Christmas Layouts

A couple of weeks ago I decided I was giving up on scrapbooking for a while - I have loads of photos all printed out ready to scrap, loads of stash piling up and gathering dust but just no scrapbooking mojo.  So I had a clear out - I threw out inches of paper, I have bagged up even more inches of paper in the hopes of selling some at my next crop, I have thrown out old stash, I have organised old stash and given up two valuable storage box spaces to them - one with the intention of using the stuff in it in the immediate future and the other if it's not used in six months time (1st July) it's going in the bin no questions asked.  So after all that sorting and organising I suddenly got the urge to erm do some scrapbooking! 

I also had the idea that I could turn the 12 tag of Christmas into 12 layouts of Christmas, after all I can't be the only one who finds Christmas photos extremely hard to scrap.  Lets face it most of them are out of focus, blurred, have far too much clutter in the background, are full of garish and clashing colours (I could go on here...... but you get the picture).  So I dug out my pile of Christmas photos - all in all there are 66 of them (which doesn't include any from 2011 - that alone is enough to put you off isn't it! no wonder I have scrappers block here....), then I dug out some old Christmas papers and embellishments that I haven't thrown out yet!, sorted out a few printouts of some pagemaps and got to work.  Here are my results since last Sunday:

Layout 1 (based on tag 1)

am surprised I managed to carry on after this one - the big letters that don't fit on the tag are so out of my comfort zone, and I used the Santa and Reindeer mask on the top left when sticking down as I thought it looked bare there completely forgetting about the angel drying on the window sill that should have been there - but then I thought in for a penny in for a pound and used them both (because I had thrown out the rest of that Basic Grey yellow card and didn't have anymore (but since then I have found the said pile of Basic Grey old papers in a "safe" place! knew I wouldn't have thrown that out despite it being about 7 years old!) and as for the green embossed Love Elsie cardstock - what possessed me???  but all in all I have, after struggling past these little hurdles, ended up with a layout that although very plain I actually really like! Shame the picture is such poor quality (our carpet was a dusky pink and not black as it looks on the photo!) - still lovely memories are now captured forever and that's really what scrapbooking is all about isn't it!).

Layout 2 (based on tag 2)

This one I have used a whole sheet of kraft resist (I know!), managed to put a little reindeer in the corner and used up five different previously unused alphabets too!  The tag pulls out from behind the picture to read SANTA - forgot to do it for the purposes of this photo!  Again a fairly simple layout (although it took me hours!) but again I really like the result.

Layout 3 (based on tag 3)

Couldn't do this technique properly on Tag 3 as I didn't have the stamp or embossing folder but Ellie at the crop (** Hi Ellie! waving madly **) lent them to me at our December crop and I had a little play so it was nice to use it on this layout.  I also added some festive greenery in the corner - these are such a nice corner filler.  The tag has a lovely Stampin Up stamp on it but I made it without checking whether it fitted or not and when it came to it it was far too big on a plain layout so it had to be tucked out of sight!

Layout 4 (based on tag 4)

this is my favourite.  I couldn't do the tag to this one properly either as I didn't have the snowman die (do now though!) or the snowflakes but Bernice lent me these at the last crop too (** Hi Bernice! waving madly to you too!**) but I love this photo of the view out of my bedroom window and I really needed to use the Kaisercraft wooden lamppost that has been sitting in my stash since September (quite new really then!), the title was bigger than I wanted but such is life when using old stash!

Layout 5 (based on tag 5)

here I used the fragments from T!ms bonus tag rather than a background from the main tag and some lovely Magnolia papers.  I have been hoarding these for ages because they were just too nice to cut up (I am sure you all know what I mean!) - but now I have and on a double layout too! no stopping me was there.

However, I got half way through layout/tag 6 yesterday and decided I had had enough of "old" and whilst I still have some mojo left I would rather put it towards something I am going to enjoy making rather than carrying on with something that I probably won't (I have enjoyed making all of the above but know if I carry on I will get bored so it's time to move on).  So all Christmas stuff has now been put away and I have a tidy desk.  Maybe I will finish them in a few days time, maybe a few months but all I know is I have started and really enjoyed myself whilst I was making them too.  They may not be masterpieces or win any prizes but they are special memories that I have taken the time to capture, put on a fancy background and explain about them through journalling - either hidden or on the page.  The cloud has lifted.......

Thanks for looking - all seasoned out from Solihull.