If I'm not scrapbooking I'm thinking about scrapbooking!
Every year on a Saturday morning before Christmas our neighborhood is treated to the strains of Santa Clause is Coming to Town blaring over the loudspeaker of a vintage fire truck with SANTA CLAUS sitting on top! It’s a sweet tradition.
I created this layout with products from the Echo Park Tis the Season collection and American Crafts Deck The Halls Joyful die-cuts. I also followed this sketch from Let’s Get Sketchy:
Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our second challenge of December! Grab the sketch and play along for prizes from Creative Embellishments and Scrapbook Nerd.
One of our family holiday traditions that I cherish was having Daddy select and read a Christmas story to us. He sat in a comfy chair, and we all piled near him on the couch to listen. It usually took a few nights to complete one, and he always tried to time it so the last installment fell on Christmas Eve.
Over the years we heard some delightful tales. But our favorite by far was The Melodeon by Glendon Swarthout. The description of this book on Amazon is so simple:
A youngster relates how his grandparents donated a valuable family heirloom, their melodeon, to the church in an unselfish act of giving one Christmas during the Depression when they had nothing to give each other.
The story is so beautifully told, detailed, and emotional that it made our hearts swell. We felt we were with them in the deep cold of winter during the Depression. And the feelings it evoked have stayed with me all these years.
I die cut diamonds from the Pink Paislee Snow Village 6×6 paper pad, inked the edges with iced spruce distress ink, and placed them against a background paper from the Bo Bunny Christmas Collage collection. The die cuts are from both the Snow Village and Simple Stories Classic Christmas collections. To create a cut file for the title, I found an image of the book cover and traced it in the Silhouette software.
As additional motivation to go on my daily walk, I load an Audible book on my iPod and only allow myself to listen if I’m walking.
I used a smattering of papers, tags, stickers, and flair from Crate Paper, Echo Park, Fancy Pants, and We R Memory Keepers. Then I tried something I always want to do but rarely have the guts to try: I stamped my title using two alphabet sets and some distress oxide inks. It was fun to do, and I’m pretty pleased with the results. While I was feeling confident about trying things, I also splattered my page with gold mist.
Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our fist challenge of November! Grab the sketch and play along for prizes from Accent Scrapbooking and Creative Embellishments.
I took this photo at Lost Maples State Natural Area in Vanderpool, Texas, in 2013. It was a gorgeous November day, and we drove up to hike the trails and soak up the changing colors of autumn.
I die cut most of the leaves from patterns in the Warm and Cozy 6×6 paper pad by Pebbles (but I also added some complementary patterns from my stash). I used my Silhouette to cut out the title and added gold paint to the kraft paper that I used for every other line. The plaid chipboard frame is from the Simple Stories Pumpkin Spice collection, and the flair is by Fancy Pants.
In 1972 my brother and I were fortunate to have had Mom as our pre-school/kindergarten teacher! She held class in our basement and taught the two of us and several of her friends’ children who were all of the same age. We always had parties for the various holidays throughout the year, and this photo from our Halloween party shows Phil as Superman, Andrea as Little Bo Peep, and me as Tinkerbell. Squee, so cute!
I used several patterns from the Jillibean Soup Witches Brew 6×6 paper pad to create my “quilt” design, then I backed it all with the owl and moon patterned paper from My Mind’s Eye. I stamped the bats (from a Recollections Halloween stamp set) over the moon and added google eyes to the title.