December Daily project

So I'm a little late to the game but at the last minute I decided to join in and do the December Daily challenge set forth by Ali Edwards, check out her blog for details (http://www.aliedwards.typepad.com/) The general idea is to create an album before the holiday crazieness and document your own December traditions and preparations. So I ordered this very cool Prima canvas album just for something different to work with. I limited my supplies to cardstock, Stampin' Up! Christmas papers (gorgeous by the way), red stickles, Christmas stickers and chipboard from my stash and my cricut. Oh and I dragged out my sewing machine for the canvas pages.

The very cool thing about the canvas album is that it has a variety of pages both canvas and page protectors, plus I added some chipboard pages to make up the 26 pages that I needed. I went with an extra day besides Christmas because my family has a pretty cool tradition on Boxing day and I wanted to document that.

I kept my pages simple cause that's how I scrapbook and its how I love to do it. My cricut came in handy as I used it for all my numbers which represent the days of December that I'm documenting. I used the Hello Kitty font.

And I finally found a use for those Stampin' Up! felt snowflakes that just don't seem to match anything. The felt adds a nice texture. I dressed it up with some glitter and stamped with red stazon.

Finally used some of my ranger inks color wash (cranberry color) my fingers seem to now have a permanent red tinge. The candy cane was part of an old large chipboard set from Making Memories that included a snowflake, candy cane, a tree, and an ornament. The tree is pictured is a chipboard page insert. (Shown sprayed with a celery color wash)

I had a bunch of fun with my sewing machine which went beautifully through the paper and canvas. My mom would just roll her eyes if she knew I used my machine more for scrapbooking than actual sewing.

you can't really tell but this awesome dot paper from making memories is all velvet flocked. Very cool. Plus I finally found a use for my adhesive felt borders from Queen & Co. they've only been in my stash for 2 years.

It was so cool to dig into my old stuff and find uses for them! This believe tag came as part of a MME Christmas line from 3 years ago.

The snowflake paper (from SU) has a flocked velvet texture as well. Here is the other chipboard insert (the ornament) sprayed again with color wash. I had to cut part of it to make it turn well and lie flat in the album but it works.

The backside, adding zig zag stitching to adhere my journalling cards. I made the cards myself cause I didn't have enough of one kind for this project. I took a journalling stamp from an old SU! set that I got a garage sale and stamped 25 times on kraft cardstock (my favorite being Stampin' Up!'s version) and cut them out, rounded the corners with my WRMK corner chomper.

I managed to use some old MME Christmas papers as well. I *love* pink and red together!

Some stamping with stazon and just a bit of sparkle with Christmas red stickles (one of my favorite colors)

you may not be able to tell but the pewter snowflake paper has shimmer in it and its so beautiful! (from SU! again)

the red polka dot frame is from MME, has been in my stash for who knows how long and will be the spot where I put my photo. I haven't included any other photo mats cause I haven't decided how I'll print them yet and I'm not sure what sizes I'll do.

I included December 26 because we have a family tradition of brunch at my auntie's place.

I'm super excited about this project because to be honest I really don't like scrapbooking Christmas. It seems like the pages are all the same and I'm really too tired to scrapbook or sometimes even take photos during the actual event. Hopefully this will help. It will be immensely helpful that I have a great photo printer so I'm planning to do a daily print and journalling.

Finally a scrapbooking share!

I got to scrapbook! This layout was done with the Memory Workshop June kit, but I added a kraft cardstock background.

It took going away for the weekend for me to get some creative juices going again but boy I had fun. Since I had limited space/time I just packed up a couple of kits from the Memory Workshop, a basic tool kit, some extra basic cardstock and photos to match. That's it, along with my laptop and some dvds. Most of these layouts are done with the June kit but I've added some extra cardstock and of course I hit the local scrapbooking store and found some too cute bo bunny paper.

I've been just itching to use these Prima pearl swirls and I finally found a cute page to put them on.

This paper is the Bo Bunny (striped) and I paired it with some Cosmo Cricket girl friday papers. The Jillibean soup journalling spots are a new purchase of mine and I love the ones in orange. Used a new martha apron lace border punch and some ali edwards stamps and done in less than 25 minutes, minus the inking accident that I had that I had to cover up.

you can't tell but I dropped my ink pad on the striped paper and I had to cut a small piece to cover it up. You wouldn't have known if I hadn't told you ;)

I didn't get too far into this kit (August or September I can't remember) because when I dug out my photos that I had put with the kit I wasn't too happy so I'll save it for later.

I loved the pompom ribbon though :)

This is also Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday paper and normally I don't use pattern paper as a background but I found that the alphabet paper worked well with the pictures.

I had gotten the extra felt trim (from Making Memories) and put it under the title. Not the best pictures but I loved that they were of Owen "reading"

Finally scrapbooking my kids' first day of school. Little bit of girl friday papers and jillibean soup journalling spots and done. Super easy and I love it. I'm a big white space kinda gal.

Adding journalling with these spots is so easy. They will definately become part of my comfort scrapbooking supplies.

Some of the new (to me) Bo-Bunny shaped paper. I loved these photos of Ethan putting together legos.

Because the paper stands so well on its on, I just added some stamps, a bit of journalling and a little bit of rubons. I figured that I better use them before they dry up on me.

A quickie from before this weekend.

I used a Memory Workshop everyday kit called What a hoot.

I did this layout a while ago and hadn't shared it. I had to document my new career change.

Sugar Free November

I'm taking part of a sugar free November challenge right now. I felt that it would be good for my health to cut back on my sugar intake. I've been finding many ways to cut my cravings which are getting better all the time. Lots of fruits, veggies, light cheese and almonds have been helping. But I love having some baking. Here's my favorite muffin recipe that has been a huge hit with my family, except for the Prince of Plain, he won't touch them.

Pumpkin Pecan Bread (made into muffins)

~taken from 375 sensational Splenda recipes by Marlene Koch~

Ingredients:

1/4 c. canola oil

1 c. pumpkin puree

1 large egg

1 large egg white

1/2 c. low fat buttermilk (or skim milk with 1tsp. vinegar)

2 tbsp. molasses*

1 c. + 2 tbsp. splenda granular

1 3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger**

1/4 tsp. cloves **

1/3 c. chopped pecans

* I don't care for the taste of molasses so I just add the extra pumpkin puree instead of molasses

** I just add 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Steps:

1. preheat oven to 350 F and spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray

2. whisk together oil, pumpkin, eggs, buttermilk, molasses and splenda

3. add flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and nuts into mixture and mix till just blended (don't overmix!)

4. spoon into muffin tins

5. bake for 20-23 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Since there hasn't been much scrapbooking going on...

Some new photos of the kids. Crazy how big and grown up they are looking. My Owen is just crazy into everything, talking up a storm and totally knows how to get into child proof locks. Child proof my eye!

Ethan turned 11 and is pretty close to being as tall as I am. His feet are already bigger than mine! My Abby just gets more beautiful everyday...we're working on the attitude ;)

Had to bribe the older 2 to get some photos done, the youngest doesn't get it yet.

Still trying to find the balance over here. I forgot how much working full time can take out of you. When I was at the school there were no such things as 9 1/2 hour days :P

Did a major scrapbooking room reorganization and purge of just stuff this past weekend. Any ideas as to what to do with the box of goodies?