Post Holiday downtime!

How was your Christmas Day? I hope it was as wonderful as ours! I also hope you have a wonderful last week of 2013! Send it off happily!

I managed to get one weekly page done in all the holiday scramble, haha, and here it is! The background DP is another sneaky peek to the Sale-A-Bration stuff coming up, tho the color has been changed. Love that feature of MDS! :)

Supplies:
MDS, Content discs, ribbon download

Merry Christmas to You!

I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas, and thank you for visiting my blog this year! I appreciate the sweet comments and I love sharing my projects with you. I hope you have a peaceful holiday, wherever you are, and please enjoy this beautiful Christmas message:

Click to learn more about the story of Christmas.

Christmas Eve!

Today I thought I would share our family's Christmas card with you! Of course I used MDS to put it together and I had to use three of my favorite photos of the year! *grin
Its probably the simplest thing I've ever made, and I absolutely love it!

Are you all ready for Christmas?? We have some favorite traditions to keep today, and a new one to begin, and I hope each of you is having a wonderful Christmas season!

Gift Giving!

School ended Friday.
Thursday I happened to read a blog sharing teacher gifts.
Ack! Teacher gifts?! I forgot!!
The real problem was that I didn't have a chance to get to it until almost the kids bedtime! I had the kids pick out some cards to write in, and some cards to give, and then the teachers got a couple other little things. I put it all in these little lunch bags, which I stamped (using a retired set - because my current Christmas stamps are at my mom's so she can finish her Christmas cards!). Finally I added these cute tags with this cute ribbon, both from last year's holiday mini, haha.

Then I had to put something together for our great bus driver! Again, seriously, the very night before, and oh yeah, I'd been dealing with a migraine all day long! So I used the idea we're doing for the kids' friends! Tada! (two views of the same item: a can of sprite and a package of microwave popcorn...)

And here's what the kids gifts look like for their friends!

And finally, the gifts I gave to a few of my friends!

And this is what I gave my class at church- I teach five 6 year olds...

And!! While we're on the topic of gifts, I wanted to share this one, but I haven't gotten around to it... In early November, my husband let me know he needed to do something for his staff that had been picked on and he wanted to thank them for it. So he put together these cute thank you gifts!

They held gift cards and some chocolates, and I liked how he attached the cards that he wrote in as bag toppers, and then tied the ribbons thru the back of the cards and thru the sacks. Cute and a fantastic way to brighten someone's day!

 

So there you go, a few ideas for some last minute gifts if anything comes up for you! All you need is a sack and a tag, haha!

December Pages

Happy Friday to you! I think this is the end of the calendar pages! (are you excited to see them go or did you enjoy the daily dose of monthly-themed scrapbooking?) I thought I'd end with the December pages to carry on the Christmas mood.

This page is for my in-laws and uses THIS sketch, and two new-to-me downloads! The glimmer paper, and then a sneaky peek to the brand spankin new Sale-A-Bration content disk!!! Yeay for new stuff!!

This page is for my parents and uses another MDS photo layout, which is a good way to cram everyone on there, haha! Most of these photos are of last Christmas, but the two tree shots are this year- my tree and my brother's tree! And I threw on that little Santa stamp for just a little somethin'.

Supplies:
MDS, October December Whenever content Disk, Glimmer Paper, Lemonade Stand content disk, Sale-A-Bration 2014 download!

Its the last weekend before Christmas- how will you be spending it? We have some fun things planned, like baking and taking treats to neighbors...
Soon I've got to get back to my weekly pages because I really wanted to have that project done with the new year...but that's okay if it isn't, haha! But I have posts ready to go for you next week too, so if you're around, stop by for a visit! :)

April Pages

Here are my April pages! I love this tree image and both times I used the splatter tool to "sponge" ink leaves and blossoms. How nifty is that??

This page uses a sketch found HERE.

 And this page uses another MDS photo layout, but I replaced two photo boxes with the stamps.

Supplies:
MDS, Content disks, recolor tools

March Pages!

Sooo the people receiving these calendars know I highlighted peoples birthday months but you might be wondering why I'm the star of these pages- March is MY birthday month and that is why. Two of these pictures were taken last week- for these pages, haha!

This page is really simple. My creativity was about gone by that point but I really needed to get these done! I used a sketch I found HERE and I am happy about the unique color combination I used.

and this March page used THIS sketch, but I altered the 4 photos to be the same size.

Supplies: MDS, Content disks

Are you ready for Christmas? Its only a week away!!! (gasp! what?!)
There's always fun stamping accessories and tools for quick little gifts and stocking stuffers...!

 

February Pages

Happy Tuesday to you!
Here are the calendar pages for February! This one used a sketch you can find HERE.

And this is the February page for my aunt's calendar! It gets everyone on there (with newly updated pictures!) and it doesn't look crowded! :)

We're almost done with the calendar pages! :) Feeling inspired to scrapbook yet?

May Pages!

This page uses the MDSM29 sketch.

