If at first you don't succeed....

Well, I did it again, I entered myself into a Design Team call For the blog "These are a few of my favorite things" (http://whatisyourfavething.blogspot.com). A bit scary but sometimes scary is good and like I always tell my girls, "You never know until you try". So this time I used some old layouts I had done that I personally really liked. I did make some nice ones yesterday at my friend's house but I decided to go with these three instead. It may come back to bite me in the butt but who knows! Here are my three submissions: 

The Big Reveal!

I just barely finished the plaques and they were still drying this morning as the girls opened all their gifts so as a result they didn't get them until after they had opened all their many other cool toys and gifts, I think they were a bit gifted out! They did seem to really like them and were quite interested in how I made them. Caitie was quite excited about her new music box and the fact that it was a jewelry box as well AND played the same music as her sisters' music box was icing on the cake! All in all this was a great Christmas! Here are some photos of the girls with the plaques and the music box.

Nearly finished...

The plaques and music box are nearly finished. The designs have been applied now all that is left is to Mod Poge over it all. I was so happy with how Caitie's turned out! I love my Cricut Expression and my wonderful husband who allowed me to get the cartridge that had that fantastic tree on it! Also thanks to my new friend Penny for digging in her kids sand box and getting me those tiny shells on Rylie's plaque. The picture of Rylie's plaque was taken before I added two little seagull stickers. I'll be sure to post the girls' reactions as they open them!

Scrap pages

So yesterday I got to take some time out from the busy activities of December and spend the day scrapping with friends. I have so much to do and unfortunately I don't think I will make my goal of finishing photos from 2008 before the end of 2010! Well, there's always next year! That's what I love about scrapping, it's never done and there is always something more to create! Now that my last scrap day of the year is behind me I will get back to working on the plaques for the girls, they are coming along and I hope once school is out I will have more time to finish them! I am excited about the pictures of them I have in my head, let's hope that translates into reality! Here are the pages I got done yesterday. 2 layouts are from the "Remember Me" Kit club I am part of through Scrapbook Generation and most of the other layouts are derived from my very talented friend Alicia and her sketches!

                                        
                                            These last 2 are from the "Remember Me" club

And so it begins...

I finally made it to Michaels today to get the supplies I needed to make the plaques for my daughters as well as decoupage the music/jewelry box for my youngest. As I sat down tonight to plan it out I realized the plaques really should be painted first! So back to Michaels I will go in the morning.

I have also finally made the Advent Calendar activity tags. About 3 years ago I made an Advent Calendar from a design I saw in a magazine. The first year I didn't really know what to do with it so it just served as decoration. But then I got the idea to make tags that described a fun activity or charitable act for each day of the month of December. So for the last 2 Christmas' we've done things like "family movie night", "gather toys for shelter pets", "go to the library", etc. The girls really enjoy it and it's a way to spend our time during this season with each other instead of running around and missing the whole point! This year coming up with activities was a bit more challenging since they are both in school every day but I managed and some of the stuff is really awesome and some is cheap! Either way it gets us doing things together and that is always a good thing!



The supplies!

A few of the Advent Calendar tags

"Scrap Friday"

I try my hardest not to leave my house on Black Friday. I do not find waiting in line for hours in the freezing cold to save a few bucks, fun at all! So a year or so ago I started having friends over to my house for a day of scrapping. Our husbands all work retail and are usually at the office at the insane hour of 4am! This year both my scrap buddies were able to join me in a day of scrapping and our kids got a whole day to play together! Here are the layouts I was able to complete.

Latest Scrap pages

I recently went out of my comfort zone and submitted some pages for a chance to be on a "Creative Team" regardless of the outcome I really like the pages and it was fun to do. Here are the pages.

My crafting goals for the remainder of the year

 It is nearly Thanksgiving and I am just starting my Christmas shopping. I am very behind this year but I have some great ideas for gifts! Last spring I purchased a plain white music/jewelry box for my youngest daughter with the intent of jazzing it up somehow. My plan is to use my fabulous Cricut Expression and one of the new cartridges I got for my birthday, "Serenade", and do a decoupage scene on the top. I also plan on making each of my daughters' welcome signs for their bedrooms. A fun trip to Michaels is in order. I have never decoupaged before so this will be a learning experience! I'll be sure to take photos along the way! Also my other goal is to finish scrapbooking the photos of 2008 before the year 2010 is finished! I think I can, I think I can! My two favorite scrapbooking buddies will be coming over on black friday (or as I like to call it 'SCRAP' Friday) and we'll be scrapping all day while our husbands (who all work together in the retail business, hence no day off for them) are at work.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and I hope you make and capture many wonderful moments and memories!