Merry and Bright

Hello and Happy December! Misty here with y’all today, and I can NOT believe that today is the NINTH! HOLY MOLY where has the time gone this year!? With this being the holiday season, I am super busy with work, kids, home, etc., etc., etc. I know that all of you are as well, and taking time to play with paper and glue is probably not happening. Well, unless you are making your own Christmas Cards. While I am the world’s WORST card maker, I am a pretty decent scrap booker. When everyone else is making gorgeous cards to give out, I am making pages for a scrapbook. But you know what? Scrapbooks make a pretty great gift!
I fell in love with this String of Lights cutfile and knew immediately that I just HAD to use it on a layout. I was able to dig into my scraps stash again and use of some of those bits and pieces that I just couldn’t bear to toss into the garbage, no matter how small they were. YES, I admit, I am addicted to CutCardStock! Seriously the BEST quality cardstock there is on the market.

My Materials

As I mentioned before, after I cut out my cutfile using Stardream Metallic ONYX 12×12, I was able to dig into my scraps. I knew that I wanted these lights to look like they were actually shining, so I went straight for the glitter paper. Now, I don’t have all of the Glitter Stock that CutCardStock has, but I have a good bit. I was able to use CCS Gold , DCS Red, DCS White, Silk Glitter Regal Royal Blue, and Silk Glitter Prosperous Purple. Not a bad collection of the best glitter paper on the market! I still had bulbs to fill in my cutfile, so I opted to use the Stardream Metallics that I had on hand. All of these bits and pieces came together to help form this gorgeous paper piecing that would become the center focal point of my layout. Doesn’t it look just awesome!?

Making it SHINE

How do you make paper look like it is shining? Well, there are several ways in which to achieve this look, but I opted for the easiest for me. I reached for my distress inks and stickles, of course!! Can you believe that I had a matching color for ALL of these papers that I used!? I sure couldn’t! This tells me one of two things: Either I have a serious addiction to crafty goodness, OR I have a serious addiction to crafty goodness. Hmmmmmm??

Once I added the distress inks around each of the bulbs, I added stickles and let them dry. The stickles made those lights SHINE!!! It was exactly the look that I was hoping to achieve! You know that feeling you get when everything starts coming together? Well, I got that on this layout! As I made these lights look lore and more like they were actually shining, I knew in the back of my mind that I was not going to want to add much more at all to this layout. I had no intentions of covering up these beauties!

The Final Touches

Once I mounted my photo on Stardream Metallic CRYSTAL white and then again on the Stardream Metallic ONYX, I added in the rest of my enhancements. There was not a lot left to add, as I mentioned before. I wasn’t going to cover up the bulbs if I could avoid it! So instead, I added in a few snowflakes that were punched out using DCS White Glitter Cardstock and a short title. This ended up being very minimalistic for me, as I tend to want to keep adding more and more and more. (Hence, why I can’t make a card!) However, I resisted the urge to keep adding and I am very happy with the results.

When I completed the layout and everything had dried completely, I showed it to my husband. See, he always picks on my and says that I add flowers to EVERYTHING. While he is not wrong, I just had to show him that I actually did not use a single flower this time. As he was looking and making his comments, he did say, “Don’t you want to add just one poinsettia to that?” UGGHHHH!!!! And now I do! I DO want to add a poinsettia!!! But no. I love that way this turned out using nothing but cardstock from CutCardStock and my few other elements. What do you think, Do I need to add any poinsettias?? I am TORN now!
Let me know in the comments!!!