Christmas Roundup

A little Christmas roundup....

Ah, there's nothing like sitting at the kids' table on Christmas Eve. Such well behaved little angels. Ha! I tried to make it cute, dressed the table up just for them with matching glasses and decorations and place cards. And still, it was a race to eat as quickly as possible and be excused from the table. But not before pelting the little plastic snowflake confetti at each other. Because you know it wouldn't be Christmas Eve dinner without a little mischief and one small temper tantrum (Little Miss Y). One day we will miss this right?

Oh and this beauty of a picture right up here? This will end up in one of the boys' wedding videos for sure. I'll make a point of it. Just looking at it makes me laugh out loud and hum "you've got a friend in me". Hmm... I think that might be a page.

A cheesy little grin after opening the much coveted Phineas and Ferb guitar. One of the top 3 items on his list.

Happy like a 5-year-old on Christmas morning. There is nothing better than that!

I am Tickled Pink!

So very happy about this...

I love Pink Paislee and I can't WAIT to get started on this team. Have you seen the sneak peeks for CHA Winter...

I love them all, but I think they made Hometown Summer and Daily Junque just for me! ;) Wish me luck on my very first manufacturer's design team. I think it's going to be fun!

Naughty or Nice?

With just 5 more days to go, my little pip is trying so very hard to be on his best behavior. Last week, I caught him having a conversation with the smoke detector in his room (he thinks it's a Santa Cam, but that's another story). He was pleading his case for being on the nice list while I listened just outside the door and tried not to laugh.

This layout was made for Right at Home Scrapbooking.

When I came across this 'Nice or Naughty' list paper, I knew I had to do this page. You see Nico's behavior is either very nice or very naughty, there is no in between with him. Last year we had a running checklist with nice and naughty days and he very barely made it on that nice list.

This year we didn't do the checklist because I figured I was never going to allow him to be fully on the naughty list or suffer those consequences, so why even do it. Thank goodness that turning five has made a world of difference and Nico finds himself having many many more nice days. The stubborn streak and bossiness are still very much there, but he has learned to reign it in and let Mom be the boss.

Here's to another year of Nico the Nice!

Christmas Photo Tags

Just 7 short days left....are you ready?

I've been wrapping gifts like a madwoman, I'm just about DONE! I had a tiny bit of time for a scrappy project and so I sat down and made this photo tag.

 I used the White Christmas line by We'R Memory Keepers (paper, chipboard & glitter lace) and some raw chipboard that Right at Home sent me. I  ran a sheet of white cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the Seeing Spots embossing folder. I layered together one of my favorite holiday photos, all of the paper and chipboard, added some sewing, twine and voila - one photo tag in 20 minutes. Not bad!

 

I think I just might make a few more and add them to some of my wrapped gifts instead of traditional name tags. I think the kids would get a kick out of finding their "faces".

I guess its back to wrapping for me!

Cricut Hello Thursday

I have a new Cricut cartridge sneak peek to share with you! I received the Best of Pixar cartridge and I'm in love. Designing for the Cricut Circle has been a dream assignment for me. I have a great team to work with and then every once in a while a cart like this arrives on my doorstep. For a Disney freak like me, it's heaven!

There are tons of images of Nemo, Flik, The Incredibles and Monsters, Inc on the cart. I love this collection of Disney pictures from our trip, so I decided to use the Nemo title, anemone, coral reef, flowers and sand bar to put together this page.

There are 9 other brand new Cricut carts and you should see different projects from each of the circle designers go up throughout the day. And for the Disney folks, there is a Classic Disney cart with Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Bambi. You will love it!

I hate to post and run, but I have 30 gifts to wrap before Nico gets home from school. They're not all for him, but he can't be around because I've discovered that the little stinker cannot keep a secret for beans!

Tomorrow I'll have a Christmas tag and maybe a minibook...

Christmas Traditions

This is my first Christmas page of the season. I usually take hundreds of photos of what we do and where we go during Christmas time, but I rarely get around to scrapbooking them. Once I take the tree down, I'm done and I don't want to see any more Christmas related things for the rest of the year. And so I have years and years of layouts that I really need to do.

I started with a tradition that Nico and I have had for years. I've been reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to him since he was just a few months old. He's always loved the story and illustrations in the book. This was the first year that he picked it up and attempted it to read it himself. I took these pics recently and I knew right away that I need to scrapbook them.

