Polar Express Night!

Just one week til Christmas Eve! I hope you've been enjoying the season! 
The other day I was out and a few different people asked if I was ready for Christmas. I responded that we are enjoying the holiday. It started as a kind of cover that no, we are not "ready", but it felt a bit snarky too. But you know what? I don't have all the gifts bought and hardly any of it is wrapped and there's a couple things I haven't even figured out. But we ARE enjoying the holiday. We're DOING fun and festive things. So....... whatever you want to do with that, ha. 

Today's page is from a few years ago. We have a tradition of watching The Polar Express as a family, without any distractions, lol. We have a hot chocolate intermission right after the movie sings about hot chocolate. And this year (shown) we added matching jammies to the night! 

Supplies:

Stamps: Whimsical Alphabet Lower

Ink: Memento Black
Paper: Poppy Parade, Santa Express DP

Accessories: Santa Express Memories & More Card Pack

I hope you are also enjoying this month and family and traditions!  

Creche Event

This is one of my favorite events. It's a two part in the next town over. There is a walk thru a park with huge posters telling the story of Christmas. Then you arrive at a little church. This particular year, they had a candlelight singalong. Then you drive maybe a mile away to another church where they have maybe 200 nativities of different sizes and themes on display. Everyone walks around and checks them all out, while there is live music (choirs, piano, harp...) playing in the chapel. They often have a little scavenger hunt to keep the kiddos looking, but big kids can fill it out all in one shot, haha.
Anyway, it's a really nice evening, all about the true meaning of Christmas and I love it.  

Supplies:
Stamps: Family & Friends, Whimsical Alpha Lower, Whimsical Numbers (all long retired)

Ink: Memento Black, Shaded Spruce, Misty Moonlight

Stampin' Blends: 

Trees: Dark Shaded Spruce, Dark Old Olive, Dark Granny Apple Green, Bronze

Lights: Light Pumpkin Pie, Light Balmy Blue, Light Daffodil Delight, Like Flirty flamingo, Light Granny Apple Green

People: Dark & Light Blackberry bliss, Light Smoky Slate, Dark & Light Pumpkin Pie, Dark Balmy Blue, Bronze, Dark & Light Cherry Cobbler, Dark & Light Night of Navy, Dark Basic Black, Dark Berry Burst, Dark Old Olive

Paper: Shaded Spruce, Basic White card stocks 
Accessories: Red & Green Festive Pearls

Journaling Font: Aptos

I think I got this stamp set off the retired list, whenever that was, and I didn't have a chance to play with it for a long time- maybe this was the first time? But I had a lot of fun coloring it to match our family! 

St Lucia Day

Hello again and happy Monday! I'm hoping to get more crafting time this month, but I miiight not.... December is busy! 
Good thing I have a stash of Christmastime pages I haven't shared before.  

Last year while thinking of ways to incorporate family history into our holiday, I remembered or realized or something that my husband has family from Denmark and Sweden, annnd thanks to reading the American Girl books as as kid, (Kirsten, in this case) I know a Swedish holiday-time tradition! I'm assuming his family observed St Lucia Day, tho we don't have any kind of proof. It wasn't something any of his living relatives heard anyone talk about, just something from their culture. 

I thought of it only a day or two before, so I had to figure out how to make it all work pretty quick. Lucia buns are saffron buns, but the least expensive saffron I could find was around $80 and it was something like 14oz and I needed 1/4 tsp?? Sooo I opted for something closer to the project my friend and I did in 4th grade. Our parents had to make enough Lucia buns for the class, using a Bisquick recipe, ha. I don't know how to make any kind of bread that would be a bun, so I got frozen Rhodes rolls, and tried to shape them into the S shape. I used cinnamon as a spice, because the recipes all say they should be sweet. I don't think we own any kind of white robe, and we don't even have a wreath. So I lined some candles along the table, and I made the whole family get up early! They "got" to learn a little bit about St Lucia, and see the names and faces of their ancestors who likely *actually celebrated. It wasn't a perfect event, but they thought it was pretty cool! 

