Hello everyone!  This is one of my favorite times of year…I love watching the anxious faces of our children each Thanksgiving, knowing they are ready to start decorating for Christmas.  Regardless of crazy schedules, parties and activities, we always make time to hang with the cousins!

I used both sizes of the ‘Christmas Lights’ Doodling Template to create a colorful background for my photo from Christmas Eve last year.

The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with some product to create this project.  The opinions I share are solely my own.

Christmas projects, layouts and decor scream metallics to me!  Gold Gesso is the perfect answer!  I gathered several inks, my photo and this Gold Gesso from The Crafter’s Workshop.

 I started with a white cardstock base, wanting to keep the focus on the vivid colors and gold in the inks & gesso.  I used a round paintbrush to paint through the 12×12 stencil and the large block font words.

After the gesso dried, I used a small black gel pen to outline the cord of the Christmas lights & the bulbs themselves.  Using a green marker, I colored the inside of the wire cord.  I used several colors of ink pads to color the light bulbs  adding more color around one edge, to give the bulb dimension.I also inked the holly leaves and berries, taping off pieces as needed to keep the design clean.  After all the inks dried, I used the same stencil, but in the 6×6 size, to add more of the words around the layout.  I added 2 more ‘VERY’s and another ‘CHRISTMAS’ at the bottom of the page, since the large one was covered by the photo.  I decided to outline the Gold Gesso letters with a black pen too, keeping the elements consistent throughout the page.I love the shimmer in this gold, the photos do not do it justice!

To finish up the page, I added a piece of patterned paper as a border at the top and bottom and some gold thread under the photo.

I also added some glitter Stickles to the holly berries and journaling along the cord.

These large scale intricate backgrounds are great to use for a layout, or any other project that makes the most of a lovely composition!

 Thanks so much for stopping by the Blog today!

PRODUCTS Used:

TCW591s – 6×6 Doodling Template – Mini Christmas Lights

TCW591 – 12×12 Doodling Template – Christmas Lights

TCW9003 – Gold Gesso

Be sure to share your stencil creations on our Facebook page or by tagging The Crafter’s Workshop on Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest!

Jenni Calma

The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member