Christmas Cookies

I'm still plugging away at those Christmas layouts! Today I'm using a prompt from Lasting Memories to use more than one photo on a layout.

I sewed a grid design in red thread and embellished with mostly Pebbles dies and stickers to tell the story of our Christmas cookie making this year.

That stamp is one of my favorite hand-lettered sentiments from Ink Road.

I've been wanting to try a grid design, and I'm super happy with how it turned out!

These were cookies "for Santa" because you know they ate most of them! SO. MANY. SPRINKLES! Fun Christmas memories were had.

I hope you'll play along with this week's Lasting Memories challenge to use multiple photos on your page! There's lots of great inspiration on the blog. Thanks for looking!

Shine so Merry & Bright with Momenta

Happy Hump Day!

I'm still working on some of my favorite Christmas photos from 2018, and I had to tell this story about how sweet my youngest son can be. The Momenta Christmas mixed media stickers were perfect to compliment my Christmas story!

I used red thread to sew around the green border, and green fruit packaging to bring a pop of green behind the photo! LOL Whatever works, huh?

How about these new skinny alphas?! I adore them! They're already in stores now.

I cut this Merry & Bright wreath out of two different papers to achieve this two-toned look & I love it! The wreaths alone did double duty as part of my photo background as well. Dissecting dies is a good way to get more mileage out of them!

This wooden Joy sticker from the Christmas set was complimented well with the wooden stars with gold accents.

I typed my story in red to compliment the page, and I love the look! Sprinkled some more wooden stars to tie the top of the page to the bottom.

I cannot wait to see what Momenta new products are coming in this new year, but what I've seen so far is so FAB!

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Throwback with Lasting Memories

Hey friends!

It's Sunday and time for another challenge at Lasting Memories.

Today's prompt was to use and "old timey" photo on a Christmas page. I have actually needed this prompt for a while, since there is a story I've been wanting to tell about my favorite Christmas tradition growing up.

I used the new Pebbles Christmas collection & the banner punch I won from their IG background. There I am circa 1990ish and 1994 (age 9)! These photos are so special because we no longer have my grandmother or my aunt with us, which makes my memories with them so precious. The journaling talks about our baking day we did every year around Christmas and all the delicious "retro" foods everyone would make. It was always one of my favorite days of the year!

You can catch more details of the page on my Instagram account. I hope you will play along with this fun challenge at Lasting Memories this month!

Thanks for looking!

Naughty elf - a LM challenge

Hey friends!

This week at Lasting Memories we are keeping with the Christmas traditions theme in the challenge & using more than two photos on a layout.

I mean really!? haha! I can't really be mad when I clearly know where he got the idea.

As I was creating, I was thinking that a year ago I was not into mixed media much at all, and now I'm taking it wild! I messed with glitter & gel medium, then embossed a gold wood grain pattern. I even gold embossed the edges of my patterned paper. Give her a heat gun & she WILL emboss.

I stamped a title on a tag & tucked it into a glitter kraft bag on my page for my journaling.

Tucking a journaling tag in a bag left room for my super long title. Look at that little "angel" face!

Anyone else have to glue down their Thickers? These are alllll over the package, but they're cute, so it's fine.

I hope you will all go visit Lasting Memories for more multi-photo inspiration & play along with our last challenge of the year!

May your Christmas be wonderful, and your elves (and children!) nice.

Thanks for looking!

Whatever works! - A Lasting Memories challenge

Another week, another fun challenge over at the Lasting Memories challenge blog.

This week's challenge is using a tic tac toe board with our December memories/Christmas theme.

Here's the board:

 I used sequins, stars, and wood veneer.

Can you believe I scrapped these photos the same day I took them?! I just had to tell this adorable story of my 2 year old meeting Santa, and I wanted to get it right.

Sometimes you just do whatever works to get the photo, am I right?!

I used my label maker to tie the journaling in with the bottom stamped quote from my IRS stamp set. I just thought it was so perfect since showing Santa the phone was the only way I could get the boy close enough for a happy photo!

Loving me some Nuvo glue, y'all! Check it out! It makes my wood veneers and sequins stick quite well.

I wrote atop some Heidi Swapp shine splatters.

I hope you will all go play along with this week's Lasting Memories tic tac toe challenge!

Thanks for looking!

Queue the smiles - a LM challenge

Happy Sunday, friends!

I'm so happy to be back with the lovely lades over at Lasting Memories creating for their weekly challenges after a small break.

This week's challenge is one of my favorite kinds - a sketch challenge by one of my favorite sketch artists, Laura Whitaker.

The monthly theme is Holiday traditions. These photos are from our trip to Disneyworld last Christmas, taken in the line for an attraction, thus the play on the title.

Here's the original sketch:

These chubby cheeks lent themselves well to a circular cropped photo, but don't be afraid to use whichever shapes work for your photos, you can still use this same sketch!

I loved this little kit from Echo Park that already had some snowflakes printed on the paper. I added my own by stamps with Happy Holla Days from the Ink Road.

I used my new Dymo lable maker for the title, which worked perfectly wth the black accents in this EP kit. I also used a Tim Holtz tiny label sticker to cover part of this tag because I had to use it upside down!

Speaking of...I'm just going to leave this here...

bahahah! I saw this the other day and thought it was so hilarious!

I added some handwritten journaling, mostly to let people know I know "queue" is not the correct phrasing, but it's punny! LOL!

Supplies:
Papers - Echo Park
Snowflake stamps - Ink Road Stamps
Black alphas - Studio Calico
Labels - Dymo

Thanks for looking & go play long with Lasting Memories challenge this week!

I was a good girl this year...

Sooo good, in fact, that Santa visited me early!

