Aussie Scrap Source

countdown to christmas: little yellow bicycle

After Caz saw the Little Yellow Bicycle 25 Days of Christmas range she decided to make an album that counts down the days until Christmas. Starting at the 1st of December, all the way to Christmas Day, listing things that happen in the household to prepare for the big day.

She used only the 25 Days of Christmas papers, journaling spots and stickers, and added a variety of letter stickers, chipboard letters and bling.

So far she has covered untangling the christmas lights, making teachers presents, advent calenders, the Christmas letter that she writes each year and the kids letters to Santa. Caz has included envelopes on some pages to contain things such as the letters. She has used a mix of current photos and older photos. She particularly loves the page with the photo of her kids some years ago, posting their letters into Santa's Mailbox.

countdown to christmas

 

Photographs do not do these SEI Winter Song papers and elements justice, in Kathie's view (click to see enlarged image). She was captivated by their glitter and sheen. In fact, she decided that the background paper was just too beautiful to cut up and has left it whole as the base of the page.

Kathie decided to keep to a white and pale green/blue colour palette for this layout, to let the photos of her son decorating the Christmas tree last year really have centre stage. Baubles cut from cardstock and patterned paper hang from satin ribbons and are decorated with Die-Cut Glitter Accents and Decorative Elements. A touch of glitter accents the shapes and ties them in with the glittered background papers.

The font that comes with this range was quite dark, and not in keeping with the ethereal feel of this page, so Kathie's used some coordinating lettering from BasicGrey. Because she'd almost run out of letters, she's mixed existing letters with silhouettes cut from the packaging where previously used letters used to be.

countdown to christmas: twiddleybitz

Nicole is well prepared for this year's Christmas photos having created this gorgeous mini-album from a Twiddleybitz chipboard book. The intricate detail on the cover front lends itself to a host of different treatments, in this case Nicole painted the fine details with Twinkling H2O paints by LuminArte, then inked all of the edges with Distress Ink.

She has backed the cover with a Hambly overlay for decorative appeal but you could also leave it as is, use a clear back, a cardstock or paper back, the possibilities are just about endless.

Proving also that you don't need Christmas themed papers for Christmas projects, Nic embellished the pages of this album with papers by Rouge de Garance and trims by we R Memory Keepers. Also by We R Memory Keepers are the fabulous glitter rub-ons in this book and the chipboard pieces are by Twiddleybitz.

All Nic needs to do now is celebrate Christmas, take some snaps and put them in this book!

  

countdown to christmas: sei

(click to enlarge image)

Janine loved the gorgeous Christmas Mint papers by SEI with their lovely flourished elements and wonderful matching embellishments. Janine handcut out the tree, baubles and presents and foam mounted them on this 8x11 double LO. She then used BasicGrey diamantes to add a bit of glitz to the Christmas Tree.

countdown to christmas: webster’s pages

(click to enlarge image)

Like many others, Nic mentioned she finds it hard to create Christmas layouts after the festive season has come and gone. She decided to be one step ahead this year, with this double layout created with the help of a Becky Fleck Pagemap from Jan09.

With photos from Christmas Day planned for this layout, Nic wanted a soft yet not too childish range of papers and the Websters Pages "Home for the Holidays" was perfect for this.

Nic started with a base of plain BasicGrey papers and built layers of soft pinks and reds from the Webster's Pages range. The addition of some golds and soft greens added to the gentle feel, with the distressed edges making a Christmas layout with a distinctly vintage feeling. Flowers, lamp post, deer and scrolls are all cut from the Webster's paper, with the title from BasicGrey. Notice the final Christmas touches in the way of the glitter on many of the elements, this layout sits ready for photos!

countdown to christmas: we r memory keepers

Suz fell in love with the beautiful bright We R Memory Keepers perfectly named Chrsitmas range - “Merry & Bright” says it all really!  With beautiful pinks and oranges scattered through the traditional red and green colour palette, these papers are a joy to work with.  As with all the We R Memory Keepers White Out range, these papers are double sided and many of them have four scaled down 6x6” designs on the backs which are perfect for cardmaking.

Suz has layered and glittered the patterned papers, and with the help of the Layered Chipboard Tags from the same range, these cards practically made themselves.

