Green Horned Unicorn

Christmas in November

While it's not really a Christmas celebration in November, I do have a holiday inspired album to share. It was brought to my attention, while discussing December Daily album's in a thread, that I had never shared my Holiday Memories album from last year here on my blog. I shared my plan and some of the foundations pages nearly a year ago, but never shared the finished product (not sure why!).

When I set out to create the album, I knew I didn't want to create a true December Daily. Capturing a photo each and every day just seemed like too much for me, especially considering some days in December are just as boring as they are the rest of the year. Instead, I opted to go with a Holiday Memories theme, allowing me to capture the memories and special events as I saw fit. The book primarily encompasses: our traditions trimming the tree, our Christmas celebration in Nebraska, our yearly visit to Desert Botanical Garden's Los Noches de las Luminarias, our Christmas celebration with Nate's family and finally, our own celebration on Christmas day. 

Long at last, let me present you with Holiday Memories 2011 (to see it larger and to read the journaling, click the View Fullscreen button, next to the shopping cart): 

Holiday Memories 2011 | Make Your Own Book

Here is a permalink to the album in case the viewer isn't preloading for you. Once you click the link, click on the copy of the book, which should say "Preview" on it.

To create the album, I used Nettio Design's Holiday Faves album template. I resized the templates from 5x7 to fit to the specified dimensions for a 8x10 printed album from Blurb. The digital papers and elements were from a collaboration between One Little Bird and Amy Martin, called Star on Top.

As I mentioned, I recently ordered my album from Blurb. I opted to go with a soft cover and their standard papers (I usually go for a hard cover and upgraded pages), and was pleasantly surprised with the results. I'm a big fan of the 8x10 size and of the space savings you gain from a soft cover. If this was an album that would be thumbed through over and over again, I may have chosen a hard cover. But, for the purpose of this album, it turned out perfectly!

I love everything about the finished album. The design, the papers, the quality of the book, and especially the memories and stories it captures. This holiday season will be vastly different from the past few years, and be much busier than normal (I'll let you in on why very soon), so I'm not sure how to capture the memories. It will definitely be digitally, but the form is yet to be determined. Maybe I'll have to scraplift myself and reuse this version. :)

Do you have any plans for a December Daily or other holiday themed album?

I Resolve

Typically, I don’t create New Year’s Resolutions. I’m a goal setter and list maker all year round, so the start of a new year doesn’t necessarily effect my plan overall plan. Throughout the year, as I reach a milestone or accomplish a goal, I move onto the next. It’s a continually evolving process which never ends.

THE DILEMMA | This year however, I happen to have had 10 days off at the end of the year, so I had a lot of time to think. And create goals. And write lists. Here are a two observations I made during my time off:

• I have WAY TOO MUCH paper. Yes, I said it. There is far too much scrap “crap” cluttering up my studio. Something must be done with it.
• When reviewing my blog, it seems I really strayed from sharing my normal crafts and storytelling and focused primarily on digital scrapbooking. I want to get back to sharing more stories, photographs and crafts. I have stories to tell and crafts to share, so I’m not sure why I haven’t been doing it.

PROBLEM ONE | To solve my first dilemma, I’m resolving to use it or lose it. I’ve began the process of purging and creating a donation box for the local Children’s Hospital. A few friends and I did this last year and it’s time to do it again. What stays in my room must be used. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing!

I’ve completed SEVEN paper pages in the last week using “old” supplies (I may have only made seven paper layouts in all of 2011). You’ll be seeing them appear on the blog in a new feature series called, “From Pixel to Paper”.

For now, I’ll share one layout (just to prove I can still paper scrap), which I created using a sketch found on Celine Navarro’s Green Frog Studio blog for her new series “Sketch Wednesday”.

The page features a few of my favorite shots from our gift exchange on Christmas Day. I used a lot of older Cosmo Cricket to create the page.

PROBLEM TWO | To solve my second dilemma, I’ve posed a personal challenge to myself - a challenge to create 52 personal craft projects in 2012. I’ve dubbed my project the GHU52 and will have more on it later this week. I started planning for the project before Christmas and am FINALLY ready to reveal it to you!

