There's Still Time!!!

This is the PRIZE!!!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Contest!!!

Our 12 days of cookies contest will be extended until January 15th, 2010!!!

Sooooo there's still plenty of time to play for this fabulous Nikki Sivils prize at Creative Cookbooking! We want to see your mini albums of 12 favorite Christmas cookies recipes! 

~Gingerbread and saying goodbye to BABY TEETH~

             So, what do baby teeth and gingerbread have to do with each other? Well, not much except that they are the subjects of my two layouts today! This Gingerbread layout is my latest DT work over at Creative Cookbooking. The papers are October Afternoon mixed with some Jenni Bowlin, Martha Stewart & Maya Road. I used my Sizzix to die cut the gingerbread man and then I backed his hearts with some scrap papers. Did you know that gingerbread men have TWO hearts? The title is Pink Paislee and that cute little snowman cam in my embellishment kit from Tara at Magpie Club.

Hidden inside the envelope is the recipe and the directions we use to make our gingerbread each year.

The recipe actually comes all the way out of the envelope~

 

*********************

Bye-Bye Baby Teeth

 Here is the Julie's sketch this month over at Magpie Club:

 

And this is my take on it!

    I just love C's new smile. It was a bit traumatic getting those teeth out but now that they are long gone, she is back to adorable. That is of course, my non-biased mommy opinion. The sketch is another one by the super Julie Bonner {big hugs Julie} and the twist this month is that it is a 2 page sketch. I used to scrap lots of 2 pagers but lately, not so much. I used the {Heart Attack} We R Memory Keepers papers for this one. Aren't they festive!?! It has been a bit bleak around here weather wise so I thought I'd brighten things up a bit with these papers. The GIANT flower is Heidi Swapp. The tickets & filmstrip are Tim Holtz; those along with the little crown remind me of all the drama surrounding the teeth finally coming out.  And the little owl's face is just PERFECT -it really says it all. I did lots of machine stitching: the border strips are actually sewn onto and bind the patterned papers together. The circles are sewn together as well and that little pleated border under her head shot -also stitched. The bingo card and clocks represents her growth, bet you could have guessed that one:)

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

***MERRY CHRISTMAS***

A few of our favorite Christmas traditions...in pictures of course~

Riding around town in our new Christmas pajamas and looking at Christmas lights while sipping on hot chocolate

 

Decorating pine cones with peanut butter and bird seed to leave out for our feathered friends

 

 

Grandpa made it back to town just in time!

 

Chocolate Advent calendars

 

Leaving out cookies and milk for Santa

 

Tracking Santa's progress

 

Feeding the reindeer

 

Spending time with beloved family

 

 

And looking for Santa...

Merry Christmas to ALL!!! 

  

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques: Acrylic Albums

Have you ever tried an acrylic album??? This is my very first try and I have to say, it was lots more fun that I thought it would be. I started this project back at CKC with an SEI Leafy Scroll album. I thought the modern look of the acrylic married well with these artsy photos of  the kids that I shot a few weeks ago.

When you work with acrylic, it is critical that you take into account how it will look from BOTH SIDES before you stick anything. I placed ALL my pictures first and simply cut the pictures that backed up to each other to the EXACT same size. There is no margin for error on this. {Had to get that dreaded ruler out and everything!}

 

It works really nicely if ALL your pictures "go" together nicely as then you can leave it so you can see what's coming {or what's going} from the current page. I left it so some of the train track was visible from other pages and I just LOVE how that looks.

 

Hard to see in this one I know, but the tracks from the boys' page peek through onto the girls' page. The cover shot is the best at showing this technique, here it is again:

 See the tracks peeking out? I just LOVE that~

 

I continued the playful theme of this album by turning the pictures a bit here and there. The album has such and interesting and unique feel to it...

And now, for my VERY favorite page of the entire album {maybe I will have to display it backwards...}

The back cover:

 

 Okay, so maybe it is not exactly my favorite page of the album but it IS my favorite photo IN the album!

