December Daily Day 15 and Some Christmas Cards

Do ya wanna hear my Christmas card sob story, do ya? Well, too bad, I'm gonna tell ya anyway! I made all these 5 1/2" by 4 1/4" cards (as above), then realized I didn't have envelopes to send them! And do ya think I could find any in this town? Heck no!!! So, I regrouped, found some envelopes, and made some cards to fit my envelopes instead of the other way around. This is actually a wise strategy, I don't know why I didn't think of it first! So, the cards above I hand delivered to friends and family in town, and the cards below were the ones that got mailed.

Supplies (snowman cards): Close to My Heart cardstock, Graphicat Designs stamp set, Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Sizzix embossing folders, BoBunny patterned paper, Spellbinders dies

These smaller cards were made with a Sizzix embossing folder, lots of Tim Holtz distress ink, Perfect Pearls, Close to My Heart cardstock and stamp, Bo Bunny patterned paper, and Prima jewels to dress it up a bit (speaking of jewels, I got my i-rock in the mail yesterday, fun fun!).

All of this messing around with sizes, envelopes and designs meant I didn't get my cards out on time, or to all the folks I wanted to send to, so I was pretty disappointed with myself. So, next year I think I will start my cards waaaaay earlier, like, now maybe! And that way I won't get bummed out about it.

Carrying on with December Daily, here is my Day 15 page:

This was the day I got nothing done, and I was without wheels so I couldn't even get out of the house. Actually, I did try to take Brenna and Hunter for a walk, but she was screaming so hard about wearing a jacket instead of the snowsuit I stuck her in that her boots went flying off (you know the stiffened-body, head-thrown-back scream?) and I said, "Forget this!" I took these photos during the only quiet time she had that day, when she sat on the floor looking at a book. Deceptive indeed!

Supplies: Heidi Swapp journaling card and chipboard numbers, Close to My Heart stamps and ink, Maya Road chipboard word, DecoArt paint, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, unknown ribbon and patterned paper

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December Daily Days 13 & 14

A couple more DD pages for you to peruse! We are all affected by teacher job action in BC right now (since the summer!) and our school's teachers decided not to do a Christmas concert, sadly. But, Ailis's teacher did invite all the families to the classroom so we could hear the students sing carols and read a French story. When Mme. asked for a volunteer to translate the story for the parents, Ailis shot her hand up right away! She had to come up to the front, and she spoke loud and clear while translating their story - I was very proud! She has beauty and brains!!! Meanwhile, Brenna was everywhere, I had a heck of a time keeping her from falling out of desks, etc. so after the presentation, we left pretty quickly! The snowman sticker on this page is from the goodie bag Mme. Buhler gave to Ailis: it was her idea to include it in my DD!

Another Ailis page here. She has judo 2 nights a week, and is really loving it! She's talked about going for her black belt before, so I hope her enthusiasm lasts that long. I didn't know a thing about judo before going to a couple of classes with her in the summer, but it's a very cool sport! I think it does wonders for a child's self-esteem and leadership, not to mention their strength and coordination.

Well, some of you wished me a happy birthday for the 27th (thanks so much, everyone!), and I just wanted to let you know that I had a fabulous 2 days, including spending a $50 gift certificate from my mom and dad at my LSS, Creative Accents, and getting my hair cut short! I will post pics soon!

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December Daily Days 11 and 12

I'm back with my pages for December 11th and 12th. On the 11th, we finished up our hockey tournament in Merritt and traveled home through Kamloops for the quickest shop for jeans, boots, and books known to man! I really like how the embossing on the left page turned out, that's kind of an ongoing theme with this album - not really planned, but a happy surprise! The photos were taken from sooooo far away, and through glass, so they're not great quality, but I wanted to include them because they're some of the only hockey pictures I got.

This page for the 12th came together quickly. Again, more dry embossing, but this time I have a misted paper doily too. I'll definitely be using those again! The story here is kind of funny - while most kids are writing letters to Santa, Nolan's spending hours drawing the "Cold War", also known as "Elves vs. Snowmen". The drawing is quite complex, with several different types of aircraft, catapults, missile launchers, etc. Apparently the elves have better technology and won the war hands down! Not sure if this is a bit demented, but I was just happy that he wasn't super hyper or arguing with me, as per usual!

