Tuesday, December 30, 2008

December layouts

With so much going on in December, I really didn't scrap much at all. When my new kit arrived from Personal Scrapper at the beginning of the month, I had the itch to scrap. I finished three layouts one afternoon before the boys got home from school. The funny thing is that I didn't tear into the new kit like I usually do!

I made this page for Kevin's album using the November Personal Scrapper kit with We R Memory Keepers paper. The photo was taken in October on Blake's birthday. This layout was inspired by a sketch by Inspired Blueprints, sketch #5. Wildflower150/Deanna, a member at Personal Scrapper, had posted a gingerbread house layout using the November kit earlier in the month. I knew knew then that the papers would also work with our gingerbread house pictures from 2006. Unfortunately, our house collapsed into a pile!
As I sorted through my (many!) Christmas pictures to use with the new December kit, I came across several family/group photos that I'd had enlarged. I decided to pair them up with some DCWV papers that came in a mini kit I received at a crop at Archiver's in November. I loved using my new American Crafts foil Thickers.
If it weren't for an online crop at Personal Scrapper mid-month, I think my total count for December would have been kept to 3 layouts! The crop was from Friday until Wednesday and I don't think I even started scrapping until Monday morning!
I did use the December kit for this layout for Blake's album. The challenge was to do a layout based on an interview. I thought Blake's wishlist for Christmas counted. I'm glad I have this documented for him now. I was inspired by a sketch, but didn't write it down on the LO - it might have been a PageMaps.
There was a challenge to use a b/w photo. I had just copied this photo of my paternal grandparents and paired it up with this Jenni Bowlin paper I'd had for almost a year. I used my Stampin' Up colored pencils to color in the pattern of the paper.
For the "girly girl" challenge to use flowers & ribbon, I made another layout of my grandparents. I had these photos in 8x10, but had also made copies so I could scrap them "someday." Again, I used Jenni Bowlin papers. The button in the center of the flowers is a vintage button from my other grandmother's sewing stash.
For the "off the page" challenge by Carrie Postma, I ran my photos off the page. This page just cracks me up because I remember how funny it was to look up and see my two boys and my nephew all dancing on Thanksgiving. They'd all gotten hot and removed their shirts - it was funny that they all had on white tees underneath. I used the leftovers in a "kit bag" that I had sitting around. I added naked Junkitz and MM chipboard letters.
Another Design Team member, Carmen, posted a LO that we were supposed to lift. Here is my take on it. Kevin was so proud of his building. It was taller than he was! I love how he was dressed in his baseball pants!
There was also a challenge to mix alphas in your title. I hope my sister, Molly, doesn't kill me for posting this layout of her and her boyfriend! I didn't realize they'd snagged my camera for some self portraits until later. I used the November PS kit for this page.
I had a couple pictures I'd taken of the food at Mom & Dad's on Thanksgiving, and they worked perfect with the "holiday tradition" challenge. I used the December PS kit for this layout.
A page about Kevin's tree in his room this year worked well with the red/green challenge. I was inspired by a Valerie Salmon sketch for this page, but I did make a few changes.
I loved these pictures of Kevin learning how to make Mom's chicken & dumplings. I worked them into the seasonal challenge for winter since that's when we usually have dumplings. However, the pics were taken on his early November birthday. This is probably my favorite page from the crop. It's based on a Jana Wilson sketch.
I lifted a DT member for another challenge. I really liked a layout by Carmen. I just realized that the layout loaded sideways (oops!). By the way...this is the "bad" Santa I mentioned in my last post!
I had a three other layouts from the crop, but they are loading sideways, also. I also made some cute ornaments out of the Scrapworks little 2x3 postage stamp shaped acrylic albums. I had gotten the idea at Archiver's last month. I made one for all the kids in the family, one for my sister, and a set of our boys to keep for myself. Finally, I also altered a couple star shaped boxes to hold ornaments I'd sewn for Kevin's teacher's aides.
Right now, I am in the process of going through my December photos so I can get them uploaded and ordered. I don't know when I'll get back to scrapping though. I'm having too much fun playing Yahtzee and Upwords with the boys.

Monday, December 29, 2008

What happened to December?

This month really flew by!

