Us

This morning I woke up and went right into my scrapbook room. With all of the holiday craziness, there hasn't been much time for creating layouts. Luckily, I did keep up with my December Daily album with month and my project life album is current. But sometimes I just want to make a layout.

So today was the day for a layout.

I've had my January Scrapbook Circle kit sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks and I've been anxious to dive in and use it. The grey, pink and teal combo is one of my favorites right now.

For the background paper on this page, I sliced it into strips and then attached it to a piece of card stock with the stripes slightly staggered. This idea came to me because I wanted to use my new typewriter on the page, but 12 X 12 paper doesn't fit into the typewriter. So I cut the paper with the intention of just putting it back together as it was, but then played around with the new paper placement.

Want to see my new typewriter?  I must say that I love it!

After I got the typewriter, my sister mentioned that my parents had an old typewriter table on their back patio. My dad said I could have it if I wanted it. Seriously?  How cool it this?

I'm pretty sure I'll be typing on as many projects as I can.

Have you seen the January Scrapbook Circle Kit, Only You, yet?

Plus there is a fun add-on kit, You and Me, too!

Hope you are getting a little extra time to spend with your family this holiday season!

Baking Girls

My daughter and one of her friends love baking together. They have sold their baked goods at neighborhood lemonade stands a couple of times. Earlier this month they decided to do some baking and sell their goods at a local boutique. They spent several hours baking chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel frosting and cinnamon rolls.

I think it's so fun that they are interested in something that involves creativity and a bit of entrepreneurial spirit.

This layout was inspired by Diana Fisher's sketch that is up on the Scrapbook Circle blog this month.

Want to play along with this sketch?  You can link your creations to this blog post or the Scrapbook Circle Facebook page. 

Heavy Heart

The past few days I have had such a heavy heart because of the tragic shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. Being a mom and a former elementary school teacher, this hits so close to my heart. I am praying that those families who lost their loved ones will have peace and be surrounded by an outpouring of love.

This has helped me to pause and reflect on my time with my own kids. I'm trying to be more patient. More loving. More kind. More thoughtful.

Tonight I'm hoping to make snowflakes as a family to send to Sandy Hook Elementary. Details about this project can be found on my friend Allison's blog. Although this is something very small, it is our way of showing our love and support.

Life continues to press forward. We were able to attend our annual family Christmas party last night. Our kids always like to point out that we don't get the "real" Santa at our party.  Want proof?  Here's "Santa" adjusting his beard.

But we know that this Santa is probably reporting to the real Santa, so it's best to always let him know what is on your wish list. We learned last night that Hannah wants a bike. First we've heard of that!

I just love her happy smiling face!

On Sunday, we snapped a few family pictures after church so that we would have one of our Christmas card. Our favorite went out in our cards (mailed today), but here's a look at a few of the others.

I'm feeling very grateful and blessed.

December Daily 2012

The month has been so busy for us. I'm sure it's been busy for you too. We are busy in a good way, but I haven't found much time to blog.

This month I've been keeping up on a December Daily album. I decided to keep the album small (8" X 5.5") and I'm keeping the design simple. For me simple means that I'll be able to finish it.

For the cover, I punched a bunch of little circles for confetti and then sewed them in between that fabulous sheet of gold polka velum and a kraft paper.

I was at Target in the Christmas section and saw a set of gold sharpies and knew that they would be perfect for this album. They work perfectly on this. I'm thinking about addressing our Christmas cards with the sharpies too.

The album started off with a little intro page. I built the album from scratch using patterned paper and kraft cardstock. I tried to alternate solid and patterned papers so there would be a nice background for photos plus a more solid page for journaling.

I'm printing off the little square pictures on my home photo printer. Although some days it's hard to find time for this, it's always fun to look at once it's complete. I'll be sharing more pages soon.

Gingerbread Houses

Hello! Are you enjoying December so far? I can't believe that we are almost one week down this month. Time is flying and I'm trying to slow down and enjoy each day.

Monday night we went over to my parents house for a take out dinner from one of our favorite restaurants (Oregano's) and gingerbread house decorating. It's become a great Christmastime tradition for us. We used to build the houses with kits and now my mom just buys the pre-assembled houses where all we need to do is add candy. Perfect!

Luckily the kids all still seem excited about decorating houses. They each get their own house and it's fun to see the different decorating styles.

Their houses are now proudly displayed in our kitchen window so we can enjoy the sweet scent of sugar all month long!

Layout Supplies /// Scrapbook Circle All is Bright Kit /// October Afternoon Make It Merry Collection Kit /// Metallic Gold Sharpie ///

Christmas Wrap and Decor with Glitz

One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting to add a personal touch to gifts and home decor. I love mixing paper crafts into my holiday projects.

The beautiful new Glitz Designs Joyeux Noel line was perfect for doing a little holiday crafting. I used the papers to alter a gift box and to create a little banner to add to our Christmas tree.

Here's a look at the gift box.

The box came from the dollar store a couple of years ago and I've reused it a few times for gift giving. The pattern on the box was not the prettiest, so I decided to dress it up a bit. I covered the box in paper and mod podge. When I apply mod modge, I like to spread a thin layer on the box and then another thin layer on the paper. It seems to stick better when both surfaces have some glue.

I've made paper bows before, but I decided to do an online search to see what paper bow others were creating. I found this template from this blog post to create the bow. I just printed the pdf for the plain paper bow and traced to onto the patterned paper.

Now I have a box ready to go for gift giving. Now I just need to finish buying gifts!

My second project today is a banner that I put together to hang in our Christmas tree.

It was fun to put this together with all of the stickers, whatnots, giant rhinestones and layered glitter tags in the Joyeux Noel line.

After creating each piece of the banner, I used a little line of tacky glue on the back of each piece and attached some red and white baker's twine. I like putting banners together like this because I don't have to punch holes in the banner pieces or use staples. I could have run it through the sewing machine, but I wanted the extra pop of color from the twine.

To secure the banner in the tree, I just wound the ends of twine around branches. It add a fun and simple touch to our tree.

Are you doing any holiday crafting?

Gift Box Supplies
Glitz Designs "Joyeux Noel" Patterned Paper: Stripe, Motif, Banner
Glitz Designs "Joyeux Noel" Whatnots
Glitz Designs "Joyeux Noel" 6 X 6 Paper Pad
Glitz Designs "Joyeux Noel" Giant Rhinestones

Banner Supplies
Glitz Designs "Joyeux Noel" Patterned Paper: Polka, Motif, Santa, Polka
Glitz Designs "Joyeux Noel" Whatnots
Glitz Designs "Joyeux Noel" Giant Rhinestones
Glitz Designs "Joyeux Noel" Layered Stickers
Glitz Designs "Joyeux Noel" Title Stickers