Aussie Scrap Source

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.

countdown to christmas – christmas eve

Firstly, we’d just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and peace-filled Christmas, and thank you all for visiting us. 

 

 

 

 

 

Caz had been hanging onto these photos for quite some time, waiting for the inspiration to scrap them. 2007 was the year that Jord's Polly Pockets decided to move into the nativity manger. They arrived in their purple sports car with enough dresses to tide them over the Christmas break. Soon enough Jesus and family had moved out completely when Polly invited even more of her friends to stay.

countdown to christmas day 2 – webster’s pages

 

 

Want to create a fast holiday page? All you need is a couple of papers from Webster's Pages Waiting for Santa, a chipboard frame, some trims and red flowers, a stamp of your choice, and you are all set to recreate this layout in less than an hour.

countdown to christmas day 3 - basicgrey

Last Christmas,  Caz started an album with a page a day as her family counted down to Christmas. As with most things, and especially at this time of year the album was never finished. So Caz decided to add to it with pages from this year to try and get it finished.

After all. The traditions don't really change at all each year which is why Caz loves the whole Christmas thing.

 

Day 2- when Caz's son slept at a friend's one night he was introduced to the German advent custom of leaving your shoe out for Santa with your Christmas letter in it. Santa would collect the letters and leave lollies or chocolates in each child's shoe if they had been good.

 

Day 9 - One big change this year is the introduction of Chase into our Christmas. Chase is why the decorations are a bit light on this year, the tree is still completely naked as we work out what to do with it, and after seeing him open a 30box of Coke cans in 5 minutes flat there will be no presents sitting under the tree till the very last minute. Lol.

 

Day 13 - In the weeks leading up to Christmas Jordan usually spends a lot of time in her room being secretive. 2 years ago she prepared a powerpoint presentation for Caz and her hubby about her life up till now, last year she made a photo frame for her Nana and put a picture of the two of them in it. Such a giving and thoughtful child, Jordan really is what the Spirit of Christmas is all about.

countdown to christmas day 4 – quilled creations

 

 

 

Soon we’ll be introducing you to one of our newest suppliers, Quilled Creations, and bringing you lots of ideas from our design team on how to introduce quilling to your crafting in often unexpected ways.  In the meantime however, here’s a taster from Jane Clark who created these gorgeous decorations to hang on your tree.  She used the Quilling comb to create them.

countdown to christmas day 5: tattered angels

 

 

 

For this layout Louise got 'down and dirty', LOL, and took a grungey approach. To achieve this effect she has used templates and impasto gel to first create the pattern of a gift box and christmas tree. When the Impasto gel was nearly touch dry on the layout she painted it with the glimmer glaze and then literally drenched it with the gold Glimmer Mist. To get the wonderful random marbled like pattern of colour she dried it quickly with a heat gun.

Then using the glimmer glaze again Louise painted the inside squares of the gift box pattern. When this was dry she added her photo and journaling.

countdown to christmas day 6 - twiddleybitz

 

 

 

 

 

There’s still time to make a beautiful centrepiece for your christmas table, or just to adorn a shelf at christmas time.  This Twiddleybitz tree stands just on 12” high and has plenty of curls and flourishes on which to hang embellishments if you choose.

Suz decided to keep hers simple, although the decorating process still took some time. She covered the entire tree in white gesso to start to give it a light base, and then glimmer misted in graduating degrees of colour.  Suz used the Chalkboard Glimmer Mist for a more opaque coverage – white at the top of the tree working down to a strong coverage of Strawberry Shortcake at the base.  Once dry she sprayed the tree with spray adhesive and sprinkled the entire thing in Martha Stewart Crystal Glitter.  Placing bling and half pearls randomly around the branches was the finishing touch.

countdown to christmas day 8 – lilybee design

 

 

 

The Christmas Town papers were ideal for scrapping one of Kathie’s favourite photos from last Christmas. It’s not often that she gets a photo of her husband and son together, let alone that they are both looking at the camera, and don’t have silly expressions on their faces.

