Holiday Traditions - Past & Present

Do you have any special traditions that you continue each year during the holidays? certain foods you make each Christmas Eve, a game or a movie that you and your family enjoy together on New Years day? I usually have a hard time getting in the holiday spirit each year because I just feel sad being away from home. But I find that once I begin to decorate my home for Christmas the holiday spirit comes to me.

We had so many wonderful Christmas traditions at our home when I was growing up. My mother loved to decorate the entire house. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful Christmas memories. Perhaps that's why I miss home more at Christmas time than any other time of the year.

My mother has a green hanging musical bell. Over the years its gotten quite worn but it still plays its Jingle Bells tune. This is the Christmas decoration at my parents' house that I remember the most.

I am the hostess of the final blog challenge of the year at The Digichick. Keeping in spirit with the holidays I am asking participants to scrap their favorite holiday traditions; one from the past and one from the present. 

papers and elements from Celebrations by ViVa Artistry and Veronica Spriggs

page template from

 Repeat After Me by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs @ her ScrapMatters shop

I know its a crazy busy time of year and not one that most people want to spend sitting in front of the computer scrapping. But if you are so inspired, I would love to invite you to come and join in the challenge.

Merry Christmas

I wish you all a blessed, peaceful Merry Christmas.

Hubby's gift

Its Christmas Eve and I've finally finished with gifts for this year. I decided to make hubby a Family Man Wallet Album from Shabby Princess because I needed something to put in his stocking. This is the 2nd time I've made this wallet album (the first time being for my own father on Father's Day) and I have to say that each time I am just so impressed with the unique hybrid ideas that Shabby Princess has. This wallet album is so fun! I hope he likes is. Something tells me he will....

I want to wish each one of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope your holiday season - be it Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa - will be filled with blessed peace.

One more gift

Just a drive-by posting of this because some of my friends wanted to see the finished product. This is the Bloom Box album I made for my in-law's Christmas present. I had made a very similar one for my mother this past Mother's Day. I love it so much, I think I'll be making another one for myself!

Clementine Bloom Box Album

I absolutely adore Shabby Princess' hybrid crafts. They are so unique and make perfect gifts!!! If you still need to make a gift or two, I highly recommend stopping by her place asap!

Time Out

I took an "unofficial" leave of absence last week from CT duties and just tried to get caught up with getting ready for Christmas and New Years. I got presents made and sent off to my American family, even got a baby mini album made for my best friend who's brother just had a new baby boy. I even got my Christmas and New Years cards designed, but not yet all sent...

I generally don't use quick pages, how about you? But I have an incredible love for the name badge albums over at Shabby Princess. Have you seen these?

 Favorite Things badge album

 Barefoot badge album

Gabby badge album

I made one a few years ago, then made two last week. One was for the baby mini album and one was a kind of year in review mini album - a Christmas gift for my parents. We don't have the exact size of name badges required, but the pages can be resized easily, then I mount them on cardstock. I hope my parents like it.

Shabby Princess has some cute -- extremely cute -- paper crafting projects like these tea cups.

Sugarplum cups and mugs

I really went crazy in her shop last week. I'm going to make this wallet album

 Family Man wallet album 

for my husband as a Christmas gift as well. In the past I've made several of her mint tin albums as well. Sometimes its just fun to have some scrapbooking projects that I can actually hold in my hands. (I don't print out very many of my pages. Not good, I know.)

After all of that, I only got one page made over the past two weeks. A pair of Christmas photos of my daughter from years gone by.

Snowflake Clusters pt 1 by Busy Bee Designs

I'm not sure when I'll be posting again. I HOPE its before the end of the year, but maybe not before Christmas.

I wish you each a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful, blessed holiday season. Thank you so much for being a part of my little blog here. I always love to hear from you when you stop by.

Christmas is coming

Its Friday and that means I should be posting this week's latest pages. Mercifully, its been a somewhat slow week. The holidays are busy for both designers and CT members so I haven't minded the slower pace this past week. That being said, I still have not started my Christmas shopping. What in the world is wrong with me?!

A few weeks ago I posted an "In search of" thread at one of the larger digi sites. I really wanted some wintry frosted leaves. One of the replies I got was from TDC's very own Jennifer Labre telling me she would have some for me the next week. Well, she didn't disappoint, and she put them in a gorgeous purple and plum kit to boot! Purple is one of my all-time favorite colors and this kit does not disappoint! I absolutely love the variety of leaves, branches and flowers she has in here too. My daughter was very obliging one morning before school, she let me snap five pictures of her out in our tiny garden. Thankfully 4 out of them turned out pretty good.

