December Daily 2014: Days 13 - 17

Hi, I'm back today with more pages from my December Daily.  I have really enjoyed this project and hope to get it all wrapped up this weekend. 

Here are days 13 - 17. 

Day 13:  The Nutcracker Ballet, a holiday staple. 

Day 14: The Teddy Bear Pajama Party at our local Nature Museum.

Day 15: My mom and her sisters at our family gathering

Day 16:  The Gingerbread House competition at a local resort. 

Day 17: Simple handmade ornaments

You can see my December Daily posts here. 

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Stay warm!

Top 10 Projects of 2014

I love seeing everyone's round-up of their favorite projects of the year.  Here are mine for 2014 in the order that they appeared on my blog:

Snowman Tag:

First Winter Snow:

I'm Yours:

Valentine Frame:

People We Love, Places We Go, Things We Do:

Another Day, Another Round of Candy Land: 

Fueling Up:

December Daily: Joy

My Elf:

Merry and Bright:

You can see last year's favorites on this blog post. If you did a post on your favorites, I love to see yours. Please link it in the comments. 

I'll be back tomorrow with my first layout of 2015. Thanks so much for stopping by. 

My Elf: American Crafts

Hello, everyone!  I'm back today with my last layout from the December kit at My Creative Scrapbook. 

I took this photo last year at my son's preschool Christmas party. The boys wore elf hats as part of the program and they looked so cute. 

I added a little dimension to the Deck the Halls card by pop-dotting the candy cane and holly leaf on top of the stocking. 

I loved this elf sticker that came with the kit. I sat him on a grove of trees at the top of my layout. He perfectly played up my theme of my son the elf. 

One more look: 

This layout only uses a little bit of patterned paper: the red Merry Christmas paper and the dark brown border.  Everything else is a pocket card, sticker or cardstock. I'm personally partial to a "clean" layout, so I quite like how this one turned out. 

Up tomorrow:  more pages from my December Daily. 

December Daily 2014: Days 3 - 6

Hello everyone. I'm back today with a few more pages from my December Daily. 

Day 3:

Sorry about the glare on the photo. I can't quite figure out the best way to photograph pocket pages.

Day 4:

The pocket cards for Days 3 and 4 are from the Be Merry collection from American Crafts. 

Day 5:

On this page, I used the Good Cheer collection from Elle's Studio. It's an adorable line. 

Day 6:

This cute paper is from the Oh, Deer! collection from Fancy Pants Designs. 

Truth in blogging: we made the ornaments last year, but kept them current for this year's December Daily with journaling that says: We love making ornaments. Cory and I made these reindeer last year and they are still our favorites. 

I think it's perfectly fine to use photos from previous holidays as they all contribute to what make Christmas special to us. 

You can see Days 1 - 2 on this post. 

I'll be back tomorrow with a holiday layout and on Friday with more pages from my December Daily.  

Meeting Santa Aboard The Polar Express

Last year we took a ride on the Polar Express, popularized by the book and movie, and it was magical. The best part, of course, was meeting Santa. 

Santa signed our copy of the book, The Polar Express, and gave Cory a silver bell. It was such sweet moment. 

I scrapbooked these photos using the December kit from My Creative Scrapbook. The kit featured the Be Merry collection from American Crafts. I started by creating a base with a large photo mat at the top of the layout. 

After I added the photos, I added a title tag at the bottom. 

Then added an embellishment cluster to balance the page. 

Here's another look at the completed layout:

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Merry and Bright: Capturing Everyday Life

Good morning! I have a Christmas themed layout today that captures everyday life of my then three-year-old. 

When my son was little, he carried this stuffed puppy with him everywhere he went but I had never documented that. When I was looking through old Christmas pictures, I saw this one of Cory with Puppy at the Tree Farm. 

I had already scrapbooked other tree farm pictures - with action photos of chopping down our tree - and had overlooked this. Cory's not looking at the camera, but I thought I could still use the photo to capture my son's love of his stuffed animal. 

I created the base of my layout and added a doily to serve as a photo mat. I printed out some strip journaling and made sure I had a space for it. Often I use hidden journaling on my pages, but on this particular layout, I wanted to be sure the journaling was easily readable. 

I added the strip journaling in the middle of the layout, clustering photos and embellishments around it. 

At the top of the layout, I hung some ornaments. I used my sewing machine to make hangers. 

Here's another look at the page. 

I made this layout using the December kit at My Creative Scrapbook. The kit featured the Be Merry collection from American Crafts. I loved this kit. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll be back tomorrow with more pages from my December Daily. 

Elf on the Shelf: American Crafts

My family had such a good time last year with Elf on the Shelf. My son was 4 and it was the perfect age. He woke up excited every morning to see what the elf had done the night before and where the elf was hiding that day. 

Of course, I had to scrapbook the adventures of Sandy, our elf. 

For this layout, I used the December Creative Kit from My Creative Scrapbook. The kit included paper and embellishments from the super cute holiday line Be Merry from American Crafts. 

As you can see, we didn't use the elf from the book, but rather a different one. This guy, Sandy, was marketed as a tree ornament but worked just fine for our purposes. 

Sandy encouraged our son to be kind. Always a good reminder!

