101 CSI Challenge Christmas

These colours are my favourites, I love the green and pale aqua together and the mood board looks so festive, so I went with a Christmas photo from 2012. I know it's a busy time of the year, but why not whizz across and see what the team has created to inspire you?

CSI LINK
You have until 15th December to enter the challenge.

I started off with white cardstock, then used a couple of stencils with texture and ink to create the background.  The grey colour was introduced with the stamp at top Left and bottom Right.

The Christmas title is as old as button up boots, but I think it looks OK with the trees.

The little trees, I cut with a Spellbinder die, coloured with alcohol inks, then added some beads to decorate.

The number stamp is from Prima. 

The twigs are made with a Martha Stewart punch.

The blue frame is by Heidi Swap

 I still love these enamel flowers by Maya Road which are very old; 

in person years they would be vintage.

EVIDENCE

Frames

Numbers

Silver accents

Ribbon

Something dangling

Something shiny

Circles (the buttons and flairs)

Christmas accents 

Twigs

Something transparent

TESTIMONY

I went to the December prompt and was inspired to write about the difference in Christmas traditions when I was a child.  The journalling is on the back of the layout and it reads:-

Last year our DGS helped decorate the Christmas tree.  He took each ornament out with care, even the ratty old ones, that his Daddy and his Uncles made in kindergarten.   His favourites were the Father Christmas figures, which he clumped together in a posse at the the front.  We chatted about what Father Christmas might bring, if he was good and he expressed an interest in an ABC book and some Lego. 

When I was a little girl, Christmas was a time of wonder and joyous anticipation.  It was often fiercly hot on Christmas Eve and we were put to bed for a few hours before being woken at 11.45 to go to Midnight Mass.  The priest wore gold vestments, the air was fragranced with incense and the Nativity scene awaited the arrival of the Christ Child. 

We had to go back to bed when we got home and were squirming with excitement, so we often whispered and giggled for hours.  We never saw Father Christmas arrive, but he always came and left just one present at the end of the bed.  One Christmas, I can remember sitting up and fossicking around in the dark, sure that he had forgotten me; but then my fingers stumbled across some strings and I knew he’d brought the tennis racket that I’d asked for.  

What has this got to do with the photo, you may well ask?   I can’t help wondering if the children of today, who have so many toys, have the same amount of joy that we experienced with that single present we received on Christmas morning.