Holiday Cheer!

Tons of great photos are about to be taken everywhere this month. Adorning your layouts with punch art not only adds a little creativity to you pictures but also a little personal work of art.

Just by using some simple punches, you can create an elegant look. The poinsettia flower uses the maple leaf in two different shades. All you need is a sharp pair of scissors to create this intricate piece. Punch four leaves in two shades of red and four in two shades of green. It doesn't really matter which one goes on top. I used the lighter red for the petals. 

Take the light red maple leaf and cut veins up the middle, spreading out to the outside edges. Repeat this to three more light red leaves. Adhere these to the dark red leaves and then arrange with the stems pointing inward. Place four mini yellow flowers over the stems. Do the same steps to the green leaves. I used a Kelly green on top of a lime green. You can also use white and cream for an elegant white poinsettia.

Family Get Together

Merry Christmoose

What will you ever need a moose for? I have no idea but here it is anyway. For the moose's antlers (is that what they are called?), use a super jumbo circle. The head is a super jumbo balloon. For the body, I used a circle cutter and the arms and legs are free hand. Use a black pen to outline each piece and don't forget the chalk to add more definition. Check out the diagram for more cutting details on this one.

Reindeer are a little more useful for a fun Santa layout. This little guy uses the jumbo balloon for the head and the super jumbo circle for the body. The antlers are jumbo snowflake pieces doubled up to make them longer. The legs are cut free hand and the tail and ears are a small circle re-punched with the circle punch. Use a white gel pen (my favorite - Pentel milky) to add some highlights to the antlers, ears, head, and back. Use your chalks for some shading and draw on the face.

Santa

Beary Cute

Teddy bears are easy to make and very useful for any page with "cute" implied. These big teddy bears are made with the super jumbo heart and circles. Punch a super jumbo circle in craft brown and one in a speckled cream. Re-punch the speckled cream for the muzzle. Adhere the speckled cream piece to the craft brown piece and add a small black heart to the middle for the nose. Draw on the eyes and mouth. The bear's arms are made with the super jumbo heart cut along one side. Add some circle ears and you are done. 

Key elements in creating punch art and making it more dimensional are using chalks and pens for detail. The combination of these to elements to punch art will make your pages a little more artful.