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Wow -- Santa must have really liked those sugar cookies, because my house looks like Toys R Us! After literally SIX days of celebrating, gift exchanging, EATING, and visiting with family, we are having a semi-quiet day today to just enjoy and play. I have a few crafty things that I am excited to try out and of course the kids are in toy heaven. Enjoying the last of the nice weather here for awhile -- 50 degrees today, but that will all end tonight. Got to finish up my Days of December album. Walgreens has 10cent prints on 50 or more until Jan 3rd (I think) so hopefully will take advantage of that. My card reader on my computer is not working, so hopefully hubby will fix it soon so I can get my photos!!

Merry Christmas!

Back after the holiday -- hopefull with lots to share!

December Daily - 10

More pages -- I know we are not supposed to say we are behind, but I am!! Christmas prep getting the best of me -- hope to finish up today -- :)

I Love My Computer & FREE PHOTO

Photo editing programs are awesome. I have Memory Manager from Creative Memories and I love it. It is easy to use and has made me a better photographer. My photos are tagged into groups that helps me quickly find what I need and best of all, when there is something I do not like in my photo, I can change it to make it better. Most often this is removing red eyes, or changing the light levels, but every once in a while it means removing something unsightly from the photo. In the top photo, the light switch and cords distract from my 2 cuties. In the bottom photo, those elements have been removed and your focus is not distracted from the focal point of the photo. There are many programs out there that do this, but the CM program is so easy to use and is a reasonable price ($40). I do not sell CM products, but I really do love this program -- if you do not have a good editing/organizing program, you may want to check it out.

AND -- did you see that today and tomorrow you can get a FREE 8x10 from Walgreens?? Just type in FREEGIFT in the coupon code when you order online. Great for a last minute gift for someone!

Happy Mail

Look what arrived in my mailbox yesterday! 4 super cool stamps from the talented Jennifer McGuire. We recently found out that we live quite close to one another and I am hoping to attend one of her stamping classes early next year. She works for Hero Arts and makes some beautiful things. Also, if you check out her blog, she has a tour of her stamping/scrapping space. It is beautiful! Anyway, thank you Jennifer -- I think I need to make a few last minute cards!

Day 9 (even though it is really 18!!)

Finally -- Daily December again! Took me awhile to get my photos developed. Love these few pages of the letters to Santa. Plan to include copies of the letters on the back of the tabbed page, but have not done that yet (we keep copies for out Letters to Santa book).

Favorite Things

Had my stamping group Christmas party last night. We had a great time. After a LONG wait at Abuelo's, we ate a delicious and very economical dinner. 5 of us ate for about $35 (including tip)! We split a couple entrees, ordered some extra sides and one of my very smart friends brought a coupon -- yeah! How is that for a recession holiday dinner! Anyway, we always have a gift exchange -- something small that we make. I took Christmas music cds, one of my friends made us beautiful necklaces, one made cute mini albums that we can complete on our favorite things, one made beautiful magnets and yummy buckeyes (which also served as dessert!) and one made cute little notepads w/ matching pens and provided Magic Reindeer Food for our kids. Just the coolest things -- I will ask them if I can share photos of their creations here -- I have such creative and generous friends!

Picked up my photos at Walgreens on the way home, so I plan to work on my December Daily album today. Cold and icy here -- so we are staying in and getting all Christmasy -- I am thinking cookies!

Blizzard???

We were predicted to have winter weather here today, but nothing yet --- however thought this would be a good post for today. Pictures from out big snow last year -- if we get anything today will not be like this -- more ice and sleet I have a feeling -- yuck.

Busy Weekend

Christmas parties, shopping and catching up on MANY projects with deadlines! It seems like every moment I am doing something to get ready for Christmas, and this weekend I started a new project and will be knitting every spare moment I have!! Crazy week this week with a couple more parties and the weather is supposed to be wintry. Hope to sneak in some blog posts, but I have to get my photos developed for Dec Daily -- hmmm... I guess I can sneak that in. Ramble, ramble ramble -- anyway, here is a page from another project -- calendars for the grandparents. Tried to simplify them this year, but I still have 6 months to decorate in each -- better get to work!

Gift Tags

A little break from the December Daily. I am not feeling well today, (colds are going around our house -- yuck!) So, do not know if I will post again before Monday -- check back then, and hopefully will have more to share! For now, some gift tags I made -- also packaged them in cello bags and gave them to the women in my MOPS group -- made a cute little gift that is also useful!