I’m also resolving to incorporate more stories and more photographs. I’m still pondering on just how I want to do this, but hopefully in the next month, you’ll start to see more.

I have many more creative and personal goals I'm working on, but for now, I'm keeping those to myself. I do hope that sharing some of these smaller, craft realted goals I will be motivated to keep on track. I won't lie, I'm a little concerned about the GHU52, but I have already completed five projects - so I guess it's time to start sharing them! Thanks for stopping by :)

2012 Hybrid Photo Calendar

One good thing about the holiday season ending is that I can finally share some of the projects I created to give as gifts. Today, I have a bright and fun 2012 photo calendar I created as a gift to my mom. A photo calendar is sort of a tradition for me to give my mom each year. I fill it full of photos from the previous year (these photos are from 2011), and once she's done using it as a calendar, it serves as a small mini-album of sorts, which she keeps together on a shelf. This particular calendar is my favorite to date!

Pin It

To create the calendar, I used:

• Sassafras papers and embellishments
• Almanac Template Pack by In the Making Designs
• Ikea Nyttja frame 

You read that right, the base is actually an Ikea frame! I removed the plexiglass, added a sheet of patterned paper, punched holes into the backing with my Crop-a-Dial. I then threaded the binder rings through the holes and added the pages. It was the perfect solution for a calendar stand - it's sturdy and has a nice easel backing. I apologize for not having a side view shot so you could see how it's attached - I shot these photos at the last minute before Nate and I ran out the door to head back to PHX.

I tried to keep the pages consistent with one another by using similar embellishments, scalloped edging, buttons and twine on most pages. I had to adapt the digital calendar template ever so slightly for my format. Since I needed 4x6 prints, I resized the 5x7 tempates and added some additional space between the photo and the calendar itself so I would have room to add my embellishments.

When selecting photos, I tried to feature people on their birthday months and/or anniversary months. After choosing a photo for each month, I selected digital cardstock that matched the patterned paper I planned to use for that month and printed the photo/calendar. Matching the digital papers to the actual patterned paper was a little challenging, but I got most of them right on the first attempt!

Here's a look at the rest of the calendar:

I really love how this project turned out and I'm pretty sure my mom loved it too! I am actually considering making myself one for my desk at work to add some color and cheer. I don't know about you, but I can't believe it's 2012! Hats off to a great year :)

DIY Glitter Ornaments

If you're anything like me, you have boxes of clear glass ornaments laying around your craft room all year long. I mean, who can resist those after Christmas clearance sales where you can grab a box for only $2? And, if you are like me, you allow them to pile up year after year and never really do anything with them. Common, you can admit it!

This year, I decided to take a stand and make something with at least a few of the boxes in my ever-growing collection. Enter this post from the Ornament Girl, which I came across while perusing the blogosphere. Lovely glitter ornaments that take only three items and practically no time to create. Sign me up please!

To make these sparkling spheres of joy, you will need clear glass ornaments, glitter and Future Floor Wax. I certainly had the glitter (I used Martha Stewart brand) and ornaments handy, and lucky for me, we just happened to have Future Floor Wax sitting around from Nate's aircraft modeling days. It seems Future Floor Wax has multiple uses in the craft and hobby world. But, what I'm really wondering is, do people really even use this stuff to clean floors? Just curious.

Creating the ornaments is really quite simple. First, remove the top, carefully squirt in a little floor wax, and swirl it around until the entire interior is covered. Pour the excess back into the bottle. Next,pour in the glitter, swirl it around and pour out the excess. Lastly, let the ornament dry and replace the top. That's it! So quick and easy! If you'd like to see detailed photos of the process, see this post on the Ornament Girl's Blog.

Not only are these glittery globes absolutely beautiful, they are also the least messy glitter ornament I've encountered, because the glittery mess is contained on the INSIDE of the ornament. Pure genius, I tell you. I will certainly be hitting up the post holiday sales at my local craft stores in search of a few more $2 boxes of clear glass ornaments to make more of these for next season!