A few notes on working with acrylic:

1. PLAN AHEAD. Adhesives, all of them, will show through the acrylic so you need to plan to have any adhesive used on one side covered by a photo, embellishment or paper on the other side. This is kind of like doing a puzzle. Fun or frustrating depending on how you like this sort of thing.

2. Remember that this entire album is transparent. Anything you put on any page may just show through to other pages so make sure all your colors etc. go together well.

3. Acrylic has lots of static. Take advantage of this "temporary adhesive" to see how things will look.

4. Try it, it's fun and it looks so neat when it is finished!

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques: Embellished Star

 Would you believe this star began life as a Christmas Tree topper? I picked it up at Joann's, with my coupon.  It is heavy, waaaay too heavy for any tree that fits in my house so I redesigned it into a lovely kitchen decoration. I used a variety of Cookbookin' papers and embellies and just in case you'd like one too, here is how I did it!

Those of you who know me, know I really have an aversion to measuring. Do I even own a ruler? Well, I do but it's lost somewhere in the junk drawer. {No, not really.} If you are one of those amazing measuring people. Simply measure each side of your star's arm areas -the places you want to cover with paper. I looked for my ruler, just for you measurers but I couldn't find it -looks like it really IS lost.

This was one of those "having 5 kids is really convenient" times, I just went to one of their bedrooms and snagged a ruler from one of them! My star's arms measure: 5x2-1/4x3-1/2inches. Cut your papers just inside those measurements or make yourself a template to use for cutting the papers.

OR

MAKE A ~no measure ~ TEMPLATE like me!

Push one flimsy piece of scrap paper over the area you want to make a template for. Technical, I know!

Ah, see, there is the lovely impression.

 Cut out the template of the template;)

And check real quick just to be sure it fits right, trim until it does.

 

Then cut out a real template from scrap chipboard, cardboard, whatever you have around that is a little sturdier than cardstock.

There it is, THE TEMPLATE. {Keep this around in case you get another of the same kind of star...I embellished one of these exact same stars a few weeks ago but somehow lost my template}

Now, choose some papers and cut away. I used some of my favorite Cookbookin' papers: Cookin' up Memories and Preserving Memories, for mine. They just go perfectly in my kitchen!

I like to stick my papers right onto my star with vellum adhesive (or any low tack adhesive) so I can really see how they look. Some of these papers ended up on the cutting room floor...

I stood it up to take a look and make sure I liked how I had it. I like to use a 4-3-3 paper technique on these stars. 4 of one paper, 3 of another paper and 3 of a third paper. I played with several papers for this one and kept dragging the entire project to my kitchen to see how it was going to look...Finally, I made my paper decisions.

 I always ink my edges on a project like this so one by one, I pulled the papers off, inked them and then replaced them so I wouldn't forget the order that I liked them in!

Finally, ready to permanently adhere the papers to my star. I use Mod Podge, but only on the back of the papers. Just personal preference. I'll probably be sorry when I splatter the star with pasta sauce one day.

I hung a nice little metal rimmed tag, also from Cookbookin', around the star. Gives it a nice feel, don't you think?

And now it happily resides on my kitchen countertop alongside some of my other Cookbookin' creations.

More Holi-Daily {rolling right along}

 I'd been wanting to use one of these adorable metal frames for ages, finally, the perfect spot!

 I journaled on the back of that cute green tag that I got from one of Tara's kits over at Magpie~

 

 I just LOVE our outdoor tree this year. We put some new silver garland around it and when the wind blows, it just looks all twinkly and sweet!

This year's holiday card.

I have been doing these GIANT {Especially GIANT this year as the printer didn't reduce it for me~ Ah well, why waste ink with a reprint, off it went} scrapbook pages for our holiday cards for years now. I decided to stop this year and go the quick and easy route. When the family found out, especially mom, I rushed right to my scraproom and got to work.

The first of several sessions...

I think it has been three years now that I have been searching high and low for the perfect set of white dishes. Finally.

More to come...