Colorful Christmas / Paige Evans DT

Happy Monday, friends!  I have a new Christmas layout to share for the Paige Evans Design Team.  Have you made any holiday layouts yet with the Whimsical collection? I love the challenge of using non-holiday products for a Christmas project. Last year we had a rainbow of colorful goodies under our tree and this collection was perfect to document that photo. I used Paige’s Christmas Tree Background cut file and cut out lots of tiny trees using multiple Whimsical patterned papers. I wanted to mimic all the bright colors in the photo and also create a modified landscape with little hills of trees. I drew some wavy lines and then glued down trees on them. I machine stitched under the trees with green thread.

I applied clear gesso to the background first and then used a few green spray inks to create a watercolor effect behind where the photo would go. I also added a bit of soft blue inks and then brought in several other coordinating colors for splatters. Later I decided to add a bit more green under each row of trees to create a grass effect and a bit of soft blue for a sky. I took it a step further and added snow by splattering some watered down white acrylic paint. I used some of the spare bits of patterned paper from the cut file as layers under the photo and used Puffy Stickers and Rub-Ons in several places.

I just had to use this tag from the Stickers because it reminded me of a gift tag. I also added in more Stickers as well as some Chipboard Stickers and more Puffy Stickers. I also wanted a bit more of a blue pop around the photos so I tucked in tangled thread.

I really love the effect of the white paint splatters for making "snow."  It's so easy, fast and it dries very white.

Do you machine stitch or hand stitch on your layouts?  I love the effect of the stitching here under the trees.  It gives them some "ground" to sit on.  I also love how it emphasizes the curves and allows me to curve the sentiments under it.

All of these ink splatters remind me of Christmas lights :)

Here are a few more close-ups of all the colorful trees :)

I even curved my journaling...I love how it turned out.

I knew from the start what my title would be and the colorful Foam Mini Thickers were perfect. I curved the title along the wavy hills in rainbow colors. I didn’t do a lot more embellishing because I thought the trees mixed with all the colors were enough. Sometimes less is more and since I had so much color on the page and in my photo, I didn’t want to overload the layout.

I hope this inspires you to create a holiday page with the Whimsical collection. I think this is one of my favorite Christmas layouts I’ve ever made and I love thinking outside the box and using all of the colors while still conveying the idea of a Christmas page!

Be sure to check out my process video if you'd like to see this layout in action:

Thank you for stopping by!