Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Goodbye 2013 | Hello 2014

As I sit here typing this, thinking back over the past 365 days, it kind of went by in a slow blur. But a very good blur. 

With building our new home, a move, many home projects, a few trips thrown in, holidays, not to mention normal life with 3 kids, it's been a crazy, wonderful, blessed 2013.

With 2014 fast approaching I am really looking forward to this new year. To all the possibilities, to all the captured memories, to all the projects I want to finish. I have a feeling that it is going to be a great year !!

I am currently on vacation at my parents house. But once I get back I want to attack my long list of projects. And you know that once I do, I will certainly share them right here with you all.

Here are a few things that I want to work on.

Finishing my PL 2013.

Finish my December Daily album for 2013

Pick out a new Project Life kit for 2014. ** Did you all see the good news ? Becky Higgins now has a pdf of most the Project Life kits, all of the cards, all in one spot. So you can look at all of them !!
Here is a link to the PDF

Start PL 2014

That is all I want to add today. I need to get back to my vacation.  And our New Years Eve.

Stay tuned in the New Year for something very exciting !! I can't wait !! 


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Elf named "Harry"

Hello everyone !

I thought I would check in for a quick post today. A post about our little Elf. His name is Harry. He is very "naughty" according to my kids. But every morning I hear whispers asking "Where is Harry. Harry where are you ?"

Last week while I was working on more DD pages, my printer decided to have issues.  So while I am waiting to get that sorted out, and I am sooooooooo far behind on my DD album, I am going to share some of Harry's antics with you.

I plan to put some in my DD album and the rest I will add to my Project Life album. Katelyn has been keeping track of what Harry has been up to in her journal. But I wanted to have some photos as well to remember him by. The kids have been asking if Harry can stay all year. Even asked him about it, pleading with him to stay !! 

Day 1 | Zip lining or maybe sliding down some string in the kitchen


Day 2 | Enjoying a bubble bath



Day 3 | Playing with the angry birds. 


Day 4 | Toilet Papered our Christmas Tree


Day 5 | Trying to put together a new puzzle


Day 6 | He was fishing for goldfish in a pond of blue sprinkles.

Forgot to take a photo

Day 7 | He was too busy causing trouble that he made himself sick. Was held up on the doll bed in the big dollhouse with the thermometer, tissues, and some medicine.

Again, forgot to take a photo

Day 8 | *My favorite so far* The Toy Story toys had had enough of his mischief and tied him up with the Christmas lights to the railing. And were standing guard in case he escaped.


Day 9 | Harry got some of his favorite (and the kids) stuffed animals and toys together for a photo shoot under the tree. He also took some with him in the photos and put the photos on the fridge for us to find.


Day 10 |  Harry went around the house and drew silly faces, big ears, tails, and such on all of our family photos !! And also left Official notices of who's on what list. Thankfully the kids were really good the previous day and were all on the Nice List.


Day 11 | Someone got a little chocolate craving late last night. We made cookies after school that day. Just in case Harry decided to get hungry and eat all of the chocolate chips during the night.


Day 12 | Roasting marshmallows. He also left us a great big basket filled with all the smores essentials. 


Day 13 | Making a snow angel. Had to take the photo at night, but at least I got a photo.


Day 14 | To make up for all the havoc that he has done, Harry was trying to do the dishes and apparently got stuck under a cup.


Day 15 | Well to explain this one I have to go back to the previous day. Patrick read the last 60 pages of the 2nd Harry Potter book to the kids and they had started watching the movie. It is something they do together. He read them the first book and then the watched the movie. Then continued to the 2nd book.

So with all the Harry Potter business going on I guess Harry wanted to be a part of it too. He is named Harry after all. He pretended to dress up like Harry Potter and wanted to play quidditch. 

He had to make due on such short notice. So he borrow Mr. Potato heads glasses, a My Little Pony coat as a cloak, and a butter brush for a Nimbuss 2000 (a broom). He also used one of the baby Christmas tree's golden bulbs for a snitch. Oh I almost forgot about his wand. He painted a toothpick black and stuck it in his hand. 

I must say that it was a huge hit with the kids. I thought he looked rather silly but the kids loved it.



Well that's all I've got time for today. Got lots to do and a sick kid at home. I am hoping to be able to start working on my DD album again today and then I can post it soon. That is if I get some time. We are having a Christmas Open House here on Friday !!

Merry Christmas everyone !! Only 7 more days left.


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

December Daily Day 3 | Christmas Tree

Hello Christmas Tree.

We love you so.  With all of your beauty and twinkle.

This was the day that we decorated the Christmas tree.

We all did it together, with the adults supervising and directing a little here and there. The kids really loved pulling all the ornaments out and remembering when we got this one and that one.

