Document December-How I used my wrapping and trimming kit

Good morning! Today's post will be a quick one...and I have to be honest, I am pulling this post together shortly before it is scheduled to post, because I have only just finished wrapping a few gifts that I have "fancied up" with my kit of tags, scraps and washi. I am loving the extra bit of pizazz it is adding to my gifts this year, and how special it makes them seem. With out further ado, here is the way I am putting my kit to use:

Document December-A Kit to "Wrap it up" with!

Happy December, everyone! How are things going? Are you all caught up with everything you had planned, or are you like me, hustling around with last minute shopping, cooking, and just now getting around to some present wrapping? Well, I have a bit of inspiration for you! A big part of gift giving for me is wrapping it up, and making it look pretty. I created a kit to make my gifts have a little something special, that little extra bit of pizazz.I took a handful of my Christmas scraps that I thought would go with my wrapping paper this year, added a couple of tag dies, some stamps, envelopes, doilies, and washi tapes

A closer look at the envelopes and doilies:

The washi:

I hope today's post inspires you to pull out some of your Christmas scraps and make a kit-come back tomorrow to see how I use it!

2015 December Documenting...Journal Your Christmas Day #1

Off to a head start this month! I have the start of my 2015 JYC/December Daily album-I printed and embellished this beautiful free calandar printable from Marie Lottermoser's blog (she has several options here !)

A closer look at the embellishments:

A gorgeous red glitter bow, a printed die cut poinsettia cluster, and a red chevron vellum star. Pure Christmas prettiness!

My Day 1, "Manifesto" or "Intentions" page:

And a closer look at these embellishments:

The little wood veneer deer atop the gold foiled vellum die cuts is about the sweetest thing ever!

So, day 1 for December is in the books, and I received my album from Ali Edwards' Black Friday sale this evening, so I started that, and should have my album cover to share with you soon, as well. Happy December Documenting!

Good morning and happy December!

And, just like that, it's December. I'm all set up with supplies for my Journal Your Christmas album, especially since I made a few scrappy purchases over the holiday weekend (sales are a dangerous thing, I will tell you!). Since I have already shared my kit with you, I thought I would do a little video flip through of my album from last year. I keep up with my Journal Your Christmas prompts from Shimelle by following along with the daily prompts, and writing my stories down in a journal each day, and then going back to put them in my album whenever I have the time/feel inspired. It has worked really well for me, and I actually finished my 2014 album a few days ago (basically finished, I am waiting on a few photos that I sent to the printers). Since it is a complete album, I decided to do a video flip through, to inspire your Christmas Crafting.

I'd love for you to have a look:

Thanks for visiting with me today, happy Christmas crafting! I hope inspired you to work on a past or present Christmas journal today!
Still photos of my album:
Cover:

The first few pages:

A Little Scrappy Sharing...

I have lots of cleaning and cooking to do today, but before I get started, I have a few scrapbook pages to share with you...
As  I was going through and putting away some layouts, I decided to share a few that I finished up recently-they had been laying around waiting for finishing touches.

This page is made up from my March 2015 Welcome Sunshine kit:

The stamped woodgrain was my "Forgery on the Fourth" for that month.
I love the little cupcake sequin shaker from Crate Paper!

That kit really seemed to suit the photos from Evan's Harry Potter birthday party, because I scrapped another page from that party with the same kit:

That party was one of my favorites that I have done for the kids! If you want to see more of the party, you can click here:
http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com/2011/10/harry-potter-birthday-party.html.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by my blog today for a few minutes- I am off to do my cooking/cleaning whirlwind before family arrives!

CKCB Design Team Activity:Gratitude Printables

Welcome everyone! It's been a little while since we have had a design team activity that we all participated in, so when Lisa had the idea for a "Gratitude challenge", I was absolutely on board! The challenge: use one of these awesome free printables from Allison Kimball:

This was a fun challenge for me, and it finally gave me a reason to scrap these photos from 2008:

These photos were so representative of that time for us- and I am so thankful for them! I am thankful not only for the things that I wrote about on the journaling card, but also for the time that I was blessed with to be able to spend the time with my children, at their field trips, and getting to experience so many of these moments with them. I treasure all of the friendships that developed from these times as well!

Here is the blog list to see what the rest of the DT did with the free printables:

Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog   http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com

Bethany   http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com

Lynnette   http://www.sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.de

Susan   http://littlethingsbigdays.blogspot.com

Susanne   http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.de

Leslie   http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

Kelly   http://www.honeysucklehillcrafts.com

Margie   http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com

Lisa   http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de

We would love to have you use the printables to play along! They're awesome, free, and a great reminder to be grateful for the little things! 

