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Sunday Photo + Words

Scrapbook: Changing traditions

Hello, and Merry Christmas! It's Jennifer Larson, sharing an idea for scrapbooking the holidays: letting go of traditions.

I love scrapbooking my heritage, those traditions that have been a part of my family for a while. This month, though, I was inspired to create a page about letting go of a tradition, specifically, the Elf. (I'm hoping everyone knows what I'm referring to!)

For a variety of reasons, primarily a hectic schedule and an early Advent after Thanksgiving, I couldn't do the Elf, or decorate for Christmas like I usually do. Stripping away those elements of the holiday made me focus on the tradition that WAS most important to me, so I made the following page to reflect on letting go of a tradition and a renewed focus on what is most meaningful:

I picked nontraditional colors for the layout, which seemed appropriate for a page about saying farewell to a tradition. I also kept the page free of most themed products--again, reflecting my story about stripping away the trimmings to find the most important tradition.

If you haven't scrapped your traditions, do so! Or scrap about traditions that are no longer a part of your holidays. Reminisce on the place they once had in your life and what you do now.

I wish everyone the best as the year winds down and the new year lies in wait for us all!

Scrapbook: Need a Last Minute Gift? How about a CD Case Calendar?

It's Celeste bringing you this year's printable CD Calendar and PNG files! This year I used a set of Commercial Use files from Miss Tiina to create the calendar. I put together an easy printable PDF calendar that you can display in an empty CD case. Please download the ZIP FILE. The zip file includes blank printable PDFs for each month of 2015.You can add paper, photos, or almost anything you'd like to the blank pages.

The PNG file is there for digital scrappers who want to create their very own calendar. You can use these and create any size calendar you’d like. You could even use them to create your own pocket cards!

To start off, I decided to create my CD calendar digitally. I plan on having it printed at an online photo printer. I started with a 5.4 inch by 4.7 inch canvas and then added the calendar stamp and a photo. Easy peasy!

I hope you enjoy the printable and stamps! Happy Holidays to you and yours!

 

Click: Annual Front-Porch Photo

Welcome! I hope the day before the day before Christmas finds you happy & busy & not too stressed! This is Amy Sorensen, and I must share something:

An 80% chance of snow on Christmas day here. Especially since it's been astoundingly dry, that feels like a Christmas miracle! I'm excited for the snow and for the magic of snow on Christmas day, and it makes my anticipation even bigger. But I'm also excited for another, scrapbookery reason.

Last January, when I was sorting through my Christmas photos, I came across a picture I’d forgotten I’d taken. When we were finished opening gifts, I had to run outside to grab something out of the car, and I still had my camera around my neck, so I took this photo of my front porch:

It's not a fantastic picture, aesthetically. It's totally just a random shot, one that I almost deleted, but looking at it after Christmas made me pause for a second and notice how much is documented by that one quick click. The leaves piled up in my flowerbeds tell me I didn’t spend as much time doing yard work in the fall as I usually do. The old snow on the grass and roof let me know it was a cold December but that it hadn’t snowed for a while.  Looking at my wreath reminds me that I want to make a new one (I didn’t get to it this year, either!)

I decided, right then at my computer, that I’d inadvertently started a new Christmas tradition: every year, I plan on taking a photo of my porch on Christmas day. I’ll pay more attention to composition this year, and turn on the house Christmas lights. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them—a mini album a few years into the future? Maybe just a scrapbook page about my front porch (a topic I’ve never scrapped before!), my affection for it and the memories it holds. Maybe an observation in some form I can’t imagine yet, about how things have changed and how they’ve stayed the same. I’m not sure. I do know I like the idea of this new tradition. It makes me even more excited for Christmas, because this year I'll get to photograph it with snow falling.

So tell me: do you have any annual holiday photo traditions?

Write: Journaling Ideas from Embellishments

Hello, and welcome to today’s Write post. If you’re anything like me (Amy Sorensen), you’re feeling a little bit frantically busy, preparing for Christmas. I have a billion things to do today, but I wanted to share a quick journaling tip first, before I shop, bake, make candy, pick my daughter up from the airport, and go to a family party.

When you find yourself lost for words, or unsure about the story you want to tell, try using the words from an embellishment, card, or patterned paper as a starting point.

Take this photo:

 

It’s from Christmas Eve 2004 (I’ve been trying to scrap all of my 2004 images this month), and I love it so much. Quite a bit has changed in our world since then, but when I look at the photo what I remember most is how it felt to have a whole passel of Santa-Claus believers.

