Christmas Mayhem

Poor Santa! All full of Christmas cheer and promises of plenty for good boys and girls and look what he has to put up with: three very silly children, one of whom is in on the secret but goes along with it all for the sake of her little brothers.

And poor Grandma! All ready to scrap the annual Visit with Santa photo and look what she has to work with: three very silly children and a Santa who is obviously looking for deliverance.

Just like my grandchildren, this layout seemed to be determined to be uncooperative. It started one way, then it decided to go in another direction and then another and another… I’ll have to admit I like the end result.

I started with the layered circles in the background and took out some flowers from my Christmas stash. I didn’t like how they looked against the small faces, so I put them back and went to the papers that I had used for those circles.

I started to cut some strips to used as borders or banners when I took another look and realized that the “Merry” sheet contained that gorgeous image that you see on the side.

As I was cutting it out, I had an “aha” moment, inspired by the ribbon tail on the side. I broke out my Cameo machine and cut a few of my favorite flourishes out of chipboard and altered them with embossing powder to match the colors in the photo. The results were just a tad too bright, so I went over them with Walnut Stain Distress ink and put them aside.

I added few layers of matting under the photo and arranged it, along with the fussy cut piece on the circles. Suddenly, those flowers seemed to be perfect, so I glued them down and began to add filler flowers in spots.

I tucked a few wood pieces (colored with Lindy’s Moonshadow Mist) here and there and added one more to the top corner of the photo, then closed the gaps with a few more of those small flowers.

I cut the flourishes into pieces to resemble bows and tails and placed them here and there to finish off my cluster.

I still needed a title. I started digging into the package of ephemera and came up with perfection: “Christmas Mayhem”, which I backed with packaging and placed on the photo…

A few close-ups:

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*****Supplies*****

***Très Jolie December Kit***

Blue Fern Studios – Christmas Cheer Collection – 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper – Ecstatic #BFS-P-69577

Blue Fern Studios – Christmas Cheer Collection – 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper – Merry #BFS-P-69537

Blue Fern Studios – Christmas Cheer Collection – 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper – Joyful #BFS-P-69587

Blue Fern Studios – Christmas Cheer Collection – Ephemera – Die Cut Shapes #BFS-EPH-69617

Lindy’s Stamp Gang – Moon Shadow Mist – Gossamer Gold

***Other Embellishments***

Prima Marketing – A Victorian Christmas Collection – Holiday Lights #583415

Prima Marketing – A Victorian Christmas Collection – Rudolph’s Nose #583446

Factory Direct Crafts – Laser Cut Wood Christmas Cutouts #201503

Silhouette – Cut File – Grape Vine – Design #20194

***Other Mediums***

Lindy’s Stamp Gang – Embossing Powder – Terra Cotta Red

Lindy’s Stamp Gang – Embossing Powder – King Midas Gold

Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pad – Mini – Walnut Stain #TDP40279

Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pad – Mini – Black Soot #TDP39860

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As always, I want to thank you for peeking into my blog; your visits mean a lot to me.