On this page I was going for a doodles-in-the-notebook kind of look. Funny how dramatically different the backgrounds on these two pages are! :)

supplies:
MDS, content disks, recolor tools

July Pages

Happy Friday to you! I don't know about your end of the world, but we're pretty frozen over here. We're very excited to reach the 20*'s, and the sky is grayer than the driven-on-for-a-week snow. I'm so glad my handy husband was able to fix the furnace that didn't want to work properly yesterday- at least its cozy inside! And I guess that makes today a good one to share the July calendar pages and bring some warmth to the day, haha!

 Here's one page- two birthdays this month, and just some fun shots.

And this is a fun page! I used an older MDS Monday sketch for the layout. 

Supplies:
MDS, Content Disks, Moments Ago download

January Pages

First up, this lovely snowy page, is my in-laws January calendar top. This is exactly what it looks like outside...these pictures were taken last week, haha! I used THIS sketch for the page and broke up the photo box.

And this is the January page for the calendar my parents are giving my aunt. Mostly indoor pics here, but I need to fit more people on to these pages, lol! I think I did pretty well this month, especially considering there are only 6 pics!

Supplies:
MDS, various content disks, recolor tool

A Christmas to-do List!

Here's something completely different today!
The last few Christmas's we've done a countdown where the kids get to read a new note every morning. This year I have been too busy to fit that into my life, even tho my son has asked many times for me to do it...
So I came up with a different idea, half way into the month, *ahem... I made this sort of subway art checklist instead! And then, we can just slip it into a scrapbook when the month is over to remember what we did!
Of course I used MDS to make it, and threw in some holiday "stamp" images to fill in the spaces.

*the 12 Stars that keeps being mentioned was an easier countdown idea. I bought a box of 12 metal stars with different names of Jesus Christ, and it comes with scripture references as to why that is his name. This was, to me, a very easy way to keep the season focused on our Savior, as it should be.
You can view and even order the set HERE. And it works extremely well on days when we are too busy to fit anything else "special" in! Hooray for that!

**And by too busy I mean things like school choir concerts and staying up very late to work on school projects and scouts and work parties that take us away from kids and things like that.

November Pages

Here are my November Calendar pages!

This one uses an older sketch, but it worked well for what I needed. Does it look like November to you?

Supplies:

MDS, Days To Remember content disk, Banner Blast

And this page just cracks me up... I wanted to use a bunch of random shots from Thanksgiving to show "real" sides of us, if that makes sense. And then I found this stamp image "Love you just the way you are" and I thought it fit perfectly! hahaha... I love that we can crop and recolor bits of stamp images too!

 

October Calendar Pages

Saturday was a very cold, snowy day at my house. My husband had to work (which is now unusual) and my kids had their Saturday chores to do and they wanted to play with each other more than get their jobs done, so I spent the bulk of my day working on calendar pages for the upcoming Christmas presents! That means I have a lot of new pages to share with you this week! The downside if you're a regular visitor is you have seen lots of these pictures on my weekly pages, haha... Oh well, I'll keep mixing it up for you... *smile

Here are the October calendar pages! I used the MDSM43 sketch for this one...

Supplies:
MDS, October December Whenever content disk, recolor tool

And this one I used the second half of the double layout at the bottom of THIS Page Maps page...

Supplies:

MDS, October December Whenever content disk, Lemonade Stand content disk, Burlap Ribbon

A June Page!

The page I have to share today focuses on a day we spent entirely with my inlaws! This will be the June page. I think they're gonna love it!
I used this sketch for the layout, even tho I'm sure she didn't intend for those to be photo squares, haha, and yes I combined a few of them.

Supplies:
MDS, Sale-A-Bration 2013 content disk, Lace ribbon download, recolor tool

Autumn Weekly Pages

Here are two more pages from my weekly project, these are of October. Most of these pages have been crammed full of photos, and I like it that way. I would like to use more stamps, but I also really want the photos to be the focus of this project- to SEE what we do with our lives... *grin

Supplies:
MDS, Content Disks

Week 21

Here's another catch-up page from my 52 Week project. I was able to get lots of pages printed with the print discount in November, now I just have to catch up with sharing them here! *smile! So now that I have about a foot of snow sitting outside, we'll do a blast back to summertime, haha...
I wasn't sure if I loved the pinwheels with the dark chevron print here, but I kept it that way, haha...

Supplies:
MDS, content disks

First Calendar Page!

'tis the season for me to make calendars!
These make such a great Christmas present, so of course that's how I spend my December, haha... This year I am making one for my mom to give her aunt and one for us to give my in-laws. And first up- a page for my in-laws calendar using our brand spankin' new family pictures, which I happen to completely love! 
I used a sketch I found in the November layouts from Page Maps, except that I altered it to fit an 8x11 calendar.

Supplies:
MDS, Lemonade Stand content disk, Days to Remember content disk

Blog Hop: Get Well!

Welcome to our December Blog Hop!

This time it was Michelle's turn to pick the theme, and since its cold and flu season, she picked a winner with Get Well!

However...that's a little tricky for me...I don't really do "get well" gifts. I don't take things to people with colds or flu, and people with more serious issues....don't always need/want a "get well", ahem... I had decided to make some kind of kit to take someone who is sick, I even bought those little tissue packages that are super handy in purses, but I couldn't think of what to do with it...

