Lindsey - Holly Jolly Christmas

Hello - Lindsey here with a couple of simple layouts utilising Echo Park's Holly Jolly Christmas papers.

The first photo is of Miss S. visiting Santa at the local shopping Mall. Unfortunately Santa's grotto was situated right under a big skylight and it was a really bright and sunny day in The Bay. As professional photos go, I thought it was fairly grim really but at least everyone has a head and some feet so we mustn't complain.

I certainly could not have taken a photo of this event because Miss S's (older and obviously wiser) sister was clinging to my leg in terror, on the verge of tears and shaking her head violently refusing to "go and tell Santa what you want for Christmas".

This was so easy to pull together with the addition of only a piece of black cardstock and a few bits of bling. All the embellishments have been raised up on foam sticky pads and I've machine stitched around the edge of the page. That's it. Done. This collection pack contained more than I needed so there's plenty left over for more layouts. "Love ya Echo Park".

The next layout is little Miss E with her Christmas present from me (several years ago). This was the Christmas when I decided to shun the commercially made rubbish in the shops and go for homemade wherever possible. I found some Cabbage Patch dolls in the local KMart. When my own daughter was small, these were all the rage but I had refused to buy one as I thought they were so expensive. Thirty years later, I spotted these adorable dolls and just fell in love all over again. I bought four! So much for the Homemade Christmas.

However, the idea was to make the dolls a complete wardrobe. Yummy!! I would get to delve into my stash of quilting fabrics again. I must confess that I was very excited and went into production. There were sparks coming out of my ancient sewing machine - until it conked out half way through the whole process. Yikes! My lovely old mum had bought this really basic machine for me thirty (or more) years ago. The spare part required would need to be shipped from England.

I was very cross at having to pack everything up and the Cabbage patch dollies sat there in a row looking at me with their cute little faces - they were so sympathetic and didn't blame me at all but they were so looking forward to their designer wardrobes. I caught their little whispers one evening "Why doesn't she go to Spotlight and buy one of those cheap Brother machines?". I was torn between wanting to complete the challenge but needing to hang onto this dear machine along with the memories of all the stuff I had made with it over the years - as a new wife I made curtains and cushions, clothes for my new baby daughter, many repair jobs, dressing up outfits. So many adventures we had had together.

Whilst waiting for the spare part, I purchased two chipboard suitcases from Spotlight and got busy with the painting, papering and ModPodging so that the lovely new clothes would have somewhere to go. Inside the suitcases were little albums asking each granddaughter to please adopt this little Cabbage Patch baby. It explained their likes and dislikes, what would be required of their new mummy and various bits of paperwork - Adoption Certificates and so forth - and photographs of their new clothes and what type of occasion they would be worn on.

I eventually finished all the clothes with the help of a friend's overlocker and. later, the safe return of Pearl. Oh, Pearl is the sewing machine - "Pearl's a Singer". Ha Ha Ha. Get it? Pearl's a Singer.

Pearl is still trundling on, bless her heart, although I fear that (like me) her motor is wearing out. She's just made some big, fluffy, appliqued cushions for my granddaughters' Christmas presents. We've made three of these, appliqued back and front. Here are two of them:

I think Pearl is a tiny bit miffed because she will have noticed the new overlocker I splashed out on but I haven't used the "Usurper" (as Pearl likes to mutter under her breath) very much. Oh, but incidentally, Overlocker needs a name. She's a Bernina. Any ideas??

Thanks for looking ladies. Go and place an order for Echo Park's "Holly Jolly Christmas" and get those old photos scrapbooked!!

Lindsey
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