An Anniversary

This anniversary started off with some dental issues, so all plans had to be postponed. We celebrated a few weeks later with dinner out, a play and a hotel stay. It was a nice little get-away! 

Since the play was based? on Shakespeare's time, I used some old DP with a pretty, dainty floral pattern, that vaguely looks "of that era". Anyway, I liked how it turned out, and that's the part that matters. 

Supplies:

Paper: Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke card stocks, Parisian Summer DP

Accessories: Neutral Candy Dots
Journaling Font: Book Antiqua

Snowy Man

If I manifest snow in my crafting, maybe it will snow for real?? Also if it could stick around enough to make a snowman, that'd be cool. We've had two snow storms this winter and even the mountains don't have a lot of snow right now. Sigh. I hate to admit that more than once, the first time my kids have made a snowman in a season was March.... I'm FINE with winter coming before then! 

So today's card uses the sketch (tho I flipped it sideways) and photo from Inspired By... I used this cute snowman I've only used once before, and the trees that came in the set and some blue with bits of the orange and pink and a hint of bright green.  

Supplies: 
Stamps: Christmas Magic

Ink: Starry Sky, Balmy Blue
Stampin' Markers: Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, Cucumber Crush

Paper: Starry Sky, Balmy Blue, Basic White card stocks
Accessories: Softly Falling embossing folder, Big Shot, Dimensionals 

An Apple Pie

Happy 2026 to you! I hope it's amazing for all of us!! 

This is a very late-in-the-day post (it's almost 10pm, ha!) but I haven't done any paper crafting since Dec 11 and I got to play today! After a jam-packed week, we spent a very chill day at home, pretty much doing whatever we wanted, and a lot of relaxing. Also it was alternately rainy and foggy all day, which was nice, but snow would have been even better. Anyway, *that's how you spend a New Year's Day, haha! 

Supplies:
Stamps: Just Perfect Alpha
Ink: Poppy Parade
Paper: Basic White card stock, Come To Gather DP
Accessories: July 2018 PP Kit Picnic Paradise (apples, green gingham paper)

I have been looking forward to putting this page together. My kiddo got to make the apple pie for Thanksgiving this year, and I knew I had some cute apple-y things from an old Paper Pumpkin kit. 

I haven't had a chance to set some goals or plans or directions yet, altho I definitely have thoughts swirling. But in January I am determined to get this craft room cleaned out and cleaned up! Part of the problem is our basement is mid-construction zone, and not moving very quickly. And part of the problem is the child-desk in the center that can't fit in the main living space with Christmas. Buuut a lot of the problem is the general disaster, lol. I need to get that taken care of very soon! I'm gonna want play time!  

But for now, Happy New Year to you and best wishes for the best year yet!!

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!  

Winter Portraits

Hello again! Another very busy week, comin right up! 
So here's another wintery page for you. Sure wish we had this much snow now.... that first storm only brought about a week's worth of snow. It's gone now, except on the mountains. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Peaceful Cabin, Peaceful Evergreens

Ink: Shaded Spruce, Evening Evergreen
Paper: Basic White & Cherry Cobbler card stock, Plaid Tidings DP

Accessories: Red & Green Pearls, Alphabet a la Mode dies, Big Shot, Glue Dots

The plaid is a 6x6 page that I cut in half. The lines don't like up! Didn't matter how I turned the strips- it would not line up! So I stuck the date in to hide the seam, haha. And then I told you anyway... It's fiiiine! 
Can you see? I lined up one of the black lines and nothing else worked. ugh. That makes no sense, but here we are. 

And there really are two sets of pine trees stacked, inked in two shades, but it just made the forest look more full. That's not bad. And it all worked out anyway. 

A dance event!

Happy Friday!!
I have another Christmastime layout for you today!
This was a new event for us. We were slightly hesitant, but the BYU choir concert was sold out, so we gave this a try. And we loved it! It was called Christmas Around the World and they did two hours of different folk dances with traditional style costumes. In between dances, there was narration talking about Christmas traditions in the varying countries. It was a lot of fun and we really did learn a lot! My poor kids have a nerd-mom and I love that, haha!  

Supplies:

Stamps: Sparkly Seasons (long retired)

Ink: Brilliant Blue, Memento Black, Balmy Blue

Stampin' Blends: Light & Dark Balmy Blue, Bronze, Light Petal Pink

Paper: Boho Blue, Brilliant Blue, Basic White card stock

Journaling Font: Garamond

And, once again, a close up of this cute image just for fun.

Bright Christmas Music!

I love music. I love having music on all the time. All kinds. My "regular" music spans the genres from the 1960's to almost today (laughed for a WHILE at the article that said Goo Goo Dolls' Iris, from 1998, was the top song of summer 2025....). And I really love Christmas music. But. I'm picky about it too. I don't really like most of what the radio plays. I like calm Christmas. A lot of Christmas hymns. Piano versions, choral versions, things like that. I start Christmas music in November and it goes til the tree comes down, very early in January. Today my husband turned on "Christmas Instrumentals" on Amazon and I've been loving it. 

Clearly that was on my mind when I went thumbing thru my Christmas DP to make today tonight's card! (I had to post this evening to get this sketch in.)
The sketch that ends tonight comes from As You See It. I actually swapped a couple elements...but my design worked better this way?
I used the color challenge from TGIF Challenges.

And this fits the SUO Challenge for Designer's Choice. 

I thought about matting each layer of music DP with a different color, but then I thought that would be too much. Anyway, I like how it worked out! 

Supplies:

Stamps: For Unto Us

Ink: Coastal Cabana

Paper: Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Basic White card stocks, Merry Music DP

Accessories: Shades of Green Hexagons, Coastal Cabana & Granny Apple Green Reversible Ribbon, Circle Dies, Dimensionals, Big Shot 

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