What a Christmas!

Our Christmas this year wasn't exactly the idyllic one I had in mind. Glen and I spent many sleepless nights last week taking care of two very feverish and sick little girls. We even had an ambulance ride in the middle of the night for a very, very high fever. So far, everything has been viral but I think we're headed back to the doctor again today as I've got one with a fever again this morning. Sigh. Glen also has this nasty virus and yesterday I finally felt it coming on. This has been one of our worst rounds of illness yet. I have a bunch of projects I need to be working on (of course) right now and have yet to get out the rest of our Christmas cards. But, that's okay....it will all happen in time. I'm happy to be able to comfort my little girls even if it results in testing my patience at times. :)

But, I wanted to pop on here and share with you a project that I created for both my parents and in-laws for Christmas using a 7gypsies printer's tray and the "Hollywood Vogue" collection by Webster's Pages. The grey, plum, lavender and green in this collection matched our family pictures this fall perfectly. I love Webster's gorgeous trims and alphabet stickers too! I also used some embellishments by Pink Paislee (cork, chipboard alphabet, frame, artisan tape), Martha Stewart (doily die-cut), Melissa Frances (pearls), Prima (flower), and Jenni Bowlin (label stickers). 

Here are a few close-ups of my project....

Hope you enjoy the last few days of 2010! Please, please pray for good health for us right now - we need it!

I'll be back soon...I want to share some of my favorite projects of 2010! 

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Merry Christmas, friends! My layout today uses the gorgeous "Bedford Falls" kit from Noel Mignon, and I created it for the new challenge to scrap outside decorations. When I learned we were doing this challenge, I knew that I wanted to scrap about my hometown's annual huge Christmas tree that is placed in the middle of main street. My hometown has less than 1,000 people and yet this tradition is upheld every year. 

But, I didn't have any photos of the tree so I sent my mom on a mission for me. The pictures she e-mailed me were not ideal for printing (only 121K) so today I'm going to share a fun little application with you that I used on my photo. It's called Poladroid and it's completely free! You just have to download it to your computer and drag your photo to the application and wait for it to expose. To print my photo, I went back into Photoshop and re-saved the photo to a size I could print. This type of photo treatment works so well for those photos that aren't great - they might be blurry, overexposed, etc. 

Here are a few close-ups of my layout...

I added a Jenni Bowlin label from my stash.

A fun little cluster of embellishments (Making Memories patterned paper, Pink Paislee die-cut, Making Memories snowflake and rhinestone, My Mind's Eye brad)...

And here's a look at all the patterned paper I put together at the top of my layout....love all the choices Noel included in this kit! 

This morning, we're (hopefully) getting ready to spend some time with my family for Christmas. I say hopefully because I've had a sick little one the past couple days and I hope she's better enough today to travel. 

Have a very Merry Christmas with your family! I'll be back next week with more projects! 

My Mind's Eye: Blog Challenge #18

I somehow managed to fit in time this month to work on Challenge #18 from My Mind's Eye. I love doing their challenges each month and this month's theme was "It's a _________ Thing." I knew that I wanted to do a Christmas themed layout this month so I went with "Christmas: It's a Merry Thing" and my absolute favorite pictures of the girls from last Christmas. Most of the patterned papers I chose are from the "Holly Jolly" collection and in Noel Mignon's "Bedford Falls" kit. The text paper is from the "Union Square" collection. 

I used Martha Stewart baker's twine on either side of my banner title. 

The Cosmo Cricket mini alphabet stickers are in the "Bedford Falls" kit and the "Merry" die-cut and journaling spot are from a past My Mind's Eye Christmas collection. During a recent trip to Archiver's, I picked up a package of these gorgeous Prima holly and berry glitter sprigs. LOVE these!

I created a little tree using kraft cardstock, a Jenni Bowlin label sticker and green and red brads from the My Mind's Eye Lush collection (the brads have been in past Noel Mignon kits). 

Here's the sketch we worked with this month...

Thanks for looking! Have a great day! :)

Mini Kit Winner!

The winner of the December Midnight Rooster mini kit is:

And a funny story about this...my mom actually e-mailed me and said you have to pick Laurie this month because this is something that happens to me too. I usually just pick a random winner but had to listen to my momma this month! :)

I'll be back with more soon!

 Laurie! said...

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is a silly one. Every year we go to my great aunt's house for a potluck Christmas dinner. But my mom always forgets to buy an ingredient for whatever it is she's making and she doesn't realize it until Christmas Day morning when she's trying to cook. So she sends either me or my dad out to Walgreens, one of the only places open on Christmas Day, for supplies. Every Christmas we joke, "Have you been to Walgreens yet?" Sometimes we just stop there just to say we've gone. :)

8:09 AM

Midnight Rooster December Kit & Mini Kit Giveaway!

