December Daily

I thought I would share my thoughts about my upcoming December Daily and what I will be including in it as this seems to be a source of bafflement and stress for a lot of us!


Ellie under my Christmas tree 2010


This is my first year to do a December Daily and I decided long ago to start it on December 1. Next year, I may rethink this and start the week of Thanksgiving since for me and most other Americans, this is the gateway to the holiday season. I have so much going on this holiday season, I will definitely have a lot to document.

Now I want to take a moment to mention something that is on my mind: I know I’ve heard a lot of people say over my many years of scrapbooking that they don’t know what to document in a scrapbook (and more recently in a DD) if they didn’t or if they currently don’t have kids and that makes me feel so sad. I don’t believe for a second that a person has less of a story to tell just because they don’t have kids. I don’ t have kids of my own yet (and yes, I definitely want some little kiddos someday soon), but I think my life is every bit as interesting and worth documenting as those who do have kids. I have an amazing family, a wonderful girlfriend, a crazy dog, a great job, and fantastic friends. And this year, I have SO many things to look forward to during the holiday season – this will be my niece’s second Christmas (and I’m lucky enough to get to live in the same house with her this year) and my girlfriend is flying over from Ireland so we can spend Christmas together for the first time. So much fun!

So, here’s a brief rundown (with dates, mind you!) of what I intend to record in my December Daily this year. Some dates still have some holes, but I will get those filled in.

December 1 - my Christmas tree
December 2 – Gift wrapping
December 3 – Six Flags Holiday in the Park with the family
December 4 – Family Christmas tree
December 5 – My Dickens Village Collection
December 6 - TBD
December 7 - TBD
December 8 - TBD
December 9 – watching Christmas movies
December 10 – Church Christmas Cookie Wonderland
December 11 – Mom’s Christmas Cantata
December 12 – Our outdoor lights
December 13 – Mom’s Santa Collection
December 14 – Lisa flies in
December 15 – Christmas shopping with Lis
December 16 – my class Christmas party
December 17 – Ellie’s Santa picture, Christmas lights
December 18 – Christmas Cookie Wonderland at Home
December 19 – My wishes for the future
December 20 – Traditions – new and old
December 21 - The things I love about Christmas time
December 22 - TBD
December 23 – Ugly Sweater Party with friends
December 24 – Christmas Eve festivities with family, Ellie opening her Christmas Eve presents
December 25 – Our couple Christmas together, big family Christmas, Horton family Christmas

I really just have 4 more days to fill in and I know things will pop up that I will be able to add in. I’m hoping to attend some Christmas concerts and craft fairs at some point this month so that will be good filler! I have an idea brewing for the 22nd, but I’ll keep it to myself for now. Also, these dates aren’t set in stone for me. I may have something really cool going on on December 4 and decide to postpone the Family Christmas Tree to a later date, but for me it’s important to go into this project with some semblance of a game plan.

Meanwhile, I may not be able to blog everyday of December, but I will try to keep you posted every 3 or 4 days at the very least. Hope everyone has a great week this week and thanks for reading!


My Grandparents' Christmas Tree - 2008

It's the Holiday Season

Howdy folks! I've been busy working on projects for challenges over at Two Peas in a Bucket and wanted to get them all done before posting them in here. Up first...something I rarely do...cardmaking:

Merry Christmas

This one was made with Echo Park's Season's Greetings collection (and some red twine - my new favorite thing!! twine!!!!!! by Doodlebug) It was a pretty quick little project.



Pizza Planet

Is it just me or does this happen to everyone? You either have a fantastic idea for a layout and when you get it all done, it doesn't seem nearly as impressive as it did in your mind? Or....and this is much, much better than the first option....you have absolutely no idea what you are doing with a layout, think it's going to be totally lame, and when it finally all comes together, you are taken aback by your own genius????

Usually it is Option A for me...but I really wasn't sure how this next one was going to turn out and overall, I don't think it is too shabby at all. This one was for a challenge posted by Jen Chesnick in which you were to use tags. I always think tags look cool, but don't usually have any idea how to incorporate them on my stuff, so was pretty impressed with myself when I put it all together.



I used all kinds of goodies for this one: corrugated alpha - Jillibean Soup; letter stickers - October Afternoon; patterned paper - Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon, Lily Bee Designs, Jenni Bowlin; twine - Doodlebug Designs; stamp - Lily Bee Designs; ink - Jenni Bowlin; tape - 7 Gypsies; flower punch - unknown.

So Thankful

This one was for a color challenge. I have a fairly new found fascination with using circles or partial circles on my layout, so this one was pretty fun.
I also actually pulled out an older paper from my stash by Scenic Route. This is something I haven't done in awhile, because I'm trying to use up my newer stuff first while it is still trendy. I was glad to find something older that I really liked and that fit in with the challenge's color scheme.



