Ringing in the New Year

I don't know about you, but I sort of look forward to this time of year. After all the holiday hustle and bustle {yes, I definitely got caught up in that this year!!}, it's great to have a little bit of time to rest and reflect. I'm not a real "resolution" type person, but each year I sit down and set goals for myself. This year I've got some big ones. And it's a little scary. But if I don't try, I'll never know, right?

I just wanted to remind myself - to believe in me. I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't always have huge amounts of confidence. I'll take steps, then chicken out and play it safe. You know? Trying is sometimes messy {like this layout}, but it's all a part of the process!

Here's to a 2011 where you dream dreams, see possibilities, and believe in yourself!

Santa, Stop Here!

Hello long lost friends! I've missed you! My computer died a couple of weeks ago, which was, to say the least, not cool. I wanted to share with you guys the layout that I made for the current challenge (but was unable to get to Noel due to the whole lack of computer thing).
I chose to scrap about our little town Christmas parade. It's been a tradition for our family to go to it each year since we've lived here. The kids especially look forward to seeing Santa go by (and getting candy too!). I used the Bedford Falls kit to make this layout. Make sure to grab this kit to scrap all your holiday memories! :)
I took a hint from Gretchen and pulled apart the Making Memories embellishment in the kit to stretch it farther. I didn't need the whole frame on this layout, but I loved the bit of sparkle the golden leaves added to the page.
The little deer actually came from last year's Christmas kit. I've been saving that little cutie for just the right spot. I think it found it's home.

I'll talk to you guys next year! ;) Hehehhe Sorry, I just couldn't resist. ;)

(p.s. Make sure to check out "my" kit, the new Very Virginia kit! I'll be releasing details about my companion class this Saturday, so be on the lookout and grab your kit today!)

Family Forever

Happy New Year, friends! I haven't had a chance to scrap with Noel's brand new kit for January "Very Virginia" as my entire household has been sick, sick, sick. So today I'm going to share with you a project that I created for both my parents and in-laws for Christmas using a 7gypsies printer's tray and the "Hollywood Vogue" collection by Webster's Pages. The grey, plum, lavender and green in this collection matched our family pictures this fall perfectly. I also used some embellishments by Pink Paislee (cork, chipboard alphabet, frame, artisan tape), Martha Stewart (doily die-cut), Melissa Frances (pearls), Prima (flower), and Jenni Bowlin (label stickers). 

Here are a few close-ups of my project....

Hope you enjoy the last few days of 2010!

Until next time,

Jill

Misty Title

Hi everyone! Today I wanted to show you a quick tip on how to mute the colors of bright letters. For this example, I used the Sassafras Letters from the Very Virginia kit (hurry only 10 left!!!). I placed my letters on a piece of wax paper and then lightly sprayed them with the silver Maya Road mist. After letting the mist sit for a few minutes, I then wiped off the excess mist. Once dry, you can see how the mist gave the bright Sassafras letters a slightly grungy and muted look. Do you see the middle letter “t”? This is what the unmisted letters look like. What a big difference such a little bit of color can create.





All items are from the Very Virginia kit except for the tag which is from my stash.

Happy Creating!
Diana

Holiday Bokeh Inspiration

Christmas and New Year's tend to make me think of one thing: lights. Gorgeous lights in people's yards and strung from their rooftops, and there's nothing better than sitting next a Christmas tree, enjoying the warm glow.

So, I thought I'd give you a little visual inspiration of what's making me happy today. I'm still enjoying the light of my tree and I've taken quite a few lights-shots over my "Christmas break."

1. christmas is on its way, 2. Cuba Gallery: Fashion / bokeh / clothes / style / close up / photography, 3. Christmas Bokeh, 4. cool christmas bokeh!, 5. merry christmas bokeh!!!, 6. {christmas bokeh}, 7. A cup of christmas Bokeh 041210, 8. ~ never try to count bokeh alone ~, 9. vintage christmas decorations

Photos really inspire me, and I hope they do you as well.

xoxo,
Steph

white Christmas

Christmas at our house had an unexpected surprise - SNOW!!! I should also say that I live where we do *not* get snow on Christmas (or hardly ever for that matter). So it was very exciting to see snow flakes and to see some of it actually stick! 

I'm having a lack of scrappy ideas lately so I turned to the December Pagemaps for my inspiration on this layout. You can check them out here. You'll have to excuse the photo in my layout. I'm having printer issues and the photo machines at Walmart were all down. Bah humbug!! I plan on replacing the photo with a better one once I can get some printed out.

Everything in my layout is from the Bedford Falls kit. Hurry up and snatch one up before the last of them are gone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

No lights

Happy Monday!
I hope everyone had a great Christmas weekend!
*****
Today I am sharing with you my layout for the newest challenge.
This one is all about how you decorate outside of your homes for the holidays!
Scrap outside of the house: your outside decorations, how your town celebrates/decorates, or a favorite place you have visited for the holidays!
I scrapped about how for like the 8th year in a row we have talked about putting up Christmas lights on the house but still have never once done it!!

