December Daily 2010

This fall, I noticed that Ali Edwards had posted her December Daily for 2010 on her blog. I'd made a December Daily album in 2008 and enjoyed the process. I was sitting on the fence, however, on if I would make one for this year or not.

Then, I stopped at MSS and saw all of the lovely Tinsel & Twig line by The Girls' Paperie, including some stickers that were numbered, so they would work perfectly with a December Daily album.

So, I decided to make one. Because I found product I loved.

Crazy, I know.

This year, I decided to go with a 4x6 upright format. All of my pages are 4x6 and the idea is that I will take a photo each day in December, print it as a 4x6 upright photo and put two of them back to back to correspond with each page.

Here's the book:



Title page: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & poinsetta embellishment. The "12" was already on the paper, so all I did was run it through my printer to add the "/10" for the date.



A photo will go on the chipboard side.

1: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. The "1" is Jillibean Soup.



2: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & date sticker. The "2" is a Pink Paislee sticker and the stamp is Autumn Leaves.

3: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. I used my heart punch to punch from the typed patterned paper and placed a sticker behind it with the date. The lined pp can be pulled out of the pocket to journal on it.



4: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. The "4" is Heidi Swapp chipboard.

5. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper. An autumn Leaves stamp. October Afternoon "5".



6: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper. I cut a tag from cardstock, placed a Heidi Swapp chibboard "6" on it and misted over it. Then I removed the six and used the tag on the page. The brad is Basic Grey.

7: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. The journaling tag is printed on cardstock from my computer.



8: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & circle sticker. The "8" is a velvet BoBunny sticker.

9: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, a Making Memories stamp and the "6" that I misted on Day 6.



10: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & flower. The "10" is velvet BoBunny stickers. The stamp is Autumn Leaves.

11. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & square sticker. The chipboard star is Heidi Swapp, which I covered with The Girls' Paperie patterned paper. The other patterned paper is Fancy Pants.



12. Same idea and products as Day 6. The chipboard star is Heidi Swapp, which I covered with The Girls' Paperie patterned paper.

13. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & circle sticker. BoBunny velvet numbers. The 13 opens up to reveal the journaling.





14. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & circle embellishment. Again, the journaling can be removed from the pocket. The "14" is October Afternoon stickers.

15. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, Heidi Swapp chipboard, misted green and Autumn Leaves journaling stamp.



18. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & stickers. A Making Memories stamp.

19. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. My Mind's eye numbers. Again, the 19 opens to reveal the journaling.





20. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. Printed journaling lines on cardstock.

21. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker.



22. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & Heidi Swapp chipboard numbers. An Autumn Leaves journaling stamp.

23. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & stickers.



24. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. The "24" is Jillibean Soup.

25. Another pocket to hold the journaling. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. A Heidi Swapp chipboard heart, covered with patterned paper.



26. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, misted green and a Making Memories stamp.

27. The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, flower embellishment & sticker.



28: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, Pink Paislee stickers and Autumn Leaves buttons. I made a little matchbook cover that opens to reveal the journaling.

29: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & a Pink Paislee stamp.



30: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & sticker. Pink Paislee numbers. An Autum Leaves stamp.

31: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper & stickers. October Afternoon numbers.



The back cover, to match the front cover: 29: The Girls' Paperie patterned paper.

For the binder rings: I was searching for large red binder rings but couldn't find any. So I purchases some silver ones from Staples and painted them red with my "Marooned on the Subway" OPI nail polish.

Thanks for looking!

An attitude of gratitude

Here are the things for which I've been thankful for the past few days...

November 5th: These two "buddies"



Whether it's recounting a story about how they joined arms and ran together across the school yard after school or having a sleepover on Sage's floor on Friday night, these two just get along so well. It's so nice!


November 6th: Kids Zone



The Winkler Bible Camp runs a Saturday morning program for grades 1 to 6 at WES on Saturday mornings and my kids love attending it! They learn Bible stories, verses and values that reinforce what we're trying to teach/live out at home.

November 7th: New albums

Marcy sent me an email this week that the albums I've been waiting for since February were finally in! Yay!


(Photo by Austin)

I bought six of them and set to work this afternoon sorting my completed albums that hadn't been put away yet, along with reorganizing my old albums so that they weren't so full and would sit better on my shelves. A big job, but such a feeling of accomplishment in completing it. (Except, I was short on albums and page protectors, so I'll have to pick up some more before I can say the job is really completed. ;) )

For what are you thankful this weekend?

Random stuff....

A few things to share today....

Starting with my "attitude of gratitude" stuff...

November 3rd: the gorgeous weather we've been having.



Here in southern Manitoba, we often get snow shortly after Halloween, if not beforehand! But this month, so far had been nice and sunny and mild.

Fabulous.

I could easily take another month like this and only get snow mid-December. That would be awesome.

November 4th: a day off

I love my job. It's true. I look forward to going in to work when they call me in substitute teach at the high school. And I get a little stressed about the days when I'm not called in. Because, as much as I like being at home, I would rather be at work, earning money.

But a day off is something for which I can be thankful. Because it allows me to trust in God, that He will take care of our needs.

