Wagonload of Gifts

Find the full process video here!

 

Memorydex the Halls!

Hey friends!

Today I'm sharing a sneak of my December "daily" project for 2019 - a Memorydex!

I've noticed a resurgence in this trend, which I believe was started by Heidi Swapp many years ago, and I'm loving the chunky, interactive card collections, so I decided to jump on board with a Christmas project. I will likely not create a card every day, as this is a very busy season for us, but I did get a head start on some foundation cards, and I hope to have the box full by the end of the month!

Part of the resurgence includes crafters attempting to coax American Crafts into recreating the original memorydex decks to hold the cards. But since these are in short supply, people are using all kinda of creative approaches to creating their own!

I grabbed a box that I ensured was at least 4 inches wide (it's a big larger than that) from the dollar tree. 

I used a couple of small strips of cardboard to elevate two paper straws, upon which the die cut memorydex cards sit perfectly.

I got my memorydex dies from the A Cherry on Top store, but they must be popular, because the 12 they had left have flown off the shelves.

Neverfear! I'm certain you can A. create your own with a square die and hole punch or B. cut them from a cut file with an electronic die cut machine!!

I wanted my memorydex to reflect my current Christmas decor, which is buffalo check! So I had to grab the new Little Lumberjack collection by Echo Park. This isn't even a Christmas collection, but it's so wonderful. I am just mixing it in with all my Christmas stash and some other great products I got at the ACOT store.

I cut a base card for most of the memorydex cards out of black cardstock, then added my patterned paper on top. Even if you're just doing a single patterned paper, I find this made the card much more sturdy, which will be better to pull in and out of the box in the long run.

I love me a good pun, y'all!

I was loving my cards, but they were missing something. The project really started becoming a stand out when I decided to come "off the card" and add ribbons and tags on most every card. I love how it is all bursting out of the box, I think this full textured look is exactly what this project is meant for!

A title card and the others are base cards! I figured the logs will be great for a tree photo.

I plan to write or type on journaling cards and add them to the fronts or backs, as well as add photos.

Honestly, if I added nothing to these cards, the glitter and texture would be enough to keep me happy with the project!

The hohoho card was an experiment gone right! I put my snowflake die atop this paper bag and covered only half with the cutting board and ran it through my Big Shot. It chopped off the top of the bag and left the rest, and I have a die cut bag for ephemera - like tickets to an event or what not!

I am loving this project so far! I am glad I'm starting with an "extra," sparkly, over-the-top subject matter, and I will keep you all posted on how it turns out!

xoxo,

Natalie

Finishing past DDs

Hey friends!

I am not falling prey to the tempting, glittery December Daily this year, but I am finishing up past albums I started!

This week's challenge at Lasting Memories is to use a wreath on your page! I used this awesome Bo Bunny winter paper to match my photo and make a snowflake wreath.

This is a 6x8 page of my youngest laying in my Nana's lap. That was a tough year, and he only got to know her a very short time, but I'm glad she got to meet him. This is a sweet photo of him with her.

 I used a snowflake border die and just separated the snowflakes individually from the line it cut to adhere them in a wreath pattern. Then I sewed around them for added texture. 

There is not much room on these 6x8 pages, so I kept it fairly simple!

I hope you'll play along with our challenge this week at Lasting Memories - wreaths are always a gorgeous go to for a page design!

Thanks for looking!

Celebrate the holidays!

Today I bring you the last of my completed 2015 December pages. I will complete more later. Also, expect many, new, Christmasy, DISNEY pages soon!

Scrapbook binders have their pros and cons, and the gap in a double page spread is definitely one of the cons, but I do enjoy all the photos together on this spread. I'm a big fan of the red, white and turquoise color scheme too! I like separation the title like this fam + ily, as ILY is also I Love You! <3 p="">

This time last year I was on maternity leave with nugget. Man how I miss those days! It's quite unfortunate that we do not have planned leave for parents as other countries do, but I was blessed to have a couple months off with him.

