Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Big Layout!

It gets an exclamation mark when there is a two page layout involved! We all know they are not only not my specialty but also something with which I struggle. The real estate is immense, and it can cause quite a freeze! However, when I looked through my photos, it was clear that there were two distinct groupings, which meant that a two page layout was going to be best. So before any panic set it, I quickly decided to make a mirrored image single layout! Crisis averted!

Here is page one.

And page two.

You can see that they are really the same layouts twice. I did put the people photos into black and white to let the colors of the food photos shine. I may take away the bling on the left corner once I stare at them as a whole. Speaking of which, here they are together....

I really love how this turned out and am not ashamed to say I may preplan my photos for tomorrow to align with a similar layout for this year!

Happies Thanksgiving to all of you! I hope your day of preparations goes smoothly!

♥marnie

turkey day decor

Each year I bring up fewer and fewer decorations from the basement. And somehow, I rarely place them in the same place twice. I suppose since I tend to move the furniture about the places and spaces aren't quite the same for putting things out. Regardless, I am glad when I take a few snapshots so I can remember how much I loved how they were.

I hope you are doing well with your holiday prep and would love to see your decor, too! I also put this into a sketch for you if it helps to make it faster for you!

♥marnie

supplies: glitz color me happy

 

Thanksgiving

There is just something about browns and oranges for the holiday. I love how this paper mixes the traditional palette with some nontraditional rainbows. Or you could consider them turkey feather sprays if you wanted!! :)

I hope your holiday prep is going well!

November is Here! and awesome...

Good morning! Last night after the kids got home and to bed, I put all of the Halloween decorations down. I love my little pumpkin-headed witch, but there is something very satisfying about closing a chapter and beginning a new one. I love the clean slate. I get so bogged down by things left undone and things not finished that having a chance to reset is quite a lovely thing. 

 

So what does one do with a new month and a new holiday season? Well, first, new decorations must go up, of course. And though they may be sort of the same from year to year, there is no reason to not document them. Especially when they are as cute as these!

The fancy clipboard is new this year, so I have the pleasure of making new signs for it. This is the new one for Thanksgiving. If you would like me to email you one, please leave me a comment!

What a lovely month this is going to be!!

Scrapbook your Autumn Traditions: Signs of the Season

Happy Black Friday! Carey here to talk more about our Autumnal Traditions before we jump full swing into Christmas! I've enjoyed all the inspiration this week and hope you've been getting some great ideas to document your autumn traditions.

Of course a big autumn tradition is Thanksgiving and all of the yummy food and fellowship that comes with it! But our traditions include not only the things we do, but also the things and people we see routinely this time of the year. I love this time of year - a time of change, where the air is cool but the earth is warm, the sunlight glows lovely orange as the days shorten, the boots and sweaters come out, and our slow cookers become our new best friends. 

Here's some ideas of how to capture and document the signs of autumn:

1. Take photos of the same thing during the same time of year and see how they change from year to year. I try to take a photo of my house from the same vantage point throughout the seasons and the years.

The last several years I've taken a self portrait (using a timer) of our little family gathered around the table for Thanksgiving lunch. It's fun to see not only how we've changed, but also how the food and decor on the table has changed.

2. Photograph and write about the things you look forward to seeing that only appear this time of year.

3. Document what sights signal a change in the season: warmer clothes, changing colors, shorter days, soups and comfort food, fall decor. Do you change the decor around your home during autumn? Has it changed over the years?

4. What are the sounds unique to fall? Gusty winds, rustling leaves, crunching acorns underfoot, and even leaf blowers all signal fall to me. I love to hear the sounds popping and crunching beneath my feet.

5. Don't forget about the smells of fall: the earthy smell of dry leaves, and of course, pumpkin spice everything!

For those of you braving the stores today, happy shopping! If you're not, I hope you get some time for crafty fun and document some of your autumnal traditions.

Happy Scrapping!

