Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking

Copic Markers + Thickers

I created this two page 12x12 scrapbook layout about my daugter's desire to play Barbies all day everyday - and have me and her dad play with her - {this is sometimes more challenging than it sounds - she has specific rules of play which change freqently.}  We did make real pancakes for the mother-daughter Barbie Christmas breakfast - it was awesome, we also built a sweet hammock and made lots and lots of Barbie Clothes and pillows and sleeping bags.  

When I finished the layout, the letters in the middle didn't stand out but I already had all the American Crafts light blue thickers on the layout and I didn't want to pull them up; so I tested on the x's and z's leftover on the sticker sheet and changed the color of the letters with Copic Markers.  It was seriously easy and satisfying, sort of makes me want to get all my letters in white just so I can color them.

Those copics are possibly more fun (at least for me) than the Barbies - although I do get to play with the Donny Osmond Barbie Man which is extremely fun.

 

 

Scrapbook Yardsales & Jet Packs & 12 on 12 Scrapbook Plans Delayed

Supplies:  Patterned Paper .10 cents x 2; Stickers .25 cents; thickers $.10 cents; photos: .09 cents x 3.  I made this page entirely from things I picked up at the scrapbooking yard sale  for a grand total of  $.82 Cents; ok maybe add a few more cents for the adhesive - still, I'm barely up to $.90 cents total.  Wicked Bargain Right? 

Not only do I now know that Santa's Reindeer are fueled by jet packs, but that time flies faster than a jet.  I had intentions of blogging and even making a scrapbook layout for 1-12-12 but I got busy with lots of other stuff including:

1. Going to the ER thinking that I had a bursting appendendix only to learn that it was a gigantic gas bubble; I don't normally have that sort of problem and it was exceptionally painful.  Now I know and feel a bit like I'm taking after my Grandma Grace in the hypochondriac department.  I am thankful that everything is ok.

2. The normal daily routine of life including working, taking kids to school, laundry, dishes, dinners, homework, work work, meetings, phone calls, mountains of paperwork; it is nice to get back to the routine but I'm wondering how I'm going to fit everything in.  I lots of times think I would like to be able to freeze time to get stuff done and/or clone myself - Samantha Stevens Style ala Bewitched.

3. Ok this one is fun in a scrapbooking kind of way:  I went to the Whim-So-Doodle scrapbook yardsale on Saturday Morning and got so much stuff including the red graph reindeer paper on this layout.

 

 

December Daily 2011 - Condensed

I did the Ali Edwards December Daily project this past Christmas and I was very diligent about doing a page a day and I really loved making the project and I love the final result.  But looking back, something feels like it is missing, at least for me.   I didn't do many - or even any - actual 12x12 pages for my Library of Memories Albums - which is fine, but, somehow, I just felt like I needed to do at least one.  This page condenses the entire month into one page, plain and simple and easy.  I made it in less than 5 minutes and it makes me feel good to have one page from 2011 to go into the  Libary of Memories, Things We Do - Celebrations - Christmas album; especially since I'm pretty sure there are several 12x12 layouts in those albums from most of the other years since my children arrived.  I know that probably no one would miss 2011 in the LOM album - but we had a great December 2011 and I wanted to be sure to include it - and the title of the page will remind me, and hopefully my family, that there is a December Daily Album for 2011 out there.

I made this one in Picasa and I'm going to see about printing it out in a 12x12 - if anyone has any print recommendations - please leave a comment or a link.

Scrapbooking Christmas Photos with Outdated Scrapbooking Supplies

If you are a scrapbooker, and chances are you are if you are reading this blog, then you have probably at one time or another, visited the craft store and looked at or even purchased a "Memory Kit" - come on - show of hands please?  Right, just as I expected 99% of you have and the other one percent is in denial.  Who could resist 59 pieces of scrapbooking embellishments for $2.99?  Not me.  But truth is that I'm guessing this fabulous pack of Starlite Christmas awesomeness has sat in my Christmas scrapbooking stash for the past ten years.  I pulled it out this morning and felt sorry for it so I decided to see if I could challenge myself to make a layout with it and have it look "not awful" - and I think I succeeded - let me know what you think:

The top three photos were all in bathrooms and taken with my canon - and/or my daughter's canon - point and shoot and the bottom three with my iphone.  None are particularly good - with the exception of the top right - I think that one was pretty good and I felt very fashion-y that day because I was wearing a long necklace - I forced myself to put it on as I'm not really much of a jewelry or accessory girl.

Journaling:  "I decided that this year I'd make an effort to be in the Christmas Photos!"  "I'm the one behind the camera."

