New Year- New Goals!

What do you like to make resolutions for? Are you a "word" person? I love lists and therefore I love setting a list of goals for each coming year. I have family goals, spiritual goals, health goals, business goals, craft goals, and goals to organize my time better. haha! They all kinda work hand in hand and are really just lists of baby steps to gradually change this or that about myself. One such goal is my yearly scrapbooking goal! Honestly I didn't even think of such a thing until I found the group on Splitcoaststampers.com, but since then I've been setting monthly goals and tracking my scrapbooking progress. I've said it before: scrapbooking is my first paper-crafting passion and it is one that is important to me. It keeps my memories written down and my photos organized and completes the story the photos begin. My kids love looking thru scrapbooks, my daughter had my childhood scrapbook out just the other night! Unfortunately, scrapbooking is one of the things that has been put on the back burner this year. I've had to put other things first, and that's ok... but I really hope to do more scrapping this coming year!

Last January I set a goal to complete 150 pages. I got 53 done. Which is not too bad- that's just over a page a week! So for 2013, I'm going to shoot for 75 pages. Its plenty more than this year, its less than other years, and as I love to believe: its 75 more pages done! And I never have a lack of events to scrapbook, hahaha, so that will not be a problem. I bet I have enough photos sitting in boxes right this minute to far surpass my goal. But I will be so darn happy if I get all 75 done by next New Years Eve.

And for a kick-start, I got this page done for a calendar project my mom asked me to do! (I promise it doesn't look QUITE that wonky on the printed result, LOL. It will work out nicely.)

As a side note, I'm going to start tracking how many cards I make too. I know my cards aren't as layered and detailed as other people's, but I still spend time on them and am curious to see how many I make. What kind of goals are you setting?  

Mojo Birthdays

I have two very dear friends who's birthdays closely follow Christmas. Being the awesome person I am (*cough*cough*) I often think "oh! I need to make them a card and get it sent..." and then forget all about it til the day of. I really hate that. SO! A few nights ago I took some time to put together some birthday cards!! Both cards used recent Mojo Monday sketches and products from mini-catalogs! And I really like both cards and think they're perfect for the person they were intended for!

This one uses the plaid DP from the Orchard Harvest package, in the Holiday Mini, and Mojo Sketch 272.

Supplies:
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso
Paper: Island Indigo, Very Vanilla & Early Espresso card stocks, Orchard Harvest DP
Accessories: Linen Thread, 1 3/8 inch square punch

And this one uses DP from the upcoming Spring Mini (that means a sneak peek for you!!) and Mojo Sketch 270!

Supplies:
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes
Ink: Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler, Certainly Celery & Wisteria Wonder
Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Gray & Cherry Cobbler card stocks, Parker DP
Accessories: Paper Daisies, Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon, Neutral Buttons, Linen Thread, Scallop Edge Punch

Thank You Gift

Last week my husband and I had the chance to see an early screening of the new Les Miserables movie! The catch was that the theater was about 90 minutes away from our house, and we had to be there close to two hours before the show started. Also, its a really long movie...and it was on a school night. We had to figure out who on earth could or would watch our kids from 4pm-11pm...! A good friend offered to keep them that long, and not only did she feed them dinner, but also her husband stayed home with her kiddos while she brought my kids home to get them in bed on time! She had plenty of her own commitments going on the same night so it was really extremely kind for them to keep our kids for us that particular day. So, we got them a gift certificate to a movie and a restaurant, and made up our own babysitting certificate to thank them!

I used THIS sketch from the Clean & Simple blog to make this card to use as the gift certificate.

Supplies:
Stamps: Wonderfall, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Early Espresso, Cajun Craze
Paper: More Mustard, Early Espresso & Very Vanilla card stocks, Orchard Harvest DP
Accessories: Mat Pack, Word Window Punch

And the inside looks like this, in case you're curious:

Calendars Part 2

And here are the rest of the calendar pages...September shows you what the whole, actual calendar looks like (and it keeps snowing so the lighting is funky) and November is my very favorite of all the pages. Yep, the grandparents love them! *smile

July

August

September

 

October

 

November

December

New Calendars!

