Merry & Bright | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

Sue Plumb here with my latest VLVS design team project for you. Given that Christmas is a mere week away (eeeek!) and we have an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" challenge this month (details HERE), I thought it might be timely to share a scrapbook layout featuring some of the recently released Christmas stamps and a photo of my kids with Santa.

As it is summer time here in Australia at Christmas (and partly because I am not a fan), I tend to steer away from the "traditional" red / forest green Christmas colour combination and lean towards brighter colours that more accurately reflect our season.

I began this page with some white Bazzill cardstock and Dina Wakley acrylic paints (turquoise, lime, sky, blushing and ruby), which I applied using a brayer and my fingers to build up some layers of colour. I also splattered some Colour Blast 'Soot' Colour Artist Ink around the page.

I then took an assortment of Christmas-themed stamps and used them to add some interest to my background. I used a combination of black StazOn ink and Paradise Teal Ranger Archival ink. The stamps I used were:

- Christmas Design Background

- Mittens

 - Candy Cane Border

- Christmas Saying Reindeer Head

- Holiday Cheer

I then added a variety of patterned paper pieces from Cocoa Vanilla Studio to form a layered mat for my photo, before adding some frayed gauze and my photo on top.

To embellish my page, I used some cool chipboard Christmas trees from the Yuletide MASH pack by UmWow Studio, which I coloured using a gold paint pen before sticking them down with a liquid adhesive. 

I layered the chipboard trees with some assorted Christmas themed wood veneer pieces; flair button; resin star; enamel dots; and red & white paper flowers from Cocoa Vanilla Studio; plus a few tiny pale blue flowers from D-lish Scraps.

For my page title, I stamped the May Your Days Be Merry stamp a couple of times, then overlaid it with a merry&bright wood veneer piece (also from Cocoa Vanilla Studio and coloured gold with a paint pen). 

To finish off my page I added my handwritten journalling with a Sharpie, and some splatters of Colour Blast 'Bling' Colour Shimmer Spray.

Thanks so much for stopping by today so I could share this with you. I hope I have inspired you to document your precious Christmas memories too or perhaps get an entry in for the December monthly challenge.
I would like to take this opportunity wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year!

Stamps used:
- Christmas Design Background
- Mittens
- Candy Cane Border
- Christmas Saying Reindeer Head
- Holiday Cheer
- May Your Days Be Merry

Other materials:
- Bazzill cardstock
- Dina Wakley acrylic paints
- Tsukineko StazOn ink
- Ranger Archival ink
- Colour Blast Colour Artist Ink and Colour Shimmer Spray
- UmWow chipboard trees
- Cocoa Vanilla Studio patterned papers, wood veneer pieces, enamel dots, flair button, resin star, paper flowers
- D-lish Scraps paper flowers
- gold paint pen
- Sharpie pen
- frayed gauze