Headway on the December Daily

Making headway this week!
On the December daily...here's my opening page:

I know the idea of these things is that you get them mostly put together before the holidays then just drop in the photos. No can do. I just can't plan that far ahead so now I'm playing catch up. But, keeping things simple and trying to reign in all the crazy ideas that keep bubbling up! So, here's what I've got going on so far......
Here's my basic page (left) - with a photo, the date (those date blocks are from Designer Digitals) and a few lines of copy:

I used glassine envelopes to hold loose stuff (like the first few receipts of my Christmas shopping) 

Here's a closer look at a basic page:

A photo cut into the shape of a tag on the holiday decor layout: 

 Used a lined Studio Calico stamp on the backs of tags to make journaling areas:

Here's my new favorite Studio Calico stamp in action (below) on the envelope holding my holiday assignment checklist:

Used some PSE photo collage pages when I had tons of photos. This one is a sampling of all the holiday projects that were due the first week of December (it was the perfect storm of craftiness!):

Here's a baking layout. (One of the bonuses of blogging is that you can lift photos and copy right off your blog and use them on your projects. I learned this from Ali E. years ago and have found this to be true, on many occasions!)

That's it so far. Will have more in the week to come (hopefully!)

Happy New Year to all those that are already celebrating...oh, and don't forget to enter the giveaway for the awesome Per Annum planner - you have until midnight tonight! I'll post the winner tomorrow.

Say hello to my little friend....

So cute!! This adorable little 'Ellaphant' arrived in the mail today. (Thanks to the blizzard, today was the first day we saw our mailman since Christmas eve!) He was sent by Angie & Wendy at Ella and how beautiful!? This little guy is glass with a cool, colorful millefiore-thing going on in his belly. I will cherish this little elephant, who now has a prominent home overseeing the action on my desk. Thanks so much Ella Publishing! It is an honor and a pleasure to be part of your team!!

In the spirit of giving, I'd like to spread some post-holiday love today, too! Let's get the year started off right with this awesome product:

The Changeable Photo Planner by Per Annum.

A gift from my friends at Ella Publishing and Per Annum - I had fully intended to hang onto this baby. Alas, I've already got a 2-year planner going and the thought of transcribing all the info seems a little redundant. So, I'm going to give it to one of my loyal readers - because you are awesome! Want to see this planner in action? Ella Friend Jennifer Larson put one together for the Ella Publishing blog here. She did an amazing job, no? As a lover of calendars, I could think of a dozen ways to use this one. I'm definitely going to pick one up for 2012.

So, leave me a comment - tell me what you would do with this cool planner. Would love to hear your crafty, creative thoughts. I'll pick a random lucky winner on Jan. 1 and ship it out right away so you can start the new year off right!

Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab

It's been a while since I've had any time to work on a Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab. I love the colors and stripes in the current trigger photo so count me in! Here's the photo:

(so cute, I want them!)

Inspired by the colors, stripes and narrow shape of the mittens, here's what I came up with:

supplies: patterned papers (l to r) Crate, Studio Calico, Echo Park; cardstock: American Crafts; stickers: Making Memories

Thanks for stopping by and having a look!

A fun surprise today....

I was doing my morning blog reading this morning and stopped by the Moxie Fab Blog (like I do all the time) only to discover that this card I made back in the spring is among Cath's top 10 challenge faves this year:

I'm up there with some pretty amazing card designers so I'm completely honored! There's a voting area in the side bar for your top 3 - why not pop over and have a look? And if mine is one of your faves - and you vote for me - that would be awesome!
Thanks to Cath for making my day!

The Big Holiday Wrap-Up

Well, we had a blizzard yesterday. Here's the view out my front door today - what better time for a big holiday wrap up post? (Warning, this a long one...)

I'm sure I'm not the only one that felt like they were shot out of a cannon last week. I barely blogged and ran around like a crazy person trying to catch up on the week we lost/spent on vacation at Disney. We begin here at Newark Liberty Airport - the start of our Disney vacation:

We left in freezing cold rain & wind, landed in Orlando in very cold rain & wind, then proceeded to freeze our backsides off for the first 3 days of our Disney vacation. We failed to pack coats so in this photo, we are layered on top of our layers. (The camera adds 10 lbs, slap on another 10 for all those layers of clothing!)

