Is it Derby time already?

This must be the time of year when most "normal" people hold their Pinewood Derbies. By normal I guess I mean the Boy Scouts of America. I say this because I just got an email from the place I ordered trophies from last year. They were offering them at 10% off. Always wanting to save some money, I went ahead and ordered them. How's that for being ahead of the game?

For those of you wanting to plan for the Derby, nothing definite yet, but my in-laws said that the middle of the month is easier for them to get away than the beginning or end. So plan for the middle of probably June or July. I'm guessing by August they'll need to get back home for the start of school.

Christmas 1948

Prior to Thanksgiving my aunt and uncle did some sorting of the various slides that they have and divided them into piles for some of the various family members- some for me, some for my cousin, and some for my aunt's cousin. This is one that I got. It is my mom, my aunt, and my uncle celebrating Christmas in 1948. I LOVE this picture. Had to go out and get a new slide scanner so that I would be able to get a print of this and others. I love how Aunt Cathrine and Uncle Rob get that they are supposed to be playing with their toys, but my mom just is quizzically looking at the photographer.

Or what about this one?

"Santa, how did you know I wanted a new dolly? You're the best! I'm going to try to pretend that I don't notice how dirty the trim is on your suit. Maybe it got that filthy from going down all of the chimneys? And I'll also ignore how fake looking your beard looks."

Meanwhile, Aunt Cathrine, being the smart young lady that she is, is just laughing to herself about how gullible her baby sister is.

Ah, those were the days.

Days 5, 7, 8 and 9

Day 9

Are you looking for that perfect gift this year for a teacher’s gift? Well this is a great gift cheap & easy....Cookie Mix in a Jar

I made these about 4years ago when Kyle was in preschool for his 3 teachers and they loved them! I got this idea when I saw them at the store selling them for whatever ridiculous amount they were asking for them! After reading the ingredients I thought I could do them myself for half the price! And there are so many different ways to make these such as different cookie recipes or decorating them your jars and the best thing they don't have to be just for a Christmas gift a great gift for many occasions! I couldn't find any mason jars so i found this jar and found some snowman decorations that are made of some kind of plastic and i cut the head off and glued it to my jar makes my jar look a little extra special for a Christmas gift!

Now you will get your ingredients for your cookie mix and will layer them into the jar one by one. Layering flour on the bottom packed down (don’t push hard it will go all over believe me!..lol), mixing the rest and pack them down tightly (if you don’t have enough room for the chocolate chips (you should not have too, but i thought it would be cute to put them in a baggie and you could tie them to the jar).

After you have packed all your ingredients tightly in your jar you are ready to decorate your jar your own way! Put your tag on it with your baking directions and there you go Cookie Mix in a Jar! It will probably cost about $8 (not including the ingredients you may already have them) to make, can’t beat that for a gift and its the PERFECT HOMEMADE GIFT!

As you can see, I decided not to go with a cookie mix. I just didn't know who I would give a cookie jar to. However, I have the perfect person in mind for this "jewelry making" jar.

Day 8:
Let it Snow!!! Let it Snow!!! Let it Snow!!!

This challenge is to scrap about what snow and the holidays mean to you! You may interpret this broadly. You can do a page about a great snow storm you had on Christmas Eve. A sled as a present. Or maybe that Christmas Cruise to Mexico where you actually MISSED the snow. Or maybe your holidays are always snow-free; how do you feel about that?

Other than the snow/holiday theme the other requirements are:

Use blue or purple as a prominent color on the page.

Use something shiny! (Bling, glitter, glitter letters, whatever)

Use circles and/or snowflakes (which are kind of circular)

DAY 7
Okay ladies! I want to see a two-page layout. I hardly see these and I am guilty of never doing them. Here are my rules. Two page layout (no smaller than 8 1/2x11) 7 pictures 7 patterned paper 7 buttons and last but not least...... 7 different techniques (such as distressing, inking, sewing, paint, doodling)

Day Five
My challenge will go with the 12 days of Christmas song. So the 5th is the Fiiiiiiiive Goooolllldeeeen Riiiiiiiiings part. :) like my singing? My challenge is to scrap a page using gold and tones of gold (tans, yellows, etc.) and iincoorperate ONLY round and circular embellishments into your page. (five would be SWEET)

Scrappiness continues

I guess I'm in a creative groove, because I think I've been making something pretty much every single day. Plus I spent some time yesterday working on cleaning up my room a bit.



