Did I miss Christmas???

I guess when you stop blogging over the holidays, you forget to share Christmas!

We actually had a wonderful holiday at home. It was perfect.

The boys were up at 6 a.m. to open gifts!
The first gifts we opened were the family gifts. Everyone was happy...I scrapped Kevin's Christmas. He got a lot of good gifts!Had to include the whole family in his album, too. While I prepared Christmas dinner, Kevin played with his new art supplies and ate his chocolate Santa. After lunch, he took a nap. I think we all did!

Thanks to Noel Mignon's December kit, I have Kevin's 2011 Christmas all scrapped. These are some great memories we wouldn't want to forget!

It was a TEN layout Saturday...

Last week was a rough week. Blake breaking his arm really threw me for a loop. To say I was stressed was an understatement. I need my "therapy" - I needed to scrap. Saturday I did. I really didn't do much else.

Instead of staring at photos and product and trying to find a starting point, I decided I was going to scraplift a few layouts that I loved to get the creative juices flowing. I printed out some layouts by Shannon Zickel that I found on the Jillibean Soup blog. Then I matched up photos with each layout. Most of the photos I pulled were Christmas photos and they all had a story that I wanted to scrap along with them.

I still had the "Everybody Loves Christmas" line by Echo Park out on my workspace. (Remember, I used it to make a Valentine's Day layout for Crop Chocolate...here.) I decided to go ahead and use the rest of the line before pulling out any other Christmas products.

"I Got This!" is a pretty straight scraplift. I did add the "merry & bright" accent in the upper left corner and I tied baker's twine around my oversized journaling card. The circles allowed me to use snippets of various patterns. I was also able to scrap all the photos of Blake opening gifts with the Smiths on Christmas (printed b/w on a 5x7). I decided to add brads to the circles. (I have a lot of them...might as well use them!) I also used a Doodlebug alpha for my title. I love this shade of green. These stickers had been neglected. My new motto for 2011 is "if you've got it...use it!""Family Gift Time" was inspired by one of Shannon's layouts, but then I took off in a different direction. Still, it was a great starting point. Since the layout was about Blake's special gift to ME, I used a pink background. (Not that I like pink, but... I had it, so I used it.)

*Please note that I didn't cut off our heads in cropping the photo! Kevin did it when he took the shot on Christmas morning!

Oh, I love a mixed title. And pop dots. And buttons. With twine. Seeing a trend?

"Hey, it's ACDC" is an exact scraplift. Yes, I stole her layout. I admit. I liked it so much. The differences? Well, I used some chipboard stars since I didn't have enough corrugated ones and I used different papers and alphas. Plus, I cut the name of the paper line off the bottom strip of one of my papers and I added it as a "tab" at the top of one photo. Yep...MY idea there.

Background story...I remember Dad saying, "Hey, it's ACDC" whenever we'd hear one of their songs. He did that in the tractor with my boys one day and later they asked me what was so "big" about ACDC. I had to laugh. It's just one of those things... Well, before Christmas, I found a set of ACDC pint glasses in Target. I bought them for the boys to give to Dad at Christmas. HAD to scrap that memory!

The Smith family is growing! (But, we didn't have any additions this year.) With five grandkids, it's a little hard to get a good shot! We took six of the kids together and still didn't get a great one of all of them! "Say Cheese...Again!" was inspired by a single page layout by Shannon. I stretched it and added a few things, took off a few things. I wanted to lift the layout that "the gift" is based on because of a cool flower Shannon had made out of ribbon. But, I used the layout and didn't even add a flower...

The layout is simple, but one of my favorites. It tells the story about a gift Blake REALLY wanted, but I didn't get him. My mom did. I captured the photo of him thinking her. Now, if we just had video of him screaming when he opened it...

I love that I had a set of mixed alpha stickers by American Crafts that matched the paper line I was using.

"Thanks Bro" is a pretty close lift of one of Shannon's 2-page 8-1/2x11 layouts. I stretched mine to 12x12, rounded my corners and straightened my photos. Every year the boys buy a special gift for each other. I even hand-cut some trees out of a paper and added them with pop dots (what else?!?). "Merry Merry Merry" is sooooo simple, but it's one of my favorites. And it's a direct lift (pretty much - changed the photo sizes). I had to scrap Blake opening his watch on Christmas since it was a special gift. I didn't use any patterned paper on this one (unless you count the Scenic Route grid background). The red circles to the right of the photos are tags by Shabby Chic Crafts. I added the brads. I used a green snowflake sticker from the Echo Park line (adhered with pop dots!).

Notice I'm getting a lot of use out of my neglected Doodlebug alphas and Jillibean Soup journaling sprouts. :)

"6 Snow Days" might be my favorite layout from Saturday. This is a lift, but I did mix it up a bit. I even broke out my new Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass distressing ink to ink my "6" chipboard. The color wasn't exactly right, so I added Mr. Huey White mist (by Studio Calico) over top and then the color was PERFECT. I liked the ink and continued to ink the edges of my layout.

I added some felt trim and a Jenni Bowlin calendar page. Even though this layout reminds me that we missed six days of school in January alone (that we have to make up!), I still love it. I really liked the row of hearts Shannon on had on one layout, so I lifted it. I did switch some things up though. Everything in the upper left corner came out of a little dish of extras I had on my scrap table. I love using up random stuff. It makes me feel ok about "saving it for later."Instead of machine stitching, I handstitched across the hearts. Finally, I wanted to scrap pics of gifts I gave this Christmas. All I took from one of Shannon's layouts was the strips below the photos. Plus, I changed the size of the layout. Added more strips of paper in the upper corner and a sticker adhered with pop dots. Oh, and more baker's twine. And now my Echo Park "Everybody Loves Christmas" paper pack is no more...

I love to scraplift. Every so often I need to. It really gets me over a hump and allows me to complete several layouts quickly. Plus, certain elements on a layout remind me of things in my stash that I should be using.

Too bad I have to go to work tomorrow...I'm really on a roll scrap-wise!

Scrapping Christmas...

With so many new Christmas products coming out in time for the upcoming holidays, I decided to use up a bit of my stash to allow for some guilt free purchases. I purchased a great American Crafts Christmas kit at a crop I attended earlier this year. I paired the kit up with photos from Tom's family Christmas get-together last year.

We gave my mother-in-law a hard-to-wrap gift. Tom brought a stub roll of paper home from work and the I wrapped the gift in that and added a huge bow. That wasn't enough for the boys. they each drew on two sides and then decorated the top together. "For Grandma" is for Kevin's album and shows the two pictures he drew. I put the rest of the photos from that day for Kevin's album on a 2-page layout. It's pretty simple and focuses on the photos. It's hard to believe that Christmas is in two months, 5 days! Yikes!