We took the boys to see Santa, but he was a rude Santa. I took my own photo and it must have made him mad because he waved his hand at me and told me that wasn't allowed (I was supposed to buy from them). Needless to say, once I snapped the photo, he told our boys goodbye. I had to inform them that the real Santa was at the North Pole.
I turned 34 and celebrated by going for a wonderful stone massage. Tom and the boys knew just what to give me! We also had dinner at my parents' house. Two days later we celebrated our 11th anniversary and were able to go to dinner without the boys. Our boys enjoyed their Cub Scouts Christmas bowling party. They were hilarious to watch. Thankfully the gutter guards were up!

We had back to back Christmas programs for the boys and they both did a great job. Somehow they were each standing next to their current "crush" - not sure how they managed that one!

I had a great shopping trip to Louisville with my mom and sister, Adriane. We hit a couple new stores (Martin & Osa and Crazy8) and took advantage of some great clearance sales with an add'l percentage off WITH an additional coupon discount on top of that. It was fun.

The boys were out of school two days the week before Christmas due to snow/ice. We had fun playing outside (me and the boys) and they got in some sledding time. One of these days, I'm going to end up disappointing them when I finally landscape that side of the sidewalk. Then they'll lose their "launch pad."

They did get back to school in time for Kevin's Christmas party on Thursday and Blake's 4th grade auction on Friday. He came home with Boston Red Sox purchases. :)
I thoroughly enjoyed having them home all last week. We had a lot of fun. They were big helpers all month in preparing for Christmas. Last week we made several ornaments for gifts and Christmas cookies, too. Christmas was wonderful. We visited with my Grandmother (above) before we attended Christmas Eve Mass with most of my family. On Christmas morning, we opened presents here and then went to my parents' house. My grandmother joined us for most of the day. Yesterday we had Tom's family over to celebrate Christmas with them.

One of my favorite gifts arrived via mail from Tom's brother, Tim, who lives in Alaska. We now have an autographed copy of Sarah Palin's book. And...yes, it's made out to "Tom & Amy". Thanks to his involvement in a veteran's group up there, he knows Gov. Palin. It was a cool gift to receive.

The boys will head back to school next Monday. I'll miss them. I can't believe 2009 is just around the corner! I need to edit my photos so I can post more to share.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

7 Random Facts

I was tagged by Erica at Personal Scrapper!


The rules are:
-Link to the person who tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
-Share 7 random and or weird facts about yourself.
-Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
-Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


Here are my 7 random facts...but I'm making mine all Christmas-related!


  1. I collect the Charlie Brown/Peanuts Christmas ornaments from Hallmark.

  2. I cry every year when I watch "Nestor the Christmas Donkey."

  3. The scene of cousin Eddie in the black dickey in "Christmas Vacation" gets me laughing every time!

  4. I don't want my boys to have a Red Rider BB gun because I seriously fear they will shoot their eye out!

  5. I try to make some new handmade ornament/decoration every year. This year I used my sewing machine to make "tree" ornaments.

  6. I handmade all 78 of my Christmas cards again this year.

  7. Tom and I had the same personalized angel ornaments as children and we have them hanging on our tree together today.

I'm breaking the rules and not tagging anyone. I think most everyone's blog I follow has already been tagged.

December Daily album

A while back, scrapbooker Ali Edwards posted a project on her blog called "A Week in the Life." The idea was to document everything you do in one week in an album with photos and journaling. I didn't think that week of mine was "album-worthy" enough to do the project at the time though. I hoped to do it later.

Well, Sunday night, I was sitting in the living room admiring our Christmas decorations after everyone was in bed. I love this time of year. Although I couldn't believe December 1 was right around the corner, I remember thinking how exciting this week was going to be. (I have a birthday AND wedding anniversary this week!) I decided now would be a good time to do that "week in the life" project.

When I went to bed, I started planning out in my head how to organize the album. I also thought about a new Ali Edwards project - her December Daily album. For that album, she suggests making up an album in advance and then adding a photo and journaling for each day. I don't like to print photos out at home though, so I decided that album wouldn't work for me. Plus, I like to plan my pages around my photos and not the other way around.

Then it hit me that I could combine both of her projects into one small album - stress free!

Yesterday I took photos of the main things that happened in our day and made two 4x6 collages that included a total of five photos and the journaling for my day. Now when I get the photos printed at the end of the month, I can quickly put together a small album and have my favorite time of the year documented.Another thing I like about this method vs. having a premade album with each day marked is that if I don't get photos for a day, I can just skip it in the album.

So, that's my crafty thinking for yesterday. I'm hoping I can stay on top of my daily photos.