Christmas is Just Around the Corner!!!

I have kicked off my countdown to Christmas 2008 with my entry for Round 7 of SYTYCS. This week I scrapped three photos taken from a shoot I did last week of my daughter wearing a really woolly Santa hat. Originally, these photos were taken for a mini book I am making to be taught at Just Scrapbooking in December, but I was so happy with how they turned out (both DD's cute factor and my experimanting with Photoshop) I just had to scrap them... and NOW!

I have only ever scrappped one other Christmas LO, and that was done in a class at my LSS last year some time. Funnily enough, I didn't use any of my huge Christmas-themed stash to create my layout... I used Scenic Route's Sonoma instead. Just love the colours in that range! Yummo!

Anyway, back to SYTYCS... this week's genre was Haberdashery. the criteria were as follows;

- 75% of the elements adhered by stitching (No double sided tape. All your photos count as one element, your whole title as one element)
- at least 2 different stitch types (zig zag, straight, blanket, machine, handstitch, french knots, etc)
- at least 2 pieces of fabric
- a handmade embellishment (a heart cut from felt would suffice)
- at least 3 (or more) photos
- ribbon

Strangely enough, I had a little trouble with these criteria at first, especially the fabric. Couldn't decide which of my photos actually suited a fabric-based LO, and then I couldn't decide which fabric to buy! In the end I stuck with natural fibres so I had more freedom to use a variety of patterned paper, etc.

But enough waffle... here's my take on the challenge;


















All criteria have been fulfilled;

- Everything except for my title and subtitle are stitched to the page,
- 3 different stitch types = zig zag, straight, and cross-stitch,
- Hessian and calico,
- My handmade embellishment is the holly at bottom left of 6x4 photo, which I made by hand-cutting leaf shapes from pp then sewing together with a circle of hessian and a large red button,
- 1 6x4 and 2 passport photos,
- Stitched twill running beneath the middle photo.

If you would like to vote for my layout head to Scraptacular, make 30 posts (playing the games are the easiest way to do this!), then pm SYTYCS Votes with your choices... but hurry as voting lines are only open for 24 hours this week (i.e. now until 10pm EST Tuesday).

That's it for me... have a great week!