Advent Chain

Today, instead of sharing one of my projects, I am sharing something my kids have been working on. Simcha Fisher, a Catholic mom and blogger at The National Catholic Register, shared a file that can be used to make an Advent chain.  I had saved the link and finally this week, with Advent upon us, came up with a plan and got it rolling.

First, I had my kids color the pictures that are on each "link".  This worked out nicely because there are 6 sheets of links and I have 3 children.  :)  After they finished coloring, they cut the strips apart.

Yesterday we took the strips and made a chain out of them, taping the ends together with a piece of Scotch tape so they will be pretty easy to remove from the chain.

Starting tomorrow night, during our bedtime prayers, we will remove one link and read the Bible verse on it. Then they will cut out the picture on that link and I will punch a hole and add a piece of string and they will add it to the little tree the girls have in their room.  If you were following me when I did my Project 365, you may remember this:

Not exactly a Jesse tree, but we are going to make this work with what we have!

There you have it, I am very excited for this because I think it will make us all reflect a bit more on the season and "the reason for the season."  I hope you all have very blessed Advents!

Welcome Baby Boys!

I had two friends have babies within about a week of each other again, and this time they were both boys. I decided to make two of the same card to speed up the process and since I was using larger scraps, it wasn't too much of a challenge. :)

 I used this week's sketch from Unscripted Sketches as inspiration. I also did this for the 11/4/12 Card Challenge at My Scraps and More, which was to use stars on a card.

When I looked at the sketch with the idea of making a baby card, the banner across the top made me think of a wash line with baby clothes on it.  I used the "New Arrival" cartridge for the baby and onesies.  For the background of my card, I ran a sheet of Core' dinations  Whitewash cardstock through my texture boutique for some texture.  I sanded off some of the white layer of the paper and then inked the edges with two colors of blue distress ink.  I wrote the baby's initials on the punched star by the sentiment with a Souffle pen.

Materials:

Cardstock- American Crafts, Core'dinations, Bazzill

Patterned Paper- Creative Imaginations, Paper Adventures

Embossing Folder- Sizziz

Pens- Sakura, Provo Craft

Ink- Ranger

Punch- Marvy

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- New Arrival

Twine- Queen and Co.

December Calendar page

Yes, that's right, I have my December page done a week early! I've had a bit of a lull in my Christmas calendar making as I wait for a few more photos from November.

For my Project 12/ calendar layout this month I used Sketch # 239 from Nuts About Sketches:

I love how many photos Shawn makes room for in her sketches!!  I managed to get a few extras on this one by splitting a few of the photo spots.  Since my November page had a large circle on it, I decided to skip that part of the sketch this time.  For the background I used a scrap from punching out board game pieces as a mask with some dark green mist.  The ornaments across the top were fussy cut from a sheet of We R Memory Keepers paper.  My collection of Christmas paper is dwindling so I ended up pulling out some papers that weren't necessarily Christmas, but had the right colors.

I am also entering this layout in the Scrapping Everyday Miracles challenge for this month which is to make a layout about family.  December is definitely a time of spending time enjoying the company of family, as you can see from the photos on this layout.

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill 

Patterned Paper- We R Memory Keepers, Echo Park, Basic Grey, Provo Craft

Stickers- Echo Park

Rub Ons- Daisy D's

Ink- Hampton Arts, Clearsnap

Pen- Marvy, Creative Memories

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- New Arrival

Glitter Glue- Hampton Art

Punch- EK Success

Stamp- Stampin Up

Trim- Other

More Cards!

I have been working on layouts too, but they have been for calendars, so I can't share them quite yet.  I have them completed through August though, woo hoo!

I have two cards to share today, a masculine birthday card and an anniversary card.  The first is a birthday card for one of our friends who celebrated his 30th birthday tonight.  I used the new Unscripted Sketch and the papers I had laying on my desk from the calendar pages I was working on.

For the bottom part of the card, I used an embossing folder and ran it through my Texture Boutique. I rubbed some Distress ink over the embossing to make it stand out more.  I used another of the stamps from the Autumn Leaf prints stamps set and heat embossed that in gold.  For the number, I used some grungeboard letters, ink them in blue, rubbed a little Versamark over them, and heat embossed with gold.  I taped one end of the twine to the back of the middle piece of paper, wrapped in around the piece three times and then taped the other piece to the back.  To finish off the card I used a dot stamp to stamp the border.

