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!