Christmas Leftovers. . . . . . .

Happy New Year to you all and I hope you had a lovely Christmas break.

Today sees the start of a new challenge at Our Creative Corner and our host is Pamellia, one of our newest recruits (very brave to step right in there and host a challenge!). Here's Pamellia's challenge:

With the holidays merely a shadow behind us, my guess is you still have bits of Christmas leftovers stashed everywhere, not to mention bags of Christmas bits meant for the recycle bin. I am a hoarder of all things I think I might get around to using one day, and Holiday bits are no exception! Every closet, drawer and cupboard is overflowing with the little things I collected throughout the holidays. Things I think I might use and things heading to the curb.

Christmas wrapping, gift bags, tinsel, ribbon, gift boxes, tissue paper, Christmas crackers, wine boxes, empty gift wrap rolls, Christmas cookie tins, even the images from the fronts of cards I received...you name, I hoard it! Let's put those bits to good use this month! With that in mind, for my introductory challenge theme, I have chosen........

CHRISTMAS LEFTOVERS

To be clear, your project does NOT have to have a Christmas theme, I only want you to recycle your Christmas scraps.

If it's not obvious what Christmas leftovers you used, make sure to tell us about it, somewhere in your post.

I had to think about this for a little while because I knew I wouldn't use gift wrap or bags; I often recycle boxes so I didn't want to choose that option. . . . . . . . . . . in the end I looked at the gifts I received and decided on the smallest piece of packaging which had caught my eye. It gave me the idea to develop and make these:

Four ATC's all made using little pieces of this packaging from a stamp:

This came with a single heart stamp and I just couldn't bear to throw it away! Here's how I used it:

I used three ATC's that I made for this tutorial here and cut one more from chipboard and the saved packaging (these were glued together for added strength). A small amount of the packaging is left to be used like this:

The packaging was torn into small strips and applied to the three gelli plate ATC's. Thin layers of the acrylics shown were used to highlight areas and give more depth.

All four ATC's were then painted in random areas with Translucent Yellow Iron Oxide fluid acrylic.

Next came stamping to create depth with various colours of archival ink.

The fourth ATC was given a torn paper finish which belongs to Andy Skinner so I'm afraid I can't share it with you. However, also in the picture is some tissue tape which has been coloured to muddy it and then applied to the ATC, leaving the little heart exposed.

Two girl images are stamped onto acetate using stazon jet black ink (only one shown). Audrey is stamped onto mica using stazon.

Some areas of the stamped images are painted with fluid acrylic on the back.

Audrey is finished with some translucent iron oxide paint. Mustard seed distress ink was added to the background to warm the colours.

The packaging paper in the top left corner has been stamped over and altered with paint. Audrey was cut out before attaching and the cut edges are inked to give definition.

A chit chat sticker has been altered. Two stamps and a stencil have been used in the background on the right - using archival ink and paint.

This ATC has the girl image with green gold acrylic behind areas of the design.

I love the way the background shows through the acetate.

I forgot to take a picture of the full ATC but I have a number of detail shots - sorry! This background uses the main part of the packaging and the torn paper technique. I kept the heart clear of tape and paint so that it showed through the acetate.

I love how the colours of the background work so well - think that on the odd occasion I may use paper again along with a little altering!

I like that this stamp has its own built in sentiment too.

The added stamping in the background is clearly seen here along with some white stencil work.

The flower is one leftover from a previous project. I coloured it with some archival ink followed by some sprays of DecoArt misters to give it some sparkle. The brad in the centre is painted and crackled.

The stem is made from wired paper coloured with archival ink.

More chit chat stickers have paint added before applying to the ATC.

Stamped 'tissue tape' in the corner - love this new stamp!

Think I got carried away with this post but it was fun! Please do go over to Our Creative Corner (click on the name to be taken straight to the post) to see what the team has come up with and visit their blogs for further details. 

Our generous sponsor this month is Nicecrane Designs so look out for further inspiration using their products during the month.

Over to you now. Can't wait to see what you come up with!