Christmas day is almost done, and I think it's safe to say that this year was a roaring success! I hope that all of you had a wonderful day with family, and possibly some scrappy treats under the tree!

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December Daily Day 10

Well, here is the spread I finished for Day 10, and I think I was quite clever! I managed to incorporate a pool pass/wrist band thingie onto the left hand page as a border, and remember when I mentioned before that I've been on a winning streak? Well, at the Merritt Centennials game we went to, I won a Tim Horton's gift card, so I added the holder onto the next page.

Here's a close up of the left side:

And one of the right side (hmmm, a bit blurry, I see!):

I traced the Timmies card onto some white cardstock and made an extra journaling card to pull out:

I have also finished Day 11, but whether I'll find time to blog is another story - Nolan and Ailis have been hogging the computer to play games, the little stinkers! Once Christmas is over, hopefully they'll be too busy with new things to bother with my stuff! We are heading to our parents' tomorrow for Christmas Eve dinner, so I'll take this opportunity to wish all my fellow bloggers a Merry Christmas, and I look forward to catching up with everyone in 2012, if not before. Big hugs, Roxy.

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December Daily Day 9

I'm having a very hard time keeping up with this project this year! The kids being home from school is really cramping my scrapping time. I'm going to have to start making notes on my calendar of what happened when (no, I haven't already been doing that, I thought I would remember everything, haha). Anyway, this page shows some pics from our road trip to Merritt a week and a half ago. I wanted more room for journaling, so I made a little flap that opens up with a ribbon tab.

This trip was definitely an experience. It was just Jason, Nolan, and myself, which hasn't happened in quite some time. I really enjoyed watching Nolan play hockey and meeting some of the families from his team, and I think Nana, Grandma and the girls and dogs had a pretty fun time too!

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December Daily Days 7 & 8

After stalling on Day 6, Days 7 and 8 came together in a snap! Day 7 talks about how my mom has been coming every week to help me out (I love my mom!) and this week she gave Brenna a much needed trim - her bangs were getting in her eyes! I almost added a little banner of twine and snowflakes up top, but I'm almost out of little snowflakes and wanted to save them for later.

I cheated a bit on Day 8 - this was a photo I took on December 1st, shhhhh! It's true, though, we've been getting these beautiful skies every morning. I probably live further north than anyone reading this blog, so it must sound like I'm up super early every day, but our sunrise is at 7:30 a.m. Then the sun's going down over the hill by the time the kids get off the bus at 3:30 p.m. It'll be nice when the days start getting longer again!

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December Daily Day 6

Well, just a bit behind in my December Daily, as in life! Do you ever feel like you're stuck in the mud, with the wheels spinning and going nowhere? That's me the past few months, sigh! Haven't even started Christmas shopping, but let's not go there! Look at this beautiful page I made for December 6th!!! It's actually 3 pages, because it was Jason's 39th birthday. Wow, I can't believed I'm married to someone middle aged! (I just threw that in there in case he reads this, eh, ol' man? I like to get the digs in wherever I can!) Here's a bit of detail on the first page:

I have to say the page looks better in real life, you really can't see the details of the blue patterned paper and pretty pink ribbon on the right hand side, so just use your imagination! That photo of Brenna is just awesome - I pointed the camera at her, didn't say anything, and she gave me this big cheesey grin, model in training! (How do you spell "cheesey"? It's coming up misspelled! Wow, "misspelled" looks weird, too, how come that doesn't get a red squiggly?) The grungeboard "6" is painted white and then sprayed with silver glimmer mist.

Here's page 2:

I've got a little December calendar in the upper right that you can't really see. I found this chipboard "family" word (Maya Road) in my stash, along with a bunch of others that will fit well in this album - I just painted it white, then sprayed with silver. When that didn't show up well on the background paper, I sprayed it pink - hey, you can never have enough glimmer mist! I really like the border (embossed and sanded with a Cuttlebug folder) and the little presents.