{Everything is from the Bedford Falls kit here except I added the teal-ish bling from my stash}

*****
I can tend to get quite wordy with my journaling.
When I originally put the journaling strips on this layout, they totally overwelmed the page.

And I just did not like it.
What I ended up doing was shortening the journaling so there were less strips on the page (as seen above).

Then I rewrote the full, original journaling on a piece of cardstock and attached it to the back of the layout.

That way I can remember the full story without all that journaling taking over my layout!
*****
Alrighty folks!
Enjoy the rest of 2011!
and happy scrappin'!!
:)

gretchen

Outdoor Challenge!

Our challenge for mid month was to scrap the decorations we see outside our home! I chose to go with some of the TONS of pictures I have from when we were stationed in Germany!
These pictures are some of my favorites... the Christmas Markets... we have so many memories from each year going to all the different villages and seeing all the different markets. They are all basically the same but the scenery is different and oh so beautiful! This layout shows one of our trips to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (one of my FAVORITE places in Germany!)

Everything from the Bedford Falls kit... (If you are now looking at all your Christmas photos wondering how you are going to get them scrapped... grab one of these awesome FULL kits and knock all those layouts out... there are still some left!)

 and some close ups...

Hope on over to the Noel Mignon Challenge Blog and play along!!
Thanks for stopping by! :)
-Kim

Tape Tricks

Anyone up for a little tape trick?

In the Very Virginia kit there is a whole roll of masking tape and a bottle of Antique Silver Maya Mist (among other super fantastic stuff) and I finally had a chance to play with it today.



Start with all these items from the kit and toss in some VersaMark, clear embossing powder, acrylic block, and heat gun.



Unroll about 16" of tape and tear it from the roll. Lay it down, sticky side up, and coat with baby powder or corn starch.



Turn the tape back over. Choose a stamp from the set and mount it on an acrylic block. Stamp in VersaMark along the top of the tape.



Sprinkle clear embossing powder over the stamped VersaMark and shake off the excess.



Use a heat gun to set the embossing powder.



Lay the tape inside your color catcher and spray it with the Maya Mist. Rub off the excess.



This is what you'll end up with - all the mist comes off of the stamped area.



Sew a straight stitch down the side and ruffle as you go.



After the tape is ruffled, lay a piece of the glitter ribbon over the top and run another straight stitch to secure the two pieces together.



And voila!

Merry Christmas!!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Merry Christmas, friends! My layout today uses the gorgeous "Bedford Falls" kit, and I created it for our new challenge to scrap outside decorations. When I learned we were doing this challenge, I knew that I wanted to scrap about my hometown's annual huge Christmas tree that is placed in the middle of main street. My hometown has less than 1,000 people and yet this tradition is upheld every year. But, I didn't have any photos of the tree so I sent my mom on a mission for me. The pictures she e-mailed me were not ideal for printing (only 121K) so today I'm going to share a fun little application with you that I used on my photo. It's called Poladroid and it's completely free! You just have to download it to your computer and drag your photo to the application and wait for it to expose. To print my photo, I went back into Photoshop and re-saved the photo to a size I could print. This type of photo treatment works so well for those photos that aren't great - they might be blurry, overexposed, etc. 

Here are a few close-ups of my layout...

I added a Jenni Bowlin label from my stash.

A fun little cluster of embellishments (Making Memories patterned paper, Pink Paislee die-cut, Making Memories snowflake and rhinestone, My Mind's Eye brad)...

And here's a look at all the patterned paper I put together at the top of my layout....love all the choices Noel included in this kit! 

Have a very Merry Christmas with your family!

Until next time,

Jill

Small Decorations can still make a big difference!

Hi Everyone!!! Christmas is almost here, and I can hardly believe it!! (Where did December go?!) I can personally say that this month didn't go quite as I had planned, but I finally decided to just go with the flow instead of stressing a whole ton about it. One of the main things I had fully intended on doing this December was decorate my home! I have tons of Christmas stuff I wanted to use and ideas of things I wanted to do, but only one of them happened. :P Either way, I am very happy with the one thing I did get done. These little frames below.

These are tiny little 4x4 frames that I picked up a few years ago from the dollar section at Target!! I have quite a few more because I knew they would be perfect for projects like this, but this was the first that I actually put them to use! And I had a blast! I used the Crate Paper Snow Day collection, and tons of little bits and things from my stash.

Even though these are small frames and didn't take very long to make, they brought a big color pop and lots of joy to my holiday season!

I hope you all have a wonderful (and safe!) Holiday Season!!! See you in 2011!! (Gah! I feel crazy just saying that!)

Take care! ~Amy

A Different View

This year when you take pictures of your Christmas decorations, try something new. Take the picture at a different angle. Take the picture from above or below. Have fun with it!

I wanted a picture of my wreath that is hanging on my front door but I didn't just want a picture of my door with the wreath on it. I took several shots and came up with the one I used on my layout.




Enjoy your holidays and remember to take lots of fun pictures!