 

 

Iris takes a few sheets from the My Mind's Eye Christmas line and transforms a few wooden plate holders into a table centrepiece for Christmas. A Prima bouquet and butterfly completes the look for this vintage piece.

handmade christmas: table settings and home decor

 

 

Suz chose a beautiful aqua and gold colour palette for her christmas tree and home decor this year, but guesses it’s an unusual choice for a christmas theme because she couldn’t find any blue and gold crackers anywhere!  Undeterred, she found some plainish gold ones and altered them herself, wrapping the central sections first with Core’dinations and patterned papers from the beautiful Prima Madeline range, and then embellishing with Tim Holtz Facets and Martha Stewart punched butterflies.  And of course, glitter.

One thing that occurred to her as she ‘Glossy Accented’ the last piece of patterned paper to a facet, was what a beautiful idea it would be to use them as table place-name holders, putting a small photo of each person at the table under a facet.

 

 

Unintentionally to start with, it seems every year Suz makes a different Christmas tree, and of course she couldn’t skip it this year.  The perfect accompaniment to her christmas crackers, Suz tore and distressed and curled the edges of strips of Prima Madeline patterned papers and glued them in layers all the way up this styrofoam tree.  Different coloured glitters rest on the ridges created by the layers.  She finished embellishing this festive tree with glitter coated punched butterflies, Prima flower centres and bling. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iris used the 7Gypsies Photo Display stand and Webster’s Pages ‘Botanical Christmas’ range to create a photo display to go on her Christmas table or sideboard. What a lovely talking piece a collection of the years photos would be on the table to flip through and remember as they celebrate Christmas.

 

 

We found these stunning candles created by Vicki Boutin on the 7Gypsies blog.  To create these she has used 7gypsies Life Tissue Paper and covered cream coloured candles.  You can see more details of these and other gorgeous projects here. 

 

 

Over on the Hambly blog there’s also lots of inspiring creating going on, including these gorgeous layered ornaments by Jaz Lee.  Pop over to see the tutorial for creating them here.

handmade christmas: from the kids

 

Never one to be left out of ‘making things’ Suz’s daughter Phoebe came up with this gorgeous artwork to give to her teacher this year.  She used a mixture of Glimmer Mists and Luminarte Twinkling H2O’s to create the christmas tree painting, and covered the Pink Paislee frame in white gesso and white Glimmer Mist Chalkboard. 

The beauty of this kind of present is that when Christmas is over Mrs S can just take the tree picture out of the gorgeous Pink Paislee frame and use it for something else.  We can totally imagine a teacher, family friend or grandparent appreciating this idea.

These cute little canvas pouches are a fun and simple gift that kids can make with just a little help (if they are younger). With the Prima canvas sheets easily cut into a circle, trim of your choice can be threaded through holes punched evenly around the edge. When pulled tight, a pouch is created and can be decorated however the child likes!

Websters Pages tinsel trim and Tim Holtz baubles have been used to embellish these example pouches.

christmas special: scrapping the christmas tree shots

 

 

 

Sue loves the Christmas season and it has become a tradition to take photos of her children in front of the Christmas tree with some of their special ornaments. Sue says it is lovely to look back over the previous years and see how her kids have grown and changed. Sue has used the Peppermint Collection from Crate Paper to create this vibrant layout, with a lovely glittered paper from We R Memory Keepers Peppermint Twist range, and a beautiful star vine from Prima, added in for a little sparkle.

Sue handcut snowflake designs from the paper and embellished them with iridescent gold glimmer mist, silver stitching and white sequins. Sue has also used the Tim Holtz rosette die and fabric brads to add more detail and dimension to her layout.

 

 

 

To create this LO, Janine drew inspiration from a Becky Fleck Pagemap and based her design around that. Originally the sketch was for a double LO, but Janine adapted it for a single. Janine thoroughly recommends the Becky Fleck Pagemap books as it can be a great starting point when you want to create a LO, and for Janine, she wanted to do a reasonable amount of journalling so this sketch was ideal.

She has then used the Authentique Christmas range and created multiple layers of paper in her design. To finish it off she has used some Prima flowers and a Prima metal, which she altered by applying black Stazon over the surface, for a two tone effect.

 

 

The great chipboard pieces in the My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas range made it so easy for Kim to add the perfect embellishments to finish this layout which showcases the two variations of the Christmas Card that she sent in 2009. The range is so bright and colourful which means it is perfect for any Christmas layout.

handmade christmas: wreaths

 

Louise created this wreath by rolling 6" squares of the Basic Grey paper into cones, then hot gluing them together along each edge. Using the reverse of the paper, she created a large rosette and layered it with mini rosettes and a noel word. She added layers of scrolls diecut from grungeboard, some Prima flowers and a few berries to finish this sweet wreath with a personal feel.