This layout was made with the December Work in Progress kit.

I combined the Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 line (again) and Pink Paislee's Father Christmas. The light blues in these lines match really well.

I love the little border of text with a line from the story. Thank you Pink Paislee for making that - it's perfect! I created the banner for the journaling out of grid paper and rolled it up at the top. It reminds me of the "checking it twice" list that Santa makes.

The title came together quickly with some weathered wood letters by Pink Paislee and glittered alphas from the Dear Lizzy collection. All of the paper is Cosmo Cricket.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back soon with a few more Christmas projects and sneak peeks.

I Do Frou

I usually shy away from the frou-frou look. I like it, but I do ugly things with it. I think I have a natural tendency towards clean lines and that usually doesn't work with the fancier styles. This Circa 1934 line by Cosmo Cricket has a mixture of both ornate and bold patterns which I really like.

These photos are from Nico's baptism. That's my Dad and grandmother holding him. I love the look of pride and happiness on her face. I remember her telling me that she was so grateful that she got to live long enough to meet her great-grandchild. Looking at these pictures is bittersweet because I can clearly see how rapidly Nico has aged and how quickly she is fading. Her wish was to meet him and mine is for her to live just a few more years so that he can remember her.

This page was created with the December WIP Kit.

This layout started with the circle chipboard embellishment and the polka dot paper. I loved both and tied the circular theme together with the black patterned paper. I cut a long strip of the "tag" paper and placed my title, date and small photo on it.

This was a fairly quick and easy page to put together. I think the colors and patterns dress it up without having to add much.

So that's it, my one frou page - which actually is not very frou is it? I guess it's the feel of it more than anything. I'll be back tomorrow with the last Circa page - my first Christmas page of the season!

Cosmo & Mickey

As you have probably already noticed, I love doing Disney layouts. I love the bright colors and the pictures from those vacations are some of my favorites. They show Nico at his happiest and these are the memories I like to document first.

The colors in this new Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 line inspired the theme this time. While it has an old fashioned look to it, the red, black and yellow color palette reminded me of Mickey and so I came up with this...

This page was made with the December WIP Kit.

I used corrugated paper for the base of the page to add texture and tone down the vintage look of the patterned paper. The twine was glued down in random loops using Zip Dry Paper Glue - it dries perfectly clear! This was a fun layout to make - I can't believe how little Nico looks in these pictures. I have a whole notebook full of Disney stories, so be prepared for more layouts!


And for variety, a simple card. I am so not a card maker - I think that's a whole other crafting skill. I have a hard time working on such a small canvas, so I kept it very clean using 3 strips of patterned paper and one chipboard embellishment. For texture, I folded the red paper into a ruffle and added some sewing.

My favorite part of the card is the coordinating envelope. I'm a total matchy-matchy girl so this is right up my alley. I love how the double-sided patterned paper gives me an instant envelope liner. I created both the card base and envelope using the Wild Card Cricut cartridge.

I'll have two more Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 pages up tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Thankful

Goodbye Thanksgiving and hello Christmas! Today is a "back to the routine" day and while I love my boys (the little one and the big one) it sure is nice to have the house back to myself. I'll spend a quiet day decorating , but before I do that I thought I'd pop on and do a little post-Thanksgiving review.

First up, is a shot from Nico's Thanksgiving Play. There's nothing like hearing those tiny little voices sing and put on a skit. I tear up every single time. There's my little Andrea Bocelli in the back (with the blue jeans) singing his heart out. Actually, I'm pretty sure he was screaming at that point - in direct competition with his buddy right in front of him.


And here's the little ham with his teachers, Miss Ann and Miss Emmy. Two of the best teachers he's had yet. He loves going to school and I think these two ladies have a lot to do with that. I'm very grateful for them.


Last up is the ONLY picture I took on Thanksgiving, just minutes before everyone left. Every year I say I'm going to take more pictures and every year I am so completely overwhelmed with what it takes to serve 25+ guests, that I take no pictures. One day I'm going to regret that - I know!

These little faces up here is what I'm most thankful for. They are the heart of our family and we are blessed to have each and every one of them!

Sneaking Back

It's been a while, I know! I've been busy making stuff, cooking stuff and organizing stuff. I'm getting ready for the big Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and I just took a few minutes to post some of the things I've been working on.

