Pulling Together my December Daily

This is a quick and dirty nap-time snapshot.  Excuse my lighting.

Okay, I'll admit it.  I have a love/hate affair with December Daily albums.  Love because I mean, it's a fun project and a neat way to document a very unique time of year and it feels so SPECIAL.  And hate because I'm Jewish and, well, December Daily is very Christmas-y.  And I LOVE looking at everyone else's red and green albums with their belighted pine trees and elves on shelves -- but that's not my life.  I've got candles and dreidels.  I've got potato pancakes and jelly doughnuts.  And it's awesome and I love it, but sometimes it just doesn't mesh with all the DD stuff out there.

 So this year, I'm totally going non-traditional and owning it.  I used Crate Paper's Bundled Up last year, and it was cute.  But this year I'm going black, white, kraft and gold.  Maybe a hint of red.  I found an awesomely cute little 6x6 paper pad at Tuesday Morning called Hot Cocoa by American Crafts (which is a mystery -- I can't find info on it ANYWHERE!) but I loved its graphic patterns.  I may pull out all the red and use it for different projects, or I may add it in sparingly.  I haven't decided yet.


This isn't the completed collection of what I'll be using, but it is the start and probably the bulk.  I'm going to go simple, clean, and graphic this year.  I need a few transparent overlays, maybe a bit more vellum, some sequins and enamel dots -- and the Printshop star wood veeners that Joann's is carrying in stores now (yes 50% off coupons!).  I'll be using a Studio Calico Handbook album (kraft) that I got on Uber clearance off amazon.  I pulled some mambi pocket pages cards from my DT days with them that will compliment nicely.  Overall, I'm liking it a lot.  I think it'll look cool, and different, and most importantly it'll be true to my not-so-much-about-Christmas December.  And that's awesome, if you ask me.

Paper Camellia : Sept 2014 Round Up

Here's a quick round up of things I made with this month's Paper Camellia Kit!

The October kit reveals tomorrow and I can't wait!  

Paper Camellia Jan 2014 Kit Fun

Hi everyone!  I'm back from my holiday hiatus and today I wanted to share some layouts I made using the lovely Paper Camellia January 2014 Kit!

So many embellishments!  And beautiful colors, too!

This one is my favorite so far.  I love the simplicity.

I'll have more to share a little later -- so stay tuned!

On the Paper Camellia Blog

Did you see my blog post over at Paper Camellia?  Go check me out -- and just FYI, this amazing kit is almost sold out, so grab yours if you're interested!

Spoon Love

This layout was made using the September Citrus Twist Kits Main and Pocket Life kits, plus my own alphas and a few mambi chips.  I love how it turned out.  Sometimes it seems that if you want to include a lot of journaling in on a layout it distracts from the flow of the page -- but it becomes part of the page on this little sheet of notebook paper from the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party cut apart page.  I punched the edge to make it look torn from a notebook.  

Of course, there is some stitching.  It's so easy and a great way to add a little texture.  This is cream thread with a gold bobbin thread -- just a little bit of sparkle shows through.

This heart mambi chip fits on the Amy Tangerine paper almost perfectly!  It was too good not to use.  I love how it keeps the flow of the paper, but adds a little extra pop with the dimension and the glitter.  I also love how the b-side of the bottom strip of paper coordinated with the rest of the line.  I wanted to show it off, so I folded it down for extra texture!  

Playful

More of Crate Paper's The Pier on this layout -- I just love that line and I want to use every scrap up before I find something I love more.  Which you and I both know will happen -- so use it up now I shall!  I'm not one to hoard.  But we are getting down to scraps, so this is a very scrappy sort of layout.

Most of these papers were in July's Citrus Twist Kits Main and Pocket Life kit.  I added a few embellishments from my personal stash (like that starfish brad -- how sweet of a little detail is that?  And don't you just love doily sequins?)  As you can tell from the past few layouts, I've pulled out my little pouch of MME titles and have been putting them to work, too.   Summer is coming to an end, so I'm trying to finish up most of my summery layouts.  There are so many great Fall products coming out and I can't wait to cut into them!

Daddy's Little Love

Well, even though the photo sucked (I thought I'd give Sam's Club printing a try  -- WAY DARK WHOA) -- the layout came out kinda fun.  I think I might pull off the dark photo and put a decent version on instead.  I like that you can print a 16x20 at Sam's for 4 bucks -- but if this is the standard quality I'm sorely disappointed.  I'll give it another shot, though.  Lots of The Pier on this one, a little I Heart Summer, some Studio Calico cork embellishments, and a Lily Bee Rub on that is probably as old as the earth itself.   The bunting was the handmade item in the June Citrus Twist Kit and is super cute -- looks good here, I think!

