Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very very merry Christmas!

Enjoy the day!

{made with this month's "Ribbon Candy" kit from Noel Mignon}

:)

One more day!

Happy Christmas Eve!

More Christmas cards to share.

I went a little less traditional with these 2!

:)

{supplies: KI Memories patterned paper & twine, Jillibean soup cardboard embellishment & frame die cut}

{supplies: KI Memories patterned paper & bling, Jillibean soup doily that I turned into a flower}

*****
Thanks for stopping by today.
Have a very merry Christmas!

:)

gretchen

Merry Christmas!

You know I must be having fun with my Christmas cards this year if I am stamping on them!

:)

{supplies: KI Memories patterned paper & bling, Hampton Art stamp}

{supplies: KI Memories patterned paper & bling, Hampton Art stamp, Jillibean Soup buttons & doily}

*****
Merry Christmas!

:)

gretchen

The countdown is on!

3 more days!

I am knee deep in wrapping paper, tape, and bows.

And I love it!

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas season!

{i actually do enjoy wrapping...i know that's weird but i do!}

***** 

Here are some cards I've made recently.

And, yes, I even sent a few out!

:)

{made with the "Ribbon Candy" kit from Noel Mignon}

{made with KI Memories papers, bling, & twine and a Jillibean Soup doily}

*****

Merry Christmas!

:)

gretchen

Gift bag ideas

OK raise your hand if you are thrifty {coughcoughcheapcough} like me and hate to pay more than like $1 for gift bags??! 

They are out there if you look hard enough but inexpensive gift bags aren't around every turn.

So sometimes I resort to just making my own. 

And it does not have to take a lot of time!

{time is money, right??!}

Here are a couple of plain paper bags that I dressed up with some of the paper, stickers, & ribbon from the "Ribbon Candy" kit from Noel Mignon. 

Fold the top of the bag to close it.

Then all you need is hole punch & a little adhesive to attach everything to the bag. 

Punch 2 holes at the top and thread your ribbon through the holes. 

Decorate at will!

Cheap, easy, and cute!

Thanks for stopping by today.

:)

Merry Christmas!

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!!

Confession:

I still have lots of Christmas pictures from last year that I have not scrapped yet. 

But surely I am not the only one with that problem!

;)

The silver lining, though, is that I get to use the new "Ribbon Candy" kit from Noel Mignon to get them scrapped!

Boom!

******
Here is a picture of Lee with his mom, brother, & sister from last year's Christmas in Chattanooga. 

Sorry for the lack of detailed shots!

When it is dark when you leave for work and dark when you get home, there no good light for pics.

Oh well...first world problem!

:)
Have a great day folks and I hope your holidays are off to a great start! 

Thankful

I'm a week ahead of Thanksgiving but hey, 'tis the season!

I used my "Union Square" kit from Noel Mignon and the November sketch by the fabulous Julie Bonner to make this "Thankful" layout. 

Here are a few close up shots of the page.  

I did a bit of fussy cutting to get the leaves to embellish around the pictures.

And it seems that I just couldn't quit so I cut out a few hearts too!

Happy day folks!
Have a good one!
:)

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas

I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but

Christmas music is playing the radio.

There are a couple houses in our neighborhood that have their lights up already. 

People are freaking out about their Christmas shopping.

And the November/December issue of Creating Keepsakes is out!
{and yes, it is the last print issue ever but i am still not ready to address that}

So I thought I would get in the spirit and share a Christmas layout from this issue. 

This layout is in an article about "keeping it real" during the holidays. 

When we do Christmas with my husband's side of the family, ~2/3 of the gifts given are more like inside jokes than they are real presents. 

It makes opening presents quite entertaining because you never know what to expect.

Last Christmas my brother-in-law was the brunt of a lot of these gifts.

So I had to do a page about it!

Supplies: Patterned paper (Die Cuts with a View), Die cuts (Chic Tags), Chipboard (Bella Blvd), Foam alphas (American Crafts), Brads (We are Memory Keepers), Stickers (Fancy Pants), Bling (The Eyelet Outlet)

*****

Here are a couple close up pics of the page. 

I cut the very top of the layout off accidentally when I scanned it. 

So here is what the top of the page actually looks like:

Well merry {early} Christmas to ya!
And happy Monday!

:)

gretchen

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match...

Catch me a catch.

Find me a find. 

*****
OK OK I digress!

However I am 1 for 1 in the matchmaking department!

I set up my friends Justin & Jennifer ~2 1/2 years ago.

Lee & I went with them on their first date. 

And they got married a couple weekends ago.

Boom!