And page 3:

Another embossed and sanded border, and a couple more little pressies (as the Aussies say!), and a painted and sprayed grungeboard "6" tied on with the twine. That photo in the bottom right is Jason's mom goofing around with Ailis, she was giving her and Brenna airplane rides! I didn't know Jason was making a face in the pic I took of us, but I had to include it because it's the only one with me in it (typical)!

Yesterday I managed to get some Christmas cards done, but I still want to do more, so that's what I'll be plugging away at today. Also, Ailis's class is inviting their families to school for a singing thing - no Christmas concerts due to teacher job action, bah humbug! At least I'll have some pics for Day 13!

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Layout #71 - Creative Accents December Challenge

Creative Accents Challenges has a new December challenge up, and it's one that everyone can play along with:

That's right, anything to do with Christmas, link it up and you could win a prize! And the prize is going to get bigger and better the more entries we get, so that's something to get excited about!!! Here is what I came up with for your inspiration:

I really love how this page turned out, but again, it's one I agonized over. I've had the photos forever, and they're in B&W, so that's easy. I found a great sketch over at 4x6 Photo Sketch Blog, so that was easy, too. The hard part was deciding which papers to use, and then journaling. Can you believe I've drawn a complete blank when it comes to the Christmas of 2009? All I remember is what I derived from the photos, it's terrible!!! I completely blame it on the pregnancy hormones!

Anyway, here's a close up of some of the stitching and snowflakes I used to embellish the page (why I chose snowflakes for indoor photos, I'll never know, but I love 'em just the same!):

And a close up of the journaling:

This is why I'm so glad to be doing the December Daily process. It's a little bit uncomfortable, but it's all worth it in the end to have those little tidbits documented.

Supplies: Bazzill and Coredinations cardstock, BoBunny patterned papers, Prima journaling card and jewels, Sizzix embossing folder, Creative Memories pen, Graphicat Designs snowflake stamp and snowflake embellishments, Ranger and Close to My Heart ink, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, American Crafts Thickers, Hampton Arts letter stamps

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Scrapbooker's Paradise Guest Designer!!!

You guys aren't going to believe this, but I won another challenge!!! It's crazy, I've never been so lucky, maybe I should buy a lottery ticket! You watch, now that I've said it out loud, that will be the end of my lucky streak.

So last week I won the challenge at Scrapbooker's Paradise. That means they've asked me to be a guest designer for this week's challenge:
The prompt for Challenge #45 is: use a tree as the main image on your project. Well, I am in desperate need of Christmas cards, so I came up with this:

Supplies: unknown cardstock and vellum (I think the vellum might be Webster's Pages?), Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper (die cut with Spellbinders dies), Stampin' Up star stamp and yellow ink, Close to My heart sentiment and Olive ink, Prima jewel

And when my prize package from Scrapbooker's Paradise came in the mail (a beautiful Christmas kit from Simple Stories), I used some stickers from the kit to make this one:

Supplies: unknown cardstock, Hero Arts background stamp, Ranger Distress Inks (Walnut Stain and Tea Dye), Simple Stories patterned paper and cardstock stickers, Close to My Heart pearls

I should also mention that I used this sketch from Sketch Support for inspiration:

I hope you'll play along with us at Scrapbooker's Paradise this week! Who knows, my luck could rub off on you! Have a great weekend, I am off to Merritt for a hockey tourney. Yay, I love road trips!!!

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Card #24 - Creative Accents Stamp of the Month

Here's the other card I made for Creative Accents for their Stamp of the Month club. I was in such a rush to send it to Tara that I forgot to photograph it, so I had to swipe this pic from her blog! I really like the vintagey feel to this card, and after much deliberation and playing around, I've decided that my Christmas cards this year will be a play on this theme. It just makes sense, seeing it doesn't require much embellishment or patterned paper, so it should be very economical to make in bulk and to mail as well.

