Holiday Challenge #3!

I know this is a day early, but I have a very busy weekend ahead of me and it starts in in about an hour! So, with that being said, I want you to get ready for your holiday pictures. I don't know about you, but I am far to busy to do much scrapping during the season and by the time I have time to sit down after the first of the year I am sick and tired of all the holiday colors and such. So finding inspiration after the fact is just too hard. I like to create a mini album for the season and then display them as decorations over the the following years. You may like to do a Layout for your album, so whatever it is get started on it! Do a LO or album and leave room for your pictures. That way when you are done all you have to do is slap the photos down!

This is what I started with:

It is a 9 by 9 inch accordion mini album by CTMH. I have had it it my stash for years and never knew what to do with it. It really is not my style. I just have it because it was a promo one year. I turned it into this:

The first holiday that we celebrate that never has a good LO after the fact is Thanksgiving, so I made this:

I know it is not the typical Fall colors, but...well....ummmmmm....I am sick of the typical fall colors, so I pulled out this line from Basic Gray that I had in my stash and used it. I also threw in the typical fall PP from Cosmo Cricket that I have tons of to make it a little more Thanksgivingish!

Sorry this is out of order. I had a hard time uploading today and some of the pictures did not even upload correct, so sorry. I hope you can get the idea though! Anyways, I sealed up the accordion and made it into a pocket for the kids' letters to Santa. We have a tradition (it is actually a German tradition) in which the kids write letters to Santa, stick them in their shoe, and then wake up the next morning to find a small toy or treat as a hint to what Santa will bring them on Christmas.

Here is a close up of the Beaver on the Thanksgiving page (again sorry about it being out of order)

My boys have their Birthday a week a part from each other. Logan's is right after Thanksgiving! We have a big party for them between the two days (yes on their day they still get a cake, balloons, their choice of meal, and their presents from us)and we call it Brother's Day. I always like to include it in the Holiday album.

Here is the Christmas page. I really like this one for this year. I stink at designing Holiday pages, but this year I love it!

A close up of my tree and girl.

I stamped her (CTMH), used my tonic markers to color her in, and used this puffy type stuff to make the snow. I then pop dotted her and placed her on the page making sure to leave an open space to slip a picture under it.

The following photos show how I made my pocket. First I used my oval cutter and cut half an oval on one of the flaps:

Next, I placed a continuous strip of adhesive around the edges:

Finally I sealed it up! Now, instead of an accordion album I have a useful 4 page mini album!

I look forward to seeing what you create for your holiday LOs! Make sure you upload your link in my comment sections so I can go leave you some love! I will post the next challenge on Nov. 12 and it is a fun one in which you will be altering ;-)

Holiday Challenge #2!

Are you ready for a new challenge? I actually have two for you today. Originally it was going to be one, but some of you I thought were itching for a Layout challenge so I came up with one of those to! So here is your first hint regarding the first challenge:

Carmel apples? Say what? Do you think you know what it could be about?

Here is another hint:

Now do you get it? I want you to create a LO with "apples" as part of it. It can be an embellishment, photo, title, or paper. I love this time of year because we have great produce and my family's favorite has to the be apple. Here is my Layout for this challenge:

My homemade apple pie that is huge is what I scrapped about. I also stamped the apples In the pail and played with my Copic Markers to color them in! Again, you don't have to do a LO about apples, just incorporate apples into the LO. You could do something about fall or the first day or school or something like "The Apple of My Eye". Just be creative and spend some time creating!

Now, this was my original challenge: Make favor boxes for your Thanksgiving table or Halloween. Or alter something as a hostess gift if you are not cooking this year. I usually do not do dreary and scary for Halloween, but decided to alter these boxes for my kids. I was kind of sick of looking at the typical orange, brown, and purple I usually do for Halloween. Instead, I took three take out containers that I had in my stash for like FOREVER and glimmer misted them. I then altered the fronts with Waffle paper and a few different embellishments. I finished each box off with the first initial of my child's name. Here they are:

Make sure you post a link to your blog on my comment section so we can all go check them out and get inspired. I can't wait to see what you come up with! Your next challenge will be posted on Oct. 29! Can you guess what that will be?

Challenge Oct. 1

Are you ready for the upcoming holiday season? I don't know about you, but I can't wait! This is by far my very favorite time of the year. To kick off the holiday season your first challenge is two fold. First, make your holiday cards! I know it is early to do this, but it always seems that a week before the holiday is when I get around to making the cards and I don't even enjoy the process because I am in such a hurry to get them in the mail. This year I want to enjoy the process! Take the next two weeks to get a good dent, if not all of your holiday cards done! Here are a few of mine:




Now, don't stress about this. I am actually not a card maker. I have to lift ideas all the time and that is okay. If you are having a hard time coming up with ideas then just use a sketch or lift the cards that I made.
Ready for part two of your challenge? I want you to address them, seal them, and put a stamp on them. Now, you may be thinking "but if I make all my holiday cards how am I gonna know which ones to mail off and when?" Of course you are not going to put your Christmas cards in the mail right now. I know this, but you can keep track of them by placing a small decorative stamp in the lower right corner of the envie. For example, if they are Halloween then you can stamp a pumpkin. Or for Thanksgiving you can stamp a turkey or leaves. Don't have a stamp? Then put a sticker on them. Or you can take an orange pen, for example, and draw a heart for the cards going out for Halloween and a different pen for the other set of cards. By doing this you stay organized and on top of things and your recipient thinks that you are so wonderful and thoughtful for sending a handmade card in a cute envie ;-)
I want to see what you create so please paste your link to your creation in the comment section of this post. Please do not E-mail me your pictures because I can not promise that I will be able to upload them. You have until 11:45 pm Friday October 15 to get this done. Have fun!