Materials

Cardstock- Bazzill, American Crafts

Patterned Paper- Fancy Pants Designs, Paper Salon

Ink- Ranger, Tsukineko

Stamps- Stampin Up, Hampton Arts

Embossing Folder- Spellbinders

Embossing Powder- JoAnn Crafts

Grungeboard- Ranger

Twine- Queen and Co.

My next card I made earlier in the week, but forgot to post.  I used last week's sketch from Sketch Saturday.

This was a card for my parents for their 31st anniversary. The flower frame I cut out using the Botanicals Cricut Lite cartridge. I colored it by rubbing Distress Inks over it.  I stamped the word love inside the from and the sentiment where it was suggested in the sketch.  To frame the circle, I used Liquid Pearls.

Materials

Cardstock- American Crafts

Patterned Paper- Robin's Nest, Crate Paper

Punch- Martha Stewart Crafts

Ink- Ranger

Liquid Pearls- Ranger

Stamps- Hampton Arts, Stampendous

Eyelets- Making Memories

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Botanicals

Birthday Card- Unscripted Sketch #183

My brother-in-law's birthday was on Saturday. For his card, I used this week's Unscripted Sketch and the papers that were on my desk from working on my November calendar page.

I love fall and the leaf motifs that go with it.  I did a little stamping and heat embossing on the large leaf, and then cut the two smaller leaves with my Cricut and then inked them with several colors of Distress Ink.  I also crumpled them a bit to give them some realistic texture.

Materials:

Cardstock- The Paper Company

Patterned Paper- Jillibean Soup, Fancy Pants Designs, Crate Paper

Ink- Tsukineko, Ranger

Stamps- Stampin Up

Embossing Powder- JoAnn Crafts

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Stretch Your Imagination

November Calendar Page- NAS #234

It took me a couple of days into the month, but I finally got my calendar/ Project 12 page done! I used a Nuts About Sketches sketch that was posted early in October. I had a lot of fun playing with texture and making a homespun feel to the layout since most of the photos were from Thanksgiving.

I combined papers from a 6x6 paper pad by Jillibean Soup with some 12x12 papers from some other companies.  For the large circle in the center, I used my Cricut and the "Live Simply" cartridge.  I took the center circle and traced around it on scrap paper.  I then cut up the circle into wedges and then traced the wedges onto different patterned papers.  If you ever do this, I HIGHLY recommend numbering your pieces so you know what order to place them in the circle, otherwise you will have a very difficult puzzle to put together...

I wanted some larger red flower accents on may page, but I couldn't find any in my stash, so I ended up cutting my own from felt and then accenting them with orange fabric paint.

Materials

Cardstock- Bazzill, The Paper Company

Patterned Paper- Crate Paper- Jillibean Soup, Fancy Pants Designs, Die Cuts With a View

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Live Simply

Stickers- October Afternoon, Karen Foster Designs, Little Yellow Bicycle

Spray Ink- Studio Calico

Ink- Ranger

Punches- Marvy, Martha Stewart, Tonic

Chipboard- Studio Calico

Tape- Target

Rub Ons- Fancy Pants, Pink Paislee

Fabric Paint- Duncan

Pen- Creative Memories

Button- Jesse James Co.

Ribbon- Stampin Up

Other- Felt, Thread

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 11-4-12

We enjoyed lots of fall/ Halloween activities this week! The prompts for Scavenger Hunt Sunday were pretty open ended this time, so I was able to find photos that would work.

Wild
All three kids dressed up as animals this year for Halloween, so I thought this photo of the three of them in costume (and smiling goofy) fit this pretty well.

Welcome
These are the pumpkins that greeted trick-or-treaters as they walked up the steps to our house. The girls chose the designs for the pumpkins, I did the carving.

Adventure
Rick and the kids had a great time trick-or-treating on Halloween. I followed them around to the first few houses so I could get some photos. Here they are trudging through some leaves in the street on their way to the next house.

Vibrant
Last Sunday evening the kids painted their pumpkins with vibrant tempera paints. Here's Addy working on hers.

Classic
A "classic" fall activity: raking leaves! We have 4 large maple trees in our yard, so we always have LOTS of leaves to rake!