Simple Stories Baking Spirits Bright - The Joy of Christmas Shopping

Today I have another layout using Simple Stories Baking Spirits Bright collection. This collection is a baking inspired Christmas collection but can equally be used for non-baking themed Christmas layouts. As well as traditional Christmas colours in the collection it also has some non-tradition colours - pink, lime green and pale blue. My layout today uses some of those non traditional Christmas colours and is about Christmas Shopping.

In the summer I'd created a mixed media background using some pale green watercolour paint. I'd smooshed, painted and added some splatters to a sheet of white cardstock. I had intended using it for a nature themed layout but ended up not liking it so had put it to one side.  When planning the layout I'm sharing today, I decided the prepared background would be perfect for this layout so I trimmed a quarter of an inch from each edge of the cardstock and layered this on top of a gutted sheet of the pink Homemade Holidays. Using white thread I also machine stitched round the edges of the cardstock.

I then layered a 6"x 10" strip of the green Season to Sparkle paper across the middle of the layout and machine stitched round the edges too. Using my finger nails I lifted the edges slightly to add some extra dimension.

My 6x4 photo was matted with the red Sweet Holiday Wishes paper and added to the right side of the layout. 3D foam was placed underneath three sides of the photo to create a pocket so that a journalling tag could be tucked underneath later. Using one of the title stickers from the Foam Sticker sheet and some small pale pink American Crafts Thickers from my stash, I created a title next to the photo.

Underneath the photo I machine stitched with white thread several wonky lines and on top of these I created a scene using houses, cars and a Christmas tree fussy cut from the Merry & Bright paper.  

On the left side of the layout I placed two tags form the Tags sheet. 

On one tag I added some journalling printed on the computer and this was tucked into the pocket behind my photo.

The journalling tag was attached to another tag using green twine and that tag was glued to the bottom left corner of the layout. I stuck the twine down in a few places using a wet glue.

Finally I added the date to the bottom of the layout using more of the Thickers and sprinkled some sequins from the Picket Fence Studio 'Metropolis' Sequin Mix around the layout.

Simple Stories Baking Spirits Bright - Baking Memories

Here's my second layout for the Scrap, Paper, Scissors blog using the Simple Stories Baking Spirits Bright collection which records a memory of Lara baking goodies for a school Christmas International Food Fair a few years ago.

As I often do, I started my layout by trimming a quarter of an inch from each edge of a sheet of 12x12 white cardstock. I then double matted this with some gold mirror card and a sheet of the red Sweet Holiday Wishes paper. I then layered a 4" wide strip of the Season To Sparkle star paper onto the white cardstock leaving a narrow space on the left.

Using white thread I machine stitched around the edges of the cardstock and the strip of patterned paper.

My 6x4 photo was also double matted with gold mirror card and the Sweet Holiday Wishes paper and placed on the layout with some 3D foam underneath to add some dimension.

One of the titles from the Foam Sticker sheet was added to the top of the layout and journalling strips printed on the computer were added underneath. I really like how the photo nestles into the title and journalling strips.

I then took four tags, which were relevant to my theme, from the Tags sheet and created some bunting by hanging these onto some red twine. 

The tags were placed evenly along the bottom of the layout and stuck to the layout with 3D foam underneath. The twine was then twirled and stuck down with some liquid glue.

Two of the gingerbread men from the Foam Sticker sheet were added to the bottom two corners of the layout.

Finally I punched some tiny stars from cardstock to replicate the stars on the patterned paper and scattered these over the layout.

Christmas Cards

Every year I like to make a handful if Christmas Cards for my scrappy friends. This year I dug into my stash for papers and embelishments to use.

I used some red and white stripe and text paper, gold doilies, wood veneer stars, ribbon and some vintage effect mini postcards.