Inspiration: Page Maps June 2020
As I was working on Christmas cards using the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper, I realized that it would pair great with pictures I took at Hollywood Studios in Walk Disney World on our last trip. We went the first week of January, so the Holidays festivities were over, but some of the Christmas decorations had not been put away just yet, particularly at Hollywood Studios. I will admit this specific park has always been my favorite of the four in Florida, and I think it's in big part due to the aesthetics of the architecture, which i sinspired by Art Deco and looks beautiful. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Christmas decorations are also vintage-inspired. (Which makes sense, knowing how much thought Disney World puts into everything they do.) I just had to take pictures of the adorable vintage bells and fawn images trimmed with tinsel.
This page is quite busy - I kept going back and forth between using the music sheet pattern or the ornements in the center panel. The ornaments fit the theme, but it does make for a busy background. I love the result nonetheless. I made sure to include a few handcut fawns, since they were what made me draw a link between the pictures and the papers in the first place. I also handcut a poinsettia to tuck under the corner of a picture. You'll notice I worked in threes: three fussy-cut vintage images, three buttons, three layered snowflakes. Those dies are brand-new. They caught my eye online and even though there weren't much images showing what they looked like, I took a gamble and I think it was a good call because they are gorgeous. I love that each one comes with a backing shape (which I didn't realize before playing with the set). That definitely helped here, as the snowflakes stand out better against the busy patterns with the vanilla cardstock on the back.
When looking at ribbons to trim the edge of the torn music strips, I found an old two-tone blue ribbon that matched the ornaments perfectly. I used it in the corner of my largest pictures and I love that it draws the eye to the ornament cluster. I wasn't aware it was showing when I took the picture of the street, but I realized when I started working on the page that it was highlighting the retro-inspired decorations I'm talking about on this layout. This detail becomes more evident with the use of the ribbon bow. I die-cut the second largest picture using the Stacked Deckle Rectangles, which I love to use to mimick old-time pictures. The pictures were not popping enough against the busy papers, so I made sure to mat both with Very Vanilla cardstock, inked with Antique Linen Distress ink, and I matted my two square pictures with red foil cardstock.
For the title, using the Deco Alphabet from Tim Holtz seemed like an obvious choice. I die-cut my letters out of chipboard first and then patterned paper. I was planning to just layer them for dimension, but I realized when they were placed askew on my table that it might look cool if I actually did a drop shadow by painting the chipboard another colour. I pulled out white acrylic paint, pourred Mossy Meadow reinker in it to die it (I don't own a lot of paint colours, but I have a rainbow of reinkers for my inkpads, so I make sure to always have white acrylic paint on hand and I make my own mixes. Works great!) and I colored my chipboard. It dried paler than the wet acrylic paint was showing, but it pairs very nicely with the aqua letters and it gives the title more presence on the layout. I needed "Christmas" for the first word. I had initially thought I'd use sticker letters, but I thought it would look better if I stamped a small word (which I knew I could easily find in any Christmas set I own). I found one that was on a banner in a sentiment, so I handcut it out and layered it over a punched snowflake. When I was looking through button options, I really liked the red one with its vintage look, but it wasn't working out on the green banner (the green threaded button was much better), so I decided to add it to the middle of the O in my title instead. I threaded it with clear tinsel to match. (In 15 years to buying trim from Stampin' Up!, this is my favorite of all times. The roll is dangerously low and I'm using it sparingly until I can find somewhere to buy more. I ordered the Sugar Cookie trim from the new Prima Christmas collection and I'm praying it is similar.)
Finally, I needed to fit my journaling somewhere, so I decided to do a vertical strip on the right edge, and I like how it looks. This is the first layout to make its way into my Disney album. I'm looking forward to scrapping my pictures from the trip. I had just started scrapbooking when my sister and I went together in our early twenties and I had the best time scrapbooking every single picture from the trip after we came back. Still one of my favorite albums to this day, so I hope I have as much fun with this one.
Supplies
Stamps: Joyeuse année (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Red Foil Sheets (Stampin' Up!); Blue Obsidian Mirror Cardstock (Tonic)
Designer Series Paper: Home for Christmas (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!); Antique Linen Distress Ink (Ranger)
Dies: Layered Snowflakes (PinkFresh); Reinforcer Variety Pack (Elizabeth Craft Designs);
Stacked Deckle Rectangles, Deco Alphabet Bigz (Tim Holtz for Sizzix); Layering Circles (Tonic)
Accessories: White Acrylic Paint, Green Ribbon, Blue Ribbon, Chipboard (?);
Sponge Daubers, Stampin' Dimensionals,Wonderful Gems, Buttons, Clear Tinsel Trim (Stampin' Up!);
Buttons (Foof-a-La); LePen Pen (Marvy); Vintage Shimmer Pearls (Studio Katia);
Snowflake Punch (EK Success)
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