Documenting Christmas cards

Every year I save the Christmas cards with photos and turn them into a layout. I have albums just for Christmas pages, and I put them in there. I've been behind lately. Here's the pages I worked on over winter break:

This first one was complete, until I got a few late cards. I added a 6x12 page with the remaining photos. I keep my themed products (Christmas, camping, travel, Halloween, school) in Iris containers, so I fortunately still had the green paper for the bottom. I had no more of the plaid on the upper right, so I found a similar plaid and used it.

This next page came from two years ago (I was behind!). I have a TON of Christmas products--many years on design teams guaranteed lots of product--but I still got the new Christmas line from Stampin' Up!, the one with blacks and greens. I added silver and touches of red from other Christmas lines I had.

I also made the pages for 2017 as well, but I'm holding on to see if I have any late cards before posting them and putting them in albums.

Scrapbooking wish lists

Scrapbooking Christmas is not always my favorite thing. For one, the stories often seem the same. For another, I'm not truly fond of Christmas colors. That said, I found a Christmas story I wanted to scrap recently, so I made this page:

For the last few years, we took to wish listing at the mall by taking pictures of ourselves with the phones, then figuring out what we really liked later. I normally delete the photos after we wish list, but last year I didn't, thinking I might want to scrap it. I never did at the time, but I'm glad I kept the photos, because this year my boys took their own photos to wish list, and none of themselves.

Here's the details:

It's only a year ago, but Dominic looks so young!

Thank you for visiting! I hope you consider recording a small Christmas habit instead of just the big stories.

Scrapbooking Christmas: December pages for Simple Scrapper

A confession I've made before: I don't really like scrapbooking Christmas. I feel like every page, every year is the same. That said, I've enjoyed getting back into documenting Christmas now that our family has developed some of our own traditions. Here's two pages I made using sketches and story starters from Simple Scrapper:

This first page uses a new sketch and an old story starter. It's my favorite thing to take some snaps of the morning and record our calm time together. I loved pulling out vintage products for this.

Next is a page where I record our evolving Christmas tree topper tradition, using one of my favorite old sketches and a new story starter:

Again, I loved digging into my Christmas bucket of supplies to find the perfect fit. It felt good to use up my old Making Memories ribbons for the starburst on the right. Here's some details:

Thank you for visiting! Please check out the terrific membership available at Simple Scrapper, which will keep you scrapbooking, inspired.

What I do with those holiday cards

I made this a long time ago, but I thought I'd share it in case it gives you ideas.

I love getting Christmas photos, but I hate throwing them away, so I tend to trim them and put them on a layout together. I was very bad last year and didn't scrap it until this year. Here's the page:

I find that putting the photos on a mass block is the easiest way to scrap them. Here I stretched them onto the second page when needed.

Here's the page I made this year. I got fewer cards with photos, so I was able to fit it onto one page! Of course, after I made this page I got two more picture cards; I will cut them into circle and lay them over the corners of photos on this page.

Thank you for visiting! If you hate throwing away Christmas photos, I hope this gives you another alternative. I didn't invent this, but I find it worth continuing.

December gallery for Write Click Scrapbook

December is upon us, and so is the new gallery at Write Click Scrapbook! The theme is holiday favorites, andI had one lone holiday photo unscripted that fit the theme. Here's the page:

I suppose it's fitting that I scrapbook this photo now with the new Star Wars coming out in a couple weeks. I hope you can tell the joke in the page--it's Christmas Lights, with {abers} added after the S just like my sons added Star Wars to the manger.

I also used my favorite scrapbooking products--embellishments, especially stickers and die cuts. No patterned paper this page!

Thank you for checking out my page! Please visit Write Click Scrapbook to see some other awesome holiday pages.

November pages for Scrapbook Circle: Good Cheer!

Hello! Now that November is here, Christmas is just around the corner. Scrapbook Circle has delightful holiday-themedkit called Good Cheer. Here's the pages I made this month.

First, a page about my youngest:

Dominic has a beautiful voice, and he loves acting, so here he is at his turn as John the Baptist with the pleasant beginning of the story. You can see I used a lot of the sequins and doodads in the main kit and the embellishment kit Wish List.

Next is a page about our holiday treat tradition:

I LOVE this background paper by Pinkfresh Studio. I wanted to highlight it so I made the layout align left. This tabs again came from the Wish List Add on.

Then a page about our Christmas MORNING food tradition (seriously, I was hungry this month, I guess!). I used the calendar background paper to house various embellishments, one of my favorite designs.

This time I used the embellishment add on called Count On It, plus a lot of stitching.

I love the acrylic and glitter starts in the main!

Finally, a page about our holiday visitor last year, Reggie the Australian Shepherd.

When I took the photo on the right, I knew I wanted to print it big. Look at how happy the dogs are! (My cat hid during most of Reggie's visit. He was just a little too enthusiastic for her.)

I loved using the 7 journaling cards to edge the photo border. You'll also see lots of the add on Wish List in here.

Thank you for checking out my page! I hope this gets you in the holiday spirit. Please go check out the ideas at Scrapbook Circle and get inspired to create with these gorgeous products!

My December pages for Scrapbook Circle!

A very busy month is almost done, and it's time for me to share the pages I made for Scrapbook Circle's December kit We Are Made of Stories! (Be aware that there is also a special on past kits right now for $15; have fun shopping!) Here's my first page for December:

This first layout is one I tend to do every year, a page about December with representative photos of the month. I used the main plus silver word stickers and die cut bits from the add-on Favorite Elf. The page design is usually a grid for me when I have this many photos; the Elle's Studio diamond paper called Holiday Quilt; I cut it to randomly cover some of the photos. I like the look.

(Embarrasssing note: I'm pretty sure these photos are from 2012. Sigh. I'll have to change the date.

 Next I used my FAVORITE paper from the main, the Elle's Studio Star of Wonder paper. The circles inspired me to use circles on this page. I used the Favorite Elf add-on for the 6x6 pad, which is perfect for punching embellishment circles and getting small strips without cutting into bigger sheets of paper. The wood snowflakes also came from the add-on. Just lovely.

(Interesting note: I design the page before I picked the photos for it. Then when I went to pick the unscripted sledding photos from last year, I found that it had been too cold to go sledding! We had only gone once, and those were scrapped. This was a good enough excuse to go sledding for us, what with this early winter!)

Any time I have Holiday papers and products, I try to make pages that are not holiday based. I made two, including this page about my son, who stood so still the birds docked to him, no small feat with his ADHD. I love the mix of aqua and gold and wood.

Finally, another page made with the kit and not about the holidays. The deer paper made me think of Renaissance hunting parties in England, which inspired this page about this autumn's Renaisaance family feast. I mainly used the main kit, plus silver word stickers and the 6x6 paper pad for banners from the add-on. I also used the stamps (the stamped images I trimmed and adhered them with dimensional stickers) and the tags from the main.

Thank you for checking out my pages! I had so much fun playing with this kit. So versatile and fun! Please check out Scrapbook Circle for the kit and add-on, and have fun scrapping!