We are lucky. We go to Disney every year so this one will just go down in our history as the 'freezing cold' trip. I felt so bad for the people who only make it to Disney once or twice in a lifetime. They were so desperate to enjoy, they were swimming in the resort pools while it was 30 degrees out. It was so cold this night:

that the snow Disney makes was actually accumulating. (They have real snow makers on the roofs of these buildings! They almost didn't need them!) Here are some other highlight photos...the giant wreath on the Contemporary Hotel:

cool Contemporary Resort shaped gingerbread house: 

more amazing gingerbread at Grand Floridian:

We marveled at the extremely decorated campsites at Fort Wilderness. These are a must see and we found them by accident - look at all this stuff:

Moving right along....Got back just in time for the annual holiday outing with the people from the office where I work. The principal of our firm always plans some kind of outing for us - usually something art or design related so we are technically 'still working'. This year she surprised us with a trip to Clinton - a gorgeous NJ country town (where I actually worked for many, many years) Hadn't been there in ages and it's so pretty at Christmastime. It's famous for this Mill:

and this (the Hunterdon County Museum):

 where we saw amazing art (those are my peeps in the background):

We ate at this great place:

bought some pretty & festive birch logs: 

and had incredible baked goods for dessert: 

From here is was onto the holiday pageant at my kids school and the class holiday parties (first year ever I did not bake anything for these parties and I felt like a loser!) Then the big eve & day (I'll save those highlights for a different post!)

I learned something this month. That taking a vacation right before the holidays sure throws a kink into things. Note to self: never again. While it was nice to see Disney during the Christmas season, I definitely prefer October and the Halloween vibe there. What should have jump-started my holiday spirit did just the opposite. I planned, shopped, baked all with extreme time pressure. It was all about stress and anxiety. Shouldn't be like that. Moving forward, I am thrilled that we pulled it off and our kids had an awesome time. Not sure if my girl is still going to be a 'believer' next year so I wanted this one to be a fun one for her.

Looking forward to January now, when I will start this project:

I've been really interested in art journaling and Julie is the perfect person to host this. She takes the fear out of techniques and makes it a no-pressure project. She's putting together a community of sorts - to support the efforts of maintaining a daily art journal. She's even posted some examples & inspiration for the scaredy cats (like me). I also want to take this class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Hopefully they will work together. It's definitely going to be busy year, creatively and otherwise!

I cleaned up the craft space yesterday and re-organized a bit so I'm looking forward to getting to work today. Hopefully, will have craftiness to share tomorrow.
Hope you all had an awesome holiday!!

Sunday At The Studio

This week at The Studio, Amanda's got a fun sketch for us -which you can see here. Here's my interpretation:

I really wanted to sew the circle element so I traced one with a dinner plate then stitched around a few times. Since I was a little under the gun when I made this layout, the sketch saved me a ton of time figuring out where stuff was going to go. I needed that last week, that is for sure! Here's a close up: 

Materials: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: Basic Grey, Sassafras Lass; stickers: Basic Grey, 7 Gypsies; tabs: Basic Grey; stamps, jute: Studio Calico; frame: K & Co.; letters: American Crafts, Sassafras Lass; markers: Copic

Love this color combo with my photos. (They are of my son playing drums while on vacation last week. He is obsessed!) I used my December Studio Calico kits for this one. Never thought I'd use that stamp but I did. (They serve as the smaller circle elements of the sketch.) I colored some of the sections with my small collection of Copics. (Warning: This is the start of what will be many, many Disney layouts. Hope I don't make you sick of Disney!)

So, now it's your turn. If your weather is snowy like hours, it's the perfect day to print out a sketch and have some post-holiday crafty time. Check out the design team's interpretations for some inspiration. That's my plan!

Simple Things Sunday

Simple Things Sunday on Rebecca Cooper's blog. I love this project. Can't wait to start working on this album.  Here's my simple thing photo for the week:

I took this photo in Clinton, New Jersey. I was having a holiday lunch there last week with co-workers and noticed this pattern out the window of the restaurant. I had low expectations since I took the photo through glass but I'm happy to have captured it. Love the whimsical trails of duck prints on the frozen creek & snow.