Scrapbook your Autumn Traditions: Thanksgiving Journaling Prompts

Sometimes I get a strange look when I tell people this, but I’m sticking by it:Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love it because it's really, at its heart, about simplicity and love. There aren't any gifts to buy or worry about. There are no expectations. It's just about hanging out with your family, eating really good food. As I love to cook and I love my family, well: I love Thanksgiving! 

Plus, it's a holiday that's rich in traditions. When I am cooking, I feel like I am using the wisdom of many of the women who came before me—my grandmothers, my aunts, my mother-in-law, and my mom. I use the same recipes every year, some that came from friends, some that were discovered when my grandma was a young mom, some passed to me by my husband's family.  (Plus, OK, a couple from Pinterest!) I like to cook in solitude, while my kids do some serious Thanksgiving hanging out (accompanied by more food, cheeseball and crackers, homemade cookies, something delicious to drink) but I'm never alone because each thing I make connects me to someone. 

But it's not just the food that is full of memories. If you're an American celebrating Thanksgiving today (or you're reading this on your cell phone on Friday morning while you're out shopping!), here's a list of journaling prompts (and a few layouts illustrating them) to help you record your Thanksgiving traditions.

 1. The dishes. Paper or china? Glass or plastic? Is there any history connected to the dishes you use? (Don't forget the serving bowls and platters!) 

2. The activities. Are you a board-game-playing family? Cards? Or is it all football, all the time? What do you do between the meal and dessert? Do you go out shopping or wait until Friday?

3. The food. How do you cook your turkey? Where did that recipe for sweet potatoes come from? Who helps you cook? How long did your prep take? What is each family member’s favorite dish? What other stories can you tell about your food? 

4. The little details. What small details will you always remember? What little things happened that set this Thanksgiving apart from all the others? What did you laugh about or discuss? What political or social events influenced your conversations? Or, what sensory details are strongly embedded in your memories? Scents are a huge part of Thanksgiving, and taste of course, but what does it sound like?

In this layout, I made some text embellishments to record some of the small moments of the day, and then used the journaling space to tell a larger story:

5. The family and friends. Who came this year? How has your family changed since last year? What qualities in each person are you grateful for? Who didn't come that you missed? How are the family dynamics at a big gathering?

6. The interaction.​ What funny things happened? What good memories were shared or conversations had? How did cousins get along (or not)? What sweet, surprising, or memorable interactions did you notice?

 (This little moment between my mother-in-law and my son is so precious to me, even if it's not a very good picture.)

7. The changes.  How have your Thanksgiving traditions changed over the years? What has been lost and what has been added? How are your kids' Thanksgivings different than those of your childhood?

8. The setting. Whose house did you eat at? If you ate at yours, what preparations did you do to get your house ready? At someone else's, what do you love about that place? How does the location influence your Thanksgiving experience?

The journaling in this layout is about my mother-in-law's house:

9. The desserts. (As much as Thanksgiving is about turkey, potatoes, stuffing, and rolls, it's equally involved with dessert, yes?) What is each person's favorite dessert? What dessert must be present or it wouldn't feel like Thanksgiving? Who makes the desserts? (Or did you buy them all at Costco?) Whipped cream or ice cream? Cake or pie?

10. The feels.​ Gratitude, of course, goes hand in hand with Thanksgiving. So it's an important emotion. But it's not the only one. What other emotions do you experience at Thanksgiving? Are you emotions straightforward or complicated, and why? Were you surprised by anything you felt this year?

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. May your turkey be moist, your mashed potatoes buttery, and your pie crust flaky!

Scrapbook: Inspiration from Home Decor

Hello! Welcome to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. If you're anything like me, you'll be cooking quite a bit today. But maybe you'll have some time for scrapbooking, too, and maybe this idea will help you find an embellishment or two.

Last Mother's Day, my daughter gave me a vase she bought at Anthropology. All spring and summer, I kept different flowers in it, but for fall I decided to go with a simple sprig of autumn leaves. I've had it this way since September and I swear, every time I walk past it I smile a little bit. Mostly because she knows me so well. (I have a little obsession with black and white/cream/pale grey/beige.) 