I've been dying to use this Alphabet Soup line by My Mind's Eye. I love the colors and the flash cards. I've had them sitting around for a while and I was so happy to finally use them. When I first went through the deck of cards, I saw this fish flashcard and that prompted this page about Nico and his first swimming lessons.

There's a little bit of everything on this layout - all of the paper is MME, the clear buttons are 7Gypsies (super old), letters are Pink Paislee and the "school" tab is Crate. Oh and I started to use some of my new twine...love it!

I'll share a few sneaks of what's been keeping me busy lately. First is a little something with the December Work in Progress kit - love the Cosmo Cricket that's in there....

and then a little sneak of a Cricut Circle project I did last month....love the Birthday Bash cartridge - it's one of my favorites right now. Notice that I'm on a serious twine and banner kick right now. The aqua of course, remains consistent. Ha!

So I hope you don't find the sneak peeks annoying. These are some of the projects I've been working on that keep me from blogging regularly, so I thought I'd share what I can.

The good news is....all of the Work in Progress pages will be up next week. The bad news is...I have to get back to making my lasagna. Yes, we have lasagna for Thanksgiving...and turkey...and Spanish rice...and 3 different types of potatoes. It's like a meeting of the United Nations around here tomorrow. I'll be back with pics!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Echo Park Halloween

We had such a great time trick-or-treating this year. The kids are finally old enough to walk around the neighborhood without being pulled in a wagon. They ran me ragged going from one house to another, the entire time reminding them not to step all over our neighbors' landscaping, don't touch the decorations, say thank you and Happy Halloween. I repeated that 100 times in the span of an hour. Ah, the joys of parenting. Ha!

I used the Halloween line by Echo Park and I love the bold colors and icons. I think it's just "kid" enough for these pictures and story.


I love the picture of me with my little Tinkerbell. She held my hand the entire time and told me I was her best friend...warms my heart that little one. She is the daughter I will never have and I adore her to bits.

I used my brand new Thickers for the title, a frame from Little Yellow Bicycle and Flair from American Crafts. And there you have it - one quick Halloween page!

Pink Paislee Boo!

My favorite parade and place to be on Halloween....Disneyworld! Just a few pictures from our first trip to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in 2008. We had great seats right near the castle and I love how some of these pictures turned out.

Click on picture to view larger. Sorry I have no detail shots this time!

I used the Hocus Pocus line from Pink Paislee. I think it fit the theme perfectly...regal and bright and colorful all at the same time. I think that's hard to do and Pink Paislee seems to do that perfectly every time.

I have such great memories from this parade and I'm glad I finally got it into our scrapbooks. Now, if I could just tackle the 1,329 other Halloween pages I need to do...

Glorious Twine

Just thought I'd share a quick find with you. Look what I came across today in my searches. Beautiful, glorious, colorful twine. I'm in love. I see many, many twine projects in my near future.

You can find a sample pack here for $14. I think that's pretty cheap for 15 yards of each color considering I paid $4 for the tiny Martha Stewart ones.

Have a great weekend, I'll be back Monday with that Halloween page.

Breakfast & Bikes

Did you ever have a seemingly insignificant moment in the past that you remember vividly? Almost like your mind took a snapshot of it.

That's what I get when I look at these pictures from our vacation to Sanibel last year. It was an ordinary morning and we took a bike ride from the inn to this great little place for breakfast. I remember being happy...just pure happiness, for no particular reason than everything was going right in my world . I had to put it all down on paper and I came up with this...


I love you Restoration by Crate Paper, I really do. I wasn't going to buy it because I have so many lines of paper already and it's a little on the frou-frou side. But the colors, oh those bold colors finally got me. I kept picking it up on a recent shopping trip and when I saw the bicycle, I immediately thought 'Sanibel'. I had to have it and I'm glad that it came home with me.


This is a really simple layout, just some layers of paper and chipboard. The chipboard filmstrip I picked up in a store in Massachusetts recently. They were in a bin and I picked up a bunch but unfortunately I don't know who makes them.

I was very inspired by this layout made by Michelle Lanning - one of my very favorite scrappers ever. No one does layering like this girl. You can see where I got the idea to double up the stamp-edged paper from!

So there you have it - one vacation moment and a little Crate Paper. Hope you like it! Up next...Halloween & Pink Paislee....

