All is calm...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas at our house was a little unsettling this year, so I set out to create a project that soothed my soul and brought a feeling of peace.

To create peace, I always turn to nature.  This beautiful sunset piece of paper is from Wild Whisper's Canadian Winter collection, and of course features our Rocky Mountains in the background.

                                                                                                                                                            I used another Wild Whisper collection by Pam Bray, called Nature's Bliss to cut out the reindeer (which is an SVG cut file by Just Nick).  I flipped it so that the antlers would cut out of the lighter parts and look like they were catching the last rays of the sun as it set.

                                                                                                                                                         All is calm, All is bright, was stamped using the Wild Whisper "Christmas Comfort" stamp set and Stone embossing powder.

                                                                                                                                                "Rejoice" is also an SVG file from Silhouette, and I cut it out of the same piece of paper that I cut the deer from.  The stars are a stamp from Wild Whisper's older Christmas stamp set "Home for the Holidays".  I embossed them with a lovely, glittery, silver embossing powder.

                                                                                                                                                        The die cuts are graphics from a set call "Christmas Fields" that I purchased from The Hungry Jpeg and printed myself.  They have a wild feeling of joy to me and I thought they suited this beautiful wild background. I popped them up to give them a little more impact.

To create this project, I was inspired by the following two challenges at More Than Words and Art Daily Cafe.  It's pretty clean and simple, but that was what I was needing when I created it!

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Our Main Challenge is based on a word inspiration and a creative challenge.

Word Inspiration - REJOICE

Creative Challenge - ANYTHING GOES

To enter the More Than Words December challenge, go here.  You have until       Dec 31st to enter a project.

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The other challenge was Lights and Sparkles at the Art Daily Cafe.  You also have until Dec 31st to enter a project here.

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Rejoice and feel the Peace and Joy this Christmas!

Play Like You're in the Big Leagues

Hi everyone,

Today I'm back to using the Canadian Winter paper collection because it's winter time in Canada, the hockey season has started, and my grandson is so gosh darned cute!  *Big Grandma smile here.*

First game away for this 5 year old, and don't cha know you gotta dress in a suit and tie the way the NHL players do?

For this layout, I decided to use a sketch by Page Maps.  I'm going to put it in an 8-1/2"x11" album, so I thought this sketch would be perfect.

Because I didn't want Greyson's hockey bag to be covered by the embellishments, I flipped the sketch in my Publisher program, and layered my photo over top to figure out what size it needed to be printed at.

Then I decided to throw another couple of photos in.  Since I print my photos at home, this helps me to save on paper and ink, by having everything sized down to the dimensions required before printing.  (This is all still on my computer screen.)

Here you can see the photos after they came out of the printer.  I threw an extra one on to use up the bottom of the paper.  (I have a very specific layout planned for THAT one!)  LOL

Here's the base of my layout.

The base with photos.

The finished layout with embellishments from the ephemera pack.

The thing I like about sketches, is that if you're mojo is totally gone, they give you a point to start at... and then the rest starts to flow as you work.  

I hope this little tutorial might have helped a little when you're using a sketch.  You change a few things to suit the style of picture you have, and the type of embellishments you're using... the point of a sketch is to get you started!

Happy creating!

Linda

Cross Country Blog Hop - Cedar & Pine

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to another Cross Canada Blog Hop!

The December Cross Canada Blog Hop for CTMH consultants is all about the beautiful Cedar & Pine paper collection this month!

To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, please contact your local consultant to place an order.  For my customers, if you click on the links that I have hi-lighted, they will take you directly to my online business account.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that has inspired you. Comments help us to create posts that will give you the information that you are looking for.

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop. If you came from Brandi's blog then you are in the right place!

I actually used a piece from the Holly Jolly collection to mat my coloured digital image from Lili of the Valley, as I felt it matched Santa's hat better. 

(For those of you who don't know, Lili of the Valley sells digital files of some of their stamps that are pre-coloured.  You just print them off in the size that you like and use them on your cards.)  

This image is called "For Someone Special" which I thought was suitable, as the card is for a very special little nephew over in Cuba who will be celebrating his first Christmas this year!

I decided to enter this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge - Traditional Christmas as it fits all the requirements.

The rest of the mats on the card, however, all came from the Cedar & Pine collection.  I also used some of CTMH's white glitter paper as a mat and to create the beautiful snowflake that was cut with a Tim Holtz die called "Fanciful Snowflake".  The Merry Christmas die cut is another Tim Holtz die called "Christmas Ribbon" and it was cut from CTMH's gold foil paper.

The poinsettias were cut from the piece of red paper in Cedar & Pine using a Spellbinders die called "Cinch and Go Poinsettia".  Once they were cut, I lightly painted them with white gesso, and dabbed them with Nuvo Fresh Snowfall Glitter Accents. Embellishments for the snowflake and the poinsettias are from my stash.

For the inside of the card, I used more of the red paper from Cedar & Pine, and embellished it with stickers from the paper collection.

Thanks for hopping along with us!  I hope you have been inspired by the Cross Canada Blog Hop to try out some of the designs,

products and techniques you have seen! 

Watch for the Cross Canada Blog Hop again next month when the paper collection featured will be the beautiful, woodsy 

  Spruced Up!

Be sure to mark January 10th on your calendar!

Happy creating,

Linda

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is at Brenda's blog.

In case you get lost, here is a list of the consultants who are featured on the Blog Hop this month:

Colleen
Rosalynd
Sheena
Brandi
Linda - that's me!
Brenda
Kim