December Daily Project

For the past few years, I’ve admired December Daily projects that scrappers post online. They are a fun way to reflect on the joys of the season and spend a few moments documenting the things that matter or are unique about the season. They take all forms, but usually are mini-albums. Just search the web for “December Daily” and you will pull up tons of ideas. I decided that this is the year I am going to dive right in!

So, with this post, I want to share my process as well as the list of daily journaling prompts that I plan to use. These are just suggestions for things I want to capture. You should use whatever strikes your fancy. The key is making the foundation pages in advance and limiting yourself to whatever supplies you pull out at that time, keeping it all together. That keeps you from spending time and effort trying to match up things later or (worse yet!) having to run out and buy something. Then, make your foundation pages – the pages that you’ll place any photos and journaling you have throughout the season.

Here’s my list of prompts. My album will be December 1^st-25^th. These can be a combination of photos and/or journaling:

1.Real or artificial tree?	9. Favorite holiday movie	17. Travel or stay home?
2. Decorations inside	10. Favorite ornament	18. Cards received
3. Favorite childhood toy	11. Holiday beverage	19. To do list
4. Christmas cookies	12. Favorite holiday song	20. Cake or pie?
5. Decorations outside	13. Holiday photo or letter	21. Best Gift Received
6. Shopping/Gifts 2011	14. Snow or no?	22. Religious traditions
7. Best gift given	15. Taking time to relax	23. Gratitude
8. Did/does Santa visit your house?	16. Flannel PJs	24. The Night Before
		25. December 25th

First, I looked in my closet of supplies and pulled out some papers I thought might go well together. As you can tell, I mixed some more formal papers with some more fun ones. I grabbed 3 colors of cardstock, two sets of letter stickers and some embellishments – some came with the papers, others I just found in my stash. Because I wanted to use craft paper as my base, I cut up 25 9x9 pages. I found a 9x9, red album in the back of my closet that has to be at least 10 years old! I also punched 25 scalloped-edge circles to put on each page for the date. I plan to use number stickers or handwrite those.

December Daily Project by Moanica Caston. Patterned Paper and Cardstock Embellishments: Basic Grey & Echo Park; Cardstock: Bazzill; Alphas: American Crafts Thickers and Pink Paislee; Embellishments: Various

Here are some sample foundation pages. I purposely didn’t cover the entire 9x9 page with patterned paper, since I didn’t have enough paper to do that. But that’s another