December Daily

My super simple December Daily in the 6 X 12 format. I still need to print and cut my daily numbers, but at least it's ready.

Cricut Expression

Went to WalMart late tonight and I saw that suprisingly there were four Cricut Expression machines left. They would have probably been gone if they were in the scrapbooking area, but someone put them back in the home goods area. We really don't have the money, but I explained to hubby how great a deal it was for $188.00, he let me get it! Yes, we really shouldn't be spending money on something like this, and yes, I was going to save up for the new eCraft machine, but come on...$188.00 for an Expression. And all of the cheap cartridges out there. I can't wait to start using it. :) It included two cartridges and one cutting mat.

Tim Holtz 12 Days of Christmas Tags

He's doing the 12 tags of Christmas. Another person to learn from and do some scraplifting. I want fun, creative tags, not boring ones on my projects and gifts and this will be the place to check out.

I love Christmas. I'm even considering doing the December Daily on top of Project 365 and Journal Your Christmas. I hope I don't drive myself up a wall if I do it. :)

Taregt $1.00 Bin Deals

Do any of you know if the chipboard stickers, etc. at Target in the dollar deal bins are acid free or not? I know the papers are labeled that they are, but the chipboard letters, rubons, and stickers aren't. I tried looking up the company Made for Retail, Inc. and can't find them yet.

JYC 2008 Favorite

saraintexas is the web owner:

http://sararoberts.typepad.com/photos/journal_your_christmas_20/index.html

This has got to be one of my favorite Journal Your Christmas 2008 projects that I saw online. The concept was simple, but carried out so beautifully that I know I'll be scraplifting this idea for a future album. It always amazes me the amount of artistic talent that there is in the world of scrappers.

JYC Gif

Just fooling around with gifs. I like the cardinal I made, but not the lettering. I also want to make it bigger later. Plus I want to animate it.

Cover page for JYC

I haven't received the chipboard album I ordered, but I went ahead and did a cover page already. I hope it fits the front, if not, I may have to use my 8 X 8 binder album I bought the other day instead. You can't see it, but I went a little nuts with the Stickles.

Making a little progress.

I've started prepping myself for JYC by getting a few things done ahead of time. Knowing the topics helps a little, but you really can't do all that much ahead of time due to the prompts. I've prepared a cover, some diecuts, and I sketched out a small drawing of one of my favorites decorations from when I was little. I still need to color it. I plan on sketching some other things as well to give this book a little more of a rougher feeling than a cut and paste book. I want to try some different things with this book, so it will be a mish-mash affair, but I don't care. I want to have fun with this and be a little more creative like I use to be before I got involved in sales tax accounting and became so anal about having everything level and perfect. This journal will be my goof off play time. :)

Project Life

Becky Higgins developed Project 365 when she was with Creating Keepsakes and now that she's on her own, she's come through with Project Life. It's like Project 365, but she's tweaked a few things and the fact that she stresses that you don't have to do every single day is nice, so if you miss a day, you won't feel like you've messed up. I think I may do a few photos a week and try and journal more for those photos. Either way, it'll be a nice thing for my daughter to look back on when she's older. :)

No Photos for JYC

I think I'll be taking an entirely different approach to JYC. I'm not going to do photos. I don't want to have to rush around and print photos to get them in my book every week. I'm going to doodle, stamp, or fussy cut stuff. This will force me to journal more and stretch my artistic side which doesn't get to play all that much any more. Hopefully it won't be a hot mess when I'm done with it. :)

Scrapbooking is overpriced.

Of course I made the mistake of going shopping today for one little item at AC Moore. I needed some binder rings and got them for $1.79 using a coupon. Before I went to AC Moore, I went to Michael's to see if they had stocked matching Christmas embellies for the paper I bought last week. They didn't have them, but they did have Making Memories Autumn Splendor at 75% off. That's right, 75%. Plus the fall and Halloween items were 70% off. This is where you know that the scrap industry overcharges for their product when the retailers can drop the prices down so low. Why not sell them originally at a lower price so more people can buy the stuff?