Supplies:
Stamps: God's Peace, Letterpress Alphabet

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Memento Black

Stampin' Blends: Dark & Light Cherry Cobbler, Dark Shaded Spruce, Dark Daffodil Delight, Dark Petal Pink

Paper: Basic White & Cherry Cobbler card stocks

Accessories: Cherry Cobbler & Gold Metallic Ribbon, Metallic Pearls 

Journaling Font: Bradley Hand

And a close up of this beautiful image of light.

Psst- Saturday is St Lucia Day, if you'd like to look in to it yourself...! 

Visiting Santa!

This page comes right after yesterday's pages, altho it took place in the middle, ha. The line for Santa was pretty long, so she stood in line before seeing the trains. 
This page uses die cuts from a DP pack, that I featured last December. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Just Perfect Alpha

Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Pretty in Pink, A Little Bit Festive punchouts

Dance & Trains

Last December, my daughter's dance class had a mini show at a little community event. It was held in the same building as a very small model train show we always visit at Christmas. It was a fun little morning as a family and I think the page turned out pretty fun too. Something about letting the DP do the work, ha. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Sparkly Seasons

Ink: Memento Black
Paper: Cherry Cobbler c/s, Santa Express

Happy December!!

December is in full swing around here! We put up the tree on Friday, decorated the house on Saturday and got our first snow on Sunday! Hooray!! Monday the kids got new jammies (and slippers for the one who needed them) and this week is when all the things "to kick off the season" are crammed! ha! 

So for today, here's a scrapbook layout I made earlier this year about a Christmas event! We did this in 2010 and the photos were printed in 2011, ha. Hooray for getting it scrapped!! 

Supplies:

Stamps: Alphabest

Ink: Early Espresso
Paper: Rococo Rose, Real Red card stocks, Candy Cane Lane DP

Accessories: Rococo Rose Scalloped Linen Ribbon, Real Red ribbon

Journaling Font: Cinnamon Cake

Tree Ornaments

Wrapping up the last of Christmas, here's another evening post! It's been quite a weekend... lots of good and a whole lotta not so good too....! 

In place of a calendar this year for my family, I made photo ornaments instead. 

Several years ago, like, sixteen, lol, my mom saw an idea to stick a photo on one side of a metal lid from a can of orange juice concentrate, and scrapbook paper on the other side, and I think you were supposed to edge it all in ribbon. I saved some lids for all these years but a- we don't drink a lot of juice in our house, and b- I just didn't have enough. I decided to do a "set" of all fifteen grandchildren for my parents, and then do coordinating ornaments of the kids in each household. Does that make sense? lol.... Well it meant I needed 30 lids. This fall when I was bottling pears, I thought the used mason jar lids would work really well! So I saved some of those instead of tossing them. 

Then I pulled out my box of retired Christmas DP, haha, 

and selected small prints that wouldn't overwhelm the photos. In some cases I used both sides of the DP for one ornament, in other cases I chose two different prints from the same pack to make each ornament.
Then I had to choose some coordinating ribbon. 

I couldn't figure out what to do from what I remembered from years ago, ha, so I improvised and came up with my own plan. I also used my retired Circle Dies to cut out the DP. Then I trimmed corners to fit photos... I used my glue gun to attach the ribbon or string. I adhered the DP and photos using the Multipurpose Liquid Glue til I ran out, then I just used glue sticks. And after doing about 24 ornaments, I realized Dimensionals would work perfectly. ha. Holy cow.... 

And here's how my parents set turned out! 

The backs: 

And the fronts, in the same spots as above: 

Supplies:

Paper: Season of Cheer DP, Santa Express DP, Merry Moments Simply Scrappin Kit, All Is Calm DP, All Is Bright DP, Merry Bold & Bright DP (2003), Home For Christmas DP, Dashing DP (2006)

Accessories: Baker's Twine Trio Pack, Lucky Limeade Everyday Enchantment Ribbon, Real Red Solid Ribbon, Silver 1/8 Ribbon, Circle Dies, 

hot glue gun

Christmas Dressups

I hope your December is going well. Ours has been very busy, lots of happy, and now a little sickie...but that means more time for Christmas movies, so okay. 