And, it allows me some time alone at home to catch up (so far today I've cleaned, baked two batches of cookies, picked my kids up for lunch and did some online shopping for Xmas/birthday gifts) And I really want to squeeze in some craft time, too.




And I also wanted to share a photo of my new patterned paper storage system:



I'm quite pleased with it. You can see more details on my post on the MSS blog here.

Thanks for looking!

An attitude of gratitude

I noticed on my friend, Jessi's blog, that she is posting something everyday for the month of November, focusing on gratitude. So 30 things for which she is thankful. I love this idea and think it would translate well into a a layout (or mini-book) or addition to my "thankful album" that I started several years ago.

So, I think I'll be a copycat and do the same thing: post something for which I'm thankful every day for the month of November. However, I don't think I'll stress myself about having to post every day, so if I miss a day, I can post two or three things in one post.

Here we go...

November 1st: My caring girl.

Sage is so good at loving me & caring for me. She tells me daily that she loves me, that I'm the best mom or that I'm her best friend. And if this wasn't enough, almost daily, I receive a note or picture from her telling me one or more of the above.

And she is so helpful. I started taking vitamins this summer and she is the one who fills my compartments with such precision each week.



November 2nd: That we don't have any overdue books at the library.

(This is a little unheard of for us and I couldn't help rejoicing over this news this afternoon when Bonnie, our librarian, informed us of this.)

For what are you grateful today?

Layouts....

... that I made with the November MSS kit:







A couple of 8x10 photos and lots of Crate Paper goodness in there!
Thanks for looking!

Carving Pumpkins

On Friday, we took advantage of the fact that there was no school to carve our pumpkins for Halloween.

Sage was right in there from the beginning, willing to cut and scoop. (She ended up letting me cut for her though.)



Jonah definitely didn't want to cut or scoop, but I managed to talk him into drawing the face that he wanted and that I would cut it out for him.



A picture of Sage working hard at scooping out the seeds from her pumpkin.



Austin decided that for his pumpkin, he wanted to cut. So he cut the top off the pumpkin and then let me scoop it out (what a guy!) He had printed the silhouette of a wolf howling off of the computer, cut it out, traced it onto the pumpkin and then cut it out himself. I was very proud!



And a couple of pictures of the end results:



Jonah's pumpkin is a shark and Sage's pumpkin is an owl (like their costumes).



And after rinsing the seeds and letting them sit overnight to dry, I made Pioneer Woman's Pepitas (a.k.a. roasted pumpkin seeds).



So the pumpkins are carved, the seeds are roasted, the costumes are completed (Sage's & the boys') and the candy is purchased (& not all eaten... yet! ;) )

All that's left to do is go trick or treating tonight.

Have a happy (& safe!) Halloween!

Halloween costumes 2010, part 2

I already shared Sage's costume in the Part 1 post. Today, I thought I'd share Austin & Jonah's costumes.

Once again, I was inspired by this link from Fiskars to make their Halloween costumes.

I loved that their ideas stemmed from using already made clothing and adding to it. So much easier (& cheaper!) than starting from scratch!

For the boys, I lucked out at the Thrift Store and found a black hoodie for Austin and a grey one for Jonah. A trip to Michael's took care of the felt (both regular and the stiff kind) and after a little bit of cutting, pinning and sewing, I ended up with these:



Jonah is a grey shark and Austin is a killer whale. Very easy and comfy to wear, too.

Thanks for looking!

A SSD layout and some sneak peeks...

.... of the November MSS kit.

First the layout...



I made it last Saturday at SSD, using a Pencil Lines sketch and some Crate Paper goodies, some October Afternoon rub-ons, some Pink Paislee foam letters & a Maya Road Chipboard snowflake.

For the snowflake, I inked it all over with white ink and then pressed a Hero Arts handwriting stamp into the ink while it was still wet.



And here are my sneaks from the MSS November kit:







Thanks for looking!

A personal challenge

I remember when, years ago, I fell in love with these Scrapworks tailored letter tabs. I thought they were so cool. But, they were also pricey, so I refrained from buying them.



Then, a couple of years later, my friend, Anita, had a garage sale and had some of her leftover letters in a little baggie for sale. I think they were priced at a dollar or something like that, so I snatched them up. I made this layout with them, back in April 2007:


(Look how cute & little Jonah was here!)

But I haven't use them since then.

Until, I came across them last month when I was cleaning through my supplies and getting ready for a garage sale of my own. I was tempted to price them and sell them, but I remembered how much I liked them. So I sat down and tried to figure out some words I could spell with them. One of them was "Austin", which I knew I could easily incorporate into a layout. The other words were partial, but I figured I could substitute other embellishments for the missing letters. So I challenged myself to use up the rest of the letters and here's what I came up with....

A layout about Austin, using some My Mind's Eye paper:



Two cards, using some Crate Paper:





A third card with some more My Mind's Eye goodies:



And another layout, which I shared last week:



So, I think I did fairly well. I have a Q, F, X and D left, so if you have any suggestions for words I could use with these on a layout, feel free to let me know. ;)

(It's really too bad I couldn't get a picture of the FoX we saw on the gravel road the other day. He was just too Darn Quick!)