 

 

Why buy a Christmas Wreath when you can make one yourself and personalise it to suit your style! Chris has always preferred pinks and greens for her Christmas decorations rather than the standard red and green. Here she has combined some gorgeous textured and foil finished papers from SEI Christmas Mint and White Elegance ranges to create this very pretty wreath. Chris also used some Strano ribbon, Prima flowers and Pink Paislee Pixie Stick Glitter to finish off this piece.

For instructions on how to create your very own wreath please check out this link.

 

 

We found this gorgeous festive wreath created by Tracie Hudson by cutting 1/2 inch wide strips from sheets of Tradition patterned paper. The paper was then curled using scissors and simply attached to a polystyrene wreath using pins.  More of Tracie’s stunning work can be seen over on her blog, where visitors are always welcome.

handmade christmas: tree decorations

 

Fancy making your own Christmas tree decorations this year?  There’s plenty of inspiration on the web, and we bring you some of them along with special ideas from our own design team below.

 

Here’s a cool way to use up some of those odd chipboard letters you’ve got leftover.  Join them together with tabs of clear acetate and hot glue for extra support and turn them into gorgeous Christmas tree words.  Suz’s tree isn’t up yet so once again Tim Holtz’s Tree of Life comes in handy for showing them off. 

To make these words you just need to make sure that your letters can butt up against each other in at least one spot, but two is even better.  Give them a couple of coats of gesso to cover up the fact that they’re all different colours of chipboard and then sprinkle graduating layers of Suz’s favourite Christmas embellishment – Martha Stewart Glitter!

 

 

 

Suz’s 8yo daughter likes to get in on the crafting act, and while Suz was making words, Phoebe was creating this gorgeous flower to go with them.  She hijacked one of the Pink Paislee Mistables flowers which she misted in Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist, and then she hot glued Prima leaves to the back of it to make this decidedly Christmassy decoration. 

Suz’s favourite bit was that Phoebe knows that memory keeping needs to be recorded, and so she had made and glittered a little tag to go on the back so in future years they would know where and when this particular treasure came to be.

 

 

 

 

Louise Nelson has up-cycled a sad looking Christmas tree star, that was beginning to loose its glitter and look a little 'grey'. Louise has used the wonderful metallic range of Prima leaves and flowers to give the star a face lift; it now has a new earthy and funky 'look'.

 

 

 

Louise Williams used her die cutting machine to cut snowflakes from white cardstock, and swags and reindeer from the My Minds Eye papers before assembling into these cute double sided ornaments. She embossed the white cardstock with sparkle embossing powder for a shimmery effect and finished these sides with some sequins, punched branches and co-ordinating reindeer.

 

Here’s another decoration we found that is just beautiful in its simplicity.  There’s more pics and a tutorial for creating it here.

 

Imagine these gorgeous paper snowflakes in some double sided patterned papers.. we found a fabulous tutorial for it here.

 

 

And here’s one simple enough to keep the kids busy in the lead up to Christmas – go here for the tutorial for these darling baubles.

 

This stunning star was created by Alison Callcott who made these stunning creations from Tim Holtz Grungeboard, the Sizzix Primitive Star die and one of Tim Holtz’s new Alterations dies – the Mini Paper Rosette.  We love the layers of detail Alison has created here – thanks so much Alison for sharing your star with us.

 

Finally, we thought we’d include links to some timeless ideas from our own design team from past years.

      

 

 

 

 

 

 Hambly Christmas baubles                      Prima baubles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twiddleybitz/Tim Holtz ornaments        Quilled Creations snowflakes

handmade christmas: non-scrappy friends / co-workers

 

homemade christmas special: december daily albums

 

 

 

 

Leeann was a little nervous taking on this assignment as she had never actually done or completed December Daily album before. Leeann needed a bit of a game plan to help get her started. The 7 gypsies envelope album was the perfect staring point. She loved the idea of being able to store small treasures inside the envelopes on the way.

Leeann started by taking the whole album apart and laying all the pages out she then cut to size a mixed of Hambly Screen Prints, BasicGrey and October Afternoon patterned papers and kraft cardstock. Leeann kept all the pages simple by adhering journal tags by Echo Park and an assortment of numbers. The cover was cover in old chipboard numbers and painted with gesso a few times, and finished of with chipboard accents from echo park and jenni bowlin and studio calico. Leeann is looking forward to recording each day right up to the big day.

 

 

 

Suz has mixed up fabulous Tim Holtz Kraft Resist papers, cardstock, Hambly and her favourite Christmas line – Webster’s Botanical Christmas to create her December Daily album.  Last year she managed to jounral most of the month on her blog, so this year she’s looking forward to taking the next step and printing and creating the pages in her album from the blog posts.  She has created pockets and spaces for extra photos and memorabilia throughout the album.

