Christmas and scraplifting

Over the past week, I took the time to scrapbook for several nights. I made the process go fast by limiting myself to use the December kit from Personal Scrapper and coordinating Basic Grey and Making Memories products that I had purchased and received as a birthday gift. The process also went quicker because I had marked several layouts in magazines that I liked for inspiration.

When I started using the December kit, I hadn't received my photo order yet, so I pulled some older photos to use with the kit. This layout is of Christmas 2005 and it is for Kevin's album. He's grown so much! This LO was inspired by a Robyn Werlich LO in the January issue of Scrapbooks Etc. (SBE). I impressed myself with the title of this page: "Four Wheelers on the 24th". Then again...it was late. These photos are from Christmas 2006.I had to make a page for my personal album documenting the boys helping me with our Christmas cards. I've enjoyed doing handmade cards for the past several years now. This LO was inspired by a Davinie Fiero LO in the January issue of Scrapbook Trends Magazine (ST).Every year Dad puts up a star on his silo. When we dropped the boys off at Mom & Dad's on our anniversary, I stopped to take this photo. I want it to be something the boys can remember. I got the idea to use up so many of my scrap strips of paper from an Elizabeth Kartchner layout in the January issue of Creating Keepsakes (CK). Here's a page for Blake's album. Tom even joined in on the cookie decorating fun this year. One of my favorite photos from the holiday happened by accident. I was trying to get a photo of the decorated cookies when Tom and both boys happened to reach in for more icing/a cookie. I love that I caught all three of their hands in the shot. Last year after Christmas, I found a Martha Stewart ornament set on sale at Michael's. I thought that would be a fun project for the boys to make this year. When they were out of school the week before Christmas, we made the ornaments. There were two each of four designs, so we divided them up evenly. They each made an ornament for me and then divided up their grandmas and aunts. We had glitter all over ourselves and the breakfast area, but it was a fun project. Plus, I think everyone really appreciated the ornaments when they received them on Christmas. A LO in the December CK by Wendy Sue Anderson inspired Blake's "Ornament Time" LO. The week before Christmas, Tom and the boys finished up my shopping. (I had gotten most of it myself.) Blake and Kevin wanted to wrap everything else for me all by themselves. It was fun to watch them and they did a really good job! This first page is for Kevin's album.
Blake's double page LO was inspired by a Cindy Tobey LO in the January CK.

I captured the boys putting the cookies out for Santa. For Blake's page, I scraplifted a Kelly Noel LO in the January CK. By the time I made this page, I was running out of the red foil Thickers. I had only bought one pack. So, I made SANTA out of a cut up "8", two cut down "q"s, an upside down "u" and a cut up "4". Pretty cool, huh? ;)Kevin's LO was inspired by a Tina McDonald LO in the January ST.
This year I decided I wouldn't try to capture so many photos of Christmas morning. I took some before/posed shots and then tried to just take pictures of their favorite gifts. Another thing I did different this year was in how I printed my photos. I used a software to make collages with multiple photos on either a 4x6 or 5x7 print. These prints had white borders already printed on them, so that saved a lot of time since the photos already looked like they have a mat behind them. This first page is for Blake's album.For Kevin's LO, I lifted an Emily Anderson LO in the January CK. This is one of my favorite layouts. I love how the color of the papers match the boys pjs so well!This layout for Blake was inspired by an Alison Davis LO also from the January CK.

Here's a LO for Kevin... The boys got Tom gift cards to Best Buy. I was going to get him one card, but they couldn't decide on which card to get him. Kevin wanted to get FELIZ NAVIDAD! Blake wanted HAPPY KWANZA. So...we got both. After we left the store, they were mad that they hadn't thought to get a Happy Hannakah one, too!
When Tom went to use the gift cards, I embarrassed him when I asked the girl for them back. She had to dig one out of the trash. Don't they look good on the pages though???A favorite tradition of ours is that the boys do a little shopping of their own for each other. This year Blake gave Kevin a bottle of Cars bubblebath and Kevin got a desk calendar and pen for Blake. I LOVE how they get so excited over their $2-3 gifts from each other.

I haven't scrapped the photos from Christmas with the Smith family yet, but did do our Wheeler side. Unfortunately, I was enjoying the visit at our home too much. I didn't take hardly any photos!

For Kevin's page, I had to tell the story about how when Dawn asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he told her underwear. Well, he got underwear and Terry tricked him into thinking that was all he got since he'd left the other presents outside!

I was sad to see that Blake's only picture from the day was blurry. So, I played on that photo for my title. Afterall, the day itself seemed like a blur, too. I got creative with my leftover Thickers and impressed Blake when he saw that I made THE out of a cut up "4", upside down "y" and an "e".

After completing all of these layouts, I still have paper and embellishments left over. It's a good thing, too, because I still have a ton of Christmas photos!