Back to Scrapping!!

Now that Christmas is past, I have time to scrapbook my photos again! I started with a sketch from PageMaps that is for the contest going on now.

I actually had these photos printed out in these sizes, waiting to be scrapped. How perfect! I used my Cricut for the bootie tag, the title and title block and the baby in the blanket.


I also made a card from my brother-in-law whose birthday is on Friday using a sketch from Unscripted Sketches. I used some Stampin Up stamps I've had for a while and colored them in with colored pencils.

What I've Been Up To...

Yesterday I shared the calendars I had been working on for Christmas. Well, that was not all I was trying to complete for Christmas.

When I found out I was pregnant with Will (2 YEARS AGO) I started cross stitching a stocking for him because I have made stockings for both of my girls. The one I selected turned out to be very labor intensive. It is stitched on 18 count Aida cloth (meaning 18 squares per inch) and basically the entire surface of the stocking is stitched. I had hoped to have it done by his first Christmas last year, but I wasn't even close. So this year became my goal. I worked on it as usual throughout the year, but once December hit, I was working on it every spare moment. I completed it on December 22nd, just two days before Christmas Eve!


There were 35 French knots using 6 strands of metallic thread on this stocking. If you have never stitched or worked with metallic thread, know this: metallic thread acts differently than other thread. It catches on itself easier and doesn't slide as easily. French knots require that you wrap the thread around itself and then pull it through the middle, meaning lots of opportunities to catch and make a mess. Thankfully, it went pretty smoothly and didn't take as long as I had feared. Here are some close ups of the knots and some of the other stitching on the stocking.




We got to buy Christmas gifts for Rick's sister this year. I have always wanted to decorate one of these 7 Gypsies trays, and decided to make one for Terri with help from the kids. I cut a piece of white cardstock for each of my kids and had them write their name and draw a picture with markers. Then I decorated the other 3 openings with their current portraits and some paper and embellishments. I added a few extra embellishments to the front for some depth. Here is the final result. Each of the photos is held on by photo corners so they can be changed out.

2012 Calendars

I can finally share one of the big projects I was working on for Christmas! For the 5th year I made calendars as gifts for members of our families. I made one for my parents, one for my in-laws and one for my sister and brother-in-law. To streamline the process this year I used sketches by Ali Davis. I printed off the 12 single page sketches that were available in October and then chose the sketch that worked best with the photos I had for each month. I will not post each sketch in this post, but you can find all of the sketches (and more!) here.

Sorry for the bad photos, the night I took them, I just wanted to get them done and now I don't have the calendars anymore to take better photos, but you get the idea.

January


February


March


April


May


June


July


August


September


October


November


December
I wanted to include photos from our Christmas celebrations with our parents, so I left their pages blank with the promise I would bring the photos the next time we visit.

Photo Scavenger Hunt 12-11-11

This week's prompts had me taking a lot of non-people photos, which is not my strong point, but I tried a few new things...

1. Less is More
I didn't really know what to do with this one, but I felt like this photo kind of worked because the big chunk broken out of the sucker (less) allows you to see more of my daughter's face...


2. Holiday Lights
There was some great information on this blog on how to take some cool holiday photos so I used the info for this shot and the next. For this one I used a long shutter speed and small aperture to get the twinkling light effect (click on the photo to see it larger).


3. Ornaments
I used a wider aperture to get the bokeh effect with the lights in this one.


Cup of Cheer
I made a cup of peppermint hot cocoa with a dollop of Cool Whip one night. This photo does not do it justice... it was GOOD!


5. Nativity
Because Will is into everything he is not supposed to be and is pretty destructive, the only Nativity we have out this year is the kids' Fisher Price one. Ours lights up and plays "Away in a Manger."

I Heart Faces:Furry Faces

Another photo from of the horses from last weekend...

Photo Scavenger Hunt 12-4-11

I'm getting this posted on Sunday night, can you believe it?! The prompts were so fun this week!

1. Portrait
It just so happens that Ellie turns 5 tomorrow so I needed to take her portraits this week! Here is my favorite.


2. Nostalgic
What says nostalgia more than a huge Belgian horse? My sister and brother-in-laws neighbors have several horses, including two of these giants. This is my brother-in-law being greeted by one.


3. Time
This prompt was a bit of a head scratcher for me, but when I saw this photo of the turtles at the zoo, I knew this was it: they take lots of time to move and they look pretty prehistoric.


4. Full of Light
I struggled with this one too, but this photo of my kids staring at the TV in the early morning darkness seemed appropriate.


5. Motion
This one is more about the motion of the waterfall in the background than the monkey, he wasn't moving...

Photo Scavenger Hunt 11-27-11

I didn't take a ton a photos this week (I forgot the camera on Thanksgiving!), but I used a few that I did take this week, along with some from the last few weeks.

1. Waiting...
for snow?
for a push?
to be put in the oven?
for dinner?
...the possibilities are endless. :)


2. Foliage
This is from after the snow last week. There is some foliage here, it's just a little buried.


3. Candid
We got out our Christmas decorations on Saturday, along with the kids' Little People Nativity. The kids all had fun playing with a "new" toy.


4. Knife, Fork, Spoon
Here's one from our Thanksgiving celebration last weekend.


5. Rule of Thirds
The girls on Halloween, Trick or Treating.

A Productive Night!

Last night I spent a few hours working on some projects. I managed to complete the December calendar page for our calendar and two cards!

The first was a card from the scraps of the other calendars I have been working on. I used a sketch from a site I found recently: Unscripted Sketches.



Next I did the December calendar page for our calendar using the current Sketchy Thursdays sketch.



Since I had my Christmas papers out, I decided to make another Christmas card for the "I Feel the Love" project.

Photo Scavenger Hunt 11-20-11

I am so late on this one this week, but I still wanted to participate. It took me until today to get one of the photos, but here are my photos for this week's scavenger hunt:

Mainly One Color
We received our first real snowfall of the season on Saturday, so I had to get some photos of the white landscape.


Around the Home
This is not from my home, but my aunt and uncle's, where we spent Sunday celebrating Thanksgiving.


Reflection
I was actually trying to avoid reflection when I was trying to take this photo, but my husband threw a snowball at the window I was standing in and it startled me a bit and I wanted to get a photo, I didn't take the time to make sure there wasn't a reflection.


Writing
This is the one that took until today. I really wanted to get a photo of my girls drawing because they love to spend time doing that. Here, Ellie is drawing a map (Dora the Explorer- style). The green line in the road and the blue block she is coloring is a bridge with an angry troll. :)


Water
Some melted snow on Addy's hat after playing outside.