Saturday was crop day and it now takes me almost 2 full days to put away everything and get back to normal! So I am posting again on the Christmas Album...now do you see why I started it so early?!

Day 4- chipboard flourish with Making Memories paint and pearl glaze, several layered flowers from Kaiser with a number center. The ribbon on the opposite page is tied onto a photohanger.













Extra pages for journal or pics. Flowers Making Memories and Bazzill.

Day 5 - Lots of bling, because BLING makes me HAPPY! Opposite page chipboard flourish painted Cranberry with a flower and a pearl button from grandma's box of buttons. The "5" is a sticker, we'll see if it stays on the felt. I may need to make adjustments.













Day 6 - Layered flowers, ribbon and a journal tag keep these pages simple. A scallop punch and chipboard "6" finish the page.

Pages 3-4-5

As you can see "pages" 3-4-5 are not necessarily "days" 3-4 & 5. I have included extra pages for photos & things.


A simple chipboard flourish that has been sprayed with Tattered Angles Glimmer Mist makes it look like an expensive metal embellishment. Total cost was just pennies. A couple of flowers layered with a bling stone.

"Joy" page is an "undressed" chipboard #2 with a ring of bling.



Transparent Day 3: Stamping on a transparency with foam stamps and acrylic paint, gives a totally different look than regular stamping. It is rustic & definitely NOT perfect. A poinsettia flower and a bracketed 3 adds dimension to the next page. It is also incredibly inexpensive, I found this package of overhead transparencies in a W*l-M@rt clearance bin for .99 cents. :-)



After flipping over Day 3 an "extra" page becomes clearly visible giving the year of the album. The bird is felt (Jenni Bowlin) with a hat pin (Maya Road) and a butterfly bead (unk) threaded through it. The "merry & bright" is a rub-on from Hobby Lobby. This is my favorite page of the entire album, the non-traditional butterfly and fun felt shape, gives it a happy home-made feel.

If you are working on one of these albums, keep in mind, somethings may not seem "Christmas" like, but mix & match them with something very much Christmas time and you might be surprised at how well it goes. Creating is about taking chances, you never know how something is going to look until you do it. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. Whats the worst that could happen? Really? Your glue dot might tear your paper and then oh, bummer you would have to go back to the store for more paper?! Gosh that would be terrible! :)



j.

The 12 Days of Christmas Mini-Album

The whole idea of this album is to have it done before Christmas gets here! Once the decorating and shopping starts, I never have time to complete a project like this. I am going to start at the beginning & work my way to the end. If you have any questions please email me!

To start I assembled the products that I hoped to use. Several different kinds of chipboard, felt, metal embellishments, numbers, ribbon, poinsettia flowers, reg. flowers, brads, paint & many other things. As you can tell, I like to mix and match and I also like to add things that might not necessarily be "traditional" Christmas. The only thing I went out and bought specifically for this project is the album cover, "Red Bracket Shape Cover" by Teresa Collins $2.50 and the interior pages which were punch outs by Teresa Collins that cost about $4.60. Everything else is misc. junk laying around.


We will start with page 2 since the picture of page 1 didn't turn out so hot. (I'll post it later) This is one of the punch out card stock bases I mentioned above. It has a lot going on already without much embellishment. I added a simple flourish that I painted green and then glazed with a pearl glaze. A small red paper flower with a mini bling, adds just the right amount of flair. The pages are numbered for the 12 days, and I had some small metal numbers that look like bubble brads and they fit perfectly inside the circle at the bottom right of the page. You can see the back side of page 1 was left blank with exception to some beautiful flourish rub-ons from Basic Grey. I will decide on day 1 what will be on that page.




Back side of 2 and front side of 3.......These pages prove that you do not have to do a lot of embellishing to make them nice. The addition of some red bling down the edge and 2 flowers layered together with a flower center made out of a button, this page is finished. By the time you add your journaling, pictures and memorabilia, these pages will be full.


Look for page 1-3-4 tomorrow.

j.

So this is what 400 Thanksgiving Invitations look like!




































This has been my "work in progress" for about a week now and it is finally done. I delivered them to the teacher this morning. It felt soooooo goooood to be finished! This is Addie's kindergarten year and the kindergarten class always puts on a Thanksgiving Feast & Program. There has to be 2 seperate invitations because each child is allowed 5 guests for the dinner & program and then they can invite 5 additional guests to the program only. We end up feeding about 200 people at the feast. It is really quite an undertaking.

Now we can move on to the food. It is a full blown dinner, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, pies & drinks. The kids make all the pies themselves at school the day before. I'm sure there will be more on this later. :-)

The 12 days of Christmas album is in the works and starting to really take shape. I am planning on starting those posts this weekend.

j.


Edited 11/7/08 @ 9:00 pm

What a day....come to find out this is not what 400 invitations looks like, this is what 200 invitations looks like. The printer shorted me 100 copies, which equates to 200 invitations. After a call from the teacher around noon and a frantic trip to the printer to get more copies, we now have 400 invitations. They went home in each little kiddo's backpack today. I drove while my mom folded them on a cutting board in the front seat. The things we do for our children! Thanks mom.

j. :-)

Happy Halloween Memories

I can't remember the last time we had such an awesome Halloween. It was 70 and not a rain cloud in the sky! I remember being a kid and it was raining and so cold, we would hit like 3-4 houses and go home. We hit the jackpot this year!

By the way, Megan did not dress up, but she did tag along with a couple of friends. Addie was Barbie and the Diamond Castle Princess.



Get Well Soon














Supplies: Paper, K& Co; Creamy brown ink, Cats eye; Black & Autumn Terracotta ink, Close to my Heart; green flowers, Bazzill; orange & burnt red flowers, Making Memories; white cardstock for postcards, Archivers; get well stamp, "Say it in Style" My Acrylix Stamp Set & "Pam" from "Elegant Script" My Acrylix Stamp Set, post mark from "Express Postage" My Acrylix Stamp Set, "O" from "Classmates" My Acrylix Stamp Set, all from Close to my Heart; brads, Bazzill & Hobby Lobby; flourish stamps, Stampendous; chocolate cardstock, Joann's; envelope flower, Prima Flowers, white string, Unk. Also used Base Camp Cricut cartridge to make "Postcards".





Note: You can't see it in the picture but there are three postcards layered together and you can lift each one and see an additional message on each postcard. One says "Get well", one says "miss you" and one says "feel better soon".


This card was ordered by our local postmistress for her co-worker, Pam. When she placed the order she wanted it to reflect the post office in someway. I think I achieved that by using paper with postage stamps, post markings and the three "postcards".




j.

I'm not going to explain this picture, but it is very important to me. I am posting this in honor of my best friend, who should still be here with me.

j.

Kyle & Maggie's Anniversary Card















Supplies: Ribbon, Joann's; black, red & white cardstock, Archivers; swirls embossing folder, Cuttlebug; heart stamps from "Soulmates" My Acrylix Stamp set, Close to my Heart, silver embossing powder and clear embossing stamp pad, Close to my Heart.


j.