Cousin Love

Hi everyone!  Laurie here with a sweet little layout using a lot of Crate Paper's The Pier collection.  Whimsical Twist has the Slide Frames in stock from this collection -- and if you're a paper fanatic like I am, you know that those have been hard to find!  You'll find so many uses for them, so snatch them up now before they're gone.  And, of course, if you're like me, no layout is complete until you have to have sequins on it, and the store has a beautifully curated selection of colors that will make you swoon. The title is a pink version of these Amy Tangerine Thickers and there are a few enamel dots sprinkled here and there.

The Pier is definately my favorite collection from the summer, but I'm still trying to decide which is my favorite of what is coming out soon!  The shop has lots of great collections available for pre-order, so check them out and get everything you love before it sells out everywhere!  

Speaking of favorites, have you entered a project into our favorites challenge?  You could win $15 to spend in the store -- and winning prizes is a favorite of everyone!

Yam Tastic!

Hi All!  I've been on vacation this past week, so I've been busy making memories instead of scrapping them.  It's been a blast, though!  Tie Dye, Watermelon, fireworks on the beach, family family family -- so much to record and remember.  Today, though, I wanted to share something a little older -- a page about the food I'm feeding baby Orli.

We took some great photos as we offered her new solid foods, and this set of photos of her eating yams was special to be because it included a photo of my husband feeding her -- but I already did a page about her eating solids.  So I decided to do a page about how I make all of her baby food myself here at home.  (BTW, I highly recommend a Cuisinart Baby to anyone who's looking to make baby food at home -- that thing is fantastic!)

(Our TV is not usually on ever, much less during dinner.  We were having some severe storms, though, so I was watching for storm warnings.  I feel so lame that the TV is on in that photo!  Bah!)

I hand stitched a frame around the photos and also drew a border to make it pop a little.  Add a little washi tape, some brads (I'll never be over brads) and some glitter Thickers and we're good to go.  The paper is Sweet Notes by Allison Kreft for Webster's Pages.  I haven't used a lot of that collection yet, but I love it, so I'm sure more is sure to come.  Gotta use it up with all my summer photos!

I won't be at the beach much longer, so expect more regular updates soon.  Until then, enjoy some summer!

The Shimelle Challenge Commences!

 Hooray!  I love a good challenge, so I'm playing along with Jennifer Smith Sloane's Inspired by Shimelle Challenge, where, much like the master herself, we take a limited number of supplies and then work and work and work until we can work no more with what we started with.  Which is pretty much how I roll to begin with (no beautiful scrap shall die without being glued SOMEWHERE!) I'm not used to such an insular process.  I think it'll be fun, and might encourage me to bring something like this along with me on vacation since we vacation in no-mans land with not a lot of entertainment options besides reading books and riding bicycles and family dinners. (Which are all great, but sometimes after 4 days of that it gets a little old, you know). 

So here were the rules of the challenge:

The challenge is to create a kit using supplies you have on hand that includes:

-10 patterned papers
-5 sheets of cardstock
-1 spray ink (Mister Huey/Glimmer Mist/etc.)
-1 stamp set
-1 Alpha Sticker large (Thickers, etc.)
-1 Alpha Sticker small (mini alphas)
-1 sheet of bling/embellishments
-1 pre-made/cut die cut accent
-1 set of border strips

*Any of the embellishing items above can be traded out for one other type of embellishment with that noted. Tools do not count as do stamping inks.

The challenge comes from using this kit to create as many projects as you can.

I just got a huge box of goodies from the Charity Box Sale (which, by the way, was TOTALLY AWESOME!) so I pulled 10 Sassafras papers from the box as well as a package of flowers and border strips.  The Thickers, Stamps, Cardstock and Cosmo Cricket page (partially used, I love those little cut apart tags) came from my bins.  I haven't yet got on the mist bandwagon, so I substituted the ever elusive Target Yellow Washi Tape Set instead.  The stamps are Amy Tangerine and the Letter stickers are Thickers and from Michaels.  The Cosmo Cricket page is substituting for my die-cut accent.  So there you have it.  Challenge accepted and ... may the odds be ever in your favor?

I hope its not that kind of challenge!

XOXO 

BPC Design Challenges: Project 1

Hooray for first layouts of new classes. I'm taking Design Challenges over at Big Picture Classes, and this was my first layout of the class. I love a fast paced class with no real rules (ugh, I ESPECIALLY hate step by step tutorials -- I want to be FREE!) so I'm digging this already.

I had a 6x6 paper pad that I picked up a while back to try out that I used for my pie chart. I learned that I tend to like bigger pieces of paper than just 6" on my layouts, so the pad hadn't been getting much use -- but it was perfect for chopping up into wedges for my chart.

Did a little experimenting with Tim Holtz distress ink, which is a new material and technique for me. Next time I'm going to tone it down a little, I think.

And of course my layout has my one true love of WASHI TAPE all over it. I tell you, I could eat that tape for breakfast lunch and dinner. Its perfect for all occasions.

Can't wait for the next challenge to be released, and I'll post what comes of it here, of course!