I documented those sweet moments we had last December. One of them is here. Also, my husband got me tickets to two Christmas concerts for our anniversary last year. Here is concert one, JohnnySWIM at the Ryman Auditorium. It was a great and fun show!

I have also shown this page before, but here it is again. I love a good gold and black color scheme for a New Year's page. And I'm still proud of that amazing charcuterie, so check out that eye candy too. The full page is quite simple, but I really love how it turned out!

Stay tuned for Christmas pages from Disneyworld soon! Disney + Christmas is sure to be amazing, as these are two of my favorite types of pages to create!

It's December 1st, so let's see those December Daily pages!!

Thanks for looking!

Holiday Fun!

Even though I do not do my December album in a Daily format, I tend to have photos from almost every day in December!

Here we have another Santa photo op, as well as documenting seeing the lights at Jellystone in Nashville.  I love to collect ephemera to go in my scrapbook with photos and the Santa and "Santa's Village" bits on the journaling card are from a little ephemera business card we received at the campground.

 I love using the pocket pages with 2x2 photos to document days when I have lots of scrap-worthy photos.

We had a super fun afternoon & evening. After seeing the dancing lights at Jellystone, we went to dinner at Santa Fe, then we went to Build-a-Bear, and my oldest son made a bear for his baby brother for Christmas. Then we headed over to see the lights at Opryland Hotel! Definitely some traditional, Nashville Christmas fun!

It's always nice when you can trade photo ops with strangers - so we have a family photo from our Opryland trip. Another shaker pocket needed to be made.

The last spread for today shows photos from one our family Christmas celebrations, which we always have the weekend before Christmas. I posted these pages previously, but enjoy them again with this compilation.

I cannot wait to see December Daily creations popping up on Instagram! Thanks for looking!

Sparkle & Shine!

Back again today with more Christmas/December Daily inspiration!

Is there anything sweeter than baby's first time on Santa's lap?! These sweet newborn photos are too much!

I used a carmine filter for these, and I love how they turned out. I'm not so happy that my glitter from my shaker pocket come around to my Joy to the World card, but it's there now. Still works!

This may be my favorite spread in the album! I adore this Stampin' up Santa stamp. I made the pocket cards with an American Crafts 6x6 paper pad, and I put the cheers sticker on the outside of the pockets. I cannot get enough shaker pockets, and I made my own mix here of reds, black and whites with a couple snowflakes thrown in!

More Christmas magic to come tomorrow! I hope you draw some scrappy inspiration here. 

Thanks for looking!

Getting in the Christmas Spirit!

Happy Monday!

I hope you're enjoying my December album share, and getting a little bit of magical, Christmas inspiration!

Today I have a few more pages for you.

Our elf's name is Tinsel & he went a little overboard last year...

The dogs were the only ones that ended up on the naughty list!

Sorry about the glare here. My boys were dressed like Buzz & Woody (a recurring theme this year, it seems). I love their love for each other. That top small pocket is cloud paper, like Andy's bedroom!

Lachlan wasn't too sure about being held by big bro - he's since gotten past that.

I love that my boys see the same Santa every year - great tradition! (Sometimes we see him at Cracker Barrel too LOL!) I love capturing all the sweet faces of the boy when he has serious Santa discussions. Pocket pages are a great way to fit in all these photos.

Tiny album calls for tiny fringes. I love it!

I hope you enjoyed today's pages, and come back for more tomorrow!

Happy Christmas!

Getting Ready for Christmas!

Hello everyone!

Today I'm bring you a layout I created for Lasting Memories Best of 2016 Challenges. They've picked the best challenges of the year to bring back for one more round of inspiration. This week we're bringing back Glitz & Glam from the Oscars theme, which we all know is right up my alley!

Honestly I could pick probably any page at all from my December 2015 album to include in this category. I love the Glitz, y'all!

Today's page includes a photo of boys by my glittery tinsel tree. I used some stamps to create my own background paper for the title. I stamped the title - these boys are MY Christmas magic.

