Holiday 2009

Last year I tried the Dec. Daily.  As in, I made the album but never actually got any further than that.  This year I'm determined to get it done (started and caught up by Christmas!).  So, these are the notes for each day so I remember which pictures to print. :)

1- advent calendar
2- cuddle during movie and no Santa
3- painting wrapping paper
4- New stockings
5- visit to Santa
6- Bernard arrives
7- Picture drawn by Xander (get from school) or dinner in the bath
8- Christmas card
9- Building snowmen
10- Bear & reindeer ornaments
11- Xander's soccer ornament
12- Baking
13- Family Christmas photo
14- Boys in Christmas jammies
15- Christmas concert
16- Paper snowflakes (blue)
17- Leaning snowmen
18- Paper snowflakes
19- Christmas w/Grammy & Papa
20- Christmas w/everyone
21- Gingerbread house
22- Photo of ornament from Mady
23-
24-
25- Christmas Day

Advent Calendar

WHEW!  I finally MADE something.  Here's the Advent Calendar I made for Xander. :)  Each day has a different activity or little gift that goes with it.

Be Mine

Be Happy

One more

Lots of Thank You cards with baby gifts coming in. :)

Bazzill CS
Gin-X patterned papers (that I'd been hoarding)
Fiskars border punch
Cuttlebug embossing folder & butterfly
Cricut Mini Monogram (scalloped circle)
Hero Arts sentiment

Trying to find my groove

Almost 8 weeks ago I gave birth to my second son, and since then I've been trying to find the time and energy to get back into scrapping. So I'm starting small with cards. For two days in a row now I've made my way upstairs rather than to the couch (to sit with my laptop).

Here's what I've come up with:

Cardstock: Bazzill (green) & DCWV (pink & black)

PP: Tinkering Ink

Prima flowers

Hero Arts sentiment

Fiskars border punch

Cuttlebug embossing folder

Based on the bonus sketch this week on 2S4Y

Bazzill cardstock

Tinkering Ink & Scenic Route (small blue dots) PP

Cricut Storybook & Mini Monograms

MM letter stickers

Fiskars border punch

Martha Stewart glitter

Based on CPS #111 sketch

Bazzill cardstock

Scenic Route PP

Heidi Swapp journaling spot

Hero Arts stamp

Colorbox ink

Cuttlebug embossing folder

Cricut George cartridge

Based on Laura's sketch #24

We R Memory Keepers PP (stripes)

Scenic Route PP (dots)

Bazzill CS

American Crafts felt stars

Stickles

Cricut Opposites Attract cartridge

Based on CPS sketch #112

This one is from Valentine's Day, but I never posted it. It was for my son whom I call my Cuddlebug. :)

Bazzill CS

Teen font

Stickles

Cricut Doodlecharms (bug & hearts) & Mini Monograms (scallop circle) cartridges

Cuttlebug embossing folder

CPS #98

A circle card instead of square. :) I used up some OLD scraps. MOD to be specific.

Papers: MOD by Autumn Leaves & Bazzill

Cricut carts: Celebrations & Wild Card

Embellies: Dew Drop, AC flowers

Clean Room

I spent some time the last few days doing some reorganization in my craft area. We moved the armoire upstairs when we got a flat screen TV for Christmas. I'd really like to paint it white, but I think it'll have to wait until this summer. BUT, I put all my Scrap Room kits away and labeled all my papers. :)

This summer I think I will paint the armoire white.

Baby Shower Card - 2S4Y

I spent some time reorganizing my space this last week. I got all my Scrap Room kits put away. I just hope I can start USING all of it now. I also sat down with my sketch book and sketched some of the sketches. LOL! Follow that? My scrap space is small and I just find it easier to have my little 3x8 book on my desk than my laptop. Plus, I tend to get distracted by the computer.

I had to make a card for a baby shower, so I used Kazan's sketch #17 from 2S4Y as my starting point. I used some OLD paper scraps here, but that's another one of my goals. To use up some of those SCRAPS. My goal is for 5 cards total this week - 4 more to go! We'll see if I can accomplish that.

Recent Pursuits of Crafy-ness

I'm trying very hard to be creative. I mean, I have the creative mind and ideas, but the energy itself is severely lacking.

Here are some recent projects I've been working on though.
This is just a little "soft sculpture" for Evan's nursery. Basically, I didn't feel like paying $15 for a stuffed animal. I free handed him on a receiving blanket and then cut him out, sewed him up and stuffed him. Then I added a fun coordinating ear and button eye. It was fun! I haven't done much "fabric" sewing before. I tried once upon a time and SUCKED, but apparently all the time/effort sewing on paper has made me better on my machine in general. :)

More Sewing Projects - a pillow and burp cloths

All kinds of fun patterns here. The pillow was also from a receiving blanket. The animals/colors somewhat matched my bedding set and the flannel is so soft. I figure I'll be spending a lot of nights/time in this chair!

The burp clothes are diapers. Some of the fabric is more receiving blanket material - the green was leftover from the elephant, and there's another that uses the same flannel from the pillow, but others were just fun fabrics I ordered awhile back for this and another project I had in mind for Baby Evan.

Artwork for Evan's Wall

I've had that frame for at LEAST three years. It was almost last year's garage sale fodder, but for some reason I held onto it. We don't really have any dark wood anywhere else in the house which is why it never got used. I'm going for simplicity in Evan's nursery, so the artwork is simple too. I used the Zooballoo cart and my Cricut to cut out the animals. I mounted them onto the cardstock and that was that. Very quick project.

Sewing

It's been awhile since I hit the craft desk. I can't seem to motivate myself to get off the couch and CREATE, so I brought the create to my couch. :) I have a laundry basket full of fabric/sewing notions next to the couch and my sewing machine on the coffee table. I managed to make: an elephant, a pillow and several burp clothes. Fun stuff for the baby mostly.

The kit club kits from Scrap Room keep rolling in though and I REALLY want to get back into paper crafting, although at this point I'm intimidated and don't feel like I remember HOW to. So, I think I'll start easy with cards. I'm going to make it a goal to make at least one card per week. From there, well, we'll see what happens.

I need to get my photos and stories organized for myself SOON - I have all of 2008 and part of 2007 to finish - we're going to have a whole 'nother person here in a few short weeks. I'm going to do a better job of keeping track of Xander's quirky little sayings this year. I think I'll start a notebook that I devote just to those things.

I'll have to make a list of goals and get on that. Luckily I can do a lot of this from the couch since that's where I've been relegated to.