Advent Joy

I've already completed all four of the Advent Calendar challenges in For the Love of Pretty Paper (five stash items and a technique each time) but Natalie sprung an additional challenge on us at the end - to use our choice of 10 of the 24 things together on a page. To be honest, I'm beginning to know how Natalie's mind works so this one wasn't much of a surprise to me but I'd been expecting a higher number than the ten that she set, so I set out to use as many items from our list as possible. We had sparkly washi tape, flair (or similar), 6x6 papers, black alphabet stickers, mist, hand-sewing, tiny word stickers, puffy stickers, Project Life cards (or paper cut to PL card sizes), sequins, gold alphabet stickers, stamping, gold washi tape, wood veneer, small tile alpha stickers, a roller date or phrase stamp, a 'cut-apart' paper, watercolour background, ephemera, mixed media, chipboard, a large word, hearts and DIY embellishments.

I printed a collage of photos from the Advent Calendar Swap that I organised last autumn and cut the Brown Paper Packages Background file from Just Nick on my Silhouette. I chose green for my watercolour background, added acrylic paint through a stencil, stamped the star pattern and used mist for both painting and spattering. I backed the cut file with pieces from 6x6 papers, matted the photo on a PL card and a cut-apart square, and stitched a circle on my page. Having included all the paper and techniques, it was time to add as many of the other items as I could while keeping the page harmonious.

I placed most things in threes, making a series of triangles around the photos, including a one made up of my black Thickers and two black brads (rather than flair). It was surprisingly easy to keep adding bits and in the end I used all 24 items from the list (if you accept JOY as a large word (which the ladies of FTLOPP did)).

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazill
Paper - Fancy Pants Merry Little Christmas, American Crafts Deck the Halls
Letters - American Crafts
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft, Tesco
Brads - Simple Stories Classic Christmas
Word Stickers - Tim Holtz
Number Sticker - American Crafts/Shimelle Christmas Magic
Heart Stickers - American Crafts
Chipboard & Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico
Ephemera, Sequins & Gingerbread Man Sticker - from the Advent Calendar Swap
Watercolours - Dr Ph. Martin's
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts
Thread - DMC

Tools
Silhouette Portrait & Just Nick Brown Paper Packages Background Cutfile
Big Shot & Doily Die
American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Date/Phrase Stamp