So here we have the 3rd tag for Day 4 and a birthday card for my nephew. I also made this year's holiday card, which I did for Day 6, but I'm not going to post it here yet. Don't want to spoil the surprise.

Now to get cracking on Days 5 and 7. I have an idea of what to do for 7, but no clue about 5!

12 Days of Christmas

So in my last post I mentioned that I was participating in a "12 Days of Christmas" challenge over at Tally. Here are my entries for days 1 - 4, as well as the rules that went with each one.

December 1st Challenge
"I Believe"

Welcome to the first day of the 12 days of Christmas! I present you with your first challenge.

I was driving along and heard this old song "I Believe in You" by Don Williams, and thought, hey, this is my theme for the "Twelve Days of Christmas" challenge!

So your challenge is to Google the song, and lyrics.
*Use any part of the song; the title, lyrics, etc.
*Use the word "Believe" in either your title or journaling or both.
*Use red. A little or a lot, the choice is yours.
*You creation need not be Christmas related, the choice is yours!



December 2nd Challenge
Times are so different from when we were kids. Parents had to put together gifts, baking was an all day event, Advent Calendars, the specials on TV. Remember the sights and sounds of childhood. I can still envision my favorite Christmas. The things we did as a family. Our traditions. Some may have slipped us by and we should remember them. Your challenge is to:

• Scrapbook a tradition from your childhood that you no longer do and miss now.
• Must include journaling and the color red.
  
• Use Wordle somewhere on your page or let it be the page. The words should be thoughts of your traditions from Xmas. Wordle.

DAY THREE This challenge is about YOU. As parents we are so busy running from toy store to electronics store to walmart and to a zillion other places we tend to forget about ourselves. So this layout focuses on you. It should be titled "Dear Santa/mom's Christmas list". Requirments: 1. Your Christmas list 2. You must use at least 2 different alphas on the page. 3. Santa must be somewhere on your page. 4. Must use a stamped image of some sort. 5. Colors must include Red, green and blue. 6. Must include a photo of yourself!

Welcome to the 4th day of Christmas! Today your challenge is to make FOUR things....don't worry, they're small! Your challenge today is to make one ATC and three gift tags. You can keep the ATC for yourself, or trade with someone else who completes this challenge. The gift tags are for you to use on your gifts this year, since a handmade tag adds a lovely personal touch to your gift!

Sounds easy so far, right? Okay, here are the rules:

1. Your ATC (sized 3.5 x 2.5 inches) has to include at least FOUR things from the following list:

• a reindeer
• an angel
• the colors green and white
• Santa Claus
• a snowman
• bling (ie glitter or rhinestones)
• a tree
• the colors red and silver
• a candy cane
• a star

2. Your gift tags must be the same size as your ATC or smaller. They need to have the words "To:" and "From:" on them, but otherwise....anything goes!




Ooops. Just reread that as I was posting and see that I need to make a 3rd tag. Guess I'll be taking care of that tomorrow.

12 Days of Christmas

Over at Tally I'm participating in a 12 Days of Christmas challenge. For the first 12 days of December a new challenge is being issued every day. No idea what I'm doing for yesterday's challenge yet, but I have some good ideas for today's. One element for today's challenge is that it has to include a Wordle, so pictured is the one I created, using the words to 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. If only I could be at home scrapping.

In other Christmas news, since probably 1999, every year we get together with my dad for Cookie Baking. Originally it was one of his theme weekends, but due to schedules it's now pretty much become a one day affair. We use to schlep all of our stuff out to Secret Lake, but in recent years we've had it at our place.

Anyway, in 2002 I started to make an annual cookbook, including pictures and recipes from that year. Last year I was stressed with a number of different things, so I didn't make the cookbook. A couple of weeks ago I had a coupon code for a free photo book and I'd been hoping to finally make a book for last year. That's when I found out that due to a computer crash I lost all historic record of last year and that is bumming me out a bit. I tried looking at pictures of what we made, but many of them are blurry and I can't tell what anything is. (Also, many of the bars end up looking similar.)

So now I'm starting to look at digital scrapbooking items and wondering if I can essentially make the book ahead of time so that all I'll have to do is drop in the photos for this year. Anything to make the process go more quickly, right?