Itty Bitty New Year

Decorate To Celebrate's current challenge is to create a decoration or party supply for a New Year's Party. I will admit, we are the people that always stay in. That was occurring even before the kiddos came around! 

This is a small banner, about two inches tall for each pennant. I will be taking it along to my sisters house, so I made some confetti with my Cricut, and wrapped it in some Hambly doily paper.

Golden

I used the 12.15 sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays for this layout. It is titled golden, since they were panning for gold at the Natural History Museum in Mesa. Used up lots of scrap paper with this one!

Jingle Around the Block

Ooh, how I love December! My camera was going to be rather pricey to fix, so I traded it in for a Canon powershot. So far, I have been really happy with it. Small camera, but it has a really large screen on the back. My brother has an SLR he doesn't really use because of its larger size. We are gonna work a deal out, I plan on taking it off his hands:)

My little December smash mini book has been cruising right along. I think taking the pressure off of having to take a photo everyday has really helped me. Just been printing out pictures every few days at Walgreen's and scrapping them in spurts of free time. I'll show some more pages of it next week.

Off to Audrey's little Christmas party! Have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Pencil Lines Sketch 263

I have a hodge podge of Christmas photos from last year...slowly but surely getting them done! Sketch 263 over at Pencil Lines was a great starting point for this layout.
 And, my new favorite item- this woodgrain stencil! I used a white mist for the background, but I am ready to get out some acrylic paints to play. I am thinking some woodgrain wrapping paper would be nice.

A Not So Daily..December Daily

I somehow managed to mess up my hubby's camera, so December pictures have been spotty at best. But, I am gonna make a December mini anyways! I used a smash book as the basis for this mini.

The deer image is from this Etsy shop...Katies Wish. I love that you can resize the deer to whatever size you need. 

 And, we found Santa's sleigh this weekend. Some were more excited about this than others ;)

Thanksgiving Weekend

 

Over the thanksgiving weekend we headed down to Bisbee, AZ. It used to be a really big copper mining town, and now is a fun place to hang out for the weekend. The history of it is absolutely fascinating. We camped right on the edge of town on a hill right beside a huge mining pit.

Who is doing a December daily? I had high hopes to do one, but then my camera broke. I may just borrow my hubby's camera and start shooting away and still make a mini:) 

Some Thoughts

 So I have been thinking about my approach on scrapbooking, and some tweaking that I want to do in the coming new year. I have gotten into the system of printing out all my photos on a monthly basis, then picking and choosing what I want to scrap. Then by the time that month rolls around for the next year, I either scrap the pictures, or send the pictures out to grandparents/great-grandparents in care packages. Which, all in all it is been an ok system for me. But, I don't really feel like I am telling a cohesive story like I really want to!

#1 I am not great at journaling, #2 By the time I get to some of my pictures I have forgotten some of the details anyways...

New approach- A project life type scrapbooking, weekly maybe, with layouts dispersed throughout. I think this will help with taking the pressure off of having that nagging feeling "I need to scrap all the pictures to stay caught up." 

Well see...May be more up front planning, but I think it will pay off in the long run.

Happy Thanksgiving

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We will be eating turkey and spending lots of family time together. It is a great time to reflect on all that we have to be grateful for. I'll be back next week with some craftiness!

Food-tastic

I can't tell you the last time that I had been back to Texas...it was a long time coming! We stayed in Austin and then went to the exciting Baylor/OU game. Food was one of my focuses for the weekend. I wanted Tex Mex and anything fried, with a little bit of BBQ. Mission accomplished, just not in one meal;) Favorite dish title goes to the  Elvis Presley Memorial Combo at Chuy's.

 

Round 2: Christmas Cards

Here is another set of Christmas cards ready to be mailed in December! I made all the basics of the card first, then have been adding extra bling and sparkle a little bit at a time. The majority of the cards are A2 size, with about 5 or so being bigger because of larger die cuts I wanted to use. All the holiday images makes me want to sip on some hot cocoa! 

Food Trucking

A few weeks back Phoenix had their first food truck festival. The lines were a bit long, but it was so neat to see some really creative foods being served. I missed out on trying the pie truck, but there is always next time!

Christmas Cards!

After 5 years of attempting to make all my Christmas cards...it finally happened! It just took me starting before Halloween to get it completed:)  Some things that helped me push through this:

1. Gather all your holiday papers and embellishments so you aren't searching for items when in card making mode.

2. Find a design that works for you, and do 3 or 4 the same way to keep the flow going. I would do a couple just with snowflakes, and do variations with paper or embellishments.

3. Feeling creatively blocked? Check the internet or magazines for Christmas inspiration.

OK, here is round 1!

Layouts- Digital and Paper

I printed out some of these digital layouts at Costco this past week. I thought the quality was great, but it looks like there are some cheaper options online if I order them. It is sometimes fun to mix things up!

Here is a good old fashioned layout, these were pictures from going a monster truck show earlier this year. 
About this time of year, I start to feel like I want to have my pictures somewhat "caught up." Whatever that means! I do start to sort through the ones I know that wont be scrapbooked anytime soon, and place them in 12x12 page protectors that have pockets to hold 9 4x6 photos.
Fall and Christmas cards coming soon...

Happy Halloween!

Last week really got crazy (but in a good way!) Dante had a a shortened week, two half days and then all day off on Friday, so we had allot of sunning around...now it is catch up time. I tend to do much better with set schedule. I spent last night plotting out the week. So come on November- I am ready for ya:)

Ooh, and congrats to Julie, you win a copy of the My Memories digital software, you are going to love it! 

My Memories Suite + a Giveaway!

Look who has gone digital?! I am so excited to share with you My Memories Suite! It is digital scrapbooking software that is so easy to use. One of my goals for 2012 was gong to be to try to figure out how to do digital scrapbooking. I literally learned this sofware in one evening- stress free! 

Another great thing is, not only can you do the standard size scrapbook pages, but you are able to create things in standard photo sizes to give as gifts! 

My page below can be printed at 4x6 size, (I plan on mailing them out for Halloween!)

 OOh, and I plan on printing out some boo tags for my friends with some sweets attached:)

  My Memories Suite is providing a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value!)

Use this code: STMMMS98391

I also have to opportunity to giveaway one of the software to one of my readers! Here is how to enter: (leave a separate comment for each entry, so I make sure they all get counted!) 

1. Go to  www.MyMemories.com and let me know which digital paper pack is your favorite.

1. Become a follower of the MyMemories Blog
2. Like them on Facebook
3. Follow on Twitter

I will draw a winner Wednesday night, October 26th!

Tractor Girl

I used pencil lines sketch 253 for this layout of Audrey on her tractor! Have a great weekend:)

Freebie Printable at Pluff Mudd Studio!

Pluff Mudd Studio has the cutest lunch box notes, and they are free! Head over to this post for the link. I cannot wait to give out the candy bars with the jokes attached.

Halloween Mini Album

Finally some pictures to share of my Halloween mini! I was thinking of spending another post on the construction of this album. It is pretty easy to make a book like this...it is held together with embroidery thread! The base of the book is from a K & Company paper stack from last year + tons of scraps I have been saving all year long. Now I just need to add some pictures to it!