Merry and Bright (Meg's Garden/ 2Crafty/Helmar)

It feels a bit strange to be designing for Christmas before Halloween but I couldn't resist when I received the beautiful new "A Musical Christmas" collection from Meg's Garden. The glorious colors, the detailed graphics  - OH MY! I think I say it every time but these papers have such a beautiful hand stamped quality to them that you don't need to do much other than add fun embellishments.

This is a picture of my boys a few years ago posing in front the of the Christmas tree. The funny thing is that my own tree is decorated in a similar style as the graphics on this paper - dark red, white and gold (and a touch of pink). I instantly wanted to design with this particular paper. I actually used mini papers from the older "A Vintage Christmas" line for the photo mats since the collections blend so seamlessly.

I added some gorgeous 2Crafty chipboard (title and santa sleigh) and limited the flowers since it is a boy layout. Here is a close-up of the music notes on the paper behind the chipboard. On the chippies I dabbed texture paste to give it a snowy effect and then added some diamond dust (glitter glass would work wonders too). I actually clipped the third snowflake off the title and added to the top of the tree. For this one I simply used gold glitter glue on top of the clear diamond dust to give it extra sparkle.

Here is a close-up of the Santa sleigh that I primed with gesso, added texture paste and lightly inked the edges. Look at that beautiful hand stamped feel of the papers!!!

All of these projects were created with the special help of various Helmar Adhesives - especially my two favorites: the Premium Craft glue for paper and 450 Quick Dry for embellishments.

Before you go, don't forget to enter Meg's Blog Candy Giveaway at the end of the new DT announcement and good luck!