The Magic and Wonder of the Holidays

Hello Stampin' Friends.  This is me, still trying to catch up my scrapbooks. I have been sitting on these photos for 3.5 years. I decided that it was truly time to get them booked. 

I love these sweet photos of Jude's second Christmas (he was only an infant the year before) and his big sister showing him everything on Gramma and GranDoug's tree. I just happened to be in the right spot to capture the children early in the morning, still in their PJs, shortly after our tree when up. 

 

For these two pages I used the Poinsettia Dies, the big scallop border die and the largest scallop edge rectangle die from the Color and Contour Bundle, and the Tailor Made Tag Dies - three of my favorite die sets on one double page layout! I used Real Red ink and cardstock along with Blushing Bride cardstock. And of course, white cardstock.

I used our Blending Brushes and the Real Read Ink and brushed some color onto the background (the 12 x 12 -inch white cardstock). I did this on both pages, aiming for opposite corners. 

One of the tricks I utilized was shortening the length of a die. For the photo of Jude and Avaleigh playing (above), I used the fill side die cut and trimmed the photo to fit the die. For the bottom photo I trimmed the photo to the width of the die, but then I repositioned the die make the frame shorter to fit the photo. You can do this with almost any die.

I used double layered Tailor Made Tags in Real Red and White for my title and my journaling. The stamping on title tag looks a bit odd in the photo, but not so much in real life. For the journaling, I measured the die and using MS Word, I created a text box to match the tag measurements. I typed in my journaling and printed onto Vellum. I cut the vellum with the same tag die and layered the vellum over the white.

I finished this layout with White dot ribbon, 1/4-inch seam binding ribbon, and Genial Gems.

Thanks for stopping by today. I will be back soon with another project to share.

Product List

Poinsettia Dies

[153522]

$36.00

Scalloped Contours Dies

[155560]

$35.00

Tailor Made Tags Dies

[155563]

$22.00

Basic White 12 X12 (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Cardstock

[159231]

$7.75

Real Red 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[102482]

$8.75

Blushing Bride 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[131198]

$8.75

Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad

[147084]

$7.50

Whisper White 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon

[151326]

$7.50

Whisper White 5/8" (1.6 Cm) Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon

[146912]

$7.50

Genial Gems

[155500]

$8.00

Add All to Cart

Happy New Year

Hello friends! Welcome to my project(s) for this week's Bitten By the Bug 2 Cricut NON-Challenge.  My wonderful Design Team sister, Maureen, is hosting a non-challenge this week. She has asked the design team members to share our favorite Christmas or New Year's project, past or present. I chose the two layouts featured here from Christmas 2016.  

For details on how the layouts were made, you can get all of the info in these two blog posts.  

Thank you for stopping by today.  Happy 2018!!

Happy Holidays

Hello everyone, I hope you had a lovely Christmas!  The Bitten By The Bug 2 design team is on holiday break this week so instead of a project, I am going to bore you with my mediocre family Christmas photos!  Above and below are photos of our tree BEFORE the the paper-apocalypse of gift opening.

Below is John in a semi food coma following dinner.

Bethany was still feeling perky at this point (unlike her husband above) so she paused to pose with her granny!  Bethany is looking VERY pregnant as the baby is due in less than three weeks (YES, I am EXCITED)!

Duncan received the first gift this year - a new blue and magenta adorable dragon.  Duncan loves him!

The passing out of the gifts with John making a move to open a large box first.

Granny selecting her first package to open.

I an reacting to a gift from one of his siblings.

Doug liking his new Apple Mac Book Pro.

The mess - the pile of wrapping paper AFTER being crushed down twice.  Yes that is me sitting on the ottoman enjoying the show.

Before gifts, after dinner, we took time to have our annual crazy cookie decorating event. This was John's first year doing crazy cookies with us and he REALLY enjoyed himself.

Aaron, Crissie, and I are working hard on our cookies!  Doug was the photographer, drink filler, and all around "footman" as he did not want to decorate cookies.  Though in the end he did decorate three cookies.  My favorite was his angle which became a Ninja Turtle.

Ian, Bethany, and John hard at work creating cookie masterpieces!

Crissie and Susan's cookies.

Ian's cookies.

We had a wonderful celebration and hope that all of you enjoyed time with those you care about also.

I will be back with projects to share later this week.

Getting Back to Normal - Almost....

Hello everyone!  I hope you have all enjoyed a lovely Christmas - we certainly have at our house.  Today is our first steps back toward normal life.  Aaron and Crissie have returned home and Ian is looking at the calendar to determine his date to return to Atlanta.   Bethany is excited to start teaching second grade full-time after the new year... and Doug and I are ready for life to settle down again.  Personally I am ready to spend a little less time in the kitchen, though we have had some wonderful meals over the last week.

Yesterday we had our two final salutes to the Christmas season.  The "kids" and I spent some time frosting our cutout sugar cookies and the gateau bon bons (though we had eaten half of the bon bons unfrosted).  For those of you who are new to the blog since last Christmas, my children take Christmas cookies to a whole new level and do not know how to do a traditional frosted cookie. 

If the cookies in the photo above look boringly normal that is because I frosted them!  My cookies were, for the most part, very traditional looking.  Of course they drew rolling of the eyes a disappointed glances from my offspring!!  LOL

The cookies below are a better example of my kids' cookies.  The cookies in this photo were frosted by my future daughter-in-law, Crissie.  I thought she did a nice job on her Hulk figure, the "traditional" snowman, her Jesus angle, and her fun fish and trees.

Here is a peek at my creative three:  Bethany, Aaron, and Ian (yes, Ian grew a beard since Thanksgiving!). 

Below are a few of Aaron's cookies:  Spiderman badge, pirate snowman, angry tree, and hangman cane.  He also had a great Ninja Turtle that was not photographed.

In the photo below Crissie is working hard while Bethany is hardly working! 

After our cookie afternoon, we had a wonderful dinner - Doug grilled out for us!  After dinner we were joined by our friends the Garlands' for sodas, Christmas cookies, and card games!  So now we are going to get back to normal... Or at least our household version of normal!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I will be back soon with another post.