1st Noel: Santa Babies

Hi everyone. It's almost Christmas! Nothing quite beats the first Noel: little babies in Santa hats.

 

This is Cory and his cousin Zack on their first Christmas.  Zack's mommy and I were both late-life Moms. What a thrill it was for our family that we both had babies that year. It was a miracle, really, and puts a spin on the caption,"We Believe." 

I used the December kit from My Creative Scrapbook to make this layout, which featured papers and embellishments from the new manufacturer Photo Play.

Here's a couple closeups:

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

Read To Me, Santa!

At age 20 months, my son was sure of one thing: his love for lift-the-flap Maisy, his very favorite book. He was a whole lot less sure about that old guy in the red suit.

As we approached Santa in the mall that year, Cory stood a good 10 paces behind me. Nope, he wanted nothing to do with that guy. No amount of coaxing would convince Cory to come closer until I handed Maisy to Santa. As Santa began to read, Cory inched closer and closer and finally climbed on Santa's lap. Score one for Mom!

Oh, I loved this age. It was such a sweet and tender time. If only I could bribe him so easily now.

To make this layout, I used the December kit from My Creative Scrapbook which featured the Dear Santa collection from the new manufacturer Photo Play.

Here's a closer look at the embellishments:

 

They were just perfect for this photo.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Home for the Holidays: My Creative Scrapbook

Hello everyone!

I look forward every year to welcoming in December and all the accompanying holiday traditions. The best tradition of all, of course, in welcoming home family.

Cory adores his cousins in Texas and it just doesn't feel like Christmas until they are back on the East coast with the rest of us.

I made this layout with the new December kit from My Creative Scrapbook. It features the new manufacturer Photo Play.

Here's a photo of the Creative Kit I used.

You can find more information on all the kits at My Creative Scrapbook on its website.  Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll have other layouts with this kit on my blog this week.

December Daily 2014 - Day 7

Hello and happy Friday!

Today, I have Day 7 from my December Daily Christmas album. 

I'm using 6 x 8 pages and pocket pages for this album. I love this size. The pocket pages make it fast and easy and the 6 x 8 pages give me more flexibility. I love combining the two. 

The journaling here says: When we spent the night with my parents, Mimi made Cory pancakes that spelled out his name. This kid is spoiled rotten!

Sometimes December Daily is about the little things. I like including everyday life in my album. I'm so blessed that my parents are alive and well and dote on Cory. I want him to always know how much they loved him. 

I have pages 8 and 9 completed too but it was too dark to shoot them. I'll be back with those - and likely more pages too - on Monday. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

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. 

Money Hidden In Toilet Roll: Creative Ways To Give

Our teen nephew is hard to buy for. Every year, we try to think of creative ways to give him money. This year, we taped dollar bills end to end, rolled them and hid them inside a toilet roll. 

We cut a slot in the toilet roll just a bit larger than a dollar bill. We added a "pull me" tab to the last bill and threaded it through the slot. Then we wrapped the roll with tissue paper leaving the pull me tab exposed. 

To open, my nephew doesn't unwrap the gift. Rather, he pulls the tab and the bills will roll out one by one. I got this idea from my friend Cindy deRosier.

We won't see my nephew until the weekend after Christmas so I don't have a photo of him unrolling the dollars, but I am pretty sure it will be a hit!

For creative ways to give a gift card, see this post.

I have other projects with toilet paper rolls here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Paper Cone Ornament Tutorial: Fancy Pants Designs

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone.  Before I head home for the holidays, I wanted to share a tutorial with you for paper cone ornaments. These are easy to make and can also be used as bows on your packages.  

Supplies:  Double sided paper, circle punch, large brad or flair, sentiment, twine or ribbon hanger.  My supplies are all from Fancy Pants Designs, the Merry Little Christmas collection. 

Start by punching out about 14 circles. 

Roll each circle into a cone, using a strong adhesive. Wet adhesives like Zip Dry probably work best. I used a clip to hold each cone together as the glue dried, which only took a few minutes. 

For the base, I punched a larger circle and stapled a twine hanger at the top. The staple won't show as the cones will completely cover the large red circle. After placing these four, I realized all my cones would not fit, so I trimmed the ends and that worked. See below. 

Add in all the cones or as many as will fit.  If, like me, you rolled some cones fat and some cones skinny, you may need to make some adjustments. I ended up using just 11 of the 14 cones and trimmed the ends off each to fit. 

I punched a hole in the center to help me gauge where the center was as I placed each cone.  A hole in the center will also be helpful if using a large brad as a decorative element. 

Here's a side view. You can see the dimension of the cones. I love how they look. 

To complete the ornament, I topped the cones with a flair button and a sentiment ticket. I used the ornament here as a package bow. It can be removed and used by the recipient as an ornament. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

Creative Gift Cards: Inside a Snow Globe

I love to give and receive gift cards but I also really appreciate a good presentation. For my friend who is a big coffee fan, I gave her a Starbucks gift card inside a homemade snow globe.

Starbucks has these super cute snowmen gift cards this year that work perfectly for snow globes. 

I only needed a few ingredients to make my own snow globe and I already had everything on hand in my house. Bonus!  I used an old pickle jar. I dumped out the last few pickles and cleaned the jar. 

If you want your snow globe to last awhile, be sure to use distilled water or cooled boiled water. This helps prevent mildew and cloudy water. I added a tablespoon of light corn syrup to make the glitter and sequins fall more slowly. 

To create the scene, I added little bottle trees from Fancy Pants Designs in front of the Starbucks card. I used Gorilla Glue to adhere them. Be sure that you use an adhesive that will not break down in water. 

I wrapped the Starbucks snow globe with a gift card that said: In case of emergency, break glass. Of course, she wouldn't really need to break the glass to get the ornament. Just turn the jar right side up and unscrew the lid!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a great weekend. I'll be back on Monday with tutorial for paper ornaments.  

Secrets For Santa: Fancy Pants Designs

I'm up on the Fancy Pants Designs blog today with prizes there up for grabs!

Here's a closeup:

The photo on this layout is of my little one whispering his list to Santa. Additional details are on the Fancy Pants blog today. 

My post is part of a week-long blog hop with Fancy Pants and Tombow Adhesive. Up for grabs: products from the brand new Timber Grove collection and a variety of Tombow Adhesive. 

You can find all the details here on the Fancy Pants blog. Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back tomorrow with a gift card in a snow globe. It turned out so cute. I can't wait to show you!

Shaker Card Tutorial: My Creative Scrapbook

I'm taking a little break from layouts today to show how to make a shaker card.  

I used the new Bundled Up line from Crate Paper, which was included in the December kit at My Creative Scrapbook. As soon as I saw the theme of this collection, I immediately thought it would lend itself well to a shaker card. I used sequins and tinsel from the kit as snow. 

To get started, I used a chipboard frame in the kit. I thought the frame would have just the right depth for the sequins to shake and fall like snow and it did.  

To the front of the frame, I attached a piece of transparency.  Vellum would work well too. I just stitched the transparency on. It is quite fast and easy to run chipboard through a sewing machine and I didn't have to worry about adhesive showing through. 

After stitching the transparency on, I cut a piece of patterned paper the same size as the frame and embellished both pieces with chipboard. 

I glued the paper to the back of the frame -leaving a small opening for the sequins and tinsel - then sealed it completely shut. Then I added the shaker to a card base. 

Here's a final look:

A fun and festive card!  I'll be back tomorrow with a project for Fancy Pants Designs.