So here's what I did: I embossed a cream cardstock base with a lovely wintery Sizzix embossing folder, then inked the paper with two colours of Distress Ink: Walnut Stain and Tea Dye. (I stamped the sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder before inking the centre section.) I stamped the snowman in Walnut Stain Distress Ink, coloured him with two Copic markers (E33 and E35), then rubbed over him with Tea Dye Distress Ink. I trimmed him out and glued him to two wonky rectangles (cut with Spellbinders dies and distressed with a distressing tool) and there you have it. What do you think? I usually have my cards done by now, so I'm hoping I can get a bunch done today. Wish me luck! Between the puppy and Brenna, it's a challenge!

Supplies: Close to My Heart cardstock and embossing powder, Versamark and Ranger inks, Graphicat Designs stamp set, BoBunny patterned paper, Copic markers, Sizzix embossing folder, Spellbinders dies

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December Daily Day 5

I could have included numerous stories for Day 5, but I decided to keep it very simple and just use these photos I took of our puppy, Hunter. He was whining and looking out the window as the kids left for the bus, and then just slumped down when they were out of sight. Poor guy, he just had me and Brenna to play with that day!

I used Basic Grey papers for this page, and I really like how the die cut piece looks layered with the Grungeboard number, ornaments, and snowflake. Enjoy!

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December Daily Day 4

Sundays are usually an "up in the air" type day at our place, where there's no real plans and everybody's kind of bored and restless. We're beginning to see that Nolan thrives on routine, and part of that is just keeping busy. So this weekend, in an effort to keep our active boy moderately happy, Jason got out on the little lake in front of our place and spent a couple hours shoveling a huuuuuuge rink! There were a couple times over the weekend where we thought fists were going to fly out there (some of the neighbour kids don't see eye to eye, and luckily Nolan was just a bystander...this time!) but as long as there's an adult out there, everyone behaves. I took these pictures on Sunday, when two neighbour kids were out there playing with Nolan and Ailis while Jason, Brenna, Hunter and I took a bit of a walk on the ice. It was nice to get out of the house and get some fresh air, even if it was a bit chilly!

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December Daily Day 3

Hopefully I don't need to knock on wood for saying this, but I'm so fortunate to have my health. My kids and Jason are all really healthy, too. Ailis has a best friend from school, Sayler, and her family is new to the area, too. Her mom, Rebecca, and I met at Strong Start in September, and we've been trying to set up a play date since then, but for some reason or other, it hasn't worked out. When I heard that Rebecca had to undergo unexpected surgery, I thought now might be the time to get the girls together and give Rebecca a break (she has three younger kids, too, yikes!) I took the girls sledding at the park in town, then to Tim Horton's for a doughnut and drink, then home to our place to play for a bit. The best part for me was playing with my camera and getting these awesome action shots! I just love the look on Ailis's face - she's the one in the purple toque!

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December Daily Day 2

So the bad news is, I lost my purple camera card! I have no idea where it could be, it's not in the usual places!!! The good news is, I already had my photos uploaded to the computer, so I guess it could be a whole lot worse. The other good news is, my dad brought me some printer ink, and being able to print photos at home in the sizes I want makes me breathe a whole lot easier. Thus, I was able to quickly finish Days 1, 2 and 3 today, and I think I'll be able to keep up with it through the month, phew! Here's my page for Day 2:

Once again, I've decided to dedicate myself to eating clean in order to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes. I am at the same point now as I was a year ago, and I'm not liking it. Plus, I've decided it's a whole lot cheaper to just work my way into those 8 or so pairs of jeans that used to fit than to accept my body how it is and buy new stuff, and I'm all about saving a buck or two this Christmas! (Feeling the pinch in more ways than one, haha!) So on December 2nd, I spent the whole day at home, and a large portion of that time in the kitchen preparing food for the upcoming week. I find that if I have healthy options ready, it's much easier to resist temptation.

