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Community > Articles & Projects > Thena's Article
Thena's Article
Thena Smith
Thena Smith

And a Very Merry Christmas to You!

I love Christmas! I love the Holiday and I love the Reason for the Season! I sometimes think about what fun it was to bundle up and go caroling in the crisp night air of the eastern coast, but it’s easy to be nostalgic when I’m sitting here in sunny CA in walking shorts and tee shirt!

There are a number of great seasonal downloadable Creatables for the Christmas season and I’m especially loving Laurie Furnell’s Christmas Village. She has such charming artwork and covers so many holiday themes!

Also, please check out: Christmas Traditions by KaeLynn Winn, Spirit of Christmas by Laurie Furnell, Santa’s Express by Jill Webster, Sensational Santas by Carolee Jones, Heart Warmed Holiday by Carol Halm, Christmastime by Cara Bradshaw, Kimberlly’s Kristmas by Kimberly Montgomery, Nativity by Laurie Furnell, Christmas Goodies by Colleen Parry and Santa’s Elfers by Carolee Jones.-just to name a few! .

As has been my practice in recent months, I would like to show you how to add to your pages by creating some Christmas elements using the simplest of shapes. This month let's create some Christmas balls, some holly, a simple Santa and the very easiest tree that anyone could make, but which still gets the point across. Are you ready? I am ready if you are!

Remember that mistakes are often just a route to creativity that we didn’t know to take…
Project 1: Christmas Ornaments using circles
  1. Add shape and fill with two-color gradient
  2. Add shapes as shown to create hanger top
  3. Create simple bow and ribbon using insert draw lines or shapes.
  4. Use dodge and burn tool to create effects and add dimension.
    5. *Save as a png (working file so you can go back and work on it, as you get more confident.)
Project 1
Project 2: Santa
  1. Draw circle for face and fill with color.
  2. Add shapes (circles) for eyes, nose and cheek blush.
  3. Add blue circles with dot of white for inner eyes.
  4. Draw shape and add mustache and beard.
  5. Use dodge and burn to add interest to flat areas of both red and white.
Project 2
Project 3: Christmas Holly
  1. Draw simple shape using “Insert,” then “draw shape“. (I drew half of the leaf and then copied and pasted it to make sides the same.
  2. Fill shape with green gradient using “Fill with Color” then create gradient using green.
  3. Add shape
  4. Fill with red gradient
Project 3

Project 4: Christmas Tree
  1. Experiment with various shapes for trees. These are simple oblong shapes Triangles and lines with distortion applied.
Project 3a
Project 5: The Perfect Tree
  1. Create a new 12 x 12 page at 300 dpi.
  2. Create street by adding black and placing white streak down middle.
  3. Add images from A Christmas Village by Laurie Furnell
  4. Add poem of your choice from “C is for Christmas” by Thena Smith.
    5. *For second version, I used Eye Candy Nature filters and Adobe Photoshop to add snow and drifts
Project 4
click image for larger preview
Project 6: Gift Banner
  1. Create new page and add art from A Christmas Village
  2. Add poem from “C is for Christmas”.
  3. Add shape and fill with color to create the red background
  4. Print as layout or as front of a gift card.
Project 5
Project 7: Simple card, plaque and bookmark
  1. Create new page at desired size and add shape, fill shape with color for background
  2. Add image from A Christmas Village by Laurie Furnell.
  3. Add shadow’
  4. Add poem from “C is for Christmas” by Thena Smith
Project 6
click image for larger preview
Follow same routine for creating card and bookmark. Make hole in top of bookmark for ribbon.

With this, I wish you a wonderful, safe, prosperous and love filled holiday season. Take extra time to be kind and to pray for our service members at home and abroad. Meet me back here next month!

Hugs and Merry Christmas! God Bless and Keep You!
Thena
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