Hello there everyone! It is Andrea here and today I am super excited to share with you the full reveal of our newest collection, "December Dreams"! This beautiful Christmas collection is inspired by the new The Nutcracker and the Four Realms movie by Disney, as well as the classic The Nutcracker fairytale ballet! The Nutcracker is a classic Christmas tale that is filled with magic and wonder! Subsequently, I just had to create a collection for you that was filled with that same kind of magic and wonder! To accomplish this, I worked to design patterns and images that I hoped would convey not only the central story of The Nutcracker but also images and patterns that reflect the main characters and, of course, the magical and imaginative lands that can be found in the fairytale. In "December Dreams" you will find fantastic, whimsical beings like the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Nutcracker, of course! You will also find lots of sweet goodies in this collection, like gingerbread men and houses, lollipops, peppermints, etc, which are all indicative of one of the four realms, the Land of Sweets! The other magical lands, or realms, in The Nutcracker are also included in the collection in various ways. For example, you will find lots of snowflakes in patterns as well as embellishments to represent the Land of Snowflakes. I really want "December Dreams" to feel like that same kind of winter wonderland that can be found in The Nutcracker...something so incredible that it must be from a dream! I am so happy to be able to share this collection with you! I think you are going to love it! I know I do!
Alright, now that I have talked a tiny bit about the inspiration for this collection, I want to go over the patterned paper that comes in "December Dreams" with you. First, let's look at the color scheme that is in the papers/collection. The colors in this collection include the classic Christmas colors of red and green, but I have also added in some other very pretty and happy colors like light pinks, some light and dark aquas, and even a little bit of lavender...all to create a cool, retro vibe.
The patterned papers in “December Dreams” are really beautiful and magical, and they tell the classic story of The Nutcracker. And, as I go over each patterned paper with you, you’ll probably be able to see how the story comes to life in this collection and why I love it so much. So, for this first pattern, entitled “Land of Snowflakes,” we have a bold aqua on white snowflake pattern on the front and a lovely and large red scallop on the back. Both have a “modern meets retro” feel about them, and they express the happy and whimsical nature of the Land of Snowflakes.
This next paper is called “Clara” after the main character in The Nutcracker ballet. She is a young and beautiful girl who embarks on a dreamlike adventure in a new and amazing world at Christmas time. With this paper I wanted to convey the elegance and sweet innocence of the young lady that is Clara. For the front I created a beautiful black and white pattern of two swans. Both the black and white swans are princesses, wear lovely crowns, and are symbolic of royalty. Since Clara is the rightful ruler of the four realms (as her mother created the realms in Disney’s new version of the story), I thought this would be appropriate. On the back you will find a simple but elegant and pretty pink on pink geometric pattern that I also feel fits well with the girlishness of Clara.
Our next patterned paper is “O Christmas Tree.” On the front of this paper we have a super cute Christmas tree pattern. The tree itself is trimmed with lots of pretty ornaments and other decorations such as candy canes, with of course the traditional star atop it. I chose to do this Christmas tree pattern to represent the large tree that grows at the beginning of the traditional Nutcracker ballet. On the back of the paper I chose to do a sweet, little reindeer pattern. I love and collect deer (especially vintage ones, and especially at Christmas time), and I just felt that the addition of some deer in this Christmas collection was a necessity. I mean, who doesn’t like deer?!
For this next paper, which I have named "The Nutcracker" (for fairly obvious reasons), we have a plethora of Nutcrackers standing at attention in a row, all lined up and ready to serve their duty in the fight against the Rat King...or Mother Ginger as the case may be...depending on which version of The Nutcracker you are watching, the classic, or Disney's new retelling. Either way, this pattern has a whole lot of handsome Nutcrackers all in a row! I love the look of them! And on the back there is a cool, retro looking blue on blue pattern, which is very versatile and useful.
“Land of Sweets” is our next patterned paper, and it’s one of my favorites in this collection! I love all the cute little gingerbread men! In addition to the gingerbread men, there are lollipops and peppermints, and this fun and happy pattern just perfectly conveys the silly and whimsical feeling that can be found in the land of sweets. On the back is a super useful ledger that is perfect for any Christmas time journaling that you might want to do.
