Santa Taste Test / Simple Stories

Happy Thursday, friends!  Christmas is right around the corner, and I'm back today to share a new holiday layout for Simple Stories.  This might be one of my most favorite pictures ever!  Santa visited school, and as soon as Paige sits on his lap she tries to lick him...haha!  She went through a phase where she had to taste everything...including Santa!  It just makes me smile and laugh every time I see it, and I couldn't wait for the perfect collection to scrap it with.  This is the gorgeous Mistletoe Kisses line, and it's so pretty!

I decided to make a large title as my big background element.  I cut it in Bromello font and cut in on white cardstock.  I used lots of papers from the 6x6 Paper Pad to back all the letters and then went over a lot of the area with white gesso.  I used coordinating colors of Shimmerz Paints to add some watercolor around where my photo was going to go and then added splatters around the page.  I tucked in a few die cut Christmas trees that I had previously cut from an exclusive Hip Kit Club cut file and then embellished with some stickers, chipboard and die cuts.

Probably the most time consuming part of this page was machine stitching all around the title.  I wanted the look of stitching, but I didn't have the time to do it by hand.  Using my sewing machine was definitely faster, but I had to go slow and had to carefully turn the page A LOT as I went.  I love how it turned out!  I absolutely love this adorable string of lights sticker!  It fit perfectly right in this spot.

Down at the bottom I added this cute tree die cut from the Bits & Pieces pack and then added a few heart stickers and a sentiment sticker.  I love how the shape of the tree fits right up against the "T."  Sometimes shapes just fall together like that...woo hoo!

I love this chipboard tree.  I layered it in here under the photo along with small pink label sticker and a few hearts.  I love adding in white pieces on top of white cardstock...it gives so much interest and texture without taking away from all the other colors.  And you can still see what the shape is :)

Here's one more close-up of the title.  I loved sorting through all these pretty patterned papers...the colors and patterns are just so pretty.  I just had to add that little bird on top of the "a"...he was too cute to pass up!

I had so much fun making this page.  I hope it inspires you!  Thank you for stopping by, and have a great day!