Beautiful
all papers and elements from Winterberry by Jennifer Labre Designs
page template from Honey Pots 3 by Busy Bee Designs

I also got a very pleasant surprise from this little mini kit by Studio Gypsy. She calls it a mini, but there are still ample papers and elements to make some seriously gorgeous pages.

 Believe

all papers and elements from Believe Mini by Studio Gypsy
page template from Fuss Free Funky Paper Play by Fiddle-dee-dee Designs

I made a few more hybrid Christmas tags, this time with Studio Gypsy's adorable vintage Christmas tags.

{DIY} Gift Tags by Studio Gypsy, 

Maya Road chipboard frames, ribbon, buttons, string, cardstock, glitter, rub-ons

And finally, a layout I made a few weeks ago for the December 9th "Play it Again" feature on The DailyDigi blog.

everything here from Ho Ho Ho by Laura Banasiak and Micheline Martin

As always, thank you so much for stopping by. I sincerely hope you are having a blessed holiday season. Please come again.

'Tis the Season

How in the world is it possible I haven't updated my blog in three weeks?! Where has the time gone? I'll just blame it on it being the holidays and a busy time of year in general. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Christmas preparations are upon us. I haven't started my Christmas shopping at all, but at least we finally got our annual family photo taken. I'm not entirely pleased with it, but short of wearing a wig there is nothing I can do about it. A few weeks ago I got a haircut, and while the length is quite a bit shorter than I am used to that is not the main problem. Its just such a different, slightly masculine cut. I do not like it. When I was in high school, my sister was in beauty school. I guess you could say she used us (my mother, my father and myself) as guinea pigs to hone her skills on. From that time I have been a firm believer in the advice - or perhaps consolation is a better term - she would sometimes offer afterward. "Oh well. It will grow out."

I guess I have a lot of catching up to do with my pages. I've been in a hybrid mood the past several weeks and have been busy making Christmas tags. I'd forgotten how much work hybrid can be. But at the same time I'm just having fun.

Ho Ho Ho Tags
papers and elements from Ho Ho Ho by Laura Banasiak and Micheline Martin
ribbons, popdots and Maya Road chipboard swirl

Vintage Tags

papers and elements from Vintage Tags and Christmas Retrospect papers by Quirky Twerp
ribbons bells and eyelets

Noel Christmas card

template from Fuss Free Christmas Greetings by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs
papers and accent from Noel by Mari Koegelenberg
flowers made using Paper Roses template by The Cutting Files
chipboard swirl from Maya Road

A few Christmas layouts

{joy}
papers, elements and page templates from Holiday Harmony by Studio Gypsy and Studio True Blue

Merry Days
page template from Honey Pots 4 by Busy Bee Designs
papers from Merry Days 1 and 2 by Jen Wilson
sparkle alpha also by Jen Wilson
greens from Mini Christmas by JM Designs
rolled flowers from Little Bird Said by Kasia Designs
word art from Wonderful Magic by Vera Lim
white epoxy leafy vines from Harvest Sky by Nikki Beaudreau

Definitely Nice
papers and elements from Sweet & Crafty by Quirky Twerp
page template from Honey Pots 5 by Busy Bee Designs
alphas from Snow Much Fun by Mari Koegelenberg
watercolor stamped alpha is from Watercolor White by Laura Banasiak
glitter action on flowers is from Punk my boi glitter styles by Joyful Hearts Designs

And a few others

Fall Splendor
page template from Honey Pots 5 by Busy Bee Designs
papers and elements from Second Spring by Captivated Visions and Stolen Moments

Random Top 10
(as seen in the November 2010 Artisan Notebook)
most papers and elements from So Grateful by Sugarplum Paperie and Sahlin Studios
Family and Traditions wordstrips from Fall Snippets by Sahlin Studios
Home wordstrip from Words to Scrap By by Designs by Dani
page template is from Scraps to Go Vol 3: Top Tens by Jennifer Fox Designs

Believe
page template from Fuss Free Funky Photo Play by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs
papers and elements from Earth & Sky by Veronica Spriggs (Guest Designer at TDC Dec 2010)

She Loved You Too part 10
page template, papers and elements all from Joyful Heart collaboration between Busy Bee Designs and Joyce Paul
alpha brushes by CD Muckosky

Thank you so much for spending some of your time with me. I hope you are enjoying the upcoming holiday season and all the busy, yet fun preparations.