Supplies: Coredinations and Close to My Heart cardstock, Basic Grey patterned paper, Making Memories ribbon, Close to My Heart stamps and ink, Grungeboard number, DecoArt paint, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Twinery twine, Fiskars punch, Sakura pen

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Card #23 for Creative Accents Stamp of the Month

I created this card using the Stamp of the Month for Creative Accents a while back, and I really love how it turned out! The stamp set this month is by Graphicat Designs - he's the cutest little snowman, and he comes with some great sentiments! I love that he's so easy to colour with my minimal Copics, and he's also easy to trim out, which I did for the card front. Aren't these papers from BoBunny gorgeous? Love 'em! I used my new Spellbinders dies to cut the shapes, and some Distress Ink to grunge up the sentiment and card base. I even did the inside:

I love how the snowman looks all vintage-y! Actually, this look inspired my second card with this set, it's on the board at Creative Accents right now! I'll post that card another day, but for now, I have to run Ailis's play date home before dinner. Make sure you scroll down to see my Day 1 December Daily post!

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December Daily #1

No, I didn't forget about December Daily, I've just been feeling pretty swamped these last couple days. I don't think I'm alone in feeling that way, must be the colder weather! Anyway, you may remember that my Day 1 foundation page looked like this:

I really like the colour scheme on this page. I've got a Grungeboard number that I inked with Distress Ink, then brushed over with Perfect Pearls. I remember I tried to stamp the tiny "December" stamp the same way (Distress Ink, brush with Perfect Pearls) but you can just barely see it, even in person. So, I decided to add the little calendar down in the corner to reinforce the fact that yes, this is December 1st! I added some stamped and hand cut ornaments and a little snowflake I got from Cheri's Graphicat Designs store, and I'm ready to add photos and journaling:

Well, not quite. My printer's out of ink, and I've been without a car this week, so it's pretty inconvenient to get my photos at the moment. My dad's going to Kamloops today so I've asked him to pick me up some ink. I think that's the way to go for this album, I just can't see myself trying to print pics from a kiosk with a toddler running around. You'd know what I mean if you've tried it yourself! So, back to the album. I made this little flap with some cardstock, and two vertical photos will go on the outside and two on the inside. Here's the first:

Jason's office is in this huge log home with this beautiful fire place. It's just the coziest place! They had plates and bowls of treats, and Brenna was right in there with her grubby little hands, bringing me oranges and chips. Everyone really got a kick out of watching her.

Here's the second photo, of Ailis and her friend Amy:

Each forester had to go out and find a Christmas tree, the best tree possible. There were judges awarding points on everything from fullness to aroma (Jason's tree, the Sentinel, was the tallest - very typical!) The tree with the most points was awarded the place of honor in the office, and the kids decorated it, so that's what Ailis and Amy are doing here, unraveling the lights.

Here's Nolan, deer caught in the headlights:
And Jason, with his grubby-faced offspring:

Of course I was the one with the camera, conspicuously missing from the pictures. Must work on that for the duration of this album! We have a big day planned today, so I best get out of my pj's and get to it.

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Layout #70 - Scrapbookit

Just a quick post to show you this layout I finished the other day and share some happy news before I get too bogged down with December Daily. Remember my December Daily post? Well, I linked my project up to Scrapbooker's Anonymous for their A to Z challenge, and won myself an iRock!!! I know, I'm not kidding, I was totally freaking out, squealing and everything! This is the one tool I was planning to buy for myself eventually, but never did, so I'm very excited. Be prepared to see my 2012 layouts covered in bling!

On to this layout. I used this Page Maps sketch that Scrapbookit posted for their birthday challenges:

I loved this sketch and all the stitched hearts, so I stuck to it almost exactly. I used some of an old Close to My Heart paper pack called Unforgettable that I've barely used (now I'm a huge CTMH fan, I used to be a consultant, but I really don't know what they were thinking when they came out with this orange colour called Sorbet - it's pretty in theory, but I have a heck of a time matching it to ANYTHING! Hence the B&W photo, haha, goes with everything!) and some new goodies from my Lovelybug Bits 'n' Bobs embellishment kit. I'm quite loving how this one turned out, hope you do too.

Well, happy December! I'm going out to lunch with my mom and her friend, then pick the kids up from school for Jason's work party, then hockey practice. I think my dreams of crockpot chicken will have to be put on hold for something convenient like pizza!

Supplies: CTMH cardstock, patterned paper, brad, and ink, Creative Memories pen and rickrack trim, Lovelybug Bits 'n' Bobs ticket, tag, hemp and button

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