Merry and Bright Layout by Kelly Daye

Hello friends, it’s Kelly Daye with the most colourful Christmas layout ever, lol! I am crazy mad for colourful vintage ornaments that I pick up at garage sales, flea markets, antique malls, and the like. So our tree, like a beautiful rainbow, shines with baubles in every colour you can possibly imagine. I was keen to design a holiday wreath to celebrate it all and chose two of Paige’s pretty cut files, Doily and Star Wreath, along with Paige’s Horizon collection.

Does it look like I backed a ton of stars? Surprise, I didn’t! I actually used Paper 03 to cut the Star Wreath. Then, I carefully pulled the cut file off the cutting mat, leaving just the stars in place on the mat. Next, I cut the exact same file from white cardstock. Finally, I cut just the outline of the same file from white cardstock. You can easily make an exact outline of the cut file by releasing the compound path and deleting all the stars. Once the two white cut files were glued together, it was easy to add the colourful stars, in the correct order, on the top of the cut file. With this method, you don’t have to resize the stars to back the cut file, or trace and fussy cut a bunch of stars from paper. Easy breezy!

To make my background, I used Prima - Pastel Dreams watercolors & Tropicals to paint a round wreath onto white cardstock. Have you tried these paints yet? They are just delicious. I didn’t gesso my paper first, but used limited water to make the colours very saturated. After the paint dried, I ran it through my Minc machine a couple of times to iron it totally flat. Works like a charm. I referred to the stars on the cut mat for what colours to paint and in what order. While I had the paints out, I quickly painted bands of paint in the same colour onto a scrap of white cardstock. This became matting for my photos. Next, I taped the Doily cut file over the painted wreath and absolutely love how all the dreamy colours peek through this delicate cut file. At this point I thought, “Wouldn’t a rainbow of chain stitching frame it all nicely?” So I pulled out a mass of DMC embroidery floss and chain stitched around the edge, changing colours as I went around. Just a little more eye candy!

Finally, with all the pretty coloured stars glued in place, I popped it up over the background with foam tape and embellished. I had just the right letters left in the Thickers for my title. How lucky was that? The little collages around my photos include Chipboard Stickers, leaves from the Floral Die Cuts, and Epoxy Stickers, all from the Horizon collection. A yellow Tassel Paper Clip was the perfect touch on the right to balance my layout, it’s from the Whimsical collection. As are all the colourful little Enamel Stars sprinkled around the wreath. There are a few sequins from my stash scattered about too. Dabs of metallic gold paint and gold Stickles add that final, irresistible sparkle that I adore.

I hope you found inspiration here today and thank you so much for visiting, cheers from Kelly!

SUPPLIES: Patterned papers, stickers, embellishments, Thickers, die cuts: HORIZON; WHIMSICAL: Tassel Paper Clip, Enamel Shapes; white cardstock; Watercolors: Prima - Pastel Dreams & Tropicals; white cardstock; Die cut machine: Silhouette Cameo 3; Cut files: Doily and Star Wreath by Paige Evans

 Location: Edmonton, Canada / Blog: Kelly Made It / Instagram: @kellymadeit / Facebook: Petals Daye / Pinterest: Kelly Made It