A time for everything

I used to try to update my blog every Friday. Every week I seem to be getting later and later, and here it is already Sunday. How is it that time gets away as if I have no control over it. Hmmm, I guess I don't.

I had a fantastic week. I finally got to see Eclipse. I've been waiting since June when the rest of the world was watching. It seemed unfair, but I managed to survive. I watched it three times in the theater - three times over the course of 7 days, each time with a different friend. And now my dear niece has told me she will send me the DVD for Christmas. How cool is that!

And somehow during all that I even managed to get some iDSD shopping done and several pages made. Like I said, a fantastic week.

I want to say thank you to my digi friends that visit me here for joining in the Gratitude Challenge I hosted last weekend. I'm always so touched when you join in so Thank you!!!  And speaking of challenges, I'm hosting a Journaling Challenge on the Digichick blog this week. During November we are focusing our challenges on family. My challenge is asking you to write about something that one of your family members does that you wish they didn't. Come on over the TDC and play along. I would love to see your pages. You can find all the information you need on the blog, and there is also an additional thread in the challenges forum.

Here's my page. I chose to write about how my husband does not wait for me.

 papers and elements from Vintage Rose by Jennifer Labre Designs

page template from Fuss Free: Room to Breathe Set 2 by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs

Here are the rest of my pages in no particular order.

papers and elements from A Little Organic by Joyful Hearts Designs

page template from Fuss Free: Contest Series 2 by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs

papers and elements from Forest Dreams by Design by Heather T

(as appeared in the October 2010 Artisan Notebook)

papers and elements from A Change of Heart and Gypsy Queen

bracket template from Simply Blocked Templates 12x12 all by Studio Gypsy

papers and elements from Gypsy Rose by Studio Gypsy and Studio Rosey Posey

page template from Honey Pots 3 by Busy Bee Designs

papers and elements from Fall Reverie by CatScrap Designers

page template from Honey Pots Freebie by Busy Bee Designs

papers and elements from Smooches by Nikki Beaudreau

page template from iDSD Freebie by Busy Bee Designs

papers and elements from Thankful Hearts by CatScrap Designers

page template from Honey Pots 1 by Busy Bee Designs

Whew! I think that's all for this week. Thank you so much for stopping by to see what I've been up to.

Gratitude Challenge: Difficult, but Good

So, my Gratitude Challenge is up in the challenges forum at The Digichick. Its all about finding the good in the not so good.

We've all had difficult situations or people in our lives that make our life uncomfortable or even downright miserable. I've had plenty of those situations and people myself. But I find that if I take the time to think about it I can almost always find something good in the bad.

If you feel up for a challenge, why don't you come join me and find the good in the bad!

 

Season of Thankfulness by The Digichick Designers

Happy iDSD

For any of my friends not into digital scrapbooking, you may not know that this weekend is International Digital Scrapbooking Day. It the digiscrapping community's biggest day of the year. Sales and challenges abound! I've done my shopping, how about you?

I'll be back tomorrow with news about a challenge I am hosting on Sunday (USA time) at the Digichick. There are some wonderfully fun and interesting challenges going on all this weekend at TDC. Please come play along with us!

In the mean time, I want to make sure you know that Busy Bee Designs is giving away two free templates on her blog this weekend. You definitely don't want to miss these! Her giveaway is part of the MScraps iDSD blog train this weekend. There are a LOT of great giveaways on this train!

Busy Bee Designs Blog

Here is a page I made with one of her iDSD templates and one of my newest purchases. This sweet little kit, called Smooches, has been on my wishlist at After 5 for months.

 

Slacker

So I've been slacking these past few weeks. Actually, I've been getting quite a lot done, it just wasn't so much in the scrapbooking world. Halloween is finished and I can jump for joy. November is a calming month for me -- one I try to use to forget about the stress of Halloween and prepare for a peaceful Christmas.