Happy Friday! The Midnight Rooster December kit is now up so that means I can share my work with you. All of my projects are decidedly non-Christmas. First up, I have a two-pager using this month's kit. I chose some of my favorite images that my friend, Carrie, took back in March 2009 of the Adoption Celebration fundraiser our friends put on for us.  I kept my patterned paper and embellishment choices fairly neutral with little pops of red and yellow to bring out some of the colors in the photos. I did add Basic Grey alphabet stickers in black and white to add a little more information to the photos. The Maya Road doilies are in this month's add-on kit. 

I hand drew the scalloped border along the top of the layout. The black thickers this month are my FAVE! 

I punched some hearts with my Fiskars punch for this layout and threaded the My Mind's Eye buttons in the kit with some twine.

"Remember this very moment" is an October Afternoon rub-on in the kit. 

For my second layout this month, I scrapped an old photo of me giving my president's speech at high school graduation. Our school colors were red and black so the colors in this kit were fitting. I sprayed the black dot Bazzill cardstock with white Mister Huey by Studio Calico. It almost looks like a chalkboard effect = pretty cool for a graduation layout. 

I created a little banner in the corner using The Girls' Paperie patterned paper and Martha Stewart twine. 

 Here's a look at some of the Jenni Bowlin stars I used as embellishments.

I cut out two "9" cards from the Crate Paper patterned paper in the kit. 

For my final layout this month, I actually scrap-lifted myself! I had similar pictures of the girls with their great-grandpa and their great-grandma so I just used the same design for both. 

The polka dot paper is Lily Bee Designs and the cool burlap, button and rhinestone flower is a handmade exclusive in the kit this month (although I did trim it down a bit to fit my layout). 

I used a couple pink buttons from my stash on this layout. 

Here's a close-up of my photo grouping and embellishments. 

These darling clay pinwheels are a Midnight Rooster handmade exclusive this month and I used them on a "Thanks" card. 

And now, it's time for this month's mini kit giveaway! Here's a look...

In order to be entered into my drawing this month, just leave a comment and answer this question:

What is one of your favorite Christmas traditions? 

I'll choose a winner on Monday. Have a great weekend and thanks for looking! :)

Midnight Rooster December Sneak Peeks!

Good morning, friends! Today, I have sneaks of the layouts I created using Midnight Rooster's December kit. The kit will go live in the next couple days and I'll share my full reveal then along with a mini kit giveaway so be watching my blog. This kit was not necessarily Christmas themed this month so I did a graduation layout, a baby layout and a 2-pager (gasp!) about an event pre-kids. 

A couple weeks ago, I let the girls watch "Frosty the Snowman". I love, love, love holiday movies and the old classic TV shows and this is one we happen to own on DVD. Frosty is one of my absolute favorites! Well, the girls absolutely loved it too which made my heart happy. They sat through the whole thing just enthralled. But, now I have two girls who are obsessed with Frosty and want to watch it over and over again. Being the cool mom that I am, I might have relented a time or two or 50. :) The girls may or may not have it memorized and laugh before the kids laugh, sneeze before the little girl, Karen, sneezes and bark before the dog barks in the beginning. It's hysterical how much they love it. I keep the car radio to Christmas music this time of year and when the Frosty theme song came on the other day, they screamed in joy. I'm going to try and track down a "Frosty the Snowman" book for them. I definitely wanted to get this Christmas memory recorded...maybe a future layout? :)

Have a great day! :)

Noel Mignon Challenge: The Gift

I have a new layout to share with you today using the beautiful "Bedford Falls" kit at Noel Mignon. This layout is for a new challenge on the blog to scrapbook a past gift and Noel is generously giving away not one, but TWO "Bedford Falls" kits to one lucky participant in this challenge! You have until the 18th for this challenge so be sure to visit the challenge blog for all the details! I chose to scrapbook a photo from way back in 1980 of my husband receiving "gift of his dreams"....his very first synthesizer. This gift would lead to a life-long love of composing and playing music. 

For my title, I used the tiny alphabet in the kit by Cosmo Cricket, the cream alphabet was in the "Office Party" kit and the red faux-stitched thickers are also in this month's kit. 

