Christmas Letters

Here is a page that I made for the Inspiration Elevator (you can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges on Facebook) .

 This month's challenge is issued by the creative Lisa Moen. Lisa is a busy scrapbooker who takes on every creative challenge with gusto; she works layering and clustering beautifully. This month she has a seasonal challenge for us. Here it is in her own words:

" Scrap A Christmas Past.
We all have them- one Christmas that sticks out more in our minds than others. Maybe it was when you were a child or maybe it was more recent. Maybe it was a gift you received that makes it memorable. Maybe a special visitor? Create a page, with or without photos and tell us the story behind that Christmas.."

So mine is a past Christmas - just last year..and this was the 2nd year in a row that my youngest decided to write to Father Christmas, and the 2nd year in a row that Father Christmas has left him a very special letter next to the plate where all the mince pies were - so it's about some of that special Christmas magic and the memories to go with it.

We encourage you to check out each designer's creation this month: here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!

Lisa Moen

Ann Jobes

Jayne Morgan

Wendy Robinson

Katherine Sutton

Why not give the challenge a try yourself? Then pop by our Facebook page and share with us what you created!

December Daily part 6 and 7

Moving on to days 6 and 7, as we were putting up the Christmas tree I tried a striped Christmas tree design on my page - I also had a Christmas tree thicker in one of the pockets with the date on (that was an Ali Edwards idea).  Elfbob was found in a packet of jellybabies!

I added little rows of pearls to my tree.

Day 7 is more of a story page...it had been a nice chilled Sunday...but there is a running joke about the weeping angels from Dr Who in our family, and so any statue could be a weeping angel.  It started again at Christmas as in Costco there was a large (about 2ft high) nativity set made out of stone and its design was very similar to the angels...so we talked about Dad having the set in his garden and then we could move the angel figure all about.  Anyway the kids find it amusing so here is my youngest pretending to be scared of the rather nice angel in the my parents nativity set...this just a small nativity set - my Dad secretly would love a really big nativity set.  The last page is Elfbob getting tied up in the light, and it has a frame that I made in Karen Moss' class at the ATDML retreat last year - I had to keep really still so that I didn't get a blurred photo for this one as I didn't want any flash.

December daily - Part 4 and 5

So day 4 is waiting for a photo, but I did the journaling already and will add the page when the photo turns up...though the page does look quite plain at the moment so there might be a few more additions when I do that!

I went away from my sparkly gold numbers and hand cut a number 4 from a scrap piece of misted paper I found in my scraps drawer.

Day 5 saw us ice skating and I used one of the 2" pocket pages that Ann Freeman kindly sent me.  It was easiest to print the photos with pic frame on my selphy...not the most economical though has you only get 3 photos to one 6 by 4 but it was quick and meant I didn't need to spend too long sorting it all put!

I also created a little pocket for my tickets above the photo.

Lots of journalling in the little squares.

The fact that I had lots of photos for this day meant I ventured on to the holey paper!  I had to think about my mounts and layers and how they would look on the other side.

Then a page made up as a present - I used foam pads to add some dimension to the bow and added journalling to the tag.  I think I've decided simple designs work better on these little pages for me.

December Daily part 2 and 3

Here are my 2nd and 3rd days - I had a go at stamping some images onto the Teresa Collins papers and also a play with gold paint.  Just a normal day - Elfbob did put moustache's on the kids and then one of them....who didn't want their photo taken wore the moustache themselves!

Onto day 3 and Elfbob was in with all the Skylanders, and my youngest got his own video from Father Christmas at PNP.  The word stickers are from Simple Stories - they come in lots of colours and are lovely to use.

December Daily - part 1

I am trying to keep up with my December Daily album - I'm using Teresa Collin's Tinsel and Company and then a few other bits and pieces in the mix.  It also sooooo hard taking photos when there is not so much daylight around - so apologies that they all look a little grey.  I am further on than this now, so hopefully I will be back with more photos shortly.  

My front cover started with lots of layers of washi tape and then a doily and then a studio calico wood frame and some snowflakes.

Here is my first page and the introduction of our £2 elf from Tiger....and the deliberations over his name....which is Elfbob.

I also started with the first day of advent and the advent calendar I made for Tando a couple of years ago.

I think having an Elf in with my mix is helping me stay on track and remind me to take photos everyday.  Some days it is all just very normal, but I try and find something to write a story about...there is one about weeping angels...and just to document a little bit of everyday life!  My goal is to complete the album this year - I thinking doing the prep and setting it up a bit beforehand has made that loads easier.  I'll be back to show you so more pages soon.

Christmas cards

I am quite a simplistic card maker - I spend time layering up my pages but for some reason struggle with cards and find simple easier :)

Last Christmas I was given this beautiful set of papermania stamps the first is a beautiful tree and all I did was add some bling and then some glitter for the bow.

A little more technical - I stamped a woodgrain stamp through a little square aperture that I made, and then stamped the stockings onto October Afternoon gingham paper and then cut them out.

I water-coloured this beautiful reindeer with distress inks and then added some glossy accents to the bow and some glittery snow and a golden star.

I also received a beautiful holly die cut - a couple of years back and as I had a Robin stamp it was the perfect branch for the Robin to sit on - again cut out of gingham paper, and then I stamped some snowflakes falling too.

House decorations

Here are some little tea-light holders (from Baker Ross) I decorated (they aren't meant for real candles, just the battery sort).  I painted them in white, red and added some gold, then I created a pipe cleaner tree and added some sparkle over the top that will catch the light.  I then added some snow in the form of texture paste and sprinkled it with glitter before it was dry.

Also the 12 days of Christmas is over on the Created by ATDML blog - so if you would like some festive inspiration do pop over.