December Daily 7 and 8

Reposting day 7 because I added something on the facing page. Struggling a little with the back side of pages, sometimes they work into the following day, sometimes not. This one is just sort of random, while Day 8 is more 2 sided --. Day 9 will be fun -- have not completed it yet, but will be of the girls mailing letters to Santa.

Love looking at all the photos in the Flickr group -- amazing how to see the similarities but the diversness at the same time. So much creativity out there!

December Daily - Day 7

Went to a kids craft party on Sunday and decided to document that. Have not worked on my book in a couple of days as my youngest has been sick and a little needy. Hopefully will get to work tonight with the pictures I picked up at Wal-Mart today. Did make some gift tags yesterday, so will try to get those up as well. Went to my friend's last night for craft night -- so nice to get away for a little adult conversation!! Her December book is so beautiful. She also made a book of all the special ornaments they have on their tree -- what a special keepsake. Have you checked the Flickr group lately -- oh man, are there some creative people out there!

It is dark, rainy and cold here today. Hoping that we see the sun tomorrow!

December Daily - Day 6

Photo quality on this is not the greatest -- but the moment here was so sweet. Trust me -- looks better in real life!

December Daily - Day 5

I kept telling my parents that this is sooooo much better then a sweater!! I just love my new room. Still has a way to go before it is what I have envisioned, a couple more furniture pieces and some decorating, but it is on its way now! I borrowed the title/journaling page from Ali's Around the House post -- thought it was a cute way to introduce and tell the story.

December Daily

Re-post on this one -- you can see the journaling page on the left side.

Here is my wreath page -- should have taked the photo out of the protector -- may retake later -- oh well. Got that ugly flash mark! UGH!! Anyway, I just am loving my wreath this year -- is that weird?? More later! :)

BPS Free Classes / Font Correction

Big Picture Scrapbooking has up a couple new (or at least new to me) FREE classes/projects. Some are under Try It Out, some under Projects Now. I just love Stacy's style and the projects on BPS are great. Check it out.

Also, in a previous post I indicated that I got the font Rockford from dafont.com --- well, they do have MANY free fonts, but Rockford is not one of them!! I think I got Rockford from Fontica -- where it is free! (I just checked.) Sorry for the confusion. :)

Gotta take some pictures of the pages I created yesterday -- will have DD pages up later today!

Coming later today...

After a busy weekend, I need to put several pages together today. I can't wait to pick up my photos this morning. Hopefully between running to the grocery, post office and swim lessons, I will get them together --- here is a sneak peek!

Letters To Santa

Made 10 years worth of pocket pages. Everyone looks the same, will just add a photo each year.

Here you can see the back side of the pages -- where the envelope opens and you slip in a copy of your child's letter to Santa or wish list.

Love the Zutter! Made this little book out of 6x9 manila envelopes to hold my children's wish lists and letters to Santa. I got the idea from Two Peas -- there was a girl who made a book to hold letters from friends at Christmas, and I thought why not for Santa letters. (Cannot find the 2Peas post now -- will look later and add to this post). My friend Danielle helped me make this -- she has the Zutter! Such a wonderful little tool! (Danielle -- I just went ahead and finished the cover with stickers -- could not get the Santa to work). Thought it a few years this would be fun to look back on what their wishes were!

December Daily - day 3

Finally -- day 3 page. Journaling is not visable here, but talks about how we read every night before bed -- nothing Christmasy about that, but somehow reading in front of the lights of the Christmas tree is just magical!

Back to Thanksgiving

This year I got the idea to make a Thanksgiving album that my family would complete on Thanksgiving day. Now, I did not totally come up with this on my own -- I think there was one either in Simple Scrapbooks or maybe it was their Mini Books In An Evening -- anyway --- I used one of my $1.99 American Crafts 6x6 albums that I got from the Archiver's Hot Spot. Little tip -- if you use one of these books (that are oh so cute) it is a good idea upon completion of the book to attach a tab with a staple/brad/etc to each page to secure it. These pages have a tendency to want to pop-up out of the page protectors and the stapled tab keeps them in place. Adds a nice embellishment too and actually makes it easier to turn the pages. Here it is...