I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving in years. Some of my American friends here do and they are always kind enough to invite us to join them each year. But for some reason we've had other things going on for the past several years. Its been 9 years since my last American Thanksgiving and Christmas. My son was born that summer so we took our annual trip home over the holidays instead. It was wonderful.

papers and elements from The Gathering by Studio Gypsy
page template is from Fuss Free Room to Breathe 2 by Fiddle-dee-dee Designs

So are you (my scrapbooking friends) all fired up for iDSD this weekend? I know there are sales and challenges all over the web. Please be sure to stop by the Digichick this weekend too. We've got some incredible new designs and challenges. I'll be hosting a challenge in the forums on Sunday, so come give me a visit!

Speaking of incredible new designs, you have to, just have to see this kit called Misfit by ViVa Artistry. Its been awhile since a kit has taken my breath away, but this one certainly does. I want it to be real, I want to make some of these punchy flowers and make this into a "real" layout.

papers and most elements from Misfit by ViVa Artistry
page template from Fuss Free Contest Series 1 by Fiddle-dee-dee Designs
black loopy trim by Amy Martin
worn overlay by Something Blue Studios

Its also been awhile that I had enough time to scrap with kits just because I want to. I've been going through my older kits by Studio Gypsy and rediscovering how much I adore her designs and why I begged her to let me be on her CT.

page template is from Honey Pots 2 by Busy Bee Designs
papers and elements from Evening Bloom, Junk Hound, Reclaimed Vol 4 Flowers, Keeper of Time, Kindred Spirits, Love My Man, Shrine of the Times 3, Subtle Shift, and Storybook Alpha - all by Studio Gypsy

And finally some other pages from the past couple weeks. I love kit scrapping, that's one of the reasons I absolutely enjoy being on my CTs. But I'm also recently rediscovering how much fun it is to pull different items from various kits together to make a page.

all papers and elements from Falling Hearts by Kitty Designs
page template from Easy Breezy pt 6 by Busy Bee Designs
alpha is Suzy Q by CD Muckosky

papers and elements from Bohemian Fall by Sherwood Studio
page template is from Honey Pots 1 by Busy Bee Designs
alpha is Get Punched by Nikki Beaudreau

 most papers and elements from Enstasy by Danielle Engebretson
page template from Sweet Starts 3 and green leaves by Nikki Epperson
fonts used DJ Jumble, Pea Lisel Caps and Aquarelle
alphas Free Spirit by CD Muckosky, Motivation by Kristen Rice, 

Wire alpha by 4 Shades of Blue, Sparkle by Jen Wilson

 page template from Honey Pots 1 by Busy Bee Designs
papers and some elements from Happadelic by Joyful Heart Designs

Dotty Gel epoxy alpha by Mari Koegelenberg
transparent tape by Roben-Marie Smith
white flowers from After the Rain by Jennifer Labre
stitches by Anna Aspnes
word definition strips by Katie Pertiet
hanging flower/tag by Natalie Braxton

As always, thank you so much for stopping by my little corner of the web. Please link me up to your pages too. Please come again.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to me. I have been a Creative Team member of The Digichick for one year this month. I can honestly say, without exception, that this has been the most wonderful scrapping experience of my life. I am so blessed to be on TDC's team. I have had the incredible opportunity to scrap with so many wonderful designers' beautiful creations. My scrapping has become faster and I hope better. I feel more confident in my pages and journaling. Along the line I was invited to join a few other designers' personal CTs as well. I thank each one of them for having faith in my pages. I have been honored to be published in various newspapers, magazines and blogs. And most importantly, I am having so much fun!

One of the things I am most pleased with about my gallery over the past year has to be the wider variety of pages I've made. The majority of my pages are by far still about my children and family. But I've dabbled in art journaling and all about me pages as well. Here's one about my first crush. Okay, so my first three crushes. Even now I look at these pictures and my heart makes a little leap.

papers and elements from Fangirl Scream by Simply.Scraps by Laura Banasiak
page template is from Easy Breezy pt 13 by Busy Bee Designs
font is TerriCherie

 

This week I ended up using Busy Bee templates for all my pages. Can you say addicted?! I know I need to branch out again into bigger photos. These templates are just too much fun!

 

papers and elements from Morning Dew by K Studio
wordart from Wordart 1 by K Studio
page template is from Easy Breezy 18 by Busy Bee Designs
font is Pea Jack and Jane

all papers and elements from Follow Me by Allison Pennington
page template from Easy Breezy 18 by Busy Bee Designs
font is Pea Jack and Jill