Supplies: patterned paper - Basic Grey; Scenic Route, October Afternoon; letter stickers - October Afternoon; stickers, buttons - Basic Grey; twine - Doodlebug Designs

The Adventures of Ellie

I think of all six challenges and their outcomes, this one was my favorite. This was a scraplift challenge and my inspiration was this amazing layout by Jen Jockisch. I've been making use of my printer and photo paper to actually print out my own photos this past week. Who'd have thunk it??? I've never had very good results in the past with photo printing, so have always gone the old fashioned (relatively speaking) route and used a photo service for all my photo printing needs. I think those days are officially behind me. I say all that to say this: I was very excited with how the two pictures of My Musher came out when I printed them. They kind of remind me of a photo strip, so that makes me happy.



Supplies: patterned paper - October Afternoon, Basic Grey, Crate Paper, Lily Bee Designs; brads - Making Memories; die cut frame - Crate Paper; butterflies - Pebbles; stickers - October Afternoon & Crate Paper; letter stickers - Basic Grey & October Afternoon; twine - Doodlebug Designs

Christmas Goodies

Another fun challenge - this time about food. I love taking pictures of food. I have pictures of food I've made for dinners, pictures of food from vacations, and pictures of Christmas treats that I bake, so this was a great way for me to highlight the stuff I baked up last Christmas.



Supplies: patterned paper, chipboard stickers, border stickers - Echo Park; letter stickers - Echo Park & Authentique; twine - Doodlebug Designs

It Is the Little Things That Mean So Much

I used my Instagram app on my IPhone to take and alter these pictures. I was super excited about discovering this thing. Thank you, Kelly Purkey, one of my scrapbooking heroes! I used an ampersand mask, spritzed my paper with spray ink by October Afternoon, and outlined it by handstitching with white floss.




Supplies: patterned paper - October Afternoon; ampersand mask - Studio Calico; letter stickers - American Crafts & October Afternoon; butterfly - Jenni Bowlin; tab sticker - October Afternoon; brads - Basic Grey, Echo Park; spray ink - October Afternoon; floss - DMC

That's it for today. I'm going to be busy working on a top secret project for my girlfriend, which obviously I will not be posting here for secrecy's sake. I will also be beginning my December Daily next week - whooo hoooo! - and hope to post updates to that every couple of days. Meanwhile, I will try and get a couple more projects done and uploaded for your viewing pleasure by the end of the weekend. Thanks for reading!

Another Day

I'm on a roll lately and I'm terribly pleased with myself. I've managed to fit in some scrapbooking this week, despite being utterly exhausted from work. Yay me!

Here are a couple more Ellie layouts. Both of these also feature my precious grandfather, who just worships the ground E walks on.

Little Cutie




Close ups...





I was so nervous about using the tulle on this layout. Totally out of my comfort zone. I had to play around with it a bit in order to get it to lay down the way I wanted it to.

Supplies: patterned paper: Crate Paper; corrugated letters: Jillibean Soup; letter stickers, flag, die cuts: October Afternoon; other: tulle

Ellie & Gran




Supplies: patterned paper, die cuts, stickers, flag: October Afternoon; letter stickers: Basic Grey; cardstock: Bazzill

And more from WDW 2008:

The Grand Floridian



I used fabrips for the first time too and pleated it to make the border at the bottom, then handstitched over top of that.

Supplies: patterned paper: Basic Grey, My Mind's Eye; die cut paper: Studio Calico; fabric: Studio Calico; buttons: My Mind's Eye; brads: Crate Paper; die cuts: Basic Grey; letter stickers: Basic Grey, October Afternoon, Lily Bee Designs; border sticker: Basic Grey; other: embroidery floss

I think I've finally figured out how to take better photographs of my work, but I think they can all still use some improvement. I'm off work all next week for Thanksgiving Break, so I'm sure you'll hear from me again soon! :)

I'm actually back. Two days in a row. I'm feeling a little frustrated this evening, because while I have figured out how to scan and stitch my 12x12 layouts so I can post them on here, the quality is always pretty crummy. The layouts look about 20 billion times better in person than in scanned form. If anyone happens to be reading this and has some insight as to how I can better scan my images, please let me know!

Meanwhile, two quick pages for your viewing pleasure. The first featuring the ever famous, Ellie, my gorgeous little niece. Everything I used, with the exception of the felt flowers (which are Jillibean Soup, btw...) is the Sidewalks line from October Afternoon (have I mentioned how obsessed I am with October Afternoon??? The paper quality, the vintagey feel...oh, tis heaven!)