I wanted to journal about our experience with Sandy the Elf, but I didn't have room on my layout to add it. So, I flipped the layout over, and adhered my journaling to the back. As you can see, I had a lot to say!

I had actually forgotten most of this story. I couldn't even remember our elf's name, even though it had only been a year since he visited. While searching my computer for info I might have documented about our elf, I ran across a long email I had sent my mom. That email (slightly edited) is what is attached here. Moral of the story: I will forget. I must write it down!

This is the kit I used to create my layout. Loved it: stickers, die cuts, wood veneers, washi, ribbon and lots of holiday paper! It's one of my favorite kits ever!

You can see all the December kits from My Creative Scrapbook on their website.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend!

Spring Cards

We’re having the most beautiful spring here in North Carolina. The sun is out. The flowers are blooming and all over the neighborhood, I hear the hum of lawn movers. On days like this, it’s impossible not to find myself wanting to create something bright and sunshiney.

The first card, "Let The Fun Begin," is a hodge podge of stuff laying on my desk and things I eyed on my Clip-it-up. This project started life as a color challenge to use yellow and pink. That’s where I got the yellow base (Pink Paislee’s Hometown Summer) and large pink scallop (Making Memories journal book).

　

Then I started poking around my desk, adding this and that. I had just gotten a 6x6 pad of Crate Paper‘s new Storyteller and I pulled the blue ledger from there. On top, I added a scallop border sticker from Studio Calico, a bit of twine from The Twinery and a trio of Crate chipboard birds. The sentiment sticker is from Amercan Crafts's new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line. Love that collection! I nearly stopped there, but then decided the sun and kite stickers from My Little Shoebox would add just the right touch of whimsy. There, now the card feels complete.

The second card, "I Really Bike You," features Echo Park’s paper and stickers. I love orange and blue together and took advantage of that combination here. To make the bicycle pop against the background, I whitewashed the paper with thin white acrylic paint. I used heart punches to make the clouds then sewed them on the card to make them look a bit puffy. The sun sticker had a sentiment that didn’t fit the card, so I covered the wording by adding a plain yellow circle on top, then added my own sentiment with alphas under the bicycle.

　

I submitted this card to Scrapbook & Cards Today, the terrific quarterly Canadian magazine, and was delighted to see my card featured on its blog here.  I hope you're having a beautiful spring day wherever you are.

December Daily: Final Pages

This was my first year doing a December Daily and I had such fun with it. I ordered the Studio Calico kit. I so loved the American Crafts album that came in the kit. It is a great size. The pages are 6 x 8.5 inches. I almost always scrap 12 x 12 and it was such a treat to work on the small canvas of the December Daily.

I used the calendar pages that Ali Edwards offers and followed her general framework. I used her calendar pages on the right and a foundation page on the left. I stitched around the foundation pages to mimic the frame of the calendar pages. I used mostly Echo Park throughout the album to give the Daily a cohesive look.

Day 21:

Over the years, we collected crystal Orrefors ornaments for our tree and I highlighted them in this entry, a filler day.

Day 22:

One of our city's favorite family-friendly traditions is going to see the Leonard Bearstein Symphony Orchestra, mechanical bears that sing and play holiday songs in the lobby of a building uptown. 

Day 23:

Mom has been using the same recipe to make these sugar cookies since 1966.  It's not Christmas without these cookies. LOVE them!

Day 24:

Scenes from the candleight Christmas Eve service and journaling about the tradition.

Day 25:

Christmas morning. I especially wanted to include photos of my parents here because they are so special to Cory and I love to observe his relationship with them.

I very nearly wrote “The End” at the bottom of the last page. I'm going to tuck my album away with my Christmas decorations.  It will be fun to pull it out next year and have a look. 　

December Daily - Day 5

Back with another post from my December Daily. This is Day 5, which was a Monday. Since we didn’t do anything especially Christmasy on this day, I decided to use this page to focus on a few of my favorite things of the holidays.

　

I had planned to handwrite the journaling, but it was too long. So I just printed it directly on the calendar overlay from Ali Edwards. Below is an excerpt of what I wrote:

I love the stories of Christmas. It makes me smile to think of the wise men following that yonder star, of the humble trek to Bethlehem and of a babe born in a manger. I also love the secular stories of Christmas: the sappy human interest stories, those Hallmark tear-jerkers, bright messages from friends on Facebook and blogs and the familiar Grinch and Charlie Brown. 

This is how the spread looks in my album.  I'm using an American Crafts 2-ring binder that came with the Studio Calico December Daily kit.  You can view Days 1 - 4 here.

December Daily Supply list:

Echo Park: Holly Jolly - 6x6 pad, 12x12 collection kit, chipboard, stamps; Metro Dots and Stripes - 6x6 pad, 12x12 collection kit; Season’s Greetings 12x12 collection kit, chipboard, brads; Everybody Loves Christmas 12x12 collection kit.

American Crafts: Album

Ali Edwards: calendar overlays

Hambly: Transparencies

Bo Bunny: ribbon

Fancy Pants: ribbon

Crate: stickers and chipboard

Cosmo Cricket: tiny type

Jenni Bowlin: letter stickers

October Afternoon: letter stickers

Martha Stewart: kraft tags

The Twinery: twine

Making Memories: Buttons

My Mind’s Eye: Stamps

Ranger Industries: Ink

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Kit club: Studio Calico