hi everyone,

 i  know i havent written on here in a while ,but  gosh where has  September and October gone, i thought when  my hubby and i came home  on 7th September   that i would have plenty of time to do  my crafts & write on my blog , but mum had a fall that  took up a lot of my time , at least i saw her every 2 days for 6 weeks something  some of my friends dont have with their mums  as they have passed away,  so thankful that i had  the extra days to spend with mum , shes ok, now   i didnt have time to  go out with a lot of my friends but thats ok, i know they are there when  we  have the time in our busy lives i may have t o make  everyone a special Christmas  time with them all

 anyway,  on one evening i  went to  the kaiser store and found  their newest collection  Under the Gum Trees,  what a beautiful range  can  be either made as Christmas cards or layouts,

i have done this  sketch layout around  10 years  ago  and when gonig though a album  for my nieces 18th birthday thought i really love that layout, so why not create it in a Christmas range

products  used
kaiser  2 sheets  jungle cardstock (  you can cut out  the middle of this  one if you dont wish to  get 2 sheets,
P2833 Fauna
P2829 Protea
P2832 Gum Leaves
ruby  bling /pearls
green ribbon  1 cm wide
i bought a  sticky alphabet  stencil from lincraft  to add Christmas  to it using  a white gel pen

i was asked  recently to  teach a class, but am not doing at this stage  but thought i would see  just to do with minimum of papers,with a  great  effective result

( 1 ) using jungle as base  dont forget  to cut off the bar code,  (  i sometimes leave this on  if i know its going to  use  them as a mat  for your photos gives you an extra 1 cm  to play with )
 (2) next  fussy  cut  out the kangaroo  and  large bauble of  Fauna, then with remaining  paper
cut  two  ,1.5 cm wide strips
cut  two at  1 cm wide

(3)  now cut out  Gum Leaves, here  start  cutting  from the bottom  of the page,trim off the dotted strip, this can be used in another layout if you so desire  so starting at the bottom of the page trim 7.5cm x 30cms
now trim  four -  10 cms x  7.5 cms this  is going to be your mats for your photos instead of cardstock make sure that  one  is  including the pretty gum leaves from the right hand corner.the other 3  as plain black

(4)  trim  Protea to  5.0 cms x  30 cm
the balance of this sheet will be placed on top of your base cardstock.
trim  extra jungle  cardstock  to  17.8 x 22.8 cms
i have inked my edges  this is your choice  to do or you  can distress if you like  the rougher approach  so many choices 

The fun part
 starting with jungle  cardstock, then  place  3.5 cms from the top ,place  your left over  Protea sheet  should be   25 cms x 30cm hessian side up
 on top and bottom of this sheet add your  1.5 cm strips
measure down from top of strip down 6.8cms  add gum leaves side up then below that add Protea sheet below that
place your second sheet of cardstock in the middle  of the page
add black side of gum leaves central  your 4 pieces  these are for your photos
with those  two strips of `1 cm place  one vertically and one horizontally between  your photos ,to make it look like   a  present wrapped   place a bow at the top  of the 4 photos

Note  you can also  do  TWO -  4 x 6  photos as well  or maybe  you  only have one photo  you can do journalling on the other side  saying when where   the photo was taken

i have added  foam  under the kangaroo and the red bauble to give height,
with the 2 strips at the top right hand  corner these are found at  the bottom of your strips that  you cut off
add  the kaiser red  pearls or bling on the  bauble  and along the top of the strips ive used big and small  for a change  use odd numbers if you re new to this  3,  5 or 7  bling . have used 7 at the top and 3 for the bauble add extra green ribbon under the bauble  so it looks like its hanging

i  do hope that you have enjoyed  my layout and do please give it a try,
let me know  how you go
 have fun
cheers
jacqui mccully

p.s.  i m not good with   metric  i hope ive given you the right measurements i prefer  inches most times
good night