CKCB Challenge 3: Document December kit

Our 3rd challenge this month over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog this month was to create a kit for Documenting December, however we choose to. I always(for the last several years, anyway) make a Journal Your Christmas album, based on prompts from Shimelle throughout the month of December. I love how much more meaningful it has made my December albums, and the format works so much better for me, just jotting down stories, creating when can or am inspired to, and not focusing on the everyday happenings in December (which is usually a lot of basketball, so not very Christmas-y). I love Christmas craft supplies, and have quite a collection of them, so I love making a kit from my stash to create with, stuffed full of my favorite Christmas goodies. For this years' December kit, I chose to combine inspiration from Scraptastic's Stocking Stuffer Kit, and Shimelle's Christmas In a Box.

Stocking Stuffer Kit:

Shimelle's Christmas In a Box:

You can see her kit in much better detail here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT6kjFYDU0g

My Document December kit:

I did order these stamps from Shimelle-she totally sold me on them in her video:

and I plan to use these cut files:

(34th Street cut files from Studio Calico)

and these:

Not sure where I got them, but I have not used them, so it will be good to try to incorporate some of these!

And I tried something new-I made my first youtube video! I didn't feel like the photos really showed all of the fun goodies in my stash kit, so I made a video of me showing you piece by piece what is included. It was fun to make, and not nearly as hard as I thought it would be! If you like the video, I would love to have you follow me on Youtube, and I may make more scrappy videos in the future.

Forgeries on the Fourth

Welcome to anyone who came back by to see my add on for my November Counterfeit kit! And welcome to anyone else dropping by today, too! I was inspired by this tutorial to make watercolor leaves to add on to my kit. I die cut them and added them to my collection of supplies, and then just took some time after the kids went to bed a few nights ago to play with paint:

I love how they turned out!

And I really enjoyed just playing with paint and paper!

Welcoming In November...Counterfeit Kit Challenge Reveal

Good morning! Today we are welcoming in the month of November, and my favorite way to welcome in a new month is with a new kit of supplies to scrap with. The kit we are using for inspiration is this fantastic new collection from Pink Paislee, Cedar Lane:

A beautiful kit for fall was definitely in order for this month! My notes were to gather purples, teal greens, pinks, buttery yellows, and woodgrains. Up next,  I was just looking for patterns that reminded me of fall-acorns, leaves, and a few beautiful florals. I gathered plenty of embellishments for my kit this month; chipboard stickers, glittery newsprint Thickers, tiny word strips and stickers, tags,washi, wood veneer, die cuts, enamel Pop Drops, and a 6x6 paper pad. This is the kit of supplies that I was able to gather from my stash....and I could have made my kit much larger still, this kit is what was left after I eliminated about a third of the stash I had pulled for various reasons. Here is my kit:

And a look at the papers by themselves:

We were also tasked with the challenge of creating an add on kit, with each of the design team members adding an item on to the group. My choice was to make die cut watercolor leaves, inspired by this photo and blog post:

Here is a look at my leaves, that I die cut from watercolor paper:

I plan to show the completed leaves with the Forgeries on the Fourth, so be sure to come back and have a look to see how they turn out!

Now have a cup of coffee or tea and make your way around to the rest of the Master Forgers' kits, as they are sure to inspire!

Guest Designer: http://www.aliciaredshaw.com.au/

Margie:  http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com *YOU ARE HERE*

Susan: http://littlethingsbigdays.blogspot.de/

Stephanie:  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.com

Susanne:  http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com

Clair: http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.co.uk/

Jemma: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk

Julene:  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com

Kelly: http://66.147.244.112/~honeysv0/

Leslie:  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.ca

Lisa:  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.ca

Lynnette  http://www.sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com

Thank you for visiting with me today!

Trendy Thursday

I thought I would take a few minutes today to put together a post about current trends (or at least what Pinterest says they are)

One of the first ones that caught my eye:
Pineapples and Other Fruit:

(source)

I learned on a home improvement show that pineapples have long been a symbol of hospitality, and Wikipedia says this:

"In the Caribbean, Europe and North America, the pineapple became associated with the return of ships from extended voyages, and an emblem of welcome and hospitality that made its way into contemporary art."

So, I love it, but haven't really used it or figured out how to work it into my own decorating or crafting. Have you? If you have, I would love to see an example!

Trending home paint colors:

(source)

I love these colors, and used some very similar ones for my own house, when I painted it last year. I love how soft grays can be adapted with a few accent colors and lighting choices. 

Watercolors:

(In homes/source)

(In Scrapbooking/Source)

There are even free printables out there:

(Source)

What do you think? What trends are you loving right now?