I had some fun playing with my Martha Stewart snowflake punch and a Marvy Uchida circle punch on a variety of patterned papers by Making Memories and My Mind's Eye. The pearls are by Melissa Frances. I've been inspired by a few fellow scrappers to put together snowflakes and circles and it was fun to come up with my own spin. I used pop dots for extra dimension. 

The felt and rhinestone berries and holly are by American Crafts. 

I have been busy, busy, busy this month (as I'm sure the rest of you are). I'm making a lot of Christmas gifts and working on some projects for a couple of guest designing spots in January that I am super excited about. I can't wait to share those projects with you! 

Have a great day! :)

Melissa Frances: We Believe

One of my most favorite layouts ever is featured on the Melissa Frances blog today. This layout was also published in Scrapbook Trends' 2010 Holiday Ideas Book. I created the little tree by cutting out leaves with my Cricut, painting them with shabby paint and layering them. The "ornaments" were created by layering vintage buttons and Melissa Frances rhinestones. I love these photos of the girls checking out their Christmas tree for the first time. 

I forgot to mention yesterday that it marked a year ago that the girls were officially and legally Cornell's. Our adoption was finalized on December 2nd, a year ago. It was such a wonderful day in our lives and we were able to have the girls' grandparents and their aunts their to witness it. We celebrated with cake and ice cream a few days later at our church. That day celebrated a long road of frustration, disappointment and ultimately great joy and blessings! God has been so good to us!

Have a great weekend! :)

Crate Paper: Winter Snow Day!

Good morning! Today I have a new layout to share with you using Crate Paper's gorgeous new line called "Snow Day." Noel Mignon has a great sale going on in the shop and this particular collection is also on sale!  Every month, many of my favorite manufacturers have sketch challenges and other contests and this was my submission for Crate Paper's monthly sketch challenge. I love the bright, fun colors of this collection and how they make any dreary, winter day much more lively! :) The large snowflake was cut using the Christmas/Noel cartridge on my Cricut and then cut in half. 

I used a lot of pop dots on the Crate Paper snowflakes and die-cuts for extra dimension. I also used purple Shimmerz Spritz that Noel carries in the shop for extra pops of color. 

The brad in the center of the snowflake is from the "School Spirit" collection.

Here's another look at my big snowflake....

Busy day today, so that's all! :)

Crate Paper: Fringe Trim on a Snowy Banner!

I have a tutorial to share with you today with a fun technique I used on this "Snow" banner I created using the "Snow Day" collection from Crate Paper. You can find the "Snow Day" collection in the Noel Mignon store. I love the bold, fun colors in this collection that are sure to brighten up any dreary winter day. I hand drew my mitten template and cut the snowflakes out using the Christmas/Noel cartridge with my Cricut. I wanted something to hang across my china hutch and I love that the banner isn't necessarily for Christmas but something I could keep out through January and February and March and April (sometimes winter in Iowa lasts that long, you know?!) (Be sure to click on the images to see them larger.)

Here's another look at my banner and all the fun bits and pieces of ribbon, tulle and paper. 

To keep things consistent, all of the mittens were cut using the "Mittens" patterned paper (aptly named, don't you think?) I chose to bring out the teal, yellow, pink and green of the patterned paper and used somewhat neutral patterns from the Crate Paper collection to create accordion medallions edged with silver Stickles. The kraft centers were punched using a scalloped circle punch. The chipboard letters are Melissa Frances and I also used mica flakes to add to the snowy look. 

I used the "Shadow" feature on the snowflakes and backed them with kraft cardstock. The Cricut cartridge was Christmas/Noel.

The ribbons are by various manufacturers including American Crafts, May Arts and Basic Grey. 

I strung the banner on a wire and curled it to help hold the pieces of it in place. 

And here's my tutorial on how to create the fringe trim I made on the mittens. The trim color coordinates on each individual mitten with the accordion medallions. As I was putting the banner together, I tried to come up with ways to give it extra dimension and texture. That's how this fringe trim was born! 

First, I cut five 1" pieces of Melissa Frances white crepe paper. 

Next, I stacked the pieces on top of each other and then machine stitched down the center. 

I used a fine tip scissors to cut small fringe on either side of the machine stitching. 

The piece should look like this after cutting the fringe. 

Next, I used my fingers to ruffle up the trim and it looked like this when I was finished.

I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist on this particular piece of fringe. I sprayed one coat and let it dry with a heat gun to speed the drying process. Then I repeated this step. 

Once dry, I ruffled the fringe a bit again. 

Here's a look at the fringe on one of the mittens.

And here's the completed banner again...I love the pops of color! 

I can't wait to try this technique out on a layout or card!

Have a great Monday! :)