Deck the Halls

When I was a kid I loved decorating the Christmas tree - however it always seemed to take such a long time from when we brought the tree home to when we could actually start the decorating process! First Dad would have to get it in the tree stand, and while he did that, we’d help mom get the living room picked up and furniture moved around. Then Dad would bring in the tree and mom would get the lights on before my brothers and I were given the green light to decorate. I always loved diving into the ornaments and unwrapping them to find my favorites. Ah . . . those Christmas memories.

For our kids, the process is no different, only now I realize I’m not on the fun side of things. I’m the one lugging the boxes up from the basement while Jim gets the tree in the stand. Meanwhile the kids get into the boxes finding all their treasured heirlooms of Christmases past.

This particular year the kids found a way to entertain themselves while Jim and I were readying the tree and house. I came in from outside to see Caleb all wrapped up in ribbons with Zach and Alyssia nowhere to be found!

Caleb’s smile was priceless! So, I snapped this picture of Caleb all decorated. This photo makes me chuckle every time I see it, so I felt it needed a layout all its own.

Scrapbooking Tips

In my last post I showed you a layout made from an Allison Davis layout kit. One thing I love about the We Create layout kits is that she includes the scraps of paper from anything she die cuts. I challenged myself to use the “leftovers” that would otherwise be discarded! The layout you see is made completely with leftovers of Azzy’s 1st Visit to Santa layout, and I’m really proud of what I was able to create with just the scraps.

I took the outside frame of the red and white striped paper that the postage stamp had been cut from. I adhered it to a white sheet of 12x12 card stock. I had a large scrap of red paper and cut my photo mat from it for Caleb’s photo.

The ornament and tree stickers were leftover as well. To try and dress them up and add dimension, I added red Nuvo Dream Drops. I placed the ornaments stickers near the top right-hand corner of the layout and then stitched lines to make it look as if the decorations were hanging from a ceiling. I also added a red stitched border on top of the striped paper. The title came from a combination of Thickers (dimensional alphabet stickers) and Tiny Type stickers that I had.

This was a quick and easy layout using my scraps and stash. It is not super elaborate, but I love how fast it came together even with the challenge of using what was already on my table!

Supplies Used:

Scraps from We Create Layout Kit

Cardstock - Bazzill

Nuvo Dream Drops

DMC Embroidery Floss

American Crafts Thickers

Doodlebug Designs - Tiny Type letter stickers