This next patterned paper is called “Sugar Plum Fairy.” It’s an explosion of candy and confetti and color, and it is meant to represent the ethereal exuberance of one of my favorite characters in The Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy herself. On the back we have a retro diamond pattern in a pink, red, and purple color scheme, which is also reminiscent of the Sugar Plum Fairy - her sweetness, her effervescence, and her bold but ladylike demeanor.
Here we have “December Dreams,” named for the collection. I wanted to do a patterned paper that was a December calendar for several reasons. A calendar like this is so incredibly useful and versatile because you can use it for so many Christmas-time crafts! It is perfect to use to make an advent calendar (to countdown the days to Christmas), perfect to use for your December planner (to mark your plans for the holidays), and also, of course, perfect to use for your December Daily (to document the days of December in a special, keepsake scrapbook). Whether you cut the paper up into squares, or leave it all in one piece, this patterned paper is so cute and so perfect to create with! I have also included a few fun little squares with images from the lands of sweets and snowflakes on them, as well as a christmas message. Plus, as a fun and special added detail to this December calendar paper, each calendar day square has a little word at the bottom, all of which are words of the season! On the back of the paper you will find a fun, retro, mid-century modern diamond pattern in aqua. I love the aqua blue and white color-scheme and the light and airy feeling that it has to it. It kind of reminds me of snow falling.
This next patterned paper is called "Land of Flowers," and it is a very pretty and sweet little vintage floral print on the front and a cute and simple little pink on red, vintage pattern on the back. Both sides are very girly and feel like patterns that you might find on some old, vintage, fat-quarter fabric that your grandma would use to make a comfy quilt. Or, at least, that is what they remind me of! Either that or maybe some fabric your grandma used to make you a sweet little dress? The point is, they have a very lovely, vintage fabric feel to them, something you might find among grandma's fabric collection, and I absolutely love that about this paper! This patterned paper is simple, but oh so versatile, and definitely one of my faves!
Now let’s look at the cutapart sheets. Our first cutapart is called “The Fourth Realm.” In this cutapart, we have several different sizes of cute, cutapart goodies. We have several 3x4 cards, several 2x2 cards, some awesome tags and labels, plus more! There’s so much to love about this cutapart sheet, but some of my favorite pieces are the sweet, little, gingerbread man, my beautiful and magical Sugar Plum Fairy, the elegant swan, the mysterious owl, and the adorable gingerbread house. On the back of the cutapart sheet we have a pretty red on white bow pattern that I am in love with as well.
The next cutapart is called, “Key to the Kingdom,” and it has mainly 3x4 cards on it. There are lots of cool, decorative 3x4 cards on this cutapart sheet, such as the “Merry Christmas” card, the sweet, little cupcake, my adorable “tree-cup,” and my check list for the season. However, this paper is named for the pattern on the back, which has the golden key to the Four Realms on it. So cool!
Alright, now that we have looked at all of the beautiful, patterned papers in this collection, let’s now talk about the awesome embellishments that come in "December Dreams." First, let's start with our ephemera pack. We always do an ephemera pack for our collections/kits because I absolutely love ephemera, and obviously so do all of you because our ephemera packs are super popular and our best sellers...yay! And I think our ephemera packs are so loved because they just always have so many super cute and useful pieces inside them. We fill our packs with as many die cut pieces as possible. We really have fun creating these ephemera packs for you and creating lots of adorable little pieces that you can use to embellish your paper crafting projects, and so of course this time was no different. I filled the ephemera pack for “December Dreams” up with lots of beautiful imagery from The Nutcracker that I thought helped to convey the magic of not just that fairytale, but of Christmas itself. There are a lot of really cute and, of course, vintage inspired and whimsical pieces in this pack. Some of my favorites include my Sugar Plum Fairy ballerina, my various sweets and gingerbread men, my Merry sign with the wreath around it, the gingerbread house, the Nutcracker and Nutcracker poster, and so many more pieces!
Now let’s talk about one of my other favorite embellishments in this collection. Once again we decided to do flair. I always love doing flair in our collections/kits because they are so cute, and they add dimension to your papercrafting projects. The flair in “December Dreams” are all way cute, but I think my favorites are the snowflake and the “Joy!”