Thanks for looking!

Feeling on top of things....

.... even if it's ever so briefly. ;)

This week, I worked on Monday, which was good. Then I had Tuesday & Wednesday off. On those days I managed to:
... catch up/spend time with a good friend
... clean my house
... prepare some food for a lunch at church on Sunday
... prepare some more food for a family gathering on Sunday evening
... start cleaning through my scrap supplies
... create a scrapbooking layout
... pick up groceries
... have a children's ministry meeting at church
... get my hair cut

(Whew, was I productive or what?)

Then, yesterday was another day off. And I spent it shopping in Grand Forks with my wonderful friend, Val. I picked up a few things for myself AND made a huge dent in my Christmas shopping purchases! Gotta love that!

Today is my fourth day off in a row and once again, the house is clean. :)

And tomorrow, I'm spending the day scrapping at My Scrap Shoppe's Super Scrap Day. That's right, the whole day. Twelve hours. I cannot wait!

And here's a layout to share, because I don't like posting without a picture. ;)


I made it using an October sketch at Page Maps as well as The Girl's Paperie, My Mind's Eye, October Afternoon and Stampin' Up! patterned paper, Pink Paislee letter stickers, Creative Imaginations stamps, The Girl's Paperie brads, some really, really old Scrapworks woven labels and an October Afternoon diecut.

Have a great weekend!

Halloween costumes 2010, part 1

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Fiskars with a link to some great Halloween costume ideas. I let the kids look at it and Sage decided that she wanted to be an owl.

Which I thought was great, for several reasons:

1. Her name means "wise one", and the owl thing has just always been connected to that. (One of her first outfits was a cute little Baby Gap one that was covered with little owls. Oh and it was sage green, too!)

2. I love owls.

3. The costume looked quite doable.

So, we hit the thrift shop and bought some corduroy pants/jumper/shirt to make the feathers. A great way to repurpose and save money! (In hindsight, it would have been probably better to just go with polar fleece & felt, as I didn't realize how much the corduroy would fray. Oh well, next time...)

I used an old tank top of mine and sewed the oval shapes (feathers) to it. We decided to use the tank top to layer over a brown long sleeve top (for the daytime/insde parties) or her brown jacket (for trick or treating, because, well, we live in Canada, and it gets cold here.)

The hat I found at Superstore and I followed the Fiskars' directions for making it, changing the colours slightly.

And here's the end result:







Isn't it/she adorable?

Thanks for looking!

Fall Sketch Friday

I've been posting sketches on Fridayss on the MSS blog for a while now. Click here to check out this week's sketch.

Here's the layout that goes with it:



I used a mix of products for this one: My Mind's Eye patterned paper, Stampin' Up! metal embellishments, Studio Calico letter stickers.... and a cork heart that was sent to me last year when I was on the DT at Scrap for a Cure.

I kept the layout pretty simple but was quite happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for looking!

Yet another back to back layout

I've been in love with diecut patterned paper for a while now. And I've gotten pretty good at making layouts on both sides of it. Now, My Mind's Eye makes it even easier, as they've made their diecut patterned paper with pattern on both sides! So great!

So here's what I made on the front:


(On this layout, in the journaling, I talk about how I hope the kids will have good fun memories of me in their childhood. The photos were taken by Cameron at the Mall of America this summer.)

And on the back:


Another layout about me! ;) This is from my birthday this past August. Photos also taken by Cam.

Thanks for looking!

I am thankful...

1. For Jesus and His incredible love & grace.

2. For Cameron.

3. For these guys:




4. For the close friends God has blessed me with.

5. For my church family.

6. For areas where I can serve God.

7. For my job.

8. For our lovely town.

9. For our home.

10. For vehicles that work.

11. For fall in all its splendor.

12. For a hobby I love.

13. For friends I've made through #12.

14. For chocolate M&Ms.

15. For opportunities to learn new things.

16. For praise songs that get my focu back where it belongs.

17. For books and the gift of literacy.

18. For movie nights where I can snuggle with my kids.

19. For meals shared with love ones.

20. For each day.

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends!
Emjoy your weekend!

The 2010 Olympic Torch

The Olympic Torch run came through our town this past January and I was so glad I'd brought my camera along to school that day, to capture the event. (Despite the fact that it was terribly cold out!)

I created this layout using a sketch, created by Danielle Flanders and some My Mind's Eye goodness:



(It's also posted on the MSS blog today, as my Fall Sketch #3.)

Thanks for looking!

Some tae kwon do layouts

I was mentionning recently how I was trying to get "caught up" in my scrapbooking-- i.e. trying to finish up scrapping my 2009 layouts. And I thought I was successful, until I realized I had a 8x10 collage waiting to be scrapbooked, as well as a 4x6 photo and a collage of 2x2 photos printed out as a 4x6.

And they both happened to be photos taken at two of the tae kwon do tournaments we attended last year.

So here's how I scrapbooked them:





It's always a little hard to scrapbook these photos. The lighting is never good and honestly, I never look that great in the photos. Oh well.

Thanks for looking!