But then!! A family member gave me the solution! We have a relative battling cancer, and has to travel a fair distance for chemo treatments. His sister in law is going to surprise them when they come home from their last chemo trip with a huge sign and notes from loved ones, so they asked for anyone interested to send something to her. Now that is something I can do! *grin!

So I used the latest Clean & Simple sketch to make this card for him, to welcome him home:

Supplies:
Stamps: Thoughts & Prayers
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Sweater Weather
Accessories: Linen Thread

And I can't think of any better way to say "Get Well" than that!
Now go on thru the hop and check out every one else's ideas for Get Well greetings and gifts! 

May Pages

Here's a catch-up pages I got done...from May, haha...
I'm excited to see this all put together in a book soon!

Supplies:
MDS, misc content discs

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. In our family, Thanksgiving means we get together with family, eat a lot of food, and take a little time to think of all the things we are thankful for.

With our own small family we have tried to create traditions that help us focus on how blessed we are, all month long. In recent years we've done a "Thankful Can" where we pull out a slip of paper each day and do something to show gratitude for blessings in our lives (write your grandparents a thank you letter, do something for your sister/brother, take a treat to a neighbor, etc).

This year I saw an idea on Pinterest (haha) and that's what we're doing instead. Each day (or nearly) we write something we're thankful for on one of these die cut leaves *wink, and tape it to the front door! I thought it would be really cool to see all the different things we're thankful for and just how many ways we're blessed!

 I used retired DP for all the leaves, and here's a closeup...

I hope that you too feel blessed on this Thanksgiving Day! Enjoy it! :)

Simplest Weekly Page

This is the page for Week 45- and it is the most simple page yet! I wasn't well this week so the camera hardly came out, even tho we were still very busy! I was able to use the MDSM38 sketch for the page, which was actually designed for a card, but works really well with only one photograph!

Supplies: MDS

Last Week!

haha! I love digital scrapbooking because I can make pages just as soon as I take the pictures! Case in point- this page is about this past week! Whoo!
I also used the MDSM41 sketch and challenge to use bling. I used Rhinestones, which is what I have... Best of all? I am getting lots of pages done!!! *grin!

Supplies: MDS

A Birthday Page

I think this week we're going to feature some scrapbooking- since I've still been working on pages in between classes, haha...In fact, I've made over 100 pages for my families books this year! I'm so excited! *happy dance!

Here is a page I'm very happy with! I finally got around to taking my son's portraits for this year and after seeing a challenge to scrapbook a list, I sat him down and asked him some questions and came up with this page!

Supplies:
MDS, 2013 Sale-A-Bration content disk

Final Christmas Card

Here's the last of my Christmas Card Class!
Just one card today- this one uses the Merry Little Christmas Simply Created card kit, (found on pg 27 of the Holiday Mini) but I wanted to show an alternative if you're like me and already own Christmas stamps. The catalog shows you how the bundled stamp set looks on the card, so I showed how something else looks! And I liked the bow and button over there, tee hee!

Supplies:
Stamps: Special Season
Ink: Coastal Cabana, Real Red
Paper & Accessories: Merry Little Christmas Simply Created card kit, Glue Dots

Christmas Cards - Ornaments!

And today is the Ornament Cards!
All of the punched out ornaments are up on Dimensionals. Some are "hanging" on ribbon, which has been taped down on both ends, and some the "string" is drawn.

These two used up some scraps! Love it when you can do that and make it look good!

Below, the two on the left are embossed, the back in white and the front in silver.

Just some pretty, punched DSP...

Below, the two back cards have ribbon. The first front one has Rhinestones on the two blue ornaments and the second front card has Silver Mini Brads in the blue ornaments!

Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Collectibles, Special Season, Greetings of the Season
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Smoky Slate, Versamark, Chocolate Chip marker, Island Indigo marker
Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, Smoky Slate card stocks, Winter Frost DSP Stack, Season of Style DSP Stack
Accessories: Silver Ribbon, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Pool Party Seam Binding, White Bakers Twine, White Embossing powder, Silver Embossing powder, Pearls, Rhinestones, Silver Mini Brads, Dimensionals

Christmas Cards - Trees!

Here is the first round of cards from my Christmas Card Class, which was held last night! I used all the same supplies - three stamp sets, two packs of DP and similar accessories, to make 24 of the 25 cards, so I'm just going to separate them into two posts for you.
Today its the tree cards! Remember to click on the pictures to see them bigger!

(Above: 1st card embossed with white, 2nd has silver glitter on tree garland, front card embossed in silver)

(These two came from the page where demonstrators share their creations.
Wreath card insp by Jackie Topa www.jackietopa.com 
Tree card insp by Amy Storrie on stampin connection, www.stampedwithjoy.com)

Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Collectibles, Special Season,
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Coastal Cabana, Smoky Slate, Versamark
Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, Smoky Slate card stocks, Winter Frost DSP Stack, Season of Style DSP Stack
Accessories: Neutral Buttons, Silver Ribbon, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, White Stitched Grosgrain, White Organza Ribbon, White Bakers Twine, White Embossing powder, Silver Embossing powder