"Here mommy, here daddy" were common when they came across one that was mommy's or daddy's.

Here is a look at Day 3.

I really loved how the colors came together on this one. 



One this first page I knew that I wanted to start out with a picture of the tree. I added one of Ali Edwards December Daily templates.  This one is new this year. You can find it here. 

 I printed out 2 photos of the kids holding some ornaments. Katelyn made her's during a church group activity. Finished the page off with some embellishments.


This second page came together really easily. Again, loving the colors.


I wanted to use the Studio Calico card, the one that has the big three on it.


Added a ornament stamp, the December rub on, and the Ali Edwards twinkle brush.

The second journaling card is a thin wood veneer card from twopeasinabucket. Added a photo of part of our tree.

 
This card is from a previous Studio Calico PL kit. I added this brush from Ali E.  Finished it off with some gold star rub ons from Pink Paislee.



Day 3 is done. Going to try to get some more scrapbooking in today to try to some more done.


I am loving this project !! I love December Daily.



Saturday, December 7, 2013

December Daily Day 2 | Monday

Hello Day 2.

This day is all about introducing our Elf name "Harry". He came to us a few days before December started.

The kids were super excited to hear all about their new Elf as I read them the book.

Here is a look at Day 2.


The first page close up.


Here are the journaling cards for Day 2.

The red journaling card is from the Studio Calico kit. I loved that it was red and it had a number 2 on it. Added some embellishments and s little journaling about me reading the Elf on the Shelf book to the kids. 

The photo is of me reading the book to the kids. I added the photo overlay from the SC kit from way back.


While trying to get Day 2 done and photographed  I forgot to add something onto the photo.  Searching online for something Elf related was not successful. So I saved the image of the Elf on the Shelf logo from their website. After it was saved to my computer I used the photo as a guide and made it the right size that I wanted. Used some white cardstock to print it out on and cut it out. There you have it.


I really had fun staging a photo shoot with "Harry" (our elf). Took some shots of him in our Christmas tree.  When I printed out the photo I left a white border. Really loving that look this year.

The brush is from Ali Edwards. You can find it here.  I had to break up the strip into two parts and
move the brush where I wanted it on the photo. Also made the word holidays white to make it stand out more.


Here is page 2.

I propped up Harry on my little ledge on my Board and Batten wall. It was the perfect spot for him to sit.

I knew that I wanted to do a big photo page for this photo. I started out with the photo just by itself, adding things here and there. Although, it wasn't quite right. Then I started playing around with the December Daily Templates. This one was my favorite for this photo. You can find it here.  
 I haven't yet purchased Ali Edwards new templates for this year. I am going to this week though.

You can find the hello magic brush here. 

After I printed out the template. I started adding this and that. I added a strip of patterned paper with my sewing machine. Also added the Harry label with my sewing machine.


That is a wrap on Day 2. Thanks for looking.

Merry Christmas everyone !

Thursday, December 5, 2013

December Daily Day 1 | Sunday

Welcome to December Daily 2013 | Day 1

Is it really December ?

This year it really snuck up on me and caught me completely off guard.  To be honest, I'm still trying to play catch up.  Don't get me wrong, I was soooo excited for this Christmas. To decorate my new house and all.

I did manage to get my day 1 done. Although still trying to work out my cover page.

As far as my album, it still has not been ordered and will probably have to wait until after Christmas. But I did pick one out. It's the handbook by Studio Calico. The magical edition. Hopefully it will still be available after Christmas.

I am using a 6x8 album this year, as I did last year. I think it is a perfect size for this sort of project. I am using a combination of divided page protectors. 




I made 3 different orders for supplies. The last one is still on the way. Yeah, did I mention that I was not ready for December. Hence the last minute realization that I did not have many page protectors. Usually I am very on top of things.

Moving on with the good stuff.

Here is a look at my Day 1 spread.

This day actually took place the day before. Shhhh, don't tell the December Daily police. But we were all home on Saturday and Grandma and Grandpa were still here. So we all hopped in the car and went to find us a Christmas tree. 


The kids ran around the tree lot for a few minutes playing hide n seek with grandpa. Not wanting to stand still long enough for a photo. This was the best one of the bunch.


Here is a look with some embellishments on it.  I also left a white border on the photo.


The sun was setting as we were finishing up at the tree lot so I snapped a picture.  I bought these great wood veneer squares and wanted to use this one for day 1. 


Journaling cards.

The cute envelope is from Studio Calico that I had in my stash. I cut down a tag and journaled on it. Also added a small photo of us in front of the tree at the lot.

The second journaling card was one from the SC Project Life kit. I went through all my SC journaling cards and set aside all the ones that I thought would work for my December Daily album. I added a photo of the tree on top of our van. 