Once again for Christmas I made our parents calendars! Of course I used My Digital Studio software. I love doing this becuase it allows me to show off our family but still change things up. This year they got identical calendars of just our family, which made it MUCH easier- I only had to design everything once! haha! I am very happy with how nicely it turned out!

Today I'll show you the actual cover and the first six digital pages. The pictures are not necessarily from the month they ended up in, they just fit the season or month they got put on! I was really just looking for good snapshots to display on the wall, more than how we actually spent the month. Enjoy!!

Cover, back and front together

January

February

March

April

May

June

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve and my house is bursting with excitement! The kids were up early this morning and it should be a fun day! We have cookies to frost for Santa, and traditions to keep!

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas day! I will be off celebrating with my family. I have these three by my side as we enjoy our Christmas morning at home, and visit other family as the day continues on. I hope that whatever your circumstances, you feel as blessed as I do today, as you share in the spirit of this day, bringing joy to others.

This is the photo card I made using My Digital Studio Software. I always loved including our school pictures in cards to grandparents, and aunts and uncles when I was growing up. I loved seeing the photo cards that would come to us and my mom would tuck them in our big family photo album when the season ended. Some years I have included traditional photos, some years I've included a photo as part of a Christmas letter. This year I have a family picture, plus the back-to-school portraits I took of the kids.
And I was able to still feature my business at the same time, haha! Talk about mass production! We mailed out 80 of these and still sent out stamped cards to other friends and family. I signed it on the back, behind the Merry Christmas block, and we included a little note with brief updates on our family.

Enjoy this week as we celebrate Christmas and New Years. Spend time with loved ones. Snap lots of pictures so you have plenty to scrapbook in the coming year! hee hee...

Merry Christmas!!

Teacher Gifts

Since Christmas break started this week, the kids needed to have a gift for their teachers! We had made some fudge but I needed a secure way of getting it to school, better than a little paper plate covered in plastic-wrap! I gave away all our holiday tins last year but I found these two boxes and thought I could make something cute!
So here's the before....

 and here's the after!

You know, the trouble with me and gift giving is that by the time I get the second package started, I'm too darn tired to care...can you tell which one was created first? mmhmm...I promise to work on that. How's that for a new years resolution?
ANYWAY, I pulled out my stash of retired Christmas paper and found some things I liked. I did the little brown box first, and then found this very pretty pattern to dress up the clear box all on its own! The boxes are filled with treats, a card from the kiddo, and a little note letting them know what the food is, haha!

Supplies:
Stamps: Greetings of the Season, Delightful Decorations
Ink: Real Red, Old Olive
Paper: Vanilla card stock, RETIRED Deck the Halls DP, Dashing DP
Accessories: Ornament Punch, Linen Thread

Christmas Cards- the end!

...this year, of course. There will be more next year, haha!
The last of my cards were sent out yesterday!! And honestly, we are 95% ready for Christmas! Now I need to focus on baking... How are you doing?? Anyway, here are the final cards, plus a little bit of instruction!
The three on the left are made up entirely of the stickers in the Merry Moments Simply Scrappin' Kit, and a bit of ribbon, a pearl, a few punches, and some greeting stamps.
The three on the right are all made using one stamp set, and even less accessories. But I had a request for embossing, so we used the top one for the class. (and the green one, but not the on with the Cherry Cobbler ribbon!)

Supplies:
Stamps: Greetings of the Season, Come to Bethlehem
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Gray, Versamark
Paper: Old Olive, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Merry Moments Simply Scrappin' Kit
Accessories: Crochet Lace Ribbon, Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon, Pennant Punch, Basic Pearls, Dazzling Details

So, you might be wondering how I used the whole wise men stamp but didn't emboss the star as well. This is how- you just pour the embossing powder carefully, and then tip it away from the star to dump off the excess. You can do this partial embossing with all sorts of images, you just have to be careful about it.

But, in this card, I didn't want the star just a flat gray, hanging out there, I wanted it to stand out! After all, the Christmas star is the real point of this image...! So I used the very fun Dazzling Details to make it stand out much better, and it does! It just takes a while to dry, so with a class, we did this one first, haha!
And here's a closeup, just for you!

Scrap something random!