First page of the book. Font is ROCKFORD (for the "we are thankful")-- one of my new favorites I got at dafont. The little gratitude definition I copied from somewhere and recreated on my computer. I really do not remember where -- I did it sometime ago and just ran across this on my computer when putting together this project. What luck!

I created a page for every person that came to our Thanksgiving dinner, using photos I already had on my computer. Photos were resized to 2.5x5 to fit the page. At dinner (actually before or after) everyone had the chance to fill in their tag. They were told that it could be serious, silly or in between -- as you can see I have some of both -- I really am thankful for my hairdryer though!

After the personal pages I included some snapshots from the day. Here are a few of those pages. This book was the hostess gift for my mom for knocking herself out making a wonderful dinner. She is going to love it (I am giving it to her tomorrow.)

Hope to get my next December Daily page up soon -- it is downstairs on my table waiting to be finished -- however tomorrow I am going to IKEA to get furniture for my craft room -- YEAH!! So, I need to do a little picking up to accommodate my new stuff. But, now I need to get to bed so I have the strength to tackle IKEA. :)

December Daily - Day 2

Oh - -this is really fun! Again, not a great day here for taking photos, but you can see the page I made today documenting yesterday.

Another Christmas Planner

A friend stopped by today (her daughter came for a playday with my kids). Anyway, she commented that she did not have any Christmas planning done at all. So, while her daughter was here I pulled this together real quick to give to her when she returned. It was super easy -- just one of the small $1 journals that I got from Michael's (this one was silver and said Noel on the front) that I covered with patterned paper, added tabs and some cute little stickers. Took me maybe a half hour to do and was a fun quick gift to give. I just love to alter things -- I find that anymore when I shop, I am constantly thinking on how I could change something.

December Daily - Day 1

Here are the first 2 pages in my December Daily album -- inspired by Ali. TWO pages?? Well, I decided to include a page for the first day of Advent (Nov 30) since we did put up the tree that day. I figure it is my book so I can make the rules!! Note: I put them on the black background with the label December Daily 'o8 for the blog, but they do not have this in real life. Poor light here today for taking photos (cloudy!) may not do this on future days.

Quick Holiday Cards

A couple quick cards made with GStudio clear stamp (Noel). Like to have a few extra cards made around the holidays --- I always end up using them for something!

Easy teacher gifts

Glass jar, purchased at Michaels, filled with Kisses and a Santa stamp($1)tied on the front.

Wooden box, painted and with patterned paper stuck to the sides. Altered notebook inside with a pen to match, a Target gift card and some nifty little magnets my daugther made for her teacher.

Starting to think about gifts for teachers, bus drivers, etc. Pulling out some inexpensive ideas from last year -- I joke then that if it held still long enough it got coated with Mod Podge and patterned paper!

Today I start my Days of December album -- quite excited -- look for updates as the week progresses. If you made an album, don't forget to start it!

All About ME!

This past weekend I got the chance to finish up several projects that have been hanging around my craft room awhile. One was this cute little accordion book that is, you guessed it, about me! This is one of the free projects from Big Picture Scrapbooking. It was really fun -- loved planning it out, loved taking the photos and loved putting it together. And it is just for me -- which is nice-- I never make things only for me! The tin I used is actually a gift card tin from Michael's and the album is just a 12x12 piece of cardstock (there are directions on BPS how to construct the book.) Anyway, quite pleased with myself how this turned out and looking forward to keeping it in my scrap space.

Speaking of Big Picture Scrapbooking -- I guess Stacy Julian has a new free class there. I plan to check it out after finishing this post. I think it is in partnership with something she has designed for Cocoa Daisy. What I have found is that even if I do not plan to purchase the CD kit, the project can typically be adapted to something else. Anyway, might be worth checking out. (Just checked -- class will not be up/available until sometime this weekend.)

This may be my last post before Thanksgiving. I am working on a gratitude book for the big day and need to finish it and do not know if I will have time to post before Thursday. If not, I will be back next week and enjoy your holiday!

Knit one...

...or how about two??? Made these little bags for a gift for a young girl for Christmas. One is just a little purse that thankfully my mom suggested that I line. The other is an ipod holder, and no, she is not getting the ipod, she already has one, but I thought I would tuck an itunes card inside. The larger bag is from a pattern on Lion Brand's site -- it was free pattern. The ipod case I made up -- basically I just made a smaller version of the first. Buttons are from Wal-Mart -- aren't they cute?? Anyway, I am pleased with the way they turned out and another project I can scratch off my Christmas to-do list!

