A Very Merry Christmas with Your Creative Wings

As you may know if you follow the Your Creative Wings blog or Facebook page, their shop website has been down and they have been working very had to resolve the cause.  Everything is back on track and the Your Creative Wings shop will reopen very early in the new year. Because the shop has been offline my November projects were put on hold, and today I have a supersize post with both my November and December projects, so please drop by their blog, or feel free to hang out here for some (well... lots!) of Christmas cheer!

I just love Christmas, and one of the things I enjoy in the lead up each year is making hand made Christmas cards to send to family and friends. There’s just something about a hand made card that brings home the spirit of the Festive Season.  

Today I have a set of 6 cards featuring the gorgeous Your Creative Wings Christmas designs.

All cards are made with the Teresa CollinsTinsel and Company collection, which has elements of silver, gold, muted woodgrain and pops of burgundy.

“Merry Christmas”

To me, Christmas is the best excuse to use sparkly, glittery pretty things everywhere, and I’ve jumped right in with this card.  I’ve separated the outside frame of the badge from the inner and applied PVA glue with a paintbrush before sprinkling with gold glitter.  The inside of the badge and the doves have been painted twice with gesso, and once dry I’ve used sandpaper to the edges of each piece to sand away some of the gesso.

To add some glimmer to the berries on the branch, I’ve dipped a small paintbrush into some gold Heidi Swapp Color Shine, applied to the berries and left to dry.

To make the gold foil background for this card I trimmed a piece of white cardstock to size, inked well around the sides with Versamark ink and heat embossed with Queens Gold embossing powder.

Once heat set it creates a beautiful gold foil cardstock.  

Your Creative Wings products used - Christmas Badge 3 YCW20026, Robin Red Breasts on Branch YCW20019

“Meet me Under the Mistletoe”

This card has a simple design, but I love how the burgundy scroll pops off the gold foil paper and gives it an elegant feel.

Again to apply the glitter to the chipboard I’ve painted it with PVA glue and sprinkled the glitter over the top. 

The doves have been primed with gesso and then heat embossed with Pipe Dream Ink in Sandstone.  I’ve found when this embossing powder is applied to unprimed chippy it results in a silver effect, but if applied after a coat of gesso the result is a pretty pearlescent white effect.

Your Creative Wings products used – Doves YCW3005, Fine Scroll 2 YCW7018

“Tis the Season to be Jolly”

On this card I’ve trimmed down one of the 3x4” cards from a patterned paper to 3x3”, so that it fits under the small wreath from the Wreath – Leafy Set.  This set is one of those versatile pieces that can be used in so many ways.  Sue has used it on her layout 'Happiness" and Jen on her layout "Memories".

I wanted to create an imperfect effect on my Christmas wreath so I base coated in gesso, allowing the gesso to fill in some of the intricate cut pieces between the leaves.  Once dry I added a good covering of Twinkling H2Os in Mustard Green.

The holly leaves have been heat embossed in Queens Gold embossing powder, and after a base coat of gesso, I used PVA glue and covered the berries in burgundy glitter.

When arranging the holly on my card I felt there was too much dimension with all the leaves and berries, so I pulled one of the holly leaves off and tucked it under the other three leaves, which also allowed two of the berries to be at a lower height.

Your Creative Wings products used – Holly YCW20022, Wreath Leafy Set YCW2021

“Holly Jolly Noel”

This is another simple design but with a rustic, country feel.  The Lights in a Row chippy reminded me of Christmas lights or tinsel hanging. I’ve also used a single star from the Stars in a row set as my Christmas Tree star.

I’ve separated the inner star from the outer, leaving the outer star as raw chipboard.  I’ve applied Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Tarnished Brass to both the inner star and Lights in a Row, straight over the raw chippy, giving them a muted metallic effect.

Your Creative Wings products used – Lights in a Row YCW11007, Stars in a Row YCW10003

“Under the Tree”

Even though in Australia our Christmas is in the middle of summer, I love the romanticism of a white Christmas, and the Winter Tree 2 really has that snowy, wintery feel.  I’ve left the tree as raw chippy as it already has the effect I was looking for.

The frame has been primed in gesso, and then I’ve added two coats of Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Tarnished Brass, allowing to dry well between coats.  You can see the different effect that a base coat of gesso on this chippy achieves before applying the Distress Stain, when compared with the Holly Jolly Noel card.

To finish the frame I painted it with matte Mod Podge liberally and sprinkled over gold micro beads.

Your Creative Wings Products used – Winter Tree 2 YCW2029, Ornate Frame 17 YCW6019

“Deck the Halls”

This card features the Snowflakes chippy, each set comes with three different designs of snowflake (I’ve used two here). 

The snowflakes have been heat embossed with silver embossing powder, and the little bird has been heat embossed with Pipe Dream Ink in Sandstone.

Your Creative Wings Products used – Snowflakes YCW2001, Birds – Cute YCW3002

and now for my December projects..

Jingle All The Way

Christmas is such a magical time for young children.  Time spent together as a family, the bright and sparkling decorations, Christmas lights, carols, trimming the tree, the awe and mystery surrounding Santa Clause...  My photos for this layout are of my nephew at that special age of four years old, helping decorate the family Christmas tree and being ever so careful to get the baubles to stay on each branch.  Too cute!