It was a pretty sweet night.

But I didn’t quite know how to frame my words—how to start saying what I wanted to say. So I flipped through some supplies, and a Maggie Holmes sticker caught my eye. It so closely matched what I was trying to say but couldn’t quite, yet, that I pulled it out of my pile, thought for a few minutes, and then I wrote my journaling. The words flew out of my fingers once I had that spark!

Here is the layout I made. The sticker that inspired me is the one that says "my heart is full," and it was inspiring because a full heart is exactly what this photo made me feel.

(I wish the sparkly snowflakes and title could be properly conveyed in a photograph!)

So! If you happen to find yourself with a little bit of scrapping time in between last-minute shopping and all that wrapping, turn to your embellishments for a journaling idea. See where it takes you!

Happy holidays!

Sunday Photo + Words

Printable Celebration

Today's printable present is the gift of celebration! With only five days until the big day, it is just around the corner!

If you would like, you may download it here. Thank you for stopping by during this busy holiday season!

December Daily Update

 

Hi there! It's Cristina here, and today I want to give you an update on how my December Daily album is progressing. Last month I talked a bit about what my plans were for this year, and it's time to check in and see how I am doing.

My plan for this year included: handmade album, with pages of different sizes; one story per day.

As fate has it, this December has turned out to be by far the busiest I have  ever had. I thought it would be hard to top last year's craziness, but it has indeed happened. In the past two out of three days I have been at the office from 8 AM to 10:30 PM. And I see no end in sight, yet Christmas is less than a week away. Ugh! So while I am not up to date with my December Daily album, given that I have very little time to work on it, I have made a little progress and I have been taking photos regularly and keeping track of what story I want to tell each day. I hope to get a good chunk of it done just before Christmas, because I know my inspiration dips significantly once Christmas Day has passed. 

I haven't bought any new Christmas supplies this year, but I have a sizeable stash to draw from and it is fun to finally use all these pretty bits that I had been hoarding.

Now it's time to show you some pictures of my album so far. I haven't worked on the cover yet - I will do it at the end since I need to see what size my album will have. But I plan to include this pretty gold star vellum paper at the front. of the album.

And here's what all my pages stacked together look so far. I have days 1-7 done at this point.

I love having pages peeking out. I think it adds a lot of interest to the album!

For December 1st, my story was about the tea advent calendar we got this year.

For this page, I included a 3x4 pocket as a page to hold some journaling.

I like to include stamping in my album because I love stamps so much!

And now.. I'd love to hear from you! Have you been documenting your December? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Scrapbook: Three Photos

It's Jennifer Larson, sharing a tried-and-true way of getting multiple photos on a page: using a line of three.

I adore putting lots of photos on pages. Sometimes, though, all I have to do is narrow it to three photos to capture the moment. There's not many options for three narrow photos on a page, so I tend to line them up. Just because you use the same general design doesn't mean the pages can't look different, though. Here's some examples:

Of course, the different products make them look different, but some other things do too.

• adhere the photos asymmetrically
• tilt the photos
• overlap page elements over the photo
• crop a few of the photos in a line

Certainly, you can block three photos or adhere them vertically, but adding three in a line is an easy way to create a beautiful page. Go for it!

Chanukah, Oh Chanukah...

Happy Chanukah everyone! For this, the first day of Chanukah, I have a bunch of projects to share.  I often admire everyone's holiday decor, but I don't often create my own. Until this year. And a little bit last year.

This year I was helped along by the fact that Clique Kits made a Hanukkah kit, and that I had the honor and pleasure of working with it.

One of the Chanukah projects I have wanted to make for a while, was to create some wall art with the blessings over the candles. I simply printed the blessings onto a light colored patterned paper, and added just a few bits and pieces.

 

I also wanted to create some Hebrew word art. Despite several attempts over the years to use more Hebrew fonts, I only had one Hebrew font on my computer, (Although recently, another Herbrew font seems to have magically appeared. Weird, right?) So, I just varied the size and the color of the words. This is a simple 4x6 card, with just a little bit of sparkle added.

Then, just for decorative fun, I made a banner. I even used some decade-old, gold eyelets to attach my pieces together. I NEVER would have used gold back in the eyelet days of yore. But due to recent trends, gold has grown on me, and here I use it with reckless abandon.

If you are celebrating Chanukah, guess what? You have seven more days to decorate, should you choose to do so.

Whatever holiday you are celebrating, may you have a Happy Holiday!