Twisted Sketches #39

It's time for sketch #39 at Twisted Sketches. Anam's twist this week is appropriately 'faith' - anyhow, anyway. To see the sketch, check here. Here's my card:

Be sure so stop by and see what the design team put together - not surprised to see some amazing work there!! Have a look and play along!
Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas...and the evolution of a holiday card photo

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I'm so glad it's finally hear because that means I can chill out! Dinner guests not expected until 4, which means I don't have to even think about getting dressed until 3! Hubby is cooking so the day is mine (after I open about 10,000 twist ties and plastic packages, that is!)

So, that is our holiday card photo up there. When we left for Disney and didn't have the photo taken yet, or the cards ordered, I was I little worried. I'm embarrassed to say how many photos I actually took in Disney (some staged, some not) but I thought this was the best one. Those Santa hats served the double purpose of keeping my kids warm in the frigid Florida weather, as well as being festive. When they sat down to take a little break during our tour of the Animal Kingdom, and enjoy a much deserved snack, I took this series of photos:

A quick purchase from Designer Digitals and a few adjustments and voila - the holiday card was born!

I hope you all have a wonderful day - got lots of catching up to do so the blog will be busy this week!!

Sunday At The Studio

Back from a great trip to Disney. We've never been at Christmas time so it was quite a treat. Despite starting the week off in the low 30's in Florida (with no winter gear!) we managed to have an awesome time. Will definitely have some highlight photos later this week - after I dig myself out from under the pile of laundry and Christmas prep emergencies that are now stacking up! It's only 6 days away - yikes!!!

It is Sunday, and that means a challenge from Amanda at The Studio.

 This was a nice easy one, since the holidays are keeping everyone super busy this week. To make things even easier, I've combined this challenge with Rebecca Cooper's Simple Things photo challenge.

Here's the challenge from Amanda at The Studio this week:

I know that most people are ultra busy in the run up to Christmas, so this week your challenge is to take a photo of something that puts you in a Christmassy mood! Then, once all the festivities are over, you'll be able to go back and scrap the picture at your own leisure

And here's my photo:

This ornament belonged to my paternal grandmother, who I never met. I have have protected this ornament for years as it is the only one we have from her. It used to be on my mom's tree, and she passed it along to me. When it comes out of it's wrapping it always makes me smile, and definitely recharges my Christmas spirit!

The design team submitted some beautiful photos this week. Have a look - great inspiration for December Daily must-have shots. Make sure you check out guest designer Laurel Seabrook's Quick and Easy Holiday post from Wednesday. (It's awesome.) Also, don't forget about the design team call - details can be found right here. You have until the 20th. This is such a fun team - give it a try!

Thanks to everyone that stopped by and commented while I was away! Did you enter to win goodies over at Ella Publishing? Good stuff up for grabs over there and the Friends really did some amazing projects. Will be catching up on my blog reading and commenting this evening. Hope you all had a great week and you are enjoying the holiday season!

12 Days of Christmas at Ella Publishing

It's my day to join in on the fun on the Ella Publishing blog. I was lucky enough to get to play with some very cool vinyl die cut wall art from Vinyl Wall Art. Here's what came in the happy mail....

a couple of their cool antique frames in the Gloss Black color:

and this excellent elegant chalkboard piece:

(and no, that is not my pristine & immaculate white kitchen :)

And here are some detail shots of my projects:
I attached my chalkboard to a piece of galvanized steel from Lowes. Now it's also a magnet board.

This is a photo or card display. I applied the frame to a fabric covered board. (It was a little challenging getting the frame to stick to the fabric but it was worth it.) Then I made the slotted holder from kraft cardstock.

Here's a monogram for my daughter's bedroom. This was so easy. I just applied the vinyl frame to the front of a plastic box frame. Then added some patterned paper.

So stop by and check them out - and make sure you enter for a chance to win. Ella is giving away awesome prizes for their 12 Days of Christmas series!