YOU - Sketch Challenge

Made this quick page for the sketch challenge at 52 Sketchs...52 Weeks. Thought it was cute and simple. Size of this page is 8x8.

Halloween???

I absolutely LOVE how this project came together. Straight from the Simple Scrapbooks special edition Mini Albums in an Evening. The original album that I totally lifted was made by Rebecca Cooper . The album is SEI (purchased at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 off!) and I just got the coordinating stickers and papers from Hobby Lobby. Numbers are an old Stampin' Up set (Quirky). The plan is to keep all my papers together and just add a page per year. I can handle that! Also, loved how this simple album was turned so that it flips open -- size of pages are 8x8. Made 6 pages and the cover in 2 evenings -- but that is only because I talk a lot!
And did you think I would not mention Lain's book today? The launch party is in full swing, so be sure to stop over at Simple and check it out.

Sketch Book

So Danielle and I were talking the other night about what to do with ideas that we find in magazines, scrapbook stores etc. We talked about taking photos, but both agreed that while we love looking at the photos, these can sometimes be distracting when actually trying to create a layout. The problem is that we get too bogged down in the materials used in the piece rather than the design. Photos are good if you are looking at HOW to use a particular product or color combo, but both agreed we love sketches and needed someplace to keep them. We wanted something small that could fit in a scrap bag or purse -- this one is about 3x5. It started out, however, as approx 6x10 -- Danielle cut it in half and now we both have one!! I chose to decorate rather simple since I am thinking if I carry this as I plan, the cover could take some abuse. Just made this little nameplate on the computer. Of course I had to cute it up a little and add some ribbon!!

And, don't forget that the SNIPPETS launch party starts today over at the Simple Scrapbooks site! Stop by, look at the new stuff and drop Lain a message. Have a great day!

One more thing...

If you do not visit Cathy's blog, Bits N Pieces, regularly, do today. The most awesome video on why we do this thing called scrapbooking. It will make you want to hug a loved one and take a photo or two! Have a great day!!

Scrapbook and Snippets

Another page from my scrapbook weekend. Nothing that great, but I think it shows that you can document a fun day with little to no supplies. This was a super quick page and it tells the story of our playdate --- mission accomplished. I think sometimes you can get too bogged down in trying to make a perfect page with "wow" papers and embellishments and lose the true meaning of making the page in the first place, which was to tell the story! (Not to mention you could lose hours in the process). But that is just it -- it is a creative process -- sometimes that takes a while and sometimes a satisfactory product comes from just getting it down on paper. Wow-- that was a bit soapboxish!

Anyway, went to my friend Danielle's house last night for our craft night -- its been a while since I had been, so chatting was fast and furious and ideas where flying. Flying so much that I had a hard time turning my brain off to go to sleep! I hope to post the project that I was working on later today AND Danielle made a nifty little sketch book -- more on that later.

I have been asked about some of the materials I use for my pages and products. I will try harder to include them in the write ups -- truth is I have such a mish mosh of stuff and I am not real good at keeping packaging. But I will try!

So have you read the snippets of Snippets yet????? I am telling you, if you do you will be hooked! And, did you see the price??? Only $9.99 -- great stocking stuffer if for no one else than yourself! Check it out! :)

Time for the bus and to start my day -- stay warm today --- I think the cold weather is here to stay!

Gobble - Gobble - Gobble!!

Anyone for turkey?? My daughter and I made these cute little placecards this past weekend for the Thanksgiving table. Photo is a little dull -- for those of you familiar with Stampin' Up, colors are Chocolate Chip (base card), Close to Cocoa (turkey), Summer Sun, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie (feathers) and More Mustard for the place where the name is written. Punches were mostly Creative Memories and Stampin' Up but you could substitute what you have. I got the idea from Stamp with Heather, but I thought the folding of the cardstock was a little difficult for my daughter, so I modified it a bit.

More on Snippets....Lain is hosting virtual launch party on November 20 -Novmeber 30 over at the Simple Scrapbooks website. She will be chatting it up on the message boards and there will be some fun contests and prizes. Check it out!