 

countdown to christmas: technique tuesday

As soon as Nic saw the new BasicGrey Sugar Rush she knew the gorgeous pinks and oranges would be perfect for Christmas cards. Nic paired the BasicGrey papers with a favourite new Technique Tuesday Stamp set, (Ali Edwards Peace Love Joy) and and older favourite, Technique Tiles. She applied a little dimensional magic to the scalloped circle tiles and dipped them in Pink Paislee Pixie Stix glitter, the sparkle certainly sets off that Christmas mood!

countdown to christmas: anna griffin

Clearly, you don’t have to stick to specifically themed Christmas papers to make perfectly stunning Christmas cards, as Steph shows here with fabulous new Anna Griffin designs.

Steph decided to use non-traditional papers and a combination of the Flora, Darcey and Peyton Collections mixed and matched beautifully. She wanted to play with non-traditional shapes for cards too, and decided to use a bracket shape for her first card. Steph used the packaging from the Jenni Bowlin Buttons as her template and traced around the shape onto her patterned paper.

After cutting, she adhered to cardstock and cut a .5cm border around the edge. Steph used the Anna Griffin trims to embellish her card, and rub-on's for a title.

On this card, Steph used the beautiful Anna Griffin Flora Paper as her background. For texture she used the Little Yellow Bicycle Christmas Chipboard and covered it with flocked paper from Anna Griffin's Darcey Collection. She border punched the Aussie Scrap Source green cardstock and added trim. The rub on was placed onto cardstock and then mounted with foam tape onto the finished card.

Once again, Steph has gone for a non-traditional shape and colors. The beautiful red and blue Anna Griffin papers highlight the gorgeous partridge rub on. The icing on the cake, was the stunning Anna Griffin silver braid which finished the card off with a real Christmas accent.

countdown to christmas: carolee’s creations

 

 

Using the new papers for this Christmas season from Carolee's Creations/Adorn It, Nicole created these quick and cute Christmas cards.

This card uses foiled lettering by We R Memory Keepers, more Carolee's "Elegance" stickers and a cute felt bird by Jenni Bowlin. They sit on a strip mat of Magic Scraps texture paper creating not only beautiful colour but tactile appeal as well.

 

 

The card front left uses a mat of Carolee's "Swirly Wishes" paper and also the new "Elegance" stickers. She layered some Glimmermisted Basic Grey chipboard under some letters by Tattered Angels and finished the card with a ruffled border of Jenni Bowlin crepe ribbon before rubbing over the lot with Distress Ink. A card design easily replicated many times over.

 

The third card features a little inchies frame and tree from Twiddleybitz. The mini trees and snowflakes come with these little frames and squares included and make the perfect little mini-mat for a card like this one.

Nicole picked some of her favourite images from the Carolee's "Christmas Wishes" paper and created Inchies to go inside the mini-mat which she had painted with Twinkling H2Os. She finished by attaching the painted tree to the frame and layering the block on a Pink Paislee canvas tag over a strip of Webster's Pages lace. A smattering of Glimmermist, a Twiddleybits flourish, some rub-ons and pearls finished it all off. Slightly Vintage yet modern.

countdown to christmas: twiddleybitz

 

Check out this scrumptious Christmas Advent House!  It comes flat packed and stands around 9” high when fully assembled.  Assembly is pretty fool-proof and you can embellish it either before (easier) or after assembly.

Here Suz has made use of the stunning Pink Paislee patterned papers and Glimmer Misted, Pixee Stix Glittered and Inked the house all over.  Twiddleybitz states that the board the house is created from doesn’t warp or bend no matter how many treatments you use on it, and Suz tested this with layers of ink and glimmer mist and it’s true!  The beautiful detail in the filigree roof is highlighted with gold Glitter, and more of the Little Yellow Bicycle Chipboard shapes make the perfect accents.

Suz also used the Pink Paislee Transparent Borders to go along the bottom of the house and to create the numbers in each of the little boxes.  It looks beautiful sitting alongside the Tim Holtz Tree of Life – a wonderful Christmas display for her sideboard this year – and for many years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

countdown to christmas: basic grey

Carole created this set of gorgeous cards, using Eskimo Kisses "Holly Jolly Bitsy" and "Snow Baby Bitsy" Stamps, they were just adorable to use, and as Carole loves to layer, they looked so detailed yet were not hard to create. And the best bit about stamps for christmas cards is of course, that you can use them over and over again.

Carole also used Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses pattern paper and stickers. 

 

Carole layered the flower from the "Holly Jolly Bitsy" stamp set, Carole cut into the flower once she stamped it onto pattern paper, and curled the petals with her fingers, she layered each flower with one feature flower in the middle of the cluster. Carole then added some yummy BG rhinestones.