The second line is an inside joke-ish reference to one of my family's favorite movies "Deep Impact" with Tia Leone  when her Dad shows her the photo of her and her Dad on the beach & she was angry with him for marrying a young woman and leaving her mother along - and she snapped back "Where's Mom?!?"  And he answered "she was the one behind the camera"  - that scene always makes me cry big streaming sappy tears - and I pretty much cry the rest of the way through the movie - especially later when the giant tsunami wave is coming and she is with him on the beach facing it and certain death and she says "Oh, Daddy."  If you haven't seen that movie, watch it - its a good one.

Back to the OPA (Old Product Alert) - this is a term from Cathy Zielske's Big Picture Classes class "Design Your Life" which I also highly recommend, in fact, I think whoever designed the pages for the front cover of that Memory Kit product could probably benefit from the class - although my guess is that those pages were made 10+ years ago so chances are their skills have improved since then. 

I got crafty with those little Christmas trees - check it out:

Also - the title and journaling in the middle of the page with the six photos on top and bottom lined up is a very, very easy way to get six photos on one scrapbook layout and have it looked pulled together, at least IMHO.

Tell me:  Did you take photos of yourself this past holiday season?  Do you scrapbook yourself?  AND how old is your oldest product and do you still use it?

 

 

December Daily #30

One more day of December Daily and the year 2011 & then I'm starting on all these resolutions & One Little Word & Twelve & Move More Eat Well & Round Up & all sorts of other fantastic things in 2012.

December Daily #25 & #26

I have completed Christmas and Boxing Day and a few other pages.  I'm all caught up and am planning to do December Daily until the end of the month.

 

December Daily Ustream Update

 I totally missed Cathy Zielske's MOVE MORE EAT WELL chat today, but I did make a little video on ustream about my December Daily progress:

 

 

December Daily #29

I know that December Daily only goes to the 25th - or at least I think it does, but I still have extra room in my American Crafts 8x8 album so I figured I'd go to the end of the month.   Here is today's page - a self-portrait of the family at year's end & I saw this idea on Pinterest of putting everyone's birthdays and the anniversary date together - and since our anniversary is coming up, I figured it would be a good place to include it (I have mixed up the numbers for internet purposes). 

Also, I tried to do the paper strips chevron trick from Jennifer McGuire with this diagonal paper but I couldn't figure it out so I just used a paper strip instead.  I'm going to try that trick again, so I'll post my second attempt soon.

The family picture is the one I used on the first page of my Project Life 2012 album.

P.S. I figured out the chevron stripes thing using plain old striped paper (NOT diagonally striped paper):

 

December Daily #24

I feel like an Elf at crunchtime on December 24th - almost there with finishing my December Daily Album - I am ready for it to be done - and it almost is - just a few more pages.

Here is Christmas Eve / December 24th  for December Daily:

Mission Impossible?

Why does finishing December Daily seem like Mission Impossible - I technically only have two more days - but it seems like a really gigantic job.  I'm hoping to put it - and my kids - to bed in the very immediate future.

Meantime, I did add a fluff page after being inspired by Katrina Simeck's Blog Post Winter Staycation, I actually copied and pasted her post and then put in my own words but the structure is the same.  Easy and done.  Here it is my take on this idea:

I did the page in word perfect (yes I prefer word perfect to word) and printed it out on plain white cardstock and glue-sticked a Christmas card (blue) to the left side of the page, and on the B side of that page, I just stuck a bunch of random stuff that was on my desk. 

And yes, those Christmas Barbies have sung "Deck the Halls" about a bazillion times and Miss Ally Lu Lu came in to the scrapbooking room another bazillion times to have me sew pink Kleenex into sleeping bags, pillows and other room accessories for said Barbies - I really should have taken a picture of that too - ok, I just took some  - (I wonder if there is a reaction to December Daily of taking less than normal pictures in January - we'll see).  Presenting home made Barbie pillows and Barbie Snow Park complete with real snowman and sled and Barbie Fishing Pool with homemade fishing poles, etc:

Ok back to the December Daily Wrap UP.

 

Wrapping Up Christmas

Stacy Julian had a line on her blog about being OK with the Mess of Christmas because it is evidence of the day's abundance; I paraphrased her and added it over a photo and I keep repeating it to myself to be OK with all the stuff that needs to be cleaned up.

Along those lines, I have been listening to this song called "There's Hope" by India Arie - give it a listen while you are wrapping it up.  Trust me it will give you some hope to tackle job of cleaning up Christmas:

 

And its got a good upbeat for cleaning.  Seriously Awesome.  I'm trying to add a little of my One Little Word into each day, I'm going to plant something today in this pot I painted yesterday:

I planned to wrap up Christmas today and put all the decorations away, but there are 5 kids in my house! So I don't think that is going to happen. I did manage to clean up the kitchen and have told the kids that there are no more dishes today - we are paper plates from here on out. The boys are playing wii and nerf guns and can be heard from miles away despite that they are in my son's room with the door closed. The girls are eating ice cream cones and playing Barbies and peeking in on the boys since there is a set of french doors with blinds on my son's room that we keep permanently closed but that make for a good spying place for the girls on the boys. I am also working on wrapping up December Daily but that is going to be delayed a bit too since I don't like the girls and boys to play together unsupervised - so I'm on Mom Duty until things settle down a bit more. Here's what I did get done this morning:

More wrapping up of December Daily to come soon !

