~*~Happy New Year~*~

Hello, all! I'm back from vacation just in time to wish you all the happiest and most productive of new years. I'm spending this night with my family watching movies and snacking on delicious food but don't think I'm slacking off in the scrapping department. I'm working on my DT projects for Scraps of Darkness (remember reveal day is the 15th!), and quite a few projects for challenges and company calls. I will be sharing all I can with you very soon but until then, here's to you all and your families!

~*~Happy Holidays~*~

Hello, all! Just popping in real quick before leaving on a trip to visit family for Christmas! I wanted to wish you all the merriest of holidays and the happiest of new years! Internet access will be limited for me, so I will see you all when I get back in about a week. I just wanted to share this cool version of the traditional Christmas tree, that I found on the internet, before I go. The artist is boredman on DeviantArt.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

~Scraps of Darkness~December Release~

Hello, all! It's that time of month again! The monthly release of the Scraps of Darkness kit and let me tell you, this month's kit is so beautifully elegant! There are wonderfully patterned papers, including some velvet damask, and fun and festive embellishments that will keep you in the spirit of the holidays! But as you know, Scraps of Darkness is not your ordinary kit club and the colors for this kit are anything but traditional!

Here is the kit photo from the SOD site:

And here is this month's sketch designed from Craftysprinkles:

Here are some of the projects I completed with this kit! Hope you like them and that they inspire you!

Alice layout. I created this page using the December Scraps of Darkness sketch. This is my cousin Alice and I created this one to go into my grandmother's heritage album. Alice is one of three granddaughters, the rest of the grandkids are all boys! Can I tell you, I  love this patterned paper and the blue cardstock! And the Dusty Attic chipboard and Prima flower! Okay, I really love it all! lol!

Family Resemblance layout. I made this page for my cousin Alice because she had seen one I made using my grandmother, my mother, and me, and she wanted one for herself. This is our grandmother, her mother (my aunt), and Alice. I did a monochromatic page and chose these papers for their elegance and contrast. The letter stickers are Prima and are sophisticated with a little bling!

Anthony layout. This is one of my male cousins, Anthony. This page is another for my grandmother's heritage album. I kept the design simple, incorporating red, white, and blue and stars to represent his service to this country. I inked everything with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to give it an older feel. Sorry you can't see the title letters to well, the picture didn't come out as well as I thought.

Tree Time layout. I really wanted to use these colors together when I opened my kit! So I took burgundy background paper, inked the clock paper; completely covering it in Dusty Concord Distress Ink and wet distressed it. I inked the mats with Black Soot DI and cut the ornaments with my Cricut Expression. The photos are of my son running through the Christmas tree lot and my hubby holding him after he caught him.

Celina layout. Okay, don't laugh but that was me when I graduated high school. This is for my grandmother's heritage album and this photo was the best one I could find to use. The shiny flourishes are from Clear Snap; a combination of Clear Snap adhesives and Clear Snap foils. They look much better in real life and I plan on buying some in every color and design!

Oh! Christmas Tree layout. I absolutely love the black music paper! Just had to put that out there! lol! Well in our house we decorate for Christmas using Black, Red, and Silver and our Christmas tree is no different. Here is our tree in one photo and my hubby putting up the star in the other. The silver leaves were actually gold but since I wanted to keep my Christmas color scheme, I used Metallic Alcohol Inks in Silver to change them. I also stamped some flourishes on the cream background with Black Soot Distress Ink and inked the edges with it, too.

Heritage Pages

Hello, all! I have a couple of heritage pages to share with you all. They're nothing spectacular but I think they do their job in showcasing the heritage photos I have collected and that I want to add to my grandmother's heritage album; the one I'll be giving to her for Christmas.

Jose Enrique layout. This is my grandmother's one and only son. She still  calls him her baby! lol! I used leftover Co'ordinations embossed paper (I'll share the first layout below) and cut up the scraps into squares and but them on black paper I also had as scraps. The flowers are from my November Scraps of Darkness kit, except for the brown ribbon roses which I made from ribbon I had.

Robert Jr layout. This is one of my many boy cousins. I did the water distressing technique the liberally inked the wrinkles. I also cut stars with my Cricut Expression and used stickles to "paint" grids on the brown stars.Sorry the title is not as visible as I would like.

Time To Meet layout. This page is of a photo of me and an online scrappy friend meeting for the first time. Frances617 from scrapbook.com has family in Dallas and she asked if I'd like to get together and have lunch. I was so excited for this opportunity! We had lunch at Cheddars, I met her wonderful nephew, Kenny, she met my family, and we went Black Friday shopping at Michaels. Used Co'ordinations embossed papers and some Graphic 45, with some Prima flowers to create this page.



*~*Believe*~*

Hello, all. I am not one to usually scrap about Christmas. I do have a few Christmas layouts but for some reason I have neglected most of my Christmas photos. Now, I join in many scrapping challenges over at scrapbook.com and so many are revolving around the holidays and one challenge (the Book of Me Challenge hosted by TinaScraps) asks one to scrap about their most memorable Christmas. For me, my most memorable Christmas was last year's when my husband returned from a deployment in Iraq (for the second time). It was a very special time for my family because it was the first time my 4 yr. old son had ever gone so long without his daddy and so it was all the more moving when we were all finally united again. I took photos of my children in that moment when they saw their dad after a year apart and the photo I use in this page is the one of my daughters. The picture still moves me when I look at it and I used the title Believe because my husband didn't think our teenage daughters would miss him so much. I showed him this photo and he said he believed.

The hidden journaling says: "Believe in the strength of our family's love. This photo of the girls, when we picked Daddy up when he came back from Iraq, says it all."

Believe layout. I used the criteria for many challenges at scrapbook.com on this page: The Monochromatic Challenge - week 3 Christmas Tree Green with 2 twists, "Believe..."  and handmade flowers; the DIY Challenge - Paper Poinsettias by Amarylis and using paint and glitter to make a background, the Military Challenge (I consider this photo military because my daughter's were welcoming their dad back from deployment in the photo) with two twists, using red and green (red is in the photo and the rest of the layout has green in it) and to use a bow or ribbon which is on the hidden journaling tag to the right of the page; and the Book of Me Challenge - To scrap your most memorable Christmas.

From Screen 2 Scrap GDT Layout

Hello, all! I am finally at liberty to post the page I created for my GDT spot at From Screen 2 Scrap! The movie poster inspiration for December is The Nightmare Before Christmas (you can see the poster in the post below this one) and there are seven different criteria you can add to your pages:

1. Pumpkin(s)
2. Large Moon
3. Jack or Skeleton
4. Spooky Tree
5. Fence
6. Yellow/Purple Colors
7. Large Swirl

Here is my entry called 'Jack Obsessed':

Jack Obsessed layout. This poster inspiration was perfect for me because my eldest daughter is obsessed with everything 'Jack'. She loves Jack Skellington and has numerous t-shirts, blankets, stuffed toys, purses, scarves, and hats; all with Jack on them. I used my Cricut Expression to cut out the moon, fence, pumpkins, and tree. The swirl mountain was hand cut and I cut out Jack from a photo I got off the internet.

From Screen 2 Scrap December GDT spot!

Hello, all! I'm so excited to finally tell you that I am guest designing for From Screen 2 Scrap in the month of December! This month's inspiration movie poster is the Nightmare Before Christmas, which is just up my alley! Below you'll find the poster. I will post my layout for this month as soon as Shazza over at From Screen 2 Scrap posts it over there. Hope you'll check back for it!