The album is sized at 6x8”, which means that she could use 12x8” cardstock folded over.  It’s not bound yet because she’s worried about wanting to change the order of some of the pages, so she will stitch the spines of the album together at the end. 

We hope to be able to check back on our December Daily girls later in the month and see how their albums are going!

handmade christmas: crafty friends

We all have two kinds of friends, those who ‘get’ the crafting thing, and those who don’t, and many of us would need to differentiate between the two when Christmas gifts are considered.  So this week’s post is aimed at those friends who ‘get it’, who would enjoy and treasure something that you made, because they appreciate the thought and effort that when into it – because you made it. 

 

homemade christmas special: advent calendars

 

 

 

 

Leeann decide to create her advent calendar a little differently this year. She found the above rickety old tray for $2.00 while browsing through a thrift store. It definitely needed a little bit of a make over. So armed with a can of white spray paint she pulled the inside plates out and sprayed, then gave it a light sand once dry. She used some striped pattern paper by Echo Park and adhere it to the background.

Once she had placed the plates back Leeann arranged all the Tim Holtz bingo numbers, using a thick black texta on some of the bingo numbers to add some contrast. She then gathered together prima roses, prima metal bird cage and bird, Jenni Bowlin vintage buttons and chipboard button, BasicGrey buttons, a Tim Holtz door knob and light bulb and a metal number plate along with a few other embellishments and arranged them all.

Once happy Leeann adhered them all in place and finished it off by using chipboard accents from Echo Parks Seasons Greeting range to create this gorgeous and unique countdown calendar!

 

 

 

Louise had wonderful intentions of making an Advent Tree, but has ended up creating her version of an Advent Branch! All that is missing is a beautiful cream, gold and silver birdie or two, but Louise is on the look out for it in her Christmas shopping. Louise has taken a 'grown-up' approach and created this Advent branch for a great scrappy mate. Louise had this idea to create simple christmas themed tags that could easily be used as embellishment on a christmas card or layout, or even mini book.

Each tag is numbered and corresponds to a numbered gift which contains wonderful christmas themed embellishments that can also be used by her scrappy friend, in the creation of her Christmas projects. Louise thought that this would really appeal to her friend, who also hates waste, as with this idea nothing would be thrown away/wasted.

Louise has created simple daily tags and embellishments, each numbered from 1-24 on the back to correspond with a numbered gift.

 

She then wrapped up 25 little gifts to correspond with each day; each contains some wonderful scrapbooking embellishments.

Are you just a little bit jealous? This is a selection of the types of gifts embellishments that Louise has wrapped up in the gifts! :) Some glorious Prima goodies :)

 

As you can see from this tag it can easily be used on a layout or card.

 

Each gift is numbered to correspond with a tag from the Advent branch :)  This is such a beautiful idea – we all want to be Lou’s ‘special scrappy mate’!

 

 

Take a look at this advent calendar made using the silhouette by Briana Johnson. Briana has used a mixed of pattern papers and other embellishments by Jenni Bowlin. And we just adore the mixture of boxes and draws. Totally gorgeous and packed with treats ready for the little ones to start counting down. Thank you so much Briana for letting us share your gorgeous advent calendar.

 

 

Finally, thanks to Kelly Goree for this stunning advent calendar which also uses the Silhouette templates.  She has of course, used Basic Grey’s ‘Jovial’ patterned paper range, and we loved the eclectic, vintage look she has given it.  Thanks Kelly!

handmade christmas: for teachers

It’s time to turn our attention to those wonderful people who look after and educate our children for a third of each day.  Handmade gift ideas are great and can be economical when you have a more than a few teachers you’d like to acknowledge.

production line christmas cards

Making your own Christmas cards can seem a little overwhelming when your Christmas Card list reaches triple, or even just double figures! It’s easy to fall back on a cheapie box of printed cards, but we wanted to share some inspiration today on creating your own handmade Christmas cards that look like you’ve put hours of work into each one, but really they’re fairly quick and simple as part of a production line process.

 

 

Suz Doyle starts us off with a set of cards that look vintage and special, but are so easy an eight year old can make them (in fact, her eight year old daughter who doesn’t like being left out of the creating fun, did make the one pictured directly above!) 

Suz layered Prima leaves onto a strip of chipboard which she then cut into triangle shapes to make the trees.  The backgrounds are made from the new tim Holtz Kraft Resist papers (and you can get six card panels from each sheet), Glimmer Misted quickly, distressed and adhered to kraft cardstock.  A little braid and a little bling are all these cards need, but Suz couldn’t resist some finishing touches from the gorgeous Fancy Pants ‘Saint Nick’ Glitter Cuts pack.

