Monday, December 16, 2013

Christmas Fun

Hello All,
Welcome to my last blog post for the year 2013. I hope that you are all having fun wherever you are, and that the time spent on holiday, with family or friends or just some quiet time spent alone, is filled with reflection on the year past and filled with hope for the future.
The layout I made for this post is of some photos taken a long time ago when my kids were small and the excitement around a jolly Christmas Father still made their eyes twinkle. Well the youngest didn't think he was so jolly and the oldest was way to cool to show his excitement. The middle one could not wait to see him as the previous year he was the one screaming on Christmas Fathers' lap and this particular year he went to greet the man at the gate. Life through the eyes of a kid is awesome!!
I used the Simple Stories - December Documented - Collection as well as black and red American Craft card-stock.
With a Martha Steward edge punch I punched strips of pattern paper and then applied Stickles in various colours to them. These strips were attached to the top and bottom of the lay-out. For the saying on the left hand side I stamped a Kaisercraft stamp with embossing ink and then applied Ranger Antiquities Frosted Crystal embossing crystal. This embossing powder does not perform like normal embossing powder. When you heat it up the embossing powder becomes matte. This takes a little practice to get right, I had a few flops trying this. Once the saying was embossed I took ordinary blackboard chalk and applied it over the embossed area and rubbed it with my finger until I got a look I was happy with. The flowers and swirls were cut with the Silhouette Cameo.
The Christmas wreath is a Silhouette pattern. It was cut from the Hello December paper and then a few flowers and diamante were attached to the wreath. A ribbon was tied to the top of the wreath.
I fussy cut the elements from the Special Delivery paper and used them as embellishments on the layout.
Finally I randomly applied blackboard chalk on the top and bottom of the black card-stock. I used my finger to spread the chalk till I was happy with the look. 
This has to be the final step just before the lay-out is ready to be stored in plastic sleeves as the chalk tend to rub off while you handle the lay-out. I think if I ever have to redo this technique I will use a smooth card-stock, it seems to "hold" the chalk better. The heading of the layout was cut with the Silhouette machine from leftover pattern paper. Remember that all the products used are available form The Scrapbook Studio
Happy scrapping till next year - 2014
Lee
p.s May you all have a blessed Christmas time wherever you are!