It Was a Great Christmas for Us!

Hope yours was great too!!!! Here's looking forward to a brighter New Year! Cheers to all of you!

Happy New Year!

I am just amazed at the endless stream of parties and the non-stop eating that we did over the holidays! Oh, I wonder how much pounds I've gained again? Hah! But truly, this last Christmas was truly a good one!!! DH especially enjoyed the almost 2 week holiday. He said that this is the longest that he's been on a holiday for a very, very long time.

Happily, I was able to make a few layouts and a mini to mark this "most joyous season of all". I tried to mix "old" and new releases from Rusty Pickle, Scenic Route, Sandylion and Teresa Collins. Made me feel good to go through my stash (again!...lol!).

For the mini, I tried to capture all the significant events during the month of December which included my DS' confirmation, the parties, and of course Xmas Day itself. Thanks for the idea, Ali Edwards!

The next LO I completed in about 10 minutes. I was staring at the pictures when the idea for the title came to me. ha-ha...Precious little rascals! Putting on the alphabet stickers was the hardest part for me. My journaling reads: "Sige...If you don't behave (or do as you're told), you won't get any gifts from Santa" And so goes the mild threat I make to get the kids to toe the line. Most of the time it works but once in a while, I get a blank stare and a snicker.

Of course I had to make an LO for my DS! I really, really love the precious expression I captured on my DS' face! Truly, Christmas is for children. And finally, this is one of the Christmas layouts I made for Lasting Impression. I used Rusty Pickles Snowflakes & Mittens line which was truly yummy! Materials are available at Lasting Impression. Please check out it out here.

I've Been So Busy Lately

.... that I've neglected this blog. It's an annual mad dash for me to the finish line every December. Party season officially started and I cringe at the thought of gaining unnecessary pounds from all the eating I'll be doing. Arrgghh!!!

Just would like to show you what I made as gifts for Christmas. I got this super neat idea from the very talented and super nice April Lim. The only thing I bought are the 3x5 unlined index cards that I used as pages & the wires for binding. Good thing that I was able to go through my existing stash, scraps and all to complete the assembly. Best of all, I used my favorite Bind-it-All! I thoroughly enjoyed making all of it!

Have to go now.... Need to make at least 10 more.

More Xmas Layouts

No way will I pass up Autumn Leaves' A Rhonna Christmas line. As always, AL lives up to its reputation of having beautifully designed papers. Rhonna Farrer's designs are simple yet so elegant. Her trademark swirls coupled with her bright, funky colors make these papers a real standout.

Here's a layout with my youngest DS, Gabriel, using AL papers. The picture was taken by my eldest DS, David, on Christmas day.

Thank you all for looking! Please check out Lasting Impression gallery for the materials used for this layout.

A Xmas 2007 Mini-album

I still had a lot of leftover scraps from my 7gypsies layout so I decided to make a Xmas 2007 mini-album. I do love the non-traditional colors of the Pretoria line! Luckily the vibrant colors matched perfectly with my pictures.

The nice thing about doing mini-albums is that I can use my scraps!!!! Not just paper scraps, but any leftover rub-on & embellishment. I was even able to use the beads I got from the last Scrapfest & Studio Azul's mini leaf sequins. Hopefully, all this mixing & matching does not make my work appear chopsuey.

As base, I used 4x4 chipboard sheets given to me by my good friend, Liza G. (Thanks so much, Liz!!!) I cut the pp into the same size and adhered them on both sides of the chipboard using double-sided tape (my best friend when doing a mini!---fast & not messy). After finishing the pages, I used my new crop-a-dile to punch 2 holes on the left side of the chipboard. The crop-a-dile is one mean machine --- it punches holes effortlessly! To put it all together, I just inserted a key ring and further embellished this with ribbons.

I've learned several lessons while doing this mini so next time I do another mini I'd keep these tips in mind:

1. Punch out the holes first before designing the page. This way, no picture, rub-on, or embellisment gets punched out.
2. Tip for the ribbons: Fold ribbons it into half & then insert a brad to keep in place. Makes for a neater look.
3. Use double-sided tape to adhere pages to the chipboard. Wet adhesive will produce a wrinkly effect on the pages when dried. Meanwhile, dry adhesive like the glue stick may not be as long-lasting.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this mini. I hope to make another one soon!

Materials Used:

1. 7gypsies - Pretoria line: Bokburg, Olifants, Benoni, Numbi, Edenvale

2. 7 gypsies Pretoria collection Frames & Tags Stickers

3. Scenic Route Christmas Rub-on Words

4. Swatchbook Impress-ons Narratives by Karen Russell

5. Versafine - Sepia Green

6. Black Staz-on

7. Fancy Pants 12x12 Clear Stamps - From the Garden

8. Maya Road Clear Stamps - Scrolls

9. Heidi Grace rub-ons - Words & Borders

10.Buttons, beads, mini-sequin leaves

11. Prima flowers

12. Lace & ribbons

Christmas Layouts

Talk about delinquent! I still have a few of Christmas 2006 pictures that I need to scrap. So before I get buried under Xmas 2007's new set of pictures, I decided to scrap my backlog pictures using new papers!

For this layout, I used Lasting Impression's new line of Websters Pages papers. The company is a relatively new one which offers beautiful papers. For those into cardmaking, this paper is THE choice for it's thick cardstock quality and double-sided design.

And now maybe I can start scrapping our Christmas 2007 pictures. As an experiment, I tried to veer away from the traditional red & green Xmas colors. Quite happy that I experimented with non-Christmas colors! Love the teals and oranges of 7gypsies' Pretoria line!!

Please check out Lasting Impression's gallery for the credits here and here. Thanks for looking. Cheers to the New Year!