If you're in search of more last minute holiday inspiration, check out my DIY Sparkle Wreath, Scallops & Dot Felt Wreath and my No-sew Felt Tree Skirt. 

DIY Sparkle Wreath

There is just something about objects that sparkle - especially during the holiday season.

Earlier this fall, I was perusing the holiday aisle at the new Hobby Lobby (which I must mention, happens to be situated just between a Joann’s SuperStore AND a Michael’s…crafters mecca!), when I came across a bag of fun, sparkly bag of foam balls, labeled as vase filler.

 
Something drew me to these glittery bags of goodness – I had to buy them! But what could I make? It only took a brief moment for me to decide that these sparkling spheres would become our newest holiday wreath.

Since I already had a foam wreath form in my craft room, I snapped up two bags of the vase filler and headed home to create.

SUPPLIES | The supply list for the wreath is short (and cheap!).

Materials:

• Vase filler (glittery foam balls)
• Hot glue gun/glue sticks (make sure you have plenty of sticks on hand)
• Foam wreath form

THE PROCESS | There was really no method to my crafting madness when assembling the wreath. I basically started grabbing the little foam balls and gluing them on, one-by-one. I mixed up the colors and sizes as I went along. 

  
Should you decide to make a similar wreath of your own, here are a few pointers I picked up along the way:

• You may not think it will (I certainly didn’t!), but this little project will take at least two hours of your time to complete. I honestly thought I could finish it in an hour, but was sorely mistaken. As a result, I was up until 1:30am finishing it!
• Since the balls are made of foam, they are somewhat “squishable”. Use this to your advantage and squish the balls against one another to fill any gaps.
• If you have any gaps you just can’t seem to fill by squishing, cut a foam ball in half and use that to fill the space.
• Don’t let go of the balls to quickly after you glue them. Hold them for a few moments to ensure they’re going to stay. I had a few roll off in the beginning until I picked up on this.
• Be prepared for you, your workspace, your family and your pets to sparkle for at least a week. These little balls shed a lot of glitter!

THE RESULTS | Here are a few images of the finished wreath:

Because the wall area I wanted to hang the wreath in was large and bare, I knew I needed to step up the display just a bit so the wreath wouldn't get lost, or look off balance. I used a large frame and wrapping paper to create a display space, perfect for the wreath.

BUDGET FRIENDLY | As I mentioned, the materials for this project were pretty cheap, especially considering the vase filler was 40% off and the wreath form came from my local dollar store. Here is my (very roughly estimated) cost breakdown:

• 2 bags of vase filler: $7
• Foam Wreath form: $1
• Hot glue: $2
• Grand Total: $10!

That’s right folks, for around $10 I created this glittering, holiday beauty that now graces our walls and adds a splash of sparkle to our holiday celebrations. I must admit, I really love how it turned out!

If you have any questions about my wreath, please leave a comment with your question and I’ll get back to you. What fun holiday crafts are you working on this season?

Ps. If you’re looking for more holiday inspiration, check out my Scallops & Dot Felt Wreath (from last season) and my No-sew Felt Tree Skirt. Also, if you missed out on the template freebie I posted earlier today, you can find it here.

Holiday Memories Twenty Eleven

Most of you are familiar with Ali Edwards and her annual December Daily tradition. In fact, I've noticed quite a few of my blog friends have posted the start of their albums already (Julie & Kat). While the thought of creating a December Daily has intrigued me for the past few years, I knew I'd never follow through on a commitment to take a photo and document each and every day of December.

HOLIDAY MEMORIES TWENTY ELEVEN | This year, I opted to create my own modified version which, much like the December Daily, will document our 2011 holiday season. However, instead of documenting on a daily basis, I plan on recording all of the events and traditions that surround the season as they occur. This will differ from my Christmas albums of years past (here & here), because, instead of tackling the project at the end of the season, I plan on knocking it out event-by-event, as they occur. My hope is that documenting in this manner will take the pressure off of me at the end of the season and also lead to more meaningful and detailed journaling since I'll be recording memories when they're fresh on my mind.

