2015 #22 Xmas Giftwrap Masterplan {by Alison Bomber}

 2015 Topic 22: Masterboards

Hello all, it's Alison here from Words and Pictures to share my Christmas masterboard master plan. I'm a masterboard first timer.  When I saw the theme I thought I'd challenge myself to something new and sign up for it.

There are any number of ways to build the layers of a masterboard - so I decided to stick to my favourite things.  No, not raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, but certainly brown paper packages tied up with strings.  That's been my Christmas habit for a couple of decades now... brown parcel paper zhuzhed up in a variety of ways (different decoration for each recipient so I can tell which parcel is for whom).  This time around, I'm zhuzhing for one recipient with a masterboard.

And since we're on my favourite things, I built my layers with some more of them - crackle, book pages, the colours blue and brown, stencilling, wrinkle-free-distress technique, heat embossing, white spatter and of course stamping, stamping, stamping.

In another first, I've yielded to the need for collage photos to give you a quick rundown of the layers:

i) strips of book page, whitewashed with a wash of Snowflake Fresco Finish paint

ii) rough areas of Blueberry applied with a wide brush, and Crackle Glaze added to the Blueberry bits with a palette knife

iii) rough coat of Snowflake over the Crackle Glaze; stencilling holly with Blueberry

iv) wrinkle free distress technique using Chipped Sapphire and Pumice Stone, followed by stamping the checkered tree from Hot Picks Xmas 08 (HPXM08) in the same two colours

v) stencilling the holly again, this time in Snowflake; stamping the swirly tree from the same set in Coffee Archival and clear-embossing it

vi) stamping the swirly tree in Versamark and embossing with Vanilla White; stencilling Harlequins in Pumice Stone

The final two layers - stamping the lovely greetings stamp (same set again, HPXM08) in Potting Soil Archival and then plenty of spatter in a mixture of Snowflake and Chalk.

For once I have the perfect excuse for as much spatter as I like... it's snowing of course!  I love that wherever you look you have so many different things going on.

Once I had the masterboard done, then the rest happened very quickly.  I always knew I wanted to cut some pillow boxes.  I did them two ways, masterboard with a kraft label, and kraft with masterboard labels.  The additional decoration comes in the form of pine cones, tiny wooden stars and some thick white twine.

I had a few other gifts ready for wrapping (I'm not usually this organised, I promise!), so I did my usual brown parcel paper and then cut wide strips of the masterboard to decorate each parcel.  Again the pine cones and white twine finish off the look.

I'm not ready with all my Christmas shopping for this person yet, but I still have two sheets of the masterboard left to play with, so I'm sure it will run the course.  I've already cut some tiny tabs and tags as you saw, and it occurred to me as I photographed them that those round and oval ones in the foreground would make great baubles on a simple Christmas card too. 

I really enjoyed myself with the masterboard - and I just love how the ideas come bubbling up once you have the thing ready for cutting and playing with.  If you've never done it before then why not give it a go?  Do as I did... grab some of your favourite things and layer, layer, layer.  With luck, you end up with some really stylish co-ordinated gift wrapping (and cards!).

Thanks so much for stopping by today - it's always fantastic to hear what you think, and I hope you'll be able to drop in again soon both here and over at Words and Pictures.

Alison x

Ho Ho Ho ..... Wow are you looking on top of things thing Christmas Alison! Adore how you have pulled this all together so perfectly! Cunning masterplan indeed! Love your very competent collage photos (impressive) showing so magnificently the steps! And brilliant how the kraft, twine, pine cones and masterboard wrap into a whole lot of pretty parcels! And I've hummed that Julie Andrews song the whole way through your post! LOL ~Leandra

We would love you to join in with challenge #22: Masterboards If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Masterboards link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Dec 6th winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.