Merry Christmas! - Christmas in July at HMITM

We have a fun challenge up at How Much Is Too Much! Fi gave us a "Christmas in July" challenge, and we had to use:

2 + photos [at least 2]
1 x Christmas tree image, any size
5 x patterned papers, i.e., Christmas patterns,
5 x metal embellishments, and any other embellishment in increments of 5

Scrapping Christmas pictures always presents a challenge for me. I always enjoy making the pages--trimming them with pretty decorations--but since I like the focus to be on storytelling, I don't always have stories to tell for the multitude of Christmas pictures we take. So I hemmed and hawed over what to do, and just decided to go for it and scrap these fun pictures of my mom and Gram with their "loot piles."
 
I used the current sketch at Once Upon a Sketch as inspiration for my page design. My pages always look different from the sketch since I scrap 8 x 8, and sometimes it's hard to shrink things down. I used the Bedford Falls kit from Noel Mignon, along with a couple of odds and ends from my stash.
 

I almost always put titles on my pages, but I just couldn't think of a good one (since I didn't have a story--my titles are usually drawn from the stories) and I didn't have a lot of space to work with (one of the problems of scrapping 8 x 8!), so I just decided it was okay to not have a title.

 

 
Here are some details. I cut the circles of the Santas out of one of the patterned papers in the kit--here's Santa holding a Christmas tree (to meet the Christmas tree part of the challenge). The rub-ons I used are pretty old, by K&Co.
 

The banner die-cuts were so pretty, and I prettied them up further with these gigantic pearls that I had in my stash.

This medallion design was on the edge of one the Pink Paislee papers, and I cut it out and tucked it behind the photos so you couldn't see the missing parts.

 
So, while this was, in some ways, a tricky challenge for me, I had a lot of fun using the Bedford Falls kit, which I just got on sale from Noel Mignon half price, and I'm happy that I finally scrapped these two pictures from Christmas before last. Go take a peek at what the rest of the team made for this challenge, and I hope you'll play along--you could end up in our How Awesome Is Too Awesome Hall of Fame and become our next Guest Designer!
 
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