Ten Fabulous Christmas Ideas

Just wanted to share a couple of things with you today. The first one is a picture I took when trying to take a photo of my pop-up tree card. The weather here keeps changing all the time, but that day was worse than ever. It was a little windy, and the clouds kept covering the sun every few minutes. Every time the sun started to shine I went out, put the fabric on the table (I can't leave it on as the birds would be happy to come and play on it... and leave their mark!), set the card, sprinkle snow on it... and the sun was gone, replaced by very dark clouds that would ruin any picture. Finally, after several attempts, I put the fabric on the table, set the card, arranged the little gifts sprinkled the snow, and shot:

Oops, a little elf popped up from behind the fabric and I had to start all over again!!! Sometimes it takes longer to take a decent poto of a project than it took to make the project itself...

The second thing I wanted to share today is that I have a new post at the Freehand Scraps' blog called "TEN FABULOUS CHRISTMAS IDEAS TO INSPIRE YOU". I have picked my favourite ten Christmas ideas for layouts, cards, and projects so you can get inspired and, why not, lift some of them to make your projects stand out. Click here to have a look at them, and if you feel inspired and create a project using any of these ideas, please leave a comment with a link so I can have a look at it and leave you some love. Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

Pop-up trees

Today I'd like to share with you a couple of pop-up trees I created for the fabulous a-Christmas-project-a-day feature at Practical Scrappers, one using the Sizzix die, and a simpler one you can print and make without any machines. 

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Pin It If you'd like to have a look at tutorials and printable templates, please visit my Practical Scrappers' post. Merry Christmas to you all!

Chubby Penguins

The beginning of the month always brings with it a reveal! This month I am happy to share with you the projects I have created using Chubby Penguins, the absolutely fabulous December kit. 

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I love this picture we took when we were staying at the Disneyland hotel in Disneyland Paris. The rooms were not as good as we expected, they lacked that Disney feel, but the Hotel Lobby was magical. It was also a very cold holiday, so these papers were just right for the picture.  I created a tree using the tags in the kit and my sewing machine. It is one of my faves from this month. Those glitter photo corners were a great addition to the kit, too!

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And what can be better than starting Christmas morning by hugging Mickey Mouse? This was a very easy layout to create using the die cut strips that came with the kit, but I felt it needed a special touch, so I doodled a string of Christmas lights all around the page using my white marker.

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For this layout I fussy cut the ornaments in one of the patterned papers in the kit, and made shaker boxes with them. They were a very easy way to make the layout stand out.

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This folded tree card was very easy to make using this folded tree template: http://inkspiredtreasures.com/cards/stamping-411-folded-christmas-tree/. And the Christmas lights in the kit can make any tree look fab!

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Love, love, love the extra touches that always come in Freehand Scraps kits. This month's included this textured paper that brought a ton of possibilities to my mind. In the end I decided to leave it unaltered and use it as a snowy background, but I sure wish I had had more to experiment with!

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Last, but not least, Christmas tags. These are double tags, they have one of the kit's tags in the background and a patterned paper tag with a punched out (actually hand cut, my tree punch was not big enough) Christmas tree on the front. They were an immediate success with my daughter, who asked to have them for the Christmas gifts she is preparing. I haven't seen them since.

Hope you enjoyed looking at these projects, you can visit Freehand Scraps to have a look at all the projects in the gallery and get yourself one of these fantastic Chubby Penguins kits!

Joy!

This week's challenge at the Create:Blog is to create a Christmas card using non-traditional colours. I love the lime green/light blue/pink colour combo for Christmas, so this was an easy task.

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I bought the We R Memory Keepers flocked lace in a Crafty Steals' deal a couple of years ago, and I am so happy I finally got to use it. It was a bit tricky as it is not as white as it seems when it has the backing paper, so I had to use two layers, which took some time and effort to make them match perfectly. Totally worth it because I love the delicate look of the lace tree. The buttons are from my button box and the star is by Teresa Collins. The patterned paper is not Christmas paper, but Watermelon Gazpacho Soup by Jillibean. And the fabric behind the card is part of my new Christmas fabric stash, not sure what I will do with this one yet, just liked and bought it, inspiration will come soon enough! (and that is how my stash begins to grow).

Ready to use up your Christmas stash?

The challenge today at Practical Scrappers is using up your Christmas stash. I bought lots of Christmas stuff a couple of years ago when we did a charity Christmas fair in Tripoli and I was in charge of making cards, so this was the right challenge for me! I took a bunch of die cuts I have had for ages and used only once, and I decided to find a way to use them ALL in a layout. Here is the result:

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Not your usual Christmas colours, but still a good combination. I also used some brads that I've had since I began scrapping, and they look great, too! Now I am ready to use some of my newest Christmas stash, and it is YUMMY!!!

Card sketch at Let's Scrap

If you want to take part in the Freehand Scraps GIVEAWAY, click here.

If you want to take part in the "Guess what I've been working on?" GIVEAWAY, click here.
It is time for another card sketch at Let's Scrap and I have a card with a Christmas theme. Funny to be doing snowmen in the Caribbean!

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I used some very old paper, my copics to colour the image I got here, and rhinestones + glass beads to add some details to it. It is a very easy card sketch, so I hope to see your cards here this week!