Hello Maja Design Fans!

Thank you for visiting Maja Design blog today! It’s Maja here, and I’m so happy and excited to post my first GD creations!

Actually, I was a bit worried about the amount of photos and details, but got an official green light from Jenny, so get ready for a really looong journey

Since Christmas was barely two weeks ago, I decided to cut the Christmas papers first. And therefore all my creations for today feature the “It’s Christmas Time” collection. The popular tradition in Poland is to decorate the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, but then let it stay until February 2nd, the official closure of the festive period. So I guess another Christmas-themed home decor is allright, even after the actual holiday – and thus the shadowbox came into being:

I used one of the Tim Holtz configuration boxes. I decorated the outer side with the Preparations-bs sheet – I love those fine stripes!  Then I cut single borders from the Garlands paper, decorating the front.

I love when papers have printed borders included on the signature stripe, they make such an easy element to use in your projects! Here I used one from the die cut letters sheet as a kind of title:

To decorate the upper left corner, I used some real Christmas tree baubles from my boys’ minitree. I die-cut pine branches, accented them with glitter and then cut out some images from the die cut sheet, secured them with acrylic tags and hung on chains for additional decoration. They fit in here so well, don’t you think?

Then I started to fill in the boxes with either my boys’ photos or some decorative elements. For the bottom boxes I created ornaments from papers: I cut out the pine tree and the Santa to arrange a little forest scene, and also made a small present – I just cut a template the way you do it at school for the geometric cubicle, glued it together and tied with some twine. The litlle steam engine above is another Christmas tree decoration (you can still see the hole on the roof) that I painted with acrylic paint to match the colours:My kids were delighted to see their photos to be included for a house decor box!  It’s quite easy to make, you can use even a shoe box to create such decoration.

Supplies: Papers: “It’s Christmas Time” (Preparations-bs, Garlands, Snowflakes, Snowflakes-bs, Wrap the gifts, Wrap the gifts-bs, Expectations, The perfect tree, Die cut sheet-eng), Flowers: Prima, Configuration box, ticket, acrylic tags, tissue tape and metal embellishments: Tim Holtz, Glitter: Ranger, Die: Marianne Design, Other: felt snowflakes, die-cuts, twine string, acrylic paint and mini Christmas ornaments – from my stash.

Even after the Christmas decorations are put aside, I can recollect the festive time with the layout I also created. I used photos from the same photo shoot as in the shadow box, only now it’s visible my boys are wearing angel wings. And thus the title: “My Christmas Angels”:

For the background I used the “text” papers, separating them with kraft punched borders and adding some zig-zag machine-sewing. Then I tore the striped Preparations-bs sheet and die-cut two doilies, thus creating the background for my photos. The title is made with die-cut letters, with the word “Christmas” cut out from a red tag (Die-cut sheet) and accented with golden glitter:

To the left of the largest photo I added two “post stamps” cut out from the die cut sheet and some resin embellishments to brighten this part a bit. I love banners (you could see that in my challenge sample!) and put them wherever I can in my creations – here I inserted a triangle chain decorated with roses and glitter:

To the right, I placed the poinsettia and holly cluster, decorated with glitter, and then added some round elements from the die cut sheet, also accented with glitter (well, yes, I do have the glitter issue):

Another die-cut tag with Santa and the date made with die cut letters decorate the bottom of my LO. Finally I put some chipboard snowflakes covered with thick transparent glitter – I think that makes them look so real:

Supplies: Papers: “It’s Christmas Time” (Christmas Market, Garlands-bs, Preparations-bs, Peaceful-bs, Christmas shopping, Die cut sheet – eng & swe, Die cut letters), Flowers and resin corner: Prima, Punches: Martha Stewart, Woodware, Resin angels: Melissa Frances, Glittter: Martha Stewart, Ranger, Doily die: Cheery Lynn Designs, Distress ink Walnut Stain: Ranger.

But of course the Christmas collection is not limited to Christmas themes only! To prove that, I created three cards that have nothing to do with holidays:

For all cards I used various Sarah Kay stamps and coloured the images with Distress inks. The first card says in Polish: Lots of wishes. I used the “newspaper” sheet for the background and added some striped accents punched from Preparations-bs paper. Then I added some linen string, pearls and flower cluster.

Supplies: Papers: Peaceful-bs, Christmas shopping, Preparations-bs., Stamps: Stampavie and Lemonade, Flowers: Prima, Punches: EK Success, Distress inks: Ranger, Other: pearls, linen string, flower centres – from my stash.

For the second card I used the lovely plaid paper  – love all dots, stripes and plaid designs! I added some bling and flowers, the sentiment in a decorative clay frame and a small file tab that I cut from the die cut sheet tag.

Supplies: Papers: Festive season-bs, The perfect tree-bs, Die cut sheet-eng. Stamps: Stampavie and various stamps from my stash, Clay frame: Martha Stewart, Bling and flowers: Prima, Distress inks: Ranger.

Finally for the last card’s background I used my favourite way to use-up left-overs: I just punched squares from the bits of papers and arranged them patchwork-like. I also use other shapes for the pathwork background, but this one is the easiest, quickest and you don’t even need punches for it! Thus the papers made the card lovely enough not to use any more embellies – but I couldn’t resist adding some matching buttons lined onto a golden thread.

Supplies: Papers: Merry-bs, Snowflakes-bs, Christmas shopping, Peaceful-bs, Wrap the gifts. Stamps: Stampavie and Lemonade, Punches: Woodware. Distress inks: Ranger, Other: buttons and golden thread from my stash.

Well, If you got it here, award yourselves a medal of patience!

I hope you find some inspiration in my creations, it was a true honour to be able to share them here!

See you next Saturday – I promise to limit myself