Carole created one layered flower on this card, but also added some swirls by stamping onto plain white cardstock and then cutting around the swirl and sticking to the card using the "Holly Jolly Bitsy" stamp set and then Carole added some rhinestones to the swirls for added detail.

Carole created this cute little Eskimo by stamping the Eskimo (Girl) 4 times onto pattern paper, and then cutting each piece out Carole then layered specific pieces to create the above Eskimo.

Carole created this stamped image on top of the Chipboard Sticker for both the Eskimo Girl and Boy with foam tape, and then stuck both Eskimos onto the card as shown above.

countdown to christmas: luminarte

Initially Louise was tempted to create beautiful background mini album pages using the wonderful polished pigments and twinkling H2O's. However she got to thinking how would they look on acetate; and the results of her experiments are what she considers to be 'Juuust Luscious'!!! She has used mostly the Twinkling H2O's on the acetate; to create photo matts and decorative elements, and the polished pigments; to give a beautiful golden sheen to the bookpage elements and Journal spot.

For added visual interest Louise has also used the Basic Grey Doilies as a template and embossed a beautiful pattern onto the mini album pages.

  

 

 

   

countdown to christmas: teresa collins

A weekend away with a few of Nic's favourite friends is on the horizon and Nic can't wait. She knows there will be fun and laughs, and as usual with a group of scrapbookers, there will be no shortage of photos taken!
When Nic saw the new Teresa Collins 'Friendship' Collection, she knew it'd be perfect for a mini album, and what better present for one of her best friends, than an album ready to slip the photos into.

This album has been constructed entirely from the Teresa Collins Friendship range, with the addition of a small amount of corrugated cardboard. Using a total of 5 different papers, Nic cut and layered, using the occasional Teresa Collins transparency in between the pages. She mentioned it was easy to do, with many of the tags and labels printed on one of the papers, and all papers being double sided, there was very little investment needed!

Nic finished off by using a Crop-O-Dile to punch through everything, placing a few rings through and the album is done! Such an easy and fun project to make, all it needs now is those piles of photos after a girl's weekend away!

countdown to christmas: tim holtz

Suz fell in love with Tim Holtz’s Tree of Life the minute she saw it, and it’s now the first touch of christmas in her home so far this year.  It stands around 28” high but is lovely and narrow so can make a stunning statement with out taking up too much bench/table space, and would be a wonderful centrepiece for a Christmas table.  Obviously Suz had to have the beautiful light white one, but the tree is also available in bronze.   All the ornaments are decorated, by herself and her daughter (Phoebe’s are the glittery ones)!

Little Yellow Bicycle’s 25 Days of Christmas range include these beautiful reindeer, as well as snowflakes and trees shown below.  Here Suz has inked the reindeer with Tim Holtz distress inks, leaving the beautiful pattern on the chipboard to resist the ink.

 

Twiddleybitz Christmas release includes perfectly sized embellishments including doves, presents, boots and a sleigh.  Suz painted each of these with Luminarte Twinkling H2O’s and inked the edges for a shabby aged feel.  She then stamped them with Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co stamps and embellished with Heidi Swapp jewels.  The tree in the background is a Pink Paislee rubon transferred onto Hambly Transparency.

Here Suz layered two or three different sizes and patterns of the Little Yellow Bicycle snowflakes to create stunning decorations.  These were sprayed with Glimmer Mist and again embellished with jewelled brads and Pink Paislee Glitter.

Twiddleybitz Chipboard shapes, here Glimmer Misted, inked, stamped and embellished with Tim Holtz Metal Foliage.  The dove sports a beautiful Heidi Swapp Chandelier Crystal as well as bling.

Suz’s daughter Phoebe went to town with the Pink Paislee Pixee Stix on the LYB Chipboard, covering them in glue and different shades of gold and silver glitter, and she had to add a touch of red for Rudolph’s nose.

Finally the Tim Holtz Ornate Plates make beautiful photo frames to adorn your tree.  As they are meant to be used the other way round, Suz hung a chandelier crystal from the bottom hole.

countdown to christmas: cosmo cricket

With all the lead up until Christmas, December is Mel's most favourite month of the year. Wrapping gifts, putting up the tree, playing Christmas carols, baking combined with all the general day to day chores makes for a fun month. Mel decided to create a mini album to record each day during the festive season using a consistent colour theme and simple design throughout the album. There are 24 double page spreads inside, one for each day before Santa Claus makes his appearance.