For $26.19 I was able to buy the following product. If I had paid full ticket price I would have been charged $84.90. The markup is too much. They would gain so many new scrappers if they'd make the prices more reasonable.

Making Memories Autumn Splendor Spiral Journaling Book - $1.24 (originally $4.99)
Making Memories Autumn Splendor Ribbon Trims - $1.74 (originally $6.99)
Making Memories Autumn Splendor 4 X 6 Paper Mat - $1.49 (originally $5.99)
Making Memories Autumn Splendor Gratitude Clear Stamp Set - $1.74 (originally $6.99)
Making Memories Autumn Splendor Thankful Clear Stamp Set - $1.74 (originally $6.99)
Making Memories Autumn Splendor 12 X 12 24pc. Paper Pack - $3.74 (originally $14.99)
Making Memories Autumn Splendor 8 X 8 Leather Album - $4.49 (originally $17.99)
Making Memories Vintage Findings Medium School Kit - $1.74 (originally $6.99)
Recollections Autumn Acrylic Alpha Bet Set (2 packs) - $1.79 (.89 each - originally $2.99)
Wooden Coloring Craft - $1.00 - not on sale
Recollections Angel Stamp - $1.00 - not on sale
Recollections Merry Christmas Stamp - $1.00 - not on sale
Krylon Preserve It Spray - $3.49 (50% off coupon - originally $6.99)

Date Tag

Reworked a design of a Stampin Up stamp to fit my needs for a date stamp on my pages.

And another one.

And another idea...

Another Template

Here's another basic template. I know I'll be printing out my journaling cards. I hate my handwriting, so using Ali Edwards CK font was a no brainer for me. It will look nice in my Christmas album. There's no way I'd let my chicken scratch ruin this. Once the journaling is done, then I can add embellies in the empty areas. I don't know yet how I'm going to do this yet. Thank God, I have time to decide what I'm going to do now and not later.

Log Your Memory

Ali Edwards has a kick a$$ giveaway going on at her blog. It's called Log Your Memory. If I don't win, I'm going to have to buy it as I think this would help me track my days and memories for future reference later on when I do my los. I have a major problems in journaling, so having something to fall back on would be great!

I haven't decided yet on how I'll do my pages, but I saw this in Creating Keepsakes this month using a 12 X 12 photo album and it looks just as easy as doing Project 365 so I may end up doing this instead. I want to work on my journaling and this would be the perfect solution to do it. I want to use a different font for this if I do it.

My digital version of what my cover will look like. I'm keeping these pages simple, as I'll be trying to really work on my journaling. I think that's my weak point when I scrap.

Journal Your Christmas!

http://www.shimelle.com

Journal Your Christmas is an online class that runs every year in the holiday season. Once you join, you are a member for life at no extra cost, and you can participate as much or as little as you like.

The class includes 37 illustrated prompts delivered daily to your inbox, from the 1st of December to the 6th of January, the twelfth day of Christmas.

Also included for Christmas 2009:
*Christmas planner notebook to download, print and put to use.
*Materials for digital and hybrid scrapbookers
*Guide to improving your Christmas photographs

A brave new world.

This blog is to host all things scrap, stamp, paste, or digital. I have another blog, but it clashes with my crafty world at times, so this will solve that problem. I was trying to think of all sorts of witty titles, but the one thing that came back to me was a favorite childhood memory.

Once a year our family would go out to dinner at a a really nice restaurant. This was back in the day when going to a fast food eatery was a special treat and not the norm, so a trip to a nice restaurant was special indeed.

When it had come time to eat dessert, I looked at the menu, pointed and said to the waiter, "I'd like to have the chocolate mousie." Of course everyone laughed because they thought it was cute. Me, I was embarrassed by my mistake, but I was thrilled when I got my dessert of chocolate heaven in a bowl later.

Thus is born the blog: Chocolate Mousie