I'm so excited to say I am now a published scrapbooker! I was very honored that Creative Scrapbooker magazine chose two of my holiday layouts to include in their Winter 2017 issue.

It's a thrill to see my creation(s) in print (I mean, I made those cute kids too, huh?! LOL). Here is the original layout, and you can find the blog post about it here.

Such a fun and festive page.  I had a lot of fun creating this one.

The second layout they chose was an 8.5x11 layout of my youngest son.

They prompted submissions of kraft paper layouts, and this was my interpretation. Here is the original, and you can find my original blog post about it here. You can also see a (rare for me) process video on the YouTubes here.

Look at those sweet, Christmas cheeks! How is it already that time of year again!?

I really am so appreciative to Creative Scrapbook Magazine for my first published layouts! Thank you!! I feel like this is a wonderful culimination of my scrappy year, as I feel as though I really accomplished some of my #goals. That'll be a sappy, close-to-the-new-year post to come. :)

Thanks for looking, friends!

Santa Hugs!

Well Scrappy Christmas in July is winding down, but I have one more layout to share!

I just could not  love these sweet Santa photos from Hollywood Studios more! My son running with open arms to see Santa Claus is completely priceless and so precious.

I've been using a new circle punch a lot lately, and I"m loving it. I'm much more likely to use many circles when I don't have to cut a ton with my cricut.

Recently on a Scrap Gals episode, they discussed foiling, and a suggestion was made to use your foil on adhesive items. I had these adhesive Thickers from Tuesday Morning for a while. I tried to use them with glitter once, as advertised on the label. The glitter stuck alright, but I will tell you, this foil was magical! It went on so smoothly, it was wonderful.

I used some washi tape on the bottom strip of my layout, but I was afraid to sew through that bit!

I did a zig zag stitch through my circle border then a straight line stitch. I double up some vellum to give the santa picture a bit of pop, and I accented with gold.

I always lean toward the traditional red & green on my Christmas layouts, but I just LOVE it!

I created this layout with the Hip Kit Club design team call in mind, so cross your fingers for me! It would be so dreamy.

I hope you've been inspired to finish some holiday layouts during this Scrappy Christmas in July!

Supplies:
Red striped paper, gold hearts, hello and gingham papers - Studio Calico
Green dots paper -- Basic Grey
Dark red paper and washi- American Crafts
Green plus paper - Echo Park
Gold sequin star - Maggie Holmes Crate paper
Gold glitter stars - Studio Calico
glitter chipboard - Me and My Big Ideas
Alphas - Thickers by American Crafts

Thanks for looking!

JOY - Christmas Cheer!

I have another Scrappy Christmas in July layout for you today!

I used a prompt from the submissions call at Creative Scrapbooker magazine to use kraft and sewing elements.

I cut some cute border strips and sewed them alongside twine, eyelash ribbon, yarn and all kinds of ribbon bits in my stash.

I think the colors I gathered ended up reflecting the photo colors quite well. I love how bright and festive the layout turned out.

Although Scrappy Christmas in July is winding down, I will probably continue to make Christmas layouts throughout the year! HA! I'm still working on 2015 and 2016. And let's not  forget that Disney Christmas album!

Check out the hashtag Scrappy Christmas in July to see more holiday layouts!

Thanks for looking!

Santa Spoils

It's hump day!

I have another Scrappy Christmas in July page for you today AND a process video!

You can find the video here - thumbs up always appreciated.

And here is the layout!

I just love how proud he looks of his new ride - and the fact that he's in the cutest Christmas jammies! I could eat him up!

Santa brought a new trike!

A zig zag stitch holds some wool twine to add some texture, and I used the little gingerbread jewel to compliment the gingerbread kraft.

The video discusses how to get the most out of the product when your fave letters are running low!

Do you love to mix patterns!? I do! Just make sure they're different enough and not too busy. These work because the red buffalo check works as a solid basically, the gingerbread paper is a focus, and the snowflakes are a simple repetitive pattern - almost like a polka dot!

Gotta add that bling! Red foil letters and a glitter bow!

Supplies:
All patterned papers - American Crafts
Red thickers - American Crafts
Black foam alphas - Studio Calico
Chipboard stickers - Me and My Big Ideas.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Cuties

It's the best day of the week, y'all! Happy Saturday!

Today I have another Scrappy Christmas in July page for you. I've really been feeling some 8.5x11 pages lately.

Actually though, the struggle was real with this page. It did not begin by looking ANYTHING like it ended up, which is a good thing! I think it got me out of a scrappy funk, however, so that's great.

The entire page started out as a kraft background. I painted in gold through a wood grain stencil and embossed it with gold, which I ended up loving. But the red, gold and black splatter I attempted were just not working out. So I made an executive decision to just use a bit of the embossed portion as an additional layering piece for my photo on a white background - best. decision. EVER!

I super love how the page turned out after I switched my plan. I used a combination of washi, paper strips, word stickeres and ribbon for the middle strip layer.

Don't even get me started on the difficulties I had cutting these letters with adhesive backing. I would have been better off gluing these skinny little words. I'm tellin' ya, y'all. The struggle has been real in my scrappy world the past couple of days!

I had to work for this one, but I"m super happy how it turned out. I hope you're enjoying some Scrappy Christmas in July inspiration, and definitely search out the hashtag on Instagram too.

Supplies:
Black & gold background paper - Mambi by Me and My Big Ideas
Wood stencil - Prima
Red layering papers - American Crafts
Gold tab paper - Project Life
Typewriter strips - Tim Holtz
Gold glitter tag - Crate Paper
Chipboard stickers - Me and My Big Ideas
Doily - Recollections by Michaels

Thanks for looking!!