Halloween

Hi everyone! I have a really quick Halloween roundup post. I'm in the middle of creating two pages that I'll have to share by the end of the week, so this will be brief...

First up, the boy won! He came in 2nd place in our neighborhood costume competition. He was so happy and proud. The day before he won a blue ribbon in our town's costume competition. Probably because he was the only NASA astronaut I saw all weekend. Ha!

Singing in his school Halloween parade....


Then I had my some of my favorite kids in the whole world over all day on Halloween (love that!).


And this house in our neighborhood is just...amazing. Every year they do an over the top theme and this year it was Camelot, complete with castle facade, real knights in shining armor, and themed music. There is no way a picture could do this justice. There were police cars and 200 people on the sidewalk, so it was impossible! I love that these folks do this...it's one of Nico's favorite things to do on Halloween now.

And so that's it...1 astronaut, 2 costume competitions, 3 parades, 4 cousins to spend Halloween Day with and 5 parties. How's that for Halloween by the numbers?

I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged. I miss it! Somehow this time of the year is always crazy busy for us. Maybe it's because it's the last hurrah of outdoor activities before we settle indoors for the very long winter. Maybe it's just because I love Fall and want to do EVERYTHING! So here's a little peek at what we've been up to...

First up is soccer. Who would've thought that a 5-year-old soccer league would take up this much time. Practices, games, parades, pizza parties and more practices. A whole new group of soccer mom friends for me - hello Bria! - and team parent duties. This has taken a whole lot of our weekend time. It's been fun, but I continue to be amazed at how seriously organized sports for kindergartners is taken. The pip though, he LOVES being on a team. He's competitive, fierce and determined. He plays like a little uncoordinated chihuahua and we cheer him on the whole time.

I love visiting different farms during the fall. We're always on the hunt for the 'perfect patch'. This year we've been to 3 and each one was so very different. Thankfully, Patrick loves it as much as I do and the boy just likes to explore.

This was taken at the farm closest to our home. We pass it every day on the way to school, so it's tradition that we visit here first. I have a progression of pictures of Nico in front of this scary pumpkin thing from the time he was a little over a year old to today. I might have to sit down and scrap that soon.

A little Boo at the Philadelphia Zoo this past weekend. So much fun to watch the little ones run around the zoo in their costumes. They are much more interested in watching for cool costumes than in the animals I think. Nico loved this although he was disappointed that I made him wear last year's costume. We weren't taking any chances with this year's costume - I just hope that thing makes it through the parades and parties this weekend!

And so that's it - what I've been busy with. Well that, and assignments. So very many design team assignments. Sigh. I love it because they push me to be more creative and still meet deadlines. But I miss being able to post my work. I have to get back to that this week!

Vacations and Such

I love the Seaside line that October Afternoon put out recently. I swear they made it specifically for the Eastern seaboard. The colors and feel of that line scream East Coast shore to me. So I sat down and made this...

This 2-page spread covers all of the highlights of our trip. I'll do individual pages about certain stories I want to tell (the pirate cruise, the beach house details, etc.) but I always like to do an intro page.

Click on the photo above for a more detailed look.

Did you ever go on a vacation and everything just seemed "off." This was one of those trips. It began with me spending the night before the trip in the ER and ended with a hurricane skirting nearby. I kept the journaling real and documented that too. I always focus on the good in life, but sometimes I wonder how seemingly 'perfect' our lives come across in scrapbooks. And so I added the warts in this story because I want to remember that too.

I used the Seaside line pretty much exclusively and added a little kraft paper. I haven't used an eyelet in years and it was great to do some old-fashioned hammering. I placed most of the title right in the photo and made the flag myself. A little banner at the top with some clear Dew Drops in between and there you have it - one shore vacation layout.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Not Your Grandma's Quilling

Good Friday morning everyone! Today I'd like to share a sneak peek of a project that I made for the Cricut Circle blog. It's a paper flower pomander and I made it with the Cuttlebug Daisy and Chrysanthemum Quilling kits. These kits make it a snap to quill. It's so much easier than the "old-fashioned" type of quilling with strips of paper. Promise!

If you scroll down on the blog post today, you'll see my project and directions. Take a peek soon because the blog is closing and will be for members only.

I'll be back Monday with a new October Afternoon 2-pager. I'm putting the finishing touches on it today!

I Need an Idea...

