If any time of year cries out for wretched excess, it is the Christmas season, at least for me--all lights and music and colors and food and family and gifts--I love it to bits! In the spirit of wretched excess comes this page--all patterns and shapes and words and elements and textures.

Mr. Squeak is often in the room with me when I'm scrapping, as we share an office, and now and then he will comment on one of my pages. For this one, I think his exact word was, "Gaaaaa!!" and I don't think he meant that in a good way! He is a man who much prefers the simple and streamlined and monochrome. I often wonder how it is we have worked out so well lo these many years, but we have. Aaaaaanyway, he had some advice he wanted me to pass along to anyone who might visit this page. He said if you look away every now and then and blink your eyes to wash the tears over them before looking at the page again, it cuts down on the visual pain. Hmmph! Smart @#$!!!

This started off as a card for Anna's Create-A-Card challenge (https://ozone.oscraps.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24700) but when I shrunk it down and printed it out, much of the detail was lost, so I think I'll keep it as a 12 x 12 page, but what to do with it?. I don't really do a December Daily book, but I do make several pages for the month of December, so perhaps I could use this as the first page or a title page...

As for my Anna Christmas card entry, I guess it's back to the drawing board... Oh, darn! More playing with Photoshop, more playing with pretty products! Will this torture never end?

ETA: I used Anna's cool new ArtsyGrid overlays to "cut" the white paper: I selected the grid and with the marching ants going around the grid, I clicked on the white paper layer and hit the delete button. This deletes only the white paper that was under the grid and allows the candy cane stripe paper to show through. To make the white paper stand out a bit more, I added a shadow underneath it.

Credits
Anna Aspnes
ArtPlay Palette Autumn Crisp (white paper) https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=27621&page=1
ArtPlay Palette Magic (black paper background) http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=27649&page=1
ArtPlay Palette Santa Nicholas https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=27673&page=1
ArtPlay Palette Santa's Elf http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=29134;cat=383;page=23
ArtPlay Palette Weihnachtsbaum https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=27686&page=1
ArtsyGrid Overlays No. 1 http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=32143&page=1
Christmas WordART No. 2 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=27222&page=1
Christmas WordART No. 5 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=27225&page=1
Christmas WordTransfers No. 1 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=27878&page=1
Clouds No. 2 http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=28279&page=1
Festive Song BrushSet (reindeer)
Holiday Twist (metal Christmas tree, candy cane striped background paper)
Multimedia Christmas Trees No. 1 (bird) https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=29085&page=1
Multimedia Elves No. 1 http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=29136&page=1
Multimedia Santa Claus No. 1 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=28912&page=1
MultiMedia Snowmen No. 2 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=32190&page=1
WarpingFrames No. 2 http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=29329&page=1
Winter WordBlendz No. 1 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=28121&page=1

Cinzia Designs
Joyful Kit (present) http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=29166&page=1

Leora Sanford Designs
Noel (present and small picture frame) http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=29087&page=1

Thanks for stopping by!