I also plan on recording special elements of the season, which may not necessarily qualify as an event - things like decor and such.

While I'm not 100% sold on the title, I do know that I want to go with a "holiday" theme, as opposed to using anything with the word "December". The key reason for this is that Nate and I actually kick off our holiday season in November. While I realize there is no law saying I can't include November events in a December themed album, it just seems unfitting to me. I like my titles to fully represent my projects.

ALBUM DETAILS | As in years past, my 2011 album will be all digital. While searching for the perfect digital papers and elements to use, I came across the Holiday Faves Mini Album Kit by Nettio Designs. The concept of the kit matched my album concept perfectly, so I purchased it to use as the foundation for my album. For my papers and elements, I chose the brand new Star on Top kit by One Little Bird + Amy Martin Designs.

Because I decided to print an 8x10 album from Blurb, I had to resize the 5x7 album kit before I got started. So far, I've created the cover, most of the foundation pages and even finished the journaling and photo pages for our first holiday event (which I'll share next week).

Here are a few of the foundation pages I have completed so far:

I'm really excited about this album and the prospect of working on it throughout the 2011 holiday season. I'll be sharing the bits and pieces with you as I go, and at the end of the season, share the entire album.

Are you working on a December Daily or other similar type of album this year?

Christmas 2010 - Digital Style

As you may recall, it took me quite awhile to gain the motivation to scrap my 2009 Christmas photos. In fact, I didn't finish my album until the end of October...oops! I set the stakes a little higher this year and made myself a goal to finish it by the end of January. Not only did I meet the goal, but I surpassed it and had my 2010 album completed by the second weekend in January!

Initially, I was planning on scrapping a hybrid album, with a mix of digi and traditional pages. We had three Christmas celebrations, plus a few other holiday events I wanted to include. After a lot of sketching and planning I realized it was going to take a lot of time and money to accomplish a cohesive album that seamlessly blended all of individual events into an album reflecting upon an entire Christmas season. 

In the end, I opted to take the all digi route and used a wonderful 12 Days of Christmas album template from One Little Bird and Sassy Season papers from In the Making Designs. Here's a peek at the end results: 

To see the full album (including the cover and opening and closing pages), click the play button in the box below. To view a larger version, click the link below the box. 

Click here to view this photo book larger

Although the process was still time consuming, the concept was much simpler than my original plans. In the end, I'm quite happy with the streamlined, cohesive feel the entire album has. All of the little events and Christmas celebrations flow from one page to the next and create the feel of a "Christmas Season" that I was looking for. I'm quite proud of myself for getting it all scrapped while the memories were still fresh in my mind!

Just this week, I received the printed copy from Shutterfly and it is perfect! It looks better than I had ever envisioned. Christmas 2010 is officially in the books!

Curated - A Digital Family Album

As most of you know, I LOVE the yummy goodness Danielle Thompson creates for her Kitschy Digitals line. A few months ago, Danielle teamed up with Liz Tamanha of Paislee Press to create a collaboration album kit called Curated. It's kitschiness meets minimalism. And, wow, is it fun! Just this week, the kit is available at JessicaSprague.com, although I purchased my copy here when it was first released.

After I purchased the kit, I was itching to do something with it, but didn't have anything in particular in mind. I did however, have on hand a batch of beautiful photos of my sister's family, shot and edited by my cousin of Jill Riese Photography. They were perfect to use with the Curated kit! Take a peek at the first few pages of the book:

I love the overload of kitsch balanced out by the minimalism. It's such a fun combination. To take a look at the entire album, click play. To view a larger version, click the link below.

Click here to view this photo book larger

The pages on the left came as is, and i didn't really change or add to them. The pages on the right, I created using filler templates, and even altering some of the primary template pages.

Another product new in store today at JS.com is this lovely template by Linda of In the Making Design. I created a New Years tribute to Nate using one of my favorite photos of us. Click on the image for credits.