This next embellishment in our “December Dreams” collection is our decorative paperclips. These paperclips are fuzzy and adorable, and they come in a few different Christmas colors that match perfectly with the colors in our collection. They are great to use as a statement piece on your project or layout and absolutely perfect for planners, mini albums, and December daily’s to highlight or mark your spot on specific pages.
Now I want to talk to you about a really fun new embellishment that we’ve decided to do for our “December Dreams” collection. I wanted to try something different, so I decided to create our “variety pack.” I had the idea to put together a grouping of various items that I thought helped to convey the fairytale story that the collection was inspired by. In the case of “December Dreams,” I put together very specific and iconic pieces for The Nutcracker inspiration. So, included in this pack you will find things such as various snowflakes and Clara’s golden key to the Four Realms, as well as other goodies. I’m so excited about our new “variety pack.” The concept is really fun and cool, the pieces in the pack add a lot of dimension and texture to your papercrafting projects, and I’m excited to do different ones in the future that will depend on what the collection is.
Alright, now that we have looked at all the amazing embellishments and patterned papers in "December Dreams," let's now look at our glorious Planner pages! I love these Planner pages, they are sooooo cute! And they are perfect for so many papercrafting projects...in addition to of course being perfect as your planner dividers! These pages come in both 6x8 and 4x7 sizes and they work great not only for ringed planners and Traveler's Notebooks, but also for other papercrafting things like cards, banners, and mini-albums, and they are great for framing and decorating with, too! Plus, if you are creating a December Daily this year, or any such December/Christmas documented album, these pages are absolutely ideal! I myself like to create what I refer to as a "Holidaily" each year at this time to document each day of the holiday season, and I love using our decorative 6x8 planner pages for that project because they are perfect for it!
Let’s now take a look at each of the planner pages individually. First we have our Christmas tree planner page. This cute, retro tree has a bit of a shabby chic look to it, and it’s so pretty, with all the little peppermints and lollipops on it!
This planner page has our gorgeous Sugar Plum Fairy on it. As you can see, I was inspired by the Sugar Plum Fairy in the new Disney version, played by Keira Knightley. I love her big, pink cotton candy hair, and her multi-ruffled dress. I did take some liberties though, adding in ballet shoes and, of course, wings…’cause what is a fairy without her wings!?!?
This next planner page has our majestic Nutcracker on it. He is the hero of the classic Nutcracker ballet story, and so I had to include him as a main staple of our collection, and to feature him on one of our planner pages. Doesn’t he look so handsome!?!
This planner page is one of my favorites. I absolutely love this super adorable gingerbread house. It is too cute for words, with its blue icing and pink doors. I just want to eat it up!
This swan planner page is also a big favorite of mine. These two swans are just too pretty, and I love the border with the crossed keys, too.
This Christmas quote planner page is a good reminder of what this season is all about.
Here we have our gingerbread man planner page! I love this one, too! I love his cute, little face, and his bow tie, and his hearts that he has on his hands and feet. I’m not sure whether to eat him or to give him a big hug!
This “Merry and Bright” quote on this planner page is in a lovely, cursive, brush script, and it just makes me smile.
This next planner page has my sweet, little deer on it. She’s super cute with her blue eyes and her pink bow!
And this last planner page is in the classic red and white for Christmas time, and it just says “DEC” on it, for December. It would be the perfect front dashboard for your December planner, or it would also be perfect for the front page for your December Daily/December Documented mini-album.
And, finally, we have our transparency for this collection. We decided to do a cool, double-sided, metallic-foiled transparency for “December Dreams.” On the front you have a elegant, golden foil on our key to the Four Realms, and on the back, a traditional, Christmas red. Yay!!
Ok! I hope you have enjoyed our full reveal of “December Dreams.” I have so enjoyed sharing with all of you the beautiful, one of a kind, and oh so magical pieces in this collection. You can purchase your kit today - just click here! Don’t miss out, because this collection is super duper beautiful, and definitely perfect for all your magical needs this holiday season. I think you will find that “December Dreams” will help make all your holiday crafty dreams come true!
Hugs everyone and Happy Holidays!!!