Christmas Gift 1955

Christmas 1955

1. I made scans of photos from my mother’s collection of my brother and me from Christmas 1955. The photos came out with a blue/green cast to them. I decided to take advantage of that and not force the photos onto traditionally colored Christmas paper. Teal seemed to be the best color to compliment the monochromatic effect of the 50s black and white photos. The teal is layered onto Bazzill, raisin colored card stock. The purple, sort of, complementing the teal in a pleasing fashion. ( at least to me!)

I found a great piece of Basic Grey patterned paper that picked up the teal and off white, and it still gave the layout a monochromatic black and white effect. It at least didn’t compete with the images in the photos.

I adhered a scrap of the pattered paper to a chipboard label (Joann Fabrics and Crafts) The edges of the tag were distressed with versa mark ink and then embossed with silver embossing powder. Several layers of embossing eliminated a bumpy look. I also embossed the year 1955 with silver embossing powder.

I stamped the tag with the words “having a very merry time”…inking only “having a very merry…” from the stamp set “Very Merry” from the Holiday Spotlight Collection. Next stamped the word “Christmas from “Burst of Christmas” from the Holiday Spotlight Collection. I couldn’t decide if there should be some red color there, but finally decided on the teal ink. I put a brad on the tag as well as a layered tree from the “All About Christmas” stamp set from the Holiday Spotlight Collection. Punch out the tree with a circle punch. The tree was stamped with teal craft ink and embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder. Layer the circle with same sized circles in raisin and teal and off set to the right.

Before attaching the year 1955 stamp a circle with the outer border circle from “All About Christmas” using a burgundy ink, stamp the tree from the same set with teal. Distress the edges of the circle with vesa mark and emboss with iridescent ice embossing powder. Layer the circles with same sized circles in raisin and teal. Off set the circles to the right. Attach the stamped circle to the background with adhesive, Attach the 19 with double faced foam tape and attach the 55 to the circle with adhesive.

When photographing the layouts, chipboard items cast some interesting shadows to the layout. It’s worth pursuing this for future layouts.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa Scrapbook Page

1. Use the large star stamp from “Jesus is the Reason” (Holiday Spotlight Collection from Inque Boutiqe) to stamp stars on a sheet of white card stock. Using a teal ink stamp off the ink once on scrap paper, then stamp image a couple of times before re-inking.

Emboss Resist

You can also stamp directly after inking and then stamp a couple of times. You are trying to achieve a stamped background with stars of varying intensities of color. Leave some space for stamping versa mark images. Clean star stamp and stamp a variety of stars in versa mark, feel free to overlap some of the other stars. Emboss the versa mark stars with clear embossing powder. Using a sponge or dauber or paper towel, color the entire page with the teal ink, buff the emboss stars. This is sometimes referred to as the emboss resist technique. It is one of my favorite ways to use stamps, I really like the effect.

Vintage Santa

2. Make a copy of a vintage Santa and child photo (this one is mine, 1955). Mount on teal card stock leaving a border and then layer onto black card stock, leaving a border. Use a scrap of the black card stock to make a strip along the bottom third of the background, layer a red & white textured ribbon on the strip of black. Stamp the Magical Memories image from the Holiday Spotlight collection in black on circles of red cardstock. Position the stamped circles behind the photo so that “Magical Memories” peeks out of the top left and bottom right of the layered photo. Adhere the photo with circles onto the teal stared background.

3. Print your letter to Santa, with your non dominate hand, on white cardstock with a red marker. You can, also, scan an image of your child’s letter to Santa, enlarge the print, if necessary and darken with red ink. Cut the words out individually and space in a pleasing manner along the right side of your layout. Be sure to put some hugs (O) and kisses (X) along the ribbon to the right of the photo. Stamp three of the large star image from “Jesus is the reason” onto scrap cardstock with versa mark and emboss with silver embossing powder. Cut out the stars and adhere to the layout with double face foam tape.


I like the project. I had submitted this page to Inque Boutique, as part of my portfolio when I applied to be on their design team. These Holiday Spotlight Stamps were the only ones I could obtain locally on such notice. I'm really liking these stamps a lot and have sinced ordered some from an on-line source ( which will be a topic of another post later.)

A fun ATC for the ZNE Design Team project! Don't you love the word torrid?