Here is our hero, carrying our tree with one hand ! The kids were impressed. I had this great overlay left over from the SC PL kit. I thought it was perfect for this photo. The #1 is from a sheet of transparency numbers made by Alison Kreft. Love these, look for more as the album goes on. 


Well day 1 is now done. Moving on to Day 2. All about our Elf that came from the North Pole. Our first one EVER !!

Been scouring the web for some cute digital Elf stuff. I will even be happy with a printable. Anything will do !!

Has anyone seen anything cute ? I'm desperate. Please, please let me know. Leave a comment. I would be very grateful.

Thanks for coming. Happy Holidays. 

Monday, December 2, 2013

Project Life Week 45

Hello Week 45.

Week 45 has been done for a little while now. Life got busy and I wasn't able to share until now.

Since it is now December. Really, when did that happen ? I was and still am, sooooo not ready for it to be December. I wanted to share this week with you before I start my December Daily project.

I don't have a lot of time so here we go.  To save time I am not going to leave links for brushes and such. If you do have questions, please leave a comment and I promise I will get back to you.

Here is a look at both pages.



The first page.


The title card.


This is a very typical scene in my driveway lately. All the neighborhood bikes.


Spent a lot of time this week shopping and deciding on our family photo shoot outfits.


Journaling cards.


More journaling cards.


Here is a closer look at the second page.


Patrick sent me this photo of his view on the job site this week. We got the new iphone 5s phones and he was playing with his panoramic setting on his phone. He knew exactly what I would do with it too !


The boys working on my wall.


Katelyn was student of the month.


Journaling cards.

 

Week 45 is done.

Now it is time to start my December Daily album. Yeah !!  Not to mention finish decorating, order Christmas cards, ect. I will of course share along the way. Is anyone else playing along ?  I hope so. It's a lot of fun.

See. I'm all ready. Got my supplies. Here I go. Hoping to get Day 1 done today of DD.



Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Project Life Halloween Layout & Becky Higgins Creative Live

Welcome to my Halloween layout.

There were so many fun pictures and memories from Halloween that they needed a separate layout for all of them.

If you remember the week before ( Week 44) I cut the Design A in half. On the other side I started my Halloween layout.

I shared the stories behind their costumes back in the DRESSING UP FOR HALLOWEEN post.

Here is a look at both sides.


Title card.

The title card is one from the midnight edition. The pumpkin was a rub on. The Halloween brush is from AN ALI EDWARDS HALLOWEEN FREEBIE. YOU CAN GET IT HERE.


The journaling cards.

The first one is a card from the midnight edition. The second one is patterned paper from my stash. It shows the tombstones out in the yard.


The kids pumpkins this year.

Maddie painted the cat on hers. Katelyn wanted to paint hers like a minion. She painted almost everything herself. Noah wanted to carve his. He drew the face and I cut it out.

I used an orange overlay from my stash. The jack-o-lantern was a rub on.


Katelyn the kitty cat named Jingles.


Maddie was Sophia the First.


Got this great shot of the kids being silly.


Noah the minion.

I made a circle in photoshop and put it right in the middle of the collage. I found the Gru logo and put that in the middle. Wanted to add something else so I doodled in the circle, was brave, and added in the word minion freehand. I want to do this more often now I think. But I will need to find a thinner slick writer. Mental note, buy a thin slick writer. 


The journaling cards.

The first one is from the studio calico kit. The cat is a rub on. The second card is also from the SC kit. 


More journaling cards.

The first one is from the midnight edition. The second one is some patterned paper and I added the spiderweb from my stash.


That is a wrap on my Halloween layout.

Now onto the topic of Becky Higgins and Creative Live. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SITE.
Check out the website for more information.

Did anyone watch yesterday ?

I had it on all day, missing a little bit here and there. When it first came on I was taking my son to preschool. So I had it playing on my phone. Hooked it up to my car stereo and had it playing through the car. My son asked what we were listening to, Becky Higgins silly I replied. He thought that I was crazy. He immediately asked for a song. I was able to listen to most of it, took it on the ipad while I did my laundry, cleaning, folding of the laundry ect. I even got some painting done of my board and batten wall while I listened. The kids joined me in the office/scrapbook room doing their homework, reading, coloring, ect. It was really fun. Do you think I'm crazy too ? It's okay, I will forgive you. I liked to listen and learned a few things.

You can pause it too ! Which I did all the time. Very cool.

I did manage to get some actual scrapbooking done as well. I am more than half way done with my PL week 45. And will finish that up today while I listen.

So get ready for day 2 of Becky. She is on in 10 minutes. 9 am pacific time. 

Don't fret if you can't listen during the day. They replay it all after that.

Stay tuned for a December Daily post coming up soon. I received some of my supplies, but still have order a few last minute things and find my album. 

Take care now.