Merry Christmas!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. The weather here was absolutely wonderful for Christmas. I woke up to a light dusting of snow all over the ground which made it truly feel like Christmas. Growing up in NY, there was almost always snow on the ground on Christmas but here in TN it hardly ever snows in December. In fact, our winter weather comes more towards the end of January and February. The snow here made my Christmas feel like a true Christmas.

A couple days before Christmas time, I decide to sit down and try and put together some extra Christmas cards using the scraps from Close to My Hearts Mistletoe papers. Of course, anytime Mama is in her scrap room, all the kids come running. My two oldest kids love to scrapbook with me and thought is would be fun to make their own cards. They had helped a lot with the cards for the car dealership last week so they were ready to go on their own. Here is a picture of some of the cards that we were able to make. We had so much fun until the wee hours of the night but that's what doing life together is all about, right. :)

This one here is my favorite, I think.....

The picture doesn't show the detail very well, but at the top around the flowers, we took prisma glitter and outlined the flowers. The effect was beautiful!

Once Christmas came the kids were thrilled. Bruiser, worried that he might have been on the naughty list but then figured that there have always been presents under the tree before so there should be now too. I wasn't so sure though :). He wasn't so sure either when there were several presents for the other kids and only a few for him. However, don't feel sorry for him, his presents just happened to be bigger and more expensive than the rest which means he got them last :). The end result - he was a happy boy!

Whiz Kid was thrilled with his new drums, Mama was o.k. with them too because they came with head phones so I don't have to hear them all the time.
Princess was our most excited child at Christmas this year, as her long awaited dreams of having her own camera, finally came true! Her screams were silent at first as nothing would come out, and then she finally found her voice and used it until the rest of us had to quiet her down.
Tinker Bell, well she loves everything. Although there wasn't a main gift that she wanted, all her many little gifts sure kept her tickled. I bought her a doctors kit like the one that I had when I was growing up and she was thrilled. Needless to say, everyone had their checkup before the day was through. and though some were told that it didn't look good so a shot was needed, we all should make it. :)

As our kids are getting older, we are trying to really teach them the true meaning of Christmas -giving! God gave us his son to save us and be our redeemer, we give presents at Christmas in honor of Jesus. This year, Whiz Kid and Princess, each with their own money, went out and bought everyone gifts for Christmas. They were both so excited to give their gifts and wanted their presents to be the first given out. It was fun to see them so excited to give rather than receive and the joy that comes from it. I hope and pray your Christmas was filled with joy and love as ours was.

All Through the House Workshop

It is hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner. I love the lights, the tree, the giving of presents and of course, the food (I'm Italian what else do you expect :) ). Last week I taught my Christmas workshop using our new Mistletoe papers. I always try and make this layout so that I can display as many pictures on the layout as possible. At Christmas I always take twice as many pictures than any other event, and I always take a lot of pictures :). Let's just say thank goodness for digital cameras! :) This year I created a tri-fold layout using our new 12" flip flaps. The layout can hold over 20 pictures! What do you think? Lots of room for pictures, huh! Sorry the picture is turned sideways. In Picture Manager the layout is correctly positioned but somehow it isn't transferring like I need it to here. So, have fun, tilt your head and take a look. Then laugh at yourself because you know your kids will be laughing at you. :)

Also, I thought I would share a card with you that I had to make. My father works at a car dealership and called me last week asking me to put together 200 cards for him in 4 days!!! Well there was definitely an assembly line process going on here at my house. I used the new That's Amore December Stamp of the Month as the ornament, the Flyin' High Stamp Set for the car and the St. Nick Stamp Set for the Merry Christmas wording. Definitely not the stamp sets you would expect for a Christmas card but I think it worked. Hope you enjoy!

Having Fun with Friends

Last week I had so much fun getting together with my friends in Franklin. About once a month they have a girls night and I am blessed that they include me to come and help them keep their scrapbooks growing. This month we created a simpler version of my November Workshop but it turned out just as spectacular.

I really like how all the girls creative styles come out with each layout. Aren't they great!

Ahhhh, the Beauty of Fall

I think I have decided that fall is my favorite time of the year. The gorgeous leaves, the sweet sunshine accompanied by the cool breeze, driving down the road and seeing deer in the fields - absolutely beautiful!!! I hope you are enjoying this time of the year as much as I have been.

During my last workshop, we played with the new Olivia papers which really highlight the season and all its glory. I thought I would share with you what we created. This first layout shows my beautiful Princess and big Bruiser as they sit in a small stream and enjoy the beautiful fall day.

This second layout was created using Close to My Heart's new Magic Layout book. if you notice in the second picture, there is a pull out strip to showcase more pictures. My brother-in-law was recently married and so I thought these papers would be beautiful to highlight the occasion and of course I wanted to show off more people then just them, hence the pull out strip.

In case you missed my baby, here is a picture of my Whiz Kid all dressed up for the wedding.

Isn't he handsome!!! Yes, I am a proud mama!

Take some pictures of some of your favorite things during this beautiful season, or extra pictures as you celebrate Thanksgiving with your family, grab you a pack of Olivia paper and stickease and have at it. These papers can only enhance your pictures!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and don't eat too much! :)

No Spooks here

Keeping up with our yearly Halloween tradition, our family went to visit our ol' friend Chuck. You know - the big cheese - the big Mr. Chuck E. Cheese. Each year we give our kids the option to go to our church where we have a fabulous concert and trunk or treat event or they can go visit the Chuck at his house. I don't know if it's because they can't get me near the place any other day of the year or if they really love Chuck but they always choose to go see their big mouse friend. It's the perfect time to go too because NO ONE else is there and we have the place to ourselves. It's fabulous!

Hope you had a fun Halloween too!

They did it!!!

A few weekends ago my friends headed up to Nashville and participated in the Women's Half Marathon. They had trained for several months in preparation for the big event. I was able to join in on the fun by joining them on Saturday mornings, sometimes at 5:30am, to walk for a couple hours before our families would be up and about. Getting together that early, and doing something that makes your body hurt so good is something I never would have considered enjoyable until doing it with these amazing ladies. We have had so much fun!

I was so excited to be able to go up to Nashville for the race and cheer them on as they crossed over the finish line. Of course, my camera was in tow and many pictures were taken. Using our new Studio J software, I was able to create two layouts to show off the event, that I can pass on to the girls. These layouts came together so quickly and I was really pleased with the finished product. Let me know what you think.

Because of the heavy crowds there was very few places to be able to take any good pictures so, as you can see, there are several tree shadows all over the pictures, but I wasn't about to let that spoil my documentation of this fabulous accomplishment. Congratulations ladies, you did awesome!!!

Card/Recipe Box

Well I told you last week was crazy. I had originally scheduled my hostess club for Monday night but my order did not come in on time. I hated to cancel getting together as this is one of my favorite events each month. We make new and different things each month, we share our lives together and usually laugh until we cry. It's a blast and I was so sad to have to cancel this month. We were planning on making some card/recipe boxes so I thought I would share the instructions here so you could enjoy them too!

Here are a few pictures of some boxes that other consultants have created to give you some ideas to get started.

Creating the boxes is super simple and only takes about 2 pieces of B&T (patterned) paper and embellishments. This is a great way to use up some left over papers and create a fabulous teachers gift or Christmas gift. Here is a template on cutting your paper to fit our new card boxes. http://cms.closetomyheart.com/~/media/72BF8C9D8C714BB0B6BEE3EFB498F1BE.ashx

Use these instructions and post what you create!