And to veer completely away from Christmas for just a moment, I made a new digital page today, Yeay!! Actually, it has everything to do with Christmas in that I had the chance to digi-scrap because my husband was helping my kids wrap my gifts, which was all super great! Since I was hidden away in my room, and printed photos were inaccessible, I had to pick some recent photos I knew were not sitting around waiting for me, and I thought these were fun!

Want to know the best part for you? This features NEW items from the upcoming Sale-A-Bration promotion!! I was able to pre-order the digital content disk, which holds everything offered with Sale-A-Bration!! This DP and ribbon are so bright and fun, and perfect for a fun day out with friends! I love it! And if you're not a digital fan, you can choose to get the DP or the ribbon with some fun buttons!

Christmas Cards #3

Well my cards are finished- addressed and everything, just waiting for me to drive to the Post Office and get postage! How are your holiday cards coming along?
Here is the third installment of my Christmas Card class, just in case you're still looking for ideas! *grin

You can see many of these are the same card, they just look different with the variation of paper. Sometimes we drew the "string" or "hook" and other times I used actual Baker's Twine!

Supplies:
Stamps: Delightful Decorations, Greetings of the Season, Come To Bethlehem (words over tree)
Ink: Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive
Paper: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Gray, Old Olive, Simply Scrappin' Kit
Accessories: Ornament Punch, Cherry Baker's Twine, Crochet Lace Ribbon

Tags for Christmas!

I must apologize for not posting more, blogger has been giving me issues and ya know, the holidays are busy!! Anyway, back to the projects! *grin

Remember a few weeks ago I had a workshop? My friend, the hostess, is interested in making tags for Christmas gifts. I demonstrated one and brought some other very quick tags to show. (They also made a nice little hostess gift for her!) My mom had attended a stamp camp several years ago now, and I was inspired by what I remembered from those tags, especially the cute candy one!
Tis the season for gift-giving, maybe you'd like some ideas for very quick, simple tags to attach to whatever it is you're giving! Also, it gives you a reason to stamp while crossing off that holiday to-do list!

Supplies:
Stamps: Greetings of the Season, Delightful Decorations, Sweets for the Sweet, Frosty Friends
Ink: Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi, Lucky Limeade, Real Red, Basic Gray
Paper: Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Whisper White & Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Designer Label Punch, Ornament Punch, Tag Punch, Dazzling Details

Christmas Cards #2

Now that my Christmas Card classes are done, I can share close ups of all the cards we made. And just in case your cards are not done (mine will be ready to mail out today!) you just might find some inspiration! This set of cards uses roughly the same supplies, and yet each card has a different feel to it! Love that!!

Supplies:
Stamps: Greeting Card Kids, Come to Bethlehem
Ink: Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler
Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler, Merry Moments Simply Scrappin' Kit
Accessories: Regals Brads, Crochet Lace, Dimensionals

December is crafting time!

What kinds of gifts are you making this year? Stampin' Up! has SO many choices!! Here is are a number of ideas (with links) to help you cross off every one on your list!

• Christmas cards! Make them traditionally with paper, or use My Digital Studio Software to mass produce cards!
• Calendars! You can scrapbook a wall calendar traditionally, and you can have the pages bound at your local copy shop. Or, go HERE to see what I did last year using My Digital Studio! Or, check out any of Stampin' Up!'s desk calendar options!
• Wall Art, made with your stamps, make a fun gift. Go HERE to see all sorts of project ideas I have created!
• Photo books for the grandparents, or create a book around a special event, like a wedding or the birth of a new baby to enjoy!
• Stamped Cookies for your neighbors, co-workers and friends! Or, buy the cookie stamps and give them to your favorite baker!
• The Holiday Mini has some fun gift-packaging ideas, and there are more on page 161 of the Catalog!
• Give a set of cards to someone who mails a lot of them! I'll be teaching a class soon for just that purpose! We'll make 12 seasonal cards - one for each month of the year!
• Our Simply Scrappin' Kits and other Kits make great gifts for people who love to craft but don't have a lot of space or time. They're pre-packaged and some have everything they need to make some cute projects!
• Stampin' Up's Punches, Wheels, and accessories make perfect stocking stuffers! (if you have a wide stocking, ink pads and small stamps fit well too!)
• Stamps, Inks, Tools, and Software all fit nicely under any one's Christmas Tree!

Are you ready for the holiday? I'm sure not, but I have plenty of ideas brewing in my head!