We've been invited to an adult Halloween party and I'm so excited! We haven't been to one in years and I can't wait to go. So I've been thinking of couple costumes and I came up with this little beauty right here on the left.

Twilight's Edward & Bella. I think it would be so funny. We could be the old, grown-up, frumpy version. We could do the white makeup, a little old lady sweater for me, I already have the hair, a leather wristband & bouffant for Patrick and I could even carry around an apple just like the book cover. Perfect no?

So I casually suggested this idea to my husband tonight and I got the death stare, unblinking "you must be out your mind woman" look. So then I asked if he would at least like to be a vampire, because I would like that. And he started muttering in Italian and walked away. I'll take that as a 'no'. I think he's getting jealous of RPattz. Ha!

I'm at a loss now. I want something current and comfortable and cute. I think I want to go the route of "famous couple", but I'm stumped.

Any suggestions out there in blogland? Come on folks, help a girl out!

....and a little more Wander

When I bought most of the Basic Grey Wander line I fully intended to do a bunch of New York City pages. We recently took Nico to Central Park and the Museum of Natural History. Perfect for this right? And yet every time I sit down to work with it, no travel pages come out.

So here's another one, this one about the boy and some of his personality traits at 2. I loved this Radio Flyer red rocket that he would ride all the time, yet I only have this single photo of him on it. I think it's because at that age he was constantly on the move and I could never get a shot. And that led me to create this...

*This layout was created with the October Work in Progress kit.

I love these huge bold letter stickers from the line. I placed them directly in the white space of the photo to add movement to the page. Add another squiggly road and some chipboard and it's all done. Love that Basic Grey.

Thanks for visiting! I'll be back soon with some pumpkin patch pictures...(say that 3times fast) Ha!

And the Winners are....

Good morning everyone! And without further ado, here are the GYPSY winners...

Jocelyn said...
I just adore you Blog!!!! Congrats!!! How exciting!!I have wanted a Gypsy for soooo long...What a great giveaway!!!Thank you!!!
October 7, 2010 9:21 AM

and...

Nadia's World said...
Congrats on being part of the DT! I am so excited about the new CC blog. I can't wait to see what Provocraft has in store for us all and to get inspired.Thanks.Nicoleniclax13@gmail.com

and guess what? I have an extra GYPSY to give away, so I will have a third winner

and that is...

Carissa said...
Congratulations!!! I love the new CC blog!! I am a new follower of your blog also!! Thanks!!
October 6, 2010 1:45 AM

Well that was fun! Thank you everyone for entering. Winners, please email me (click on the 'contact me button' on the right) with your name and address please. I'm so happy for you!

Thanks for playing along everyone. I really like this whole giving stuff away, you'll probably see more of it in the very near future!

Thanks!

It's your last chance to enter for the big GYPSY giveaway! If you haven't already, please scroll down and leave a comment for a chance to win. I'm so excited to be giving away 2 Gypsies to my blog readers! Look for the winners to be announced here on Saturday morning.


And I just wanted to take a moment to say 'thank you'. For all of your comments, emails and well wishes. I appreciate every single one of them. I've been given an amazing opportunity to work for Cricut and I'm grateful. I look forward to meeting, inspiring and learning from all of my Circlets (and non-Circlets too :).

I'll see you in the morning. Good Luck!

He Rocked It

Oh this little child and THAT song....

If I hear, "cause tonight's gonna be a good good night" one more time my little head is going to pop off. Seriously, he never ever tires of it. He has taken over my iPod and will play his beloved Black Eyed Peas songs over and over. Sometimes its Boom Boom Pow, but the one song he favors the most is I Gotta Feeling - you should hear him sing it a capella. Ha! And so naturally I had to put it all down on paper before he moves on to something else.

The photos are totally staged to tell the story. I bribed him with my iPod and he gave me some of his signature rock star moves. Love that I caught him in 'action'. I wonder how much longer he will perform for me like this before it becomes too embarassing.

All of the paper is from Imaginisce. I love the colors and chipboard. I made the record to ground my title and added studs and a little sewing for definition. That one large circle got me thinking and so I added a row of circles to continue the pattern. The last touch is the row of star stickers by Jenni Bowlin Designs and I stuck them right onto the photo to highlight the iPod. This was a fun layout to make. It took me a while to figure out the design, but once I decided on the circles, everything else fell into place.

Thanks for taking a peek at my little rock star!