But also because it just looked so pretty!

The other day, I decided I'd use it to inspire a scrapbook layout. I've been making a lot of Thanksgiving layouts this month, and I was feeling a little bit tired of the usual leaf/turkey/browns motif. Grey, black, cream and orange felt perfect with these photos:

I wanted to stay true to the simplicity of the decoration, so I didn't add a lot, but here is what I came up with:

I made the flowery stem in the vase by cutting the letter Q out, using the dingbat font Hollhock and my Silhouette. (I've been wanting to do that forever!)

So here's a little challenge: take a break from cooking to wander around your house for a few minutes, looking for inspiration in your home decor. Maybe even take a few notes for ideas you want to use soon. Then put them to use and share them!

And let me wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving, if you're American. It's my favorite holiday, so tomorrow I'll be reveling in gravy and rolls and stuff and of course pie!

click | prepping for a Thanksgiving page/album

Today is day two of our preparations for our Thanksgiving project. In case you missed yesterday's post, we are planning a project (page or mini) based upon's Sue's gallery layout this month. We are going to check in on our holiday hour by hour to see what we are doing. This is in part because I loved the idea, and in part because last year was an epic fail in the photo department!

So yesterday we prepped the journaling tags. And today we are going to make a list of photos to take. (Have I mentioned how excited I am to have more than one photo to represent our holiday and feast this year?)

 

Here is the list that I came up with:

• decorations
• turkey
• finished food
• people
• prep

I figure that most of these will be covered as I go hour by hour. I am setting a timer on my phone to remind me that an hour has passed. I know all too well that once a turkey is in and rolls are rising and I start in on the sides that I will forget the photos. Hopefully a beeping alarm will help. I am also planning on telling my kids so they will help remind me. I think that being purposeful is already going to increase my chances of a successful photographic event. 

Any thoughts for maximizing succcess? I am all ears!

Only two more days!

 

write | prepping for a Thanksgiving page/album

Hello! and welcome to Thanksgiving week. I am so excited to work together to put an album or page together. I think it's going to be plenty of fun.

 

Did you see Sue's post from earlier this month? I did and I loved the idea. I am going to copy it for out Thanksgiving day. You might remember that last year I totally forgot to take any photos. So busy cooking was I. This year, I don't want to repeat that mistake so I thought I might preplan a page/album. I'm not toally sure how I want to put it together, but I know I want to follow Sue's format of documenting hour by hour.

 

To help me with the journaling, I have put together journaling tags that list the hour. I will let the photos guide the stories, and add notes that coincide with the times. I'm so excited.

Here are the tags. I made them a bit generic so that I might reuse them for another project/holiday.

If you would like to download them, you may do so here. I hope that you might use them to put together your own Thanksgiving project!

See you tomorrow!

Thanksgiving Blessings

Hi everyone, Diane here today sharing some thoughts on Thanksgiving. While I have been out and about the last couple weeks, I have noticed that we have gone straight from Halloween to Christmas in the retail world. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas...the decorating, Christmas trees and lights, favorite Christmas movies and music, snuggling up inside with the fireplace on sipping hot cocoa, and spending time with the family and friends. But, I feel I should pause before heading straight into all of that and think about everything I am thankful for this year. As I started planning the Thanksgiving meal for my family, I thought perhaps I should create some Thanksgiving place settings too. So, I pulled out my scrapbooking supplies and came up with some quick and easy tags and name cards to make the meal with my loved ones just a little more special.

To create the Thanksgiving tags, I simply added a piece of fall flair, a greeting and a strip of gold glitter to office tags and tied it onto the napkin ring with cream and gold twine.

For the name cards, I used woodgrain textured cardstock trimmed in gold with cream and gold alpha stickers for our names.

These were quick and easy and really adds a special touch to the table. I'm looking forward to sitting down to this with my family next week.

Thank you for joining me today. May you be blessed this holiday season!