This second one is another one from my WDW trip 3 years ago with my parents and sister. Everything here is from the Happy Days line by Echo Park. I find I'm sticking the line with itself for the most part lately, which is a relatively new thing for me.




Meanwhile, I'm alternating working on Ellie pictures, this 2008 WDW trip, and pictures from my last visit to my darling girlfriend in Ireland this summer. I doubt I'll be able to post again until the weekend, so until then...hope everyone has a great week!

Disney World and Christmas

Hello there! I've completed a couple of pages from my Walt Disney World 2008 album today. I've been to WDW 4 times in the past 6 years and I haven't completed my first trip album (actually it has turned into multiple albums)from 2006 and just started working on some pictures from my 2008 trip. So here they are.

The first page is from the night we arrived in Orlando before we actually went to the World.




Supplies: Patterned Paper: Basic Grey & Studio Calico; Cardstock: Bazzill; Chipboard: Maya Road; Buttons: My Mind's Eye; "Best Day Ever" sticker: Echo Park; Letter Stickers: Lily Bee Design and Creative Memories

Next some of the pictures from our High Tea at the Grand Floridian.




Supplies: Patterned Paper: Echo Park; Cardstock: Bazzill; Flowers: Jenni Bowlin; Brads: Crate Paper & Basic Grey; Stickers: Echo Park; Letter Stickers: Echo Park & Lily Bee Design; Ink: Jenni Bowlin; Pearl Accents: Recollections

Finally, some photos from my Christmas Planner. I didn't put a title on the cover because...well...I didn't feel necessary somehow, as I plan to use this book over and over again. I'm not even entirely sure who made the album. It was a plain chipboard album that I covered with some leftover scraps from my stash...primarily Daisy D paper from about 5 or 6 years ago. The pages and dividers are all 8 1/2 x 11. I'm super happy with how it turned out. The dividers are all made from Basic Grey's Fruitcake line, which was one of my favorite collections ever. I couldn't post some of the pages because they had top secret gift giving information on them, but you should be able to get the idea.
















That's all from me today! I'll be back soon.

Some Stuff

Oh my goodness! I’ve been a busy bee with scrapbooking, but haven’t posted a thing in over a week! So for your viewing pleasure:

First up, my December Daily….Mostly all made and ready to go. I’m not sure about the ribbon binding, however. I may change my mind and throw some big O rings in there instead. I also need to punch another hole in the middle to better hold the brown paper bag pockets I made. As I add to it in December, I’ll post updates.



The dimensions are 6x9” and the covers are cardstock covered cardboard (from a package of patterned paper or some such – reduce, reuse, recycle, you know. ;) Plus it was free.) All the pages I simply cut from 2 sided patterned cardstock. I used mostly Cosmo Cricket’s Dear Mr. Claus line with some Echo Park paper and embellishments thrown in the mix. Additionally, I used the cover page from the Cosmo Cricket kit to cover portions of the back and front covers. This is probably one of my more brilliant recent a-ha’s! Using pieces of kit covers as accents??? Who knew???








Next, several pages featuring my sweet, sweet niece, Ellie. She is almost 16 months old and I love her to bits!

I seem to have a ton of pictures of her eating for some reason! I promise she really does do other things and does not live in a highchair!

This first layout was made entirely with Basic Grey’s Piccadilly line. The only non-Basic Grey items are the cardstock, which is Bazzill (my cardstock of choice), and the twine – Doodlebug Designs.




Here I used a lot of October Afternoon (my FAVE, btw). The stamps are Basic Grey/Hero Arts and again Doodlebug twine and some white embroidery floss that I used to hand stitch the border.






This one is more of a mashup. A lot of Lily Beepaper, the center sticker accent is Cosmo Cricket, and the big letter stickers are October Afternoon. I broke out the sewing machine to stitch the paper strips at the top of the page together.








This one is probably my favorite in terms of design. I recently moved and snapped a couple of pictures of all the many boxes that accumulated over a couple of weeks of packing. I have tired of my handwriting already, so back to computer generated journaling. This layout features patterned paper, stickers, and brads by Basic Grey. The small letter stickers are Making Memories and the collage tape is 7 Gypsies. The little chipboard houses are Jenni Bowlin.



Finally, I wanted to share something new I tried. I don’t usually venture into the more artsy realm of scrapbooking, because it’s so out of my comfort zone. I generally like to stick to clean lines with a little flair thrown in here and there, but this next photo is part of a page I made a couple weeks ago. I used a cardstock heart as a mask, used Shimmer Ink and hand stitched around the edges of each heart with different colors of floss. I impressed myself pretty good and am pleased with how it turned out.




I will be back soon with more stuff and someday...someday...I will learn how to either photograph my layouts better or stitch my 12x12s with my scanner.

Thanks for reading! Hope you have a great week.