I just love these little glitter trees from Michael's!

I picked up these cutest ever little 6x6 paper pads from Tuesday Morning a while back, and they come in super handy for a 6x8 album.

That glitter ribbon is from the Dollar Tree! What a great find. I bought 6 rolls! LOL!

This week my family & I are enjoying some amazing Christmas magic. So, I've decided to share the Christmas love & show some of my pages from last year's Christmas album. I don't do a December Daily perse, as I cannot keep up with the daily printing. But my 6x8 album dedicated solely to December and mostly all things Christmas is basically the same thing, just not necessarily in the daily format.

So I hope to offer a little inspiration to those of you doing December Daily.

And to those of you who are not - a bit of inspiration to think outside the box & make your project work for you!

Here is the opening page of my album. I have shared some of these pages  before, but this week plan to compile them all together as a glimpse into the completed album.

I'm a little obsessed with acrylic shapes right now, so this little sparkle pocket at the beginning of my album is one of my faves!

Merry December!

I hope you come back this week to see more December scrapbook pages & get into the Christmas spirit!

Also, go play along at Lasting Memories this week with one of my favorite challenges of the year!

Thanks for looking!

A Perfect Day - A Sizzlin Summer sketch

It's the 2nd day of Sizzlin' Summer over at Scrapbook Challenges, and I'm bringing another 6x8 page from my December 2015 album.

I was on maternity leave the entire December last year, and it was GLORIOUS! This is just one of the photos that documented said glory.

Here is the original sketch. It's another that was meant for 12x12, but it adapted really well for 6x8.

I went to the Studio Calico warehouse sale earlier this year (pure awesomeness) and I picked up some December Daily items before I actually knew what DD was all about... I now have fomo about all the DD items I may have missed at the sale, but I really love the Jasmine Jones transparent die cuts I did score!

I used my new Dear Lizzy stack I got at Michael's for $5 the other day! I love the light, bright colors, and how they adapted easily for Christmas pages! Add a little washi, leftover sticker bits & a stamp & call it a page!

Supplies:
Paper - Dear Lizzy
Stamp - Studio Calico
Die - Jasmine Jones for Ali Edward's December Daily

Thanks for looking & hope you're playing along with SS at Scrapbook Challenges - lots of great inspiration!

Christmas in July

Happy Friday!

Today I'm bringing you a bit of Christmas in July! I've been working on my December 2015 album. I'm making this separately from my yearly album, mostly because I always tend to run out of space in my 2 volume yearly family album every year! I'm trying my hand at a 6x8. I was hesitant at first because I had attempted one prior and did not love the outcome, but this time around I'm super loving it!

I have a double page spread with a traditional layout and a pocket page.

The right hand traditional layout was created using a sketch from Let's Get Sketchy.

Their sketches are made square for a 12x12, but it was easily adapted for this 6x8.

Here's the double page spread

I really loved the paper I had used for the traditional layout, and I was happy I had enough to make a pocket card as well. Well, almost enough. I had to add a strip of washi to make the last bit of 6 inches, but I actually love how it brought the two pages together, since I had used the washi on the full page under the photo.

Can't get enough of those newborn baby smiles! But they soon tuckered him out. I didn't really have any journaling to put on this page, so I just added patterned background paper and some washi bits to make the photos cohesive. The sequin heart is so wonderful, I felt like it was enough embellishment without needing journaling!

Also, we really don't get tons of pictures of just the two of us around the holidays, so I was glad to get this for a page together.

I'm really getting through this December scrapbook. I hope to feature the pages collectively soon, possibly with a video flip through! :)

Supplies:
Patterned paper - American Crafts (I think)
Doily - Recollections by Michaels
Glitter paper - The Paper Studio
Green polka dots - Basic Grey
Warm and Cozy Washi - A Beautiful Mess
Star Washi - Freckled Fawn
Together - Jasmine Jones for Studio Calico
Gold Sequin Heart - Maggie Holmes

Thanks for looking!