 

 

 

 

 

Jenni Hudswell created this simple but effective set of cards from Prima North Country Art Paper.  Already sized at 6x6” these sheets are perfect for cardmaking, and Jen cut them into 1” strips to adorn plain white cards.  She created a couple of different looks with the pretty co-ordinating stamp, and it can be fun to change it up a little when you have a lot of cards to make.  The white tree, above is inked and then embossed, picking out the gorgoeus detail of the tree.  It serves a second purpose though as Jen then glimmer misted over the top of the embossing to create a resist effect.

 

 

 

 

Jane Clark has used the Cosmo Cricket Mrs Claus papers for these super quick and economical cards.  The ‘Yes Virginia’ paper has twelve of these cute little Santa figures on it. Jane covered the fronts of the folded cards with a range of other Mrs Claus papers in various sizes and then further decorated the cards with punched out bows and large adhesive pearls.

handmade christmas: for dad and grandpa

 

aussie christmas special: handmade card ideas

Halloween is over.. the Melbourne Cup is over.. surely that means it’s time for Christmas!  Our design team have come up with some beautiful ideas for handmade Christmas cards this year – and we’re thrilled to announce, and welcome new design team member, the talented Kim Arnold,  who along with Georgia Keays makes her debut for Aussie in this post.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Georgia wanted to make Christmas cards for her children's teachers which were similar but also unique. The first step was to let each child choose one of the bigger pieces of chipboard from the Crate Paper Peppermint line to serve as the focus of the card. As the colours of this range are so vibrant Georgia decided to use a very neutral paper as the background. Once Georgia had made the first card she simply repeated the design using the different chipboard pieces and adding other embellishments to suit.

 

 

When it comes to Christmas cards they need to be eye catching, but easily replicable and simple to make as most people need to be able to make large batches quickly. The Echo Park Holly Jolly Collection packs are perfect for easy but interesting Christmas cards with virtually everything to make these cards in one pack.

 

Whipping up some fabulous Christmas cards with the Jillibean Soup Christmas Eve Chowder 6x6 paper pad can be as simple as you wish to make it. Chris has combined the Jillibean Soup papers with the new Hero Arts Cling Wishes Come True stamp set, a Sew Easy Floss and a few Crystal Dots. She cut out the little penguins and trees from the paper itself to create some very quick and easy embellishments and to finish the cards off did a little machine stitching.

 

 

 

There has to be sparkle at Christmas time Jane tell us! The punched background was created by using a Martha Stewart Punch All Over The Page Country Tile punch. Jane also said that these punches are fantastic!! They're so easy to use and there are no mistakes trying to line up the pattern!! The punched card was then layered on Jac paper or single sided adhesive sheet and glitter poured over the top. Jane also cut out one of the punched designs and placed it over the paper bow.

 

Jane fell in love with these Webster's Pages Cameo, so she decided she would use these on her special Christmas cards for family and close friends. Jane extended the element of the cameo by glueing lace around the edge then added folded stripes of paper as shown. One tip Jane said 'Use lots of strong adhesive to keep everything in place!'.

 

 

When Sue first saw the Postcards to Santa paper from Webster's Botanical range, she knew that it could be turned into simple but beautiful Christmas cards. Sue has combined the papers with the lush Webster's ribbons, along with twine and bells to create her cards. Gold stitching has added a touch of elegance. Sue also added Frosted Lace stickles to highlight the designs on the paper.

‘hand-made’ christmas

 

christmas reflections - anna griffin

 

 

These new Anna Griffin papers are wonderful and elegant and very easy to work with. The highlight of the range for Janine were the die cuts, which contained these magnificent glittered baubles, that provide a perfect way to embellish her Christmas pages. The holly leaves under the floral cluster were from the same packet of diecuts.

christmas reflections - prima

 

 

 

There is something special about Christmas photos which deserve to be showcased in a gorgeous Christmas layout. Often the photos are so colourful that the scrapbook page design can be kept fairly simple. Sue chose to keep her photos as the main feature on her page by using small patterns in the papers and embellishing with beautiful Prima Christmas products. The glistening vine was used as the base for the stunning holly leaves.

Sue also used a journaling chipboard from the Annalee range to which she added rub-ons from the Lily Bee Designs Christmas Town collection. A little glitter is always welcomed on a Christmas page so Sue covered Heidi Swap chipboard stars with platinum stickles to add that extra sparkle to the page. Gold stitching added the last little detail needed.

Don't forget to take lots of photos during the month of December to capture all the special things about Christmas. This can sometimes alleviate the pressure of photo taking on Christmas Day.

christmas reflections - the girls paperie

 

 

 

 

 

Louise has created this very dimensional layout with a modern vintage feel, and the new Tinsel & Twig papers from The Girl’s Paperie were perfect. Combined with some pretty Prima Christmas flowers and some fantastic new Twiddleybitz chipboard, the focus is brought back to the photographs with heading placement and clusters of embellishments.