December Daily 1-3

For the past several years I have attempted to complete either a Journal Your Christmas or a December Daily.  This year is no exception, however I am hoping that by using the My Memories Software I will be able to stay up to date with my December Daily Album.  If I know what story I want to highlight and have a picture or two the page go together very quickly.  I have chosen 3 stories to highlight the first couple of days, Kristen shopping for her first Formal, Kristen being installed as the Historian for her 4-H club, and then Kristen and playing basketball.  Stay tuned to see what I choose for the next few days.

Master Crafter

Around the first part of September (or maybe it was the end of August) I wasn't able to sleep so came out to  the living room to check facebook.  There I found a link for a Master Crafter  contest on Sarah Hammer designs.  The first 100 people to sign up would be in.  I thought it sounded like fun and jumped right in.  The catch was that each of these 100 people would be sent a box with crafty items in it and then you had to create things from the items in the box.  You were allowed to use other items from you stash also.  You needed to link up your projects between October 4-6.  The voting begins on October 7th, so please head over to Sarah Hammer designs and vote for your favorite projects.

I was really excited when I first received the box, but then I opened it and was a little perplexed and confused.  Hmmmm, what can I do with this stuff.  Let me tell you Nothing was popping into my head.

Inside the box was a Mouse Scissors.  Now this device looked interesting and I was excited to try it.  Sure enough it looks just like a computer mouse and even rolls like them.  It cuts really easy and I found that it was the perfect thing to cut apart the picture collage from Walmart as I could like up the line at the top and just follow that on the collage.  It also worked well to cut apart Kristen's school pictures.  Also in the box was a 4x6 stack pad from DCWV.  Once again a little puzzling, not pages I would normally have choosen, how am I going to use these.  

 Also in the box was a little canvas bag (forgot to take a picture of it) a couple of buttons, and a small sentiments stamp (courage) and some green bling.

This is going to be a bigger problem than I thought.  I don't normally use stamps when I scrapbook (but I did know that there would be stamps in the box).  Also I don't normally use green or buttons and what in the world am I going to do with the canvas bag.  I let the stuff sit for about a week an a half.  When all of the sudden it dawned on me, the bling is just about the same shade of green as 4-H green.  Maybe I can do something with some of the girls 4-H pictures.  I decided that I wanted to try and scrap Kristen's state fair Educational Presentation pictures.  I really am so proud of her for trying this project.  

As I was looking for some ink that would work, I ran across another set of stamps that I have had for several years and never used.  These would be perfect for the title.  I choose to use my brother's comment on a picture my mom had sent me through the phone that I then put up on facebook.  (I didn't get to take her to the contest.)  I am guessing that we never told my brother about Kristen speaking at the state fair, so when the picture was posted his comment was Wow, look at you, I think that summed up my sentiments exactly.  How many 12 year old kids will get up and speak about something to a room full of total strangers and be judged?  The courage sentiment stamp worked perfect to journal with. I have always seen when people journal using a stamp for one work or a different colored ink so I gave it a try.

I really loved how this came out.   Then the green bling was just perfect for pictures of 4-H.  I also used some of the paper with stars on it for my photo mats.  The stars were perfect since of course she is a superstar.   Now I am on a roll, lets see if maybe I can scrap some of Sarah's graduation photos.  

Since the schools color's are red and black I decided that a few more of the black papers would be perfect for this 2 page layout.  On the first page are photo's of Sarah with the family that came to see her.  Others wanted to come, but it was almost 90 out that day and since the gym isn't air conditioned we decided that it wouldn't be a good thing for Grandpa F to come.  Way to hot for him, plus he would never have been able to sit in the bleachers.  However, besides Mom, Dad, and little sister Kristen, Uncle Dean, Uncle Dan and Grandma H all came to see her graduate.  I ended up using the canvas bag on this layout.  I had the perfect stamp for the bag.  Now I just have to figure out where she packed one of her tassel's.  They received at least 3 different tassels.  I will have her put one of them in the bag.  

I have never used a canvas bag before, but after stamping on this, I believe that there is a lot of potential for these little bags.  Will have to look into getting more of them to craft with. For the last page that I am going to show you (I did try a few other things, but those didn't turn out well, sorry Sarah you won't be getting a kitty cat birthday card, so I am not showing those) I used Iris folding.  I have done this before and liked it but always seem to forget about trying it.  

I choose kind of a fun star shape and then cut up 5 different papers into 1/2 inch strips and glued those on.  This along with the pink paper, the buttons, and the added bling all just scream Kristen.  She is so my girly girl.  

I must say that I really had fun with this little project/contest and can't wait to try it again.  I was pushed to use some different items than I normally would, but that is a good thing.

First Digital Photobook

I have been playing around with My Memories Suite software and decided that this would be perfect to create a book for Sarah with all of her Senior Pictures in it.  Just thought you would enjoy seeing what I was able to create.  If you like the software, it can be yours for 10.00 off the regular price by putting in the following code (STMMMS61276) at the MyMemories Suite website.  www.mymemories.com

Bits and Pieces Guest Designer.

Last November or December (I don't remember which)  there was a post on Fiskateers asking for people who would be interested in becoming a Bits and Pieces designer.  I decided to try this thinking it would be fun.  Groovy Deb sends the guest designer a package of her left overs.  Your challenge is to create either scrapbook pages, cards, tags, etc with her scraps.  You are allowed to use white card stock and then any stamps, paints, dyes, etc that you want.  When the package arrived I was really excited until I opened it.  The one color that I don't really use is Pink, so it took me awhile to figure out what I was going to do with the pink.  I will say that once I got started it was easier than I thought.  There were a few snags with getting this project done, The day that I was planning on scrapping, I came down with the flu and didn't get anything else done.  I ended up getting my layouts done a week or so later.  The first picture is one that I created for a class I am taking Scrapbook*Life*Journal.  The second page is a picture of my daughters at the nursing home that their grandfather lives in.  My oldest daughter dances for a tap team that travels to nursing homes, hospitals, family reunions etc and puts on about 1 1/2 hour show.  The nursing home that Grandpa lives in, is one of the places they always visit.  Grandpa has to make sure that he is seated right in the front row for this show.  The pink worked perfectly for this as the costume for this past year was pink. The next page is for my younger daughter and her "boyfriend".  Of course I am not sure how serious 12 year old's can be about relationships.  The two attend the same church so they see each other on Sunday's and for confirmation classes.  They are also both involved in 4-H(but different clubs) so they see each other at county wide activities.  They do live about 25 miles apart so do not attend the same school.
The final layout that I created probably should have been done a few years ago, but the pink was perfect for that also.  It is of Kristen and a few of her friends from a week at church camp several years ago. The problem with waiting so long, is that neither of us remember who the girls are.

Over all this was a fun challenge that pushed me out of my comfort zone a bit.  For that I need to thank Groovy Deb.  I will now consider using pink more often and also ribbon.  Thanks Deb for the challenge.