I’ve used patterned papers from Meg’s Garden “Vintage Rose Garden” collection for this layout.  It’s not a Christmas collection at all, but the forest greens and dusky pinks reminded me of a traditional vintage Christmas scene, and they work well as a background.

I’ve said before how much I love that many of the Your Creative Wings chippy pieces can be separated into individual sections to allow for easy treatments, and this 25th Badge is another great example.  I’ve separated the outside frame and coated it with red glitter.  The numbers and letters have been removed and I’ve given the background two coats of Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Tarnished Brass, and then heat embossed the numbers and letters in white, which gives a nice contrast.  Once everything is dry put all the pieces back together, and I like to put a light coat of fast drying glue (like Supertac or PVA) on the back, which holds everything in place.

The snowflake engraved deers are totally adorable.  This little guy I’ve again given two coats of Distress Stain and then tied a red ribbon around his neck.

The Jingle All the Way title combines script and a serif font and a sweet little wren on a branch with some Christmas bells.  I’ve heat embossed the script word in white, the serif font and leaves have had a chalk ink in green applied and when dry some iridescent medium over the top for some shimmer.  The bells and wren have had two coats of Distress Stain.

I’ve tucked one of the corner scrolls under my photo, again it’s been heat embossed in white.

Your Creative Wings product used:  Jingle All The Way Title YCW20040, Baubles YCW20032, 25th Badge YCW20025, Snowflake Deer YCW20016, Corner Scroll YCW7011

Other product used:  Meg’s Garden patterned papers Vintage Rose collection, Bazzill cardstock, Manor House Creations flowers, leaves, ornate frames, Petaloo Berry Clusters, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain, Versacolour Ink in Bamboo & Old Rose, Versamark Ink, Prima Chalk Ink in Rock Moss, Tsukineko Brilliance Ink in Pearlescent Chocolate, Kaisercraft Diamond stamp, music script stamp, Prima Marketing Inc tassel, white embossing powder, Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Tarnished Brass, Windsor & Newton Iridescent Medium, glitter mesh, Faber Castell Whipped Spackle, Lindys Stamp Gang mist in Flat Fabio Chateau Rose, sequins, thread, ribbon.

Merry Christmas 

I’ve also created some Christmas wall art that I can place in a scrapbook frame to display. I’ve used Kaisercraft’s North Pole collection which has a modern Christmas colour palette including pastel blue and green, traditional red and even though I haven’t used them in this project, chalkboard elements as well.

For my wall art I’ve created a simple grid pattern with six elements to it.  After checking placement I’ve measured three dividing lines, stitched them in a long stitch without thread on my sewing machine, and then backstitched each line by hand in a shimmery metallic embroidery thread.  As a base for each grid element I’ve cut 6 scalloped squares on my Silhouette Cameo and then added several layers to each element, finishing each with a chippy piece.

These moustache Christmas Trees come in two sizes, this is the smaller of the two.  Each set comes with the solid tree, individual moustache branches, a pot and even a star!  I’ve used the solid tree and the star with the centre removed.  To get a sparkly shimmery tree I’ve given it two coats of gesso, then when dry a moderate layer of Mod Podge and sprinkled with shimmery white glitter.  The star has been heat embossed in silver and adhered in place on the tree.

If you love deer at Christmas (who doesn’t?!) Your Creative Wings has a deer for you -  there really are so many to choose from!  This little guy has awesome antlers don’t you think?  I’ve heat embossed him in white, adhered him on top of my layers and then added a sparkly silver bow at his neck.

The Christmas Badges set is another set with pieces that can be separated.  It comes with four ornate oblong badges and four scalloped circle badges.  On this grid piece I’ve used one of the scalloped borders and some numbers from the numbers set.  Each has been treated the same as the Christmas Tree with gesso and white glitter.

A few chippy pieces on my wall art have come from one larger Christmas bunting set (this pendant, the carousel deer and the title).  As I wanted smaller pieces for this project I simply trimmed the pieces out that I wanted to use.  I’ve separated the ornate frame and heat embossed in silver, while the inner has been heat embossed in white.

This is another of the Christmas badges (which would also be great for Project Life or December Daily projects), simply heat embossed in white.

The little carousel deer has been primed with gesso and painted with pastel green acrylic paint to match the colour palette of the collection.  

I’ve reshaped my title so that it has a gentle curve to it and heat embossed in silver.  To finish my piece I’ve added a shimmery white scroll under the title.

Each Christmas I can hang my wall art in a scrapbook frame, and then through the year store it in a regular album to keep it from getting misshapen!

Your Creative Wings product used: Christmas Tree Small YCW20062, Deer YCW2004, Christmas Badges YCW20025, Numbers Large YCW5002, Merry Christmas Bunting YCW20009, Christmas Badges 2 YCW20063, Fine Scroll 2 YCW7018

Other product used:  Kaisercraft patterned paper North Pole collection, Bazzill cardstock, American Crafts POW Glitter Paper, Cheery Lyn dies Two of Hearts, Sizzix Framelits dies Frames, Docrafts XCut dies Star, Couture Creations dies Scalloped Heart & Victorian Rectangle, Dynamics dies Decorative Doily Duo, Silhouette cut file Scalloped Square design id #20747, Cuttlebug embossing folder Swiss Dots, silver & white embossing powder, Mod Podge, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Pumicestone, DMC silver thread, gesso, white glitter, acrylic paint, Martha Stewart punch.

I hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and have someone special to share this magical time with.  Merry Christmas!