I think I will quit while I am ahead.

No more matchmaking for me!

:)

*****
I scrapped a few pictures from the wedding with my "Union Square" kit from Noel Mignon.

This kit was perfect to scrap these fall wedding pics!

I did quite a bit of fussy cutting this one!
I was watching the Alabama-LSU game while trying to make this page. 

I was too nervous during the 1st 3 quarters of the game to actually put the page together.

But I could fussy-cut some hearts and flowers no problem!

Roll Tide!

:)

*****
Have a great day!

A night of comedy

So I went and saw Pauly Shore at the comedy club here in town earlier this summer. 

{can you believe that guy is still around?!}

The thing is, though, I didn't really go to see Pauly Shore.

Nope, I was there to see the guy who opened up for him.
His name is John Crist and he is one of my brother's best friends from college.

And y'all, he is seriously funny! 

After the show I went and took an obligatory pic with Pauly just so I could really get a pic with John!

*****
Then I used my Union Square kit from Noel Mignon to scrap it!

{oops...looks like a strip of my journaling slipped a bit & i didn't catch it before i scanned the page}*****
Here are a couple close up shots of the layout. 

Happy day folks!

:)

Family love

Happy Monday!

Just sharing a simple layout with you using a combination of KI Memories patterned papers & embellishments (buttons & corrugated cardboard) from Jillibean Soup. 

I've scrapped this picture before but I like it so much I thought it was worth scrapping again!

All the patterned papers on this page came together in a 12x12 paper pack. 

Using a paper pack like this sure makes it easy to coordinate papers together on a single page. 

I’ve used 6 different patterned papers on this layout! 

{it's funny how the colors on this layout are different on the scanned version compared to the close up pics I took with my camera...oh well}

I pulled out my handy heart punch (that I think I have had since I started scrapbooking like 10 years ago) to add a heart border to the page. 

And I *heart* all stuff that Jillibean Soup does with corrugated cardboard!

Have an awesome Monday people!
:)

gretchen

Happy Halloween!

In honor of the day, I've made a couple Halloween cards with the Union Square kit from Noel Mignon.

It's not a Halloween kit per say.

BUT there are a couple stickers in there and some fun patterned papers that make it work!

Who says Halloween has to be just orange, black, and purple anyway??!

Don't you just love the sparkle that these Thickers have?!

One more!

I did throw a little orange on this one just for fun!

:)

What am I going to do if this twine trend ever dies??!

Thanks for stopping by today!

And I hope your Halloween is fun and a little bit spooky too!

Sharing some cards

Morning!

Just sharing a couple of easy, super-girly cards using new KI Memories goodies!

And one more!

Short & sweet!

That's all I've got. 

Happy Tuesday!

:)

gretchen

Muddy Mess

Hi!
This morning I thought I would share the layout that I had up on the Creating Keepsakes blog a couple weeks ago!
*****Have you seen the new November/December issue yet?! Well there is a fun feature in there called “Scraplift Challenge.”
In this article traditional scrapbookers are challenged to scraplift digital layouts and, in turn, digi scrappers scraplift traditional pages.
What a cool idea, right?!So I decided to give it a whirl!
I remembered a cool layout in the September/October 2013 issue that I had bookmarked and decided to scraplift it.
It is the “Favorite Photos” layout by Mandi Buchanan on page 27 of the issue.
Hers is a digital Halloween layout and I loved how she lined up her photos and used white space.

Favorite Photos by Mandi Buchanan from Creating Keepsakes September/October 2013

Using her layout as inspiration, this is the
traditional layout I made:

Supplies:

Patterned paper: Elle’s Studio, Creative Memories, Simple Stories

Cardboard letters: Jillibean Soup

Chipboard embellishment: Little Yellow Bicycle

Brads: Simple Stories

Tape: Bella Blvd

Punch: Elle’s Studio

Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

Font: Courier New

Pictures printed by Persnickity Prints

Of course my page turned out a bit different than the original. Obviously mine is not a Halloween layout. Hey, her design is super cool and versatile enough to use for all kinds of pages!
I am a journaler so I added some journaling to the page.
I still tried to leave a lot of white space though!
And I added my title above all the pictures instead of mixing it between the photos like Mandi did.
Scraplifting is fun because it gives you a jumping off point but then you can add your own personal touches to your page!
*****
Here are a couple detailed shots of the layout: 

Well that was fun!
Try giving this kind of scraplifting a whirl if you ever get stumped!
And Creating Keepsakes is full of all kinds of great ideas, traditional & digital, for you to scraplift! 

Thanks for stopping by today.
Have a great one!

:)
gretchen