That's it for today! Happy Monday :)

 

First and Last

I have two digital pages to share with you today...the last page I created in 2010 and the first page I created in 2011! Both are holiday themed and include lots of goodness from JessicaSprague.com.

Here is my last page from 2010:

Merry 12 x 12 (Digital): Patterned Papers (Echo Park Everybody Loves Christmas Paper Pack #1) + Elements (Echo Park Everybody Loves Christmas Element Pack) + Lettering (Echo Park Walk in the Park Alphas and Numbers Pack) + Solid Cardstock (Katie Pertiet) + Font (Hand of Sean) + Photoshop (CS5)

This is just a simple photo of Nate and I taken in front of my Mom's tree during our Nebraska Christmas celebration. I love the pop of the bright Echo Park papers against the dark background. 

Here is my first official scrapbooking layout of 2011!

Las Noches de las Luminarias 12x12 (Digital): Template - In the Making Rosette Template + Papers - In the Making Sassy Season Paper Pack + Holiday Tag - In the Making Sassy Season Element Pack

This layout depicts one of my favorite evenings of the holiday season. The journaling reads: 

On December 23, as an early Christmas present, Nate treated me to dinner at Chelsea’s Kitchen, followed by a romantic evening at the Desert Botanical Gardens, enjoying the sights and sounds of Las Noches de las Luminarias. During Luminarias, the garden paths are lined with over eight-thousands candlelit luminaries. Ten different musicial groups play throughout the gardens as you stroll and enjoy hot apple cider. It was a beautiful, romantic evening and a new tradition I hope we can enjoy each year. 

If you live in the Phoenix area and have not been to Luminarias, you MUST go next year. It was amazing! 

I've had time to edit a bunch of Christmas photos while I've been cooped up on the sofa, so look forward to many more holiday pages in the near future! Happy Monday :)

 

A few random events, randomly scrapbooked

Hello! I'm back today to share with you a few scrapbook pages I recently created. Before I get to them, make sure you're sitting down, because the first one is *gasp* a traditional layout (i.e. paper and glue)! Yes, I know...it's been far too long. I can't tell you how much fun it was to have the time to take out my supplies and make a mess. I have paint, machine stitching, hand stitching, tape, buttons and more all going on in this messy beauty. All of my favorite things! 

The photos were taken in November when I was in Huntington Beach for a week for work. By the time we were done with work each day, it was already dark, so the only way to see the ocean was in the morning. My coworker and I would drive out early, grab a latte and a breakfast bagel and enjoy the lovely views.

This next page highlights a fun lunch outing my mom and I enjoyed in October. We started with lunch at Teepee (an iconic Arizona eatery), followed by plant shopping, and then spice shopping at Penzey's. This all digi page was made primarily using Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy products from JessicaSprague.com.

Lunch at Teepee (12 x 12 Digital): Patterned Papers (Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy Paper Pack) + Frames (Kitschy Digitals Vintage Cabinet Cards) +Lettering (Echo Park Walk in the Park Alphas and Numbers Pack & Creativity by Crystal Oh Boy! Elements - Alphabet & Labels) + Cardstock (Katie Pertiet) + Font (Hand of Sean)

And, last but certainly not least, a Christmas page. You may recognize the photo of my mom's beautiful tree from a post last week. My mom always has the fullest, brightest tree every year. The branches are loaded with ornaments, both vintage and new. One of the coolest things about the tree is that it spins! It's so fun to sit and watch it go round and round. Mom told me she's changing it up for next year, so I decided to document a story about it.
Mom’s Tree (12 x 12 Digital): Textured Papers (Liv.eDesigns Chestnuts & Mallows) + Patterned Papers (Carina Gardner O’Christmas Tree) + Jewels (Liv.edesigns Winter Breeze Kit) + String (Christmas Wishes & Whimsy Collab Kit)+ Alphabet (Creativity by Crystal Merry & Bright) + Font (1942 Report)

That's all I've got for today! I'm enjoying yet another 2-day work week and looking forward to ringing in the the new year. I still have a little more work to do on the list, but I'm almost done drafting my 2011 goals. I can't wait to share them :)