Today's page is crazy simple, and features some of the school dress up days my daughter participated in throughout December. There were a lot, and she wasn't able to do everything, and I think she was sick one of the days, but when she could participate, we got a picture, ha! 

Supplies:

Stamps: Just Perfect Alpha

Ink: Garden Green

Paper: Granny Apple Green c/s, Merry Bold & Bright DP

Accessories: Pearlized Doilies

What do you think about these kinds of days? I think she's gonna wear those wire Cindy Lou Who antenna her whole school life, thanks. haha! 

Busy December Day!

This layout is chaotic, and all one day, ha. We tend to have a lot of days like that in December.... 

This one shows her dressed up for Grinch day at school, then some treats from her teacher. Then we went to see a play of A Christmas Carol, and we got a yummy, special dinner. Then my husband's car needed jumped! And finally a bedtime story with her dad. ha. I don't usually scrap entire days, unless its a vacation or something, but here you go! 

Supplies:

Stamps: Whimsical Upper, Lower & Numbers (retired!)

Ink: Real Red

Paper: Pear Pizazz card stock (retired), Season of Cheer DP (retired)

Accessories: PP Rhinestones

Gingerbread House

Happy Saturday! Still trucking along on this very busy week! I hope you're enjoying the festivities too! 

Once again, I have old photos for today's scrapping. And once again, I have almost identical pages for my two kids. This time I used a Paper Pumpkin kit from 2020 to add to the gingerbread house theme. 

Supplies:

Stamps: ABC Alphabet Lower (retired)

Ink: Cinnamon Cider (retired)

Paper: Shaded Spruce, Basic White, Powder Pink(retired) card stocks

Accessories: November 2020 Paper Pumpkin Kit
Journaling Font: Janda Elegant Handwriting

The only thing I changed was the color of the card stock base. In fact, I had printed a photo of them with each side of the house, and let them each choose which two to use on the page, and they chose the same ones! hahaha....

Supplies:

Stamps: ABC Alphabet Lower (retired)

Ink: Cinnamon Cider (retired)

Paper: Soft Seafoam, Basic White, Powder Pink(retired) card stocks

Accessories: November 2020 Paper Pumpkin Kit
Journaling Font: Janda Elegant Handwriting

A Christmas Carol

Look- a third scrapbook layout in a row using more current supplies! Crazy! The stamps are retired tho.

Most years we go see a play of A Christmas Carol. This was 2021- masks were "suggested" and we used them because our youngest had a relentless cough, even tho she was no longer sick. Yeay for scrapping reality...
But since it was Dickens, I thought this DP with old, traditional fireplaces was perfect. ...and then I covered up most of it.... lame. haha... 

Supplies:

Stamps: Welcome Christmas (long retired)

Ink: Mossy Meadow

Paper: Mossy Meadow card stock, Traditions of St Nick DP
Journaling Font: Garamond

  

Here's a close up of the DP- the fireplace sheet, and the Christmas treats sheet.

Live Nativity

Happy December!! My favorite time of year!! I very rarely post on Sundays but I think I'll have enough to share this month, so here we are!! 

This layout is quick and cute, but what's unique here is that everything is current! I try to use up long retired stash when I scrapbook, but this time I was really trying to feature the A Little Bit Festive DP and it's die cuts. So in this case- the trees and stars. Click to see it bigger! 

Supplies:

Paper: A Little Bit Festive DP, Misty Moonlight & Basic White card stock

Accessories: A Little Bit Festive DP
Journaling Font: Bell MT

And if you haven't seen that DP pack up close, here you go! 

Those bits could make a LOT of cards...or a lot of pages!! And the paper is fun too, even if there's only one sheet of each.