Countdown to Christmas...

The countdown is on and there are only a handful of day left until its Christmas...

I love Christmas time - the food, having all your family around and the children opening mountains of presents, but as a scrapbooker I generally detest the holiday.... most of the Christmas themed papers are snow/winter related and really don't reflect our true Aussie Christmas... So this year I went out side the box a little and found items that were not intended Christmas products and pulled them together to make this fun layout that reflects the crazy family we are pretty much everyday of the year... 

Whilst my 'husband' and I are not yet married (only engaged for 16 years, no rush), his last name is Cotton, and we have a running joke that we are the 'Crazy Cottonballz' family... I'm not sure how it started, but it stuck. This picture from a family photo shoot back in 2013 pretty much captures our family perfectly... 

I had seen a video popping up in my news feed a few times from NIFTY, showing you how to make background using paints, dish liquid and bubble blowing... I'm a Early Childhood teacher and this is something we do with the kiddies alot, yet it never occurred to me to use this technique for layout backgrounds... I've added the video link below, but for this I used Colour Blast Shimmer powders in Candy for the mixture onto my Marshmallow Heavy Weight Cardstock. While the colour was only subtle, it was enough to really standout against the white background. 

I've edged a piece of sheet music with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Candied Apple and added some Hambly Screen Prints in black to either side of the photo. 

This star chipboard added a grungy feel to the piece, and I've inked it all over first with Stazon Ink Jet Black then embossed it with Colour Blast Embossing powder in Lipstick to give it a deep red tinge. 

I've inked some Kaiser Craft Flowers with my Stazon, and using some extra flowers out of my stash have glued them all down with some Glossy Accents. I like using Glossy as my glue as it give you plenty of time to rearrange your embellishments before it dries, but when it does they are stuck firmly in place.

To finish the page I've added my signature machine stitching, no page ever feels complete until I've stitched on it. 

WATCH THE BUBBLE ART TUTORIAL HERE

I wish all my fellow arty peeps a very merry and safe Christmas... I hope it is filled with love and laughter and some quiet scrapping time... 

Love and light to all.. 

Skai