The beautiful patterned papers and embellishments throughout the album are by Cosmo Cricket (Jolly by Golly range), plus a little bit of red bling (Hero Arts, red metallic decor) and some Crate Paper chipboard embellishments. The front and back covers were created with two pieces of Tim Holtz Grungeboard (basics - stripes) and the swirly background was hand cut from a sheet of Breezy Freezy (Jolly by Golly) and then mod podged into place.

Each double page includes a spot for a photo and an opposite page for journaling. As Mel works her way through the album (adding photos & stories) she will also include titles and/or a few more embellishments where needed.

In Mel's words: The Christmas mini album was exciting to create. The Jolly by Golly papers are super adorable and have such a lovely colour palette. Roll on December 1st so I can start adding photos to the album!

countdown to christmas: stampers anonymous

Few would doubt the fabulous creativity versatility of stamps; especially those from Stampers Anonymous and the creative fabulousness of Tim Holtz. This line of stamps has designs that can either be used in combination or singularly, and, suit a range of creative styles. Here Louise has used just one of the many cling mounted Christmas designs by Tim Holtz to create 4 Christmas cards.

 

To add visual interest with the first set of 2 cards, Louise has embossed the stamped pattern, and then applied concentrated amounts of Luminarte pigment paint and Tattered Angels Glimmermist to highlight the intricate patterns; in the body of the Reindeer, and amongst the foliage of the trees.

  

With the second set of 2 cards Louise has replicated the embossing technique with the Tim Holtz snow flake stamp, with a Luminarte polished pigment paint backround effect.

countdown to christmas: sei

Janine has used the beautiful SEI Christmas Mint papers and embellishments to create these pretty cards.  She likes to keep her Christmas cards quick and simple and the stickers were perfect for quick cards.

countdown to christmas: hero arts

Mel really loved being able to play with the beautiful 'Large Christmas Circle' Hero Arts stamps to create her cards. To begin she chose two stamps from the set, stamping them with red ink onto white cardstock and then cut each one out around the scalloped edge. The stamped embellishment was then foam mounted onto her prepared cards, some doubling as snowmen tummies and others popped inside tiny speech bubbles just for fun.

Mel used some Cosmo 'Jolly by Golly' elements for the card backgrounds and added a splash of bling (Hero Arts metallic dots). In Mel's own words "I now have a new favourite set of Christmas stamps - they're just so super cute and I really love the font used for the wording"

countdown to christmas: tattered angels

If you want to make a gorgeous homemade present to give someone at Christmas, Tattered Angels have some beautiful products to create with.  The base of this wall hanging, is actually a 12" x 12" stamp.

By using permanent ink, the image can be stamped onto transparency and layered upon. Steph then used the new Tattered Angels Bingo Cards as her base and built layers on top of that. Using the Tattered Angels Glimmer Chips Steph sprayed it with different color Glimmer Mists and added White Glimmer Mist to give her embellishments a soft look. After adding a few extra embellishments, you can punch two holes in the top of the transparency, add ribbon and you have a Christmas Pressie ready to hang !!!!!

countdown to christmas: quickutz

 

Caz decided to make some (hopefully all) of her Christmas Cards this year so thought she would try out the Quickutz ornament shapes for something different. There are 2 shapes on the one die, the elongated one as shown here and a round one shown on some of the next cards. She decided to see how many different ways she could use the dies to make her cards.

 

To create card number 1 caz used some of the lovely wide strano ribbon stiffened with some of the Ribbon Stiff. She then added layered co-ordinating Heidi Swapp felt flowers with a brad through their centres.

 

Card number 2 is made with Heidi Swapp papers with Some Heidi Swapp Bling to add a touch of Christmas sparkly. Caz just cut up the bling circles and a bling crown and used segments of them on the ornaments.

 

Caz has cut ornaments out of the beautiful Hambly Screen Prints overlays and layered them over a Hambly silver rub-on to create card number 3. Some metallic paper scraps were used for the hanging ribbons and ornament tops.

 

 

To create card number 4 Caz ran the ornaments through the Quickutz machine with a an embossing die in it to create lovely embossed swirls on them. She hung them on wrought iron looking flourishes cut with the Quickutz machine as well.

 

Card Number 5 was created with the gorgeous Glitzmas papers from SEI. All the extra work is done for you as the papers have glittery sparkles and shiny varnished accents already on them.