Tuesday 10 December 2013

A Claytons Christmas Layout

Hi there!

I confess, you probably have to be over 40 and Australian to understand the title of this blog post. To those who aren't both of those, Claytons was (and is it still?) a non- alcoholic drink that advertised itself as being 'the drink you have when you're not having a drink'. Well this is the layout you make with Christmas papers when you're not making a Christmas layout!

This is my third layout for this month's kit for Scrappy Chat Designs. The kit is a Christmas themed one, but my challenge was to make a non-Christmas layout with it. After all, don't we all end up with all those Christmas papers that we don't know what to do with for the rest of the year?

So here's my non-Christmas layout using the Christmas range of Simple Stories papers:


For those of you who are regular followers of my blog, yes that is my daughter on the left. She has dyed her hair black!

When you're using a themed paper range for a different purpose, look for the more general papers or even sections of papers that you can utilise. I cut out sections of papers about 3 x 4 inches that didn't include specific Christmas items. I then decorated each piece, rounded the corners and inked and stitched the edges. Here's a closie of one piece:


I used scraps to make the banner and to decorate the individual sections. On some I added punched borders or flowers and cut shapes such as hearts and arrows. The Liquid Pearls from the kit made great flower centres and added a bright touch as well.

The chipboard flourish was lots of fun to play with. I first applied VersaMark ink to the flourish part only then covered this lightly with Metallic Melts. I heated this to create that gorgeous beaten copper effect. Metallic Melts aren't quite available commercially yet but you can inquire here in the meantime. I then painted the title section and, when it was dry, added a light layer of VersaMark again and sprinkled a very light layer of Metallic Melts on this section. I heated this so I just got that sprinkled effect. I then stuck my title on top.


My letter stickers really didn't like sticking to the uneven surface that I created so I had to glue them down with Helmar 450 glue. They took a bit of convincing but they stuck in the end!

Here's a closie of the effect the Metallic Melts created when I used them in the method described above.


That's all from me today. See you soon.

Heather

11 comments:

  1. Looks FABULOUS...the page...noooot so sure about the hair...her GORGEOUS blonde locks...gawn...& Oh, yes, I certainly remember the Claytons AAAAND I love the 'graphic' look of this one with the wee decorated cards......AAND great un- chrissy page:):):)

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  2. This looks wonderful.. if i had not read about the papers I would not have guessed they were christmas papers.. love the banners and your chipboard looks fabulous. and yes my daughters change their hair color often too!! The girls look lovely in the photo too!

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  3. Wow wow wowwwwwwww! This is gorgeous! I love love love the grid design, the banner, the stitching and that framing around the title!!!!!

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  4. Oh Heather this is super cute! I love the PL style look and feel to the layout but you've really taken that to the next level. Gorgeous work!

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  5. Heather the grid of cards looks fabulous, another use for PL cards, and the stitching really adds dimension to the layout.

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  6. Hi Heather.....I Love the grid design, the stitching and the banners. A Gorgeous layout. :)

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  7. Love the gorgeous design Heather....love all the stitching too!

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  8. Love the embellished cards in the friends layout!

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  9. Gorgeous Heather!! Love the stitching and the beautiful metallic effect on your chippie. Love this un-Christmas page!!! ox

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  10. Oh wow this is sooooooooooooo sweet! Love the look of the banner here!

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