Kaisercraft Art of Life - You don't need special papers to scrap Christmas!

Hi Ladies! SO sorry to be away for so long...but on top of Christmas and a brand new year, I've been in a bit of a scrapping slump lately. Kaisercraft's Art of Life is such a great collection though that I am feeling re-inspired and ready to go!

I decided that for this layout - my Christmas Angel -  I really didn't need to add a lot of colour, so I stuck to the palette and used cream and gold accents to coordinate with the black, brown and cream of the papers.

This is a very old photo and the quality is poor, but we are here to scrap the memory, so an enlargement, a crop and slightly sepia tint made it good enough for me. The slight blurriness and grainy finish add to the Vintage vibe.

First a few layers of paper, all distressed except for the base. Starting from the bottom the papers are Thankful, the reverse of Moments, three sheets from the 6.5'' Paper Pad and finally the reverse of Creative. I've punched a film strip at the bottom of the honeycombed Moments so that the film strip print on Thankful shows through.

Then a little bit of texture in the 'blank' area of the layout - added using a Twiddleybitz Brick Template and some Viva Decor Modelling Cream in Mother of Pearl Champagne. As you can see, perfection is not necessary, and is probably more interesting.  After the bricks had dried I used a dry paintbrush and Metallic Gold Acrylic Paint to highlight the area and sprayed on some mist I made up using Gold Perfect Pearls and water in a Mini Mister. There are a few flicked drops of the same mist over the page as well. A bit of thin white gesso blurs the edges. I have also added a few scraps of musical note rubons that were sitting on my desk, left over from another project.

The embellishments on this layout are very simple.....A length of Tim Holtz Ideaology Film Strip Ribbon is threaded through the punched out area and a smaller piece tucked in between layers just above it. The film strip can be permanently twisted by heating it carefully and then letting it cool. This is out of stock at the moment, but I'm going to ask Tracy to get some more in for me ;)

Wrapped around the topmost layer of paper is a piece of Gold Shimmer Bakers Twine, tied off in a bow. Tucked underneath it, a Large Antique Bronze Christmas Tree with Gold Pearl Liquid Pearls filling in the spots for baubles.

To embellish the top of the photo I have used a Tim Holtz Pediment die cut from the 6.5" version of Loved,   White Cherry Blossoms and White Roses, both sprayed with my gold mist and a large Glass Cabochon. The cabochon is a perfect fit for the circles on the reverse of Everyday.

At the bottom of the layout around a gold flower from my stash which has been highlighted with white gesso and surrounded by more gold shimmered White Cherry Blossoms and larger White Roses. The gold balls have been hanging around in my stash for years, and the thin gold tangles of thread were unwound from my Gold Shimmer Bakers Twine.

There are a few more glass cabochons of various sizes tucked in amongst the flowers, one fitting perfectly inside an Antique Bronze Wish Embellishment. A small ''Peace on Earth'' tag has a sweet pair of Bronze Angel Wings dangling from its Gold Shimmer Bakers Twine bow.

My Title, Christmas Angel, is sitting on top of two tag elements from the Art of Life Collectables. The letters have been dusted with a shimmer of Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls.

Try scrapping your Christmas memories on papers that are NOT meant for Christmas - the results can be just as beautiful.

Michele xx