The Christmas Town range lends itself well to a vintage Christmas feel. Kathie based the layout on a backdrop of BasicGrey, then teamed the rubons and die-cuts from the range with a little Webster’s Pages tinsel and some Jenni Bowlin stick pins for an extra Christmas sparkle.

countdown to christmas day 9 – teresa collins

 

 

 

 

To stop the endless question of "How many days till Christmas" Caz decided to turn these Teresa Collins Design Chipboard Covers into a Christmas Countdown. Caz cut each of the numbers for the days from the one sheet of
'Countdown' paper and added them to a page containing a Christmas quote of some sort. These vary from funny ones, to quotes from movies, to lines from her favourite Christmas Carols. Two hinged rings hold the whole thing together at the top and to keep it from falling flat, Caz punched two holes on the bottom of each of the covers and threaded a length of ribbon through, tying it off with knots. To store the album you simply undo one of the knots, flip the pages inside the cover and tie it all back up with a bow.

countdown to christmas day 10 – anna griffin

 

This stunning Collection by Anna Griffin "Calisto Christmas" is one of Carole Favourites Christmas designs, she adored everything about this collection, from the pattern papers to the 3D Stickers and the cute Matt Frames. The pattern papers are just so great to cut into and create gorgeous themes such as the cute Santa sitting making a Sleigh and the Santas Greetings Letter, which Carole layered to give more dimension she loves.

countdown to christmas: day 12

 

 

 

 

Today we’re excited to share a project Janine has created for Prima – and if you want to join in with Janine as she shows us how to recreate these at home, you can catch her live online class on Wednesday 15th December at 11am at the Live with Prima site – here.

Janine has used non-traditional Christmas colours such as pink, turquoise, green and silver to create one of kind table decorations that will have your guests in awe. You will be customizing Prima flowers with glimmer mist and an iridescent medium as well. You will also make a cute little lolly container for each place setting and a decorative card. This beautiful card will accentuate the table and act as their Christmas card as well.

countdown to christmas day 13 – jenni bowlin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Louise thought it would be a great idea to create a layout and card combination to document the annual Christmas card photo shoot. With the card she has actually created a card that can fit not only extra 'proof' size' photos for the recipient [on the right hand side], but also a CD inside the front cover [on the left hand side].

The Jenni Bowlin range of papers tags, rubons and embellishments lend themselves beautifully to creating Christmas papercraft projects and gifts, with a fabulous and subtle vintage feel!

countdown to christmas day 14: echo park papers

 

When Louise found this amazing reindeer creation from Jennifer Beason, her jaw literally dropped. The incredible attention to detail and clever use of papers from Echo Park and Pink Paislee, make this an absolute seasonal delight. Thank you Jennifer for letting me share your stunning work.

countdown to christmas day 15 - twiddleybitz

 

 

 

 

 

Carol Thompson has created this fabulous idea for counting down the days until Christmas.  It’s a wall hanging which has a recessed shadowbox and tags for the countdown.  See how she has clustered punched out leaves, buttons and baubles in the corner for a gorgeous focal point around the photo.

We thank Carol for being a part of our team this year – she works wonders with Twiddleybitz and has never failed to inspire.

countdown to christmas day 16: tattered angels

 

 

 

 

 

 

Louise is excited and amazed at the creative potential for the new range of Glimmer Glam and Glazes! They are a wonderful addition to the range of Glimmer Mists and Chalkboard Mists! Together this range provides you with an endless range of creative possibilities for all of your creative and paper projects.

Louise has created a range of layouts and accompanying cards to show the versatility of the Glimmer Glam and Glaze, just from a style perspective. For this first Layout and card she has used the Glimmer Glam to add simple but effective festive bling to the regal Alpha frame, and for the card she has used a festive red glaze to decorate the frame which has a subtler sheen.

countdown to christmas day 17: echo park papers

 

 

Carole loves to create Beyond the Page projects for Christmas, so creating this cute little Funky Town House by Twiddleybitz was it !! Carole used Echo Park Everybody Loves Christmas pattern papers, and stickers which worked perfect, the bright colours and patterns with the cute little stickers was adorable.