Oh....I Am So Excited!

I am soooo excited! I was recently asked by Suzanne, the owner of Flamingo Scraps if I would like to be on her Guest Designer Team for the launch of her online stores "Christmas in July." I don't think she had time to take her next breathe when I said I would be thrilled! I initially met Suzanne from ordering scrapbooking supplies through her previous Ebay Store and now we are great friends on Facebook. So there was no hesitation or delay in me saying "YES."

For our projects the Guest Designer Team would be given one of the two Echo Park "Merry Christmas" paper collections. It would either be the Brights collection or the Traditional collection. I didn't care either way, but was tickled to receive the Traditional collection. I love to start my Christmas shopping in July and the last year or so July has been the time when I started the process of making my numerous Christmas cards. Also many of our local stores are now getting their Christmas displays and decorations out for sale, so the timing on this is perfect. Anything that will get me motivated is a bonus!

For my project I used a 12" x 12" canvas. I started off by using a layer of Gesso with on old paint brush over the canvas and let that dry overnight.

I then cut a 2" strip off each piece of the double-sided 12" x 12" papers and cut them again in a variety of sizes from 5" down to 1/2". I used twelve rolled strips for the tree and one additional square piece for the trunk. Using a narrow paint brush I rolled each piece of paper around the paint brush barrel to get it curled tightly. I then removed it from the brush, and then keeping it tightly rolled, I glued the back edge of the paper closed. I then laid all pieces on top of my canvas in the form of a Christmas Tree and glued them down.

Once it was complete, I laid my full sheet of designer paper over the top of the tree and using my fingers, I found the three edges of the tree and using my craft knife I cut through the paper from the middle of the tree from the top down to the bottom and then along the bottom edge of the base of the tree. I then opened the paper and draped and secured both flaps down to the canvas using two brads to secure the paper.
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I layered two chipboard snowflakes and used another brad to secure them together from the Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas Decorative Brads pack. (For some crazy reason, I cannot get this pic turned correctly :) )

Afterwards I cut several squares and rectangles to make the gifts and topped them off with several pieces of narrow ribbon.

 I cut the 2013 using two of the circled numbers from the paper collection. I also cut out four circles of chipboard and glued two of them together under both numbers for a 3D effect. On the "Dear Santa" list I used the sticker alphabets and numbers and then hand drew three lines for the list.

I scattered several of the chipboard pieces from the echo Park Layered Chipboard Season's Greeting pack on the canvas.

I added red Stickles on the red berries and then lastly used a dark brown ink to edge the gifts, the green drape on both sides of the tree, the 2013, and the four sides of the canvas.

 

I really enjoyed working on canvas for this project and I LOVED playing with this nice collection of papers, chipboard pieces, and brads. I had tons of  papers and goodies leftover and will use more from this collection on my next post, which will be on July 31st. Please don't forget to check out the Flamingo Scraps blog here to see everyone's creations. Donna Sullivan posted her project yesterday. You can check it out and follow her blog here.

I hope I have inspired you in getting started on YOUR Christmas in July!  Thank you!