Christmas Brown Paper Album - 1st class.

Whoo hoo! I'm feeling great tonight. I've had a wonderful day crafting with friends- my first class on the Brown Paper Albums, and there were some wonderful creations made. My friend Lovely Linda  was a marvelous "assistant" who made my job easy. I even managed to complete about 5 pages of my own Christmas Album.

Then when I logged on here, I found that I'd won an  "A Cut Above" award from over at Paper Players Challenge # 22 - "Anything Goes".  How cool is that? Thanks ladies I'm very thrilled you like my cards.

Now I want to show you some of what I created today. I will be entering the front cover in the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #78.

 I really love the inspiration that comes from these sketches by Priscilla, and thought this sketch would work really well for what I was planning on the cover of my Christmas themed Brown Paper Album.

For once I've used very few stamps on this page. Instead I've concentrated on texture (from my Big Shot embossing folders) and punched edges.
The Christmas Tree is made up of layers of different embossed Vanilla card stock; each with a scalloped edge. I've used 4 different embossing folders: Perfect Polk Dots, Petals-A-Plenty, Vintage Wallpaper (all exclusive to Stampin' Up!) plus another old favourite that has swirls on it.

The tree was drawn free-hand onto some recycled backing card, then I used the template to adhere strips of textured card onto and finally cut around the template to create the tree.

The backing scallop circle has been made cutting the scalloped shape with a Big Shot Scallop Circle die, then pre-inking an embossing folder prior to running it through the Big Shot.

The metallic tag is made by building up 5 layers of gold embossing powder (heating in between each layer!) then quickly stamping the image into the hot and therefore liquid embossing powder. It is essential to cover the stamp in Versa Mark prior to stamping into the embossing powder.

 

Here's a preview of the first couple of pages, ready and waiting for some photos of the family. I've chosen these colours as they go well with the colours of my lounge room at home, and most of the Christmas photos will be taken in there. I've used a combination of retired Designer Series Papers and the current set, "Love Letter". There is a terrific stamp set by Stampin' Up!® called Artistic Etchings that goes really well with this set of paper.

Hope you are inspired with where I'm going with this album. They are great fun to make: so much fun that I've made up a number of kits for sale so if you'd like one or more you can contact me for further details. Each kit will contain an album made up (containing 10 pages and 8 - 10 pockets), plus a selection of theme related Designer Papers. Card for 8 - 10 tags to insert in the pockets, plus a selection of embellishments. You'll also receive a set of 8 page layout ideas to get you started on your unique project. I am happy to post these if you wish to order them. Postage costs will depend on your location.

I'll be adding some more pages over the next few days, so stay tuned! As always your comments are welcome.