My "One Little Word" Found Me Today

After all the Christmas morning hullabaloo, the water was calm so I decided to go for a kayak ride, my son and his cousin came along. While the boys were having wild adventure in the jungle, I thought about what I was going to do to decide on my "one little word" for next year. I had been thinking about using my word from last year "awesome" again, but I wanted something new; I even thought about using the word new or start, but neither of them really stuck with me. I also thought about the word light, but that didn't seem exactly perfect either. I was undecided. So, while walking down the beach alone, I decided that the next printed word I saw would be my word, no take backs, that I'd just go with it. And then I quickly hoped that it would NOT be "Coke" or "Pepsi" in case I saw an old bottle or can on the island. I came to a mangrove tree with a basket hanging from it, next to it I saw the word that I thought was "top" and then it looked like it might be "open" but as I got closer, I could see clearly that the word was

HOPE

I'll go back to the island soon to get a photo of the tree.

I just googled the definition of hope and this is the first definition I found:

__________________________________________________________

hope (hp)

v. hoped, hop·ing, hopes

v.intr. 1. To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment.

2. Archaic To have confidence; trust.

v.tr. 1. To look forward to with confidence or expectation: We hope that our children will be successful.

2. To expect and desire. See Synonyms at expect.

n. 1. A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.

2. Something that is hoped for or desired: Success is our hope.3. One that is a source of or reason for hope: the team's only hope for victory.4. often Hope Christianity The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.5. Archaic Trust; confidence.Idiom:

hope against hope To hope with little reason or justification.

---

[Middle English hopen, from Old English hopian.]

---

hoper n.

And this is the image I found when I searched "hope tree":

Image Source: New Hope Tree Design

I am loving this word "hope" and I think it is perfect for my 2012 "one little word" and I am full of hope. Merry Christmas ! :) Katie.

December Daily #23

My husband and I have this little tradition of sitting by the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve and having a warm fuzzy talk about Christmas and the past year and the upcoming year; it is of my very favorite times at Christmas.  I'm looking forward to that tonight.  But last night, we had a "sit by the tree" talk with the kids - sure I had to entice them with some Advent presents - but it was really nice, we each said something we were thankful for, we each said something nice about every person and even Dandy and the late Duke, and we each said something that we thought would make our family more awesome for next year.  It really was awesome.  My favorite thankful thought was Mac's, he said that I always give him encouraging words; its nice to know that I do and that he recognizes it.  Warm Fuzzy feeling - achieved, ahhh.

I used the back of a Christmas card with the words "goodwill * peace * hope * joy * cheer * prosperity * happiness * harmony" as the base of the December 23rd card (just remembered I forgot to put the the #23 circle on the page - doing that now) both because we never got around to sending Christmas cards to friends and family this year (we just did office cards) so I just posted that photo on line and because the theme of the card was similar to the theme of our conversation and the present - reminding me symbolically to enjoy the present moment - to stop and take time to connect with my family. 

My December Daily Album which is an American Crafts 8x8 album still has plenty of room - on the right side are the pages and on the left, for comparison, is a stack of Christmas cards we received this year - a sampling - (you know, like when they give Hugh Grant some of the cards in Love Actually), actually the stack is probably about 75% of the Christmas cards we received this year, I thought we got approximately the same amount we normally get, but Charlie thought the envelope was a little light (Soprano's reference that he uses when he thinks something is not enough).

Please leave a comment:  1. Did you send Christmas Cards this year?  2. Did you think you received more, less or the same amount of Christmas cards as years past? 3. Are you doing December Daily and/or are you planning to do it next year?  I think it is going to be one of my favorite traditions - I kept up most of the time this year and I have absolutely loved the process of putting together my December Daily Album. 

Merry Christmas!  :) Katie.

 

Merry Christmas from the Scotts

We never actually got the Christmas card done - or even the Christmas Family Photo, so here's a little self timer action tonight, the night before Christmas Eve. 

Merry Christmas!

December Daily #22

It was a Sugar Overload Baking - Stay At Home Day.  We did make sure to walk 4 miles to even it out.  Ok, I'm caught up with December Daily; still need to catch up on Project Life.

I made the Santa Hat brownies that I saw on Pinterest; and no bake cookies, and fluffernutter fudge, and pork chops - so there was a little protein to go with all that sugar.  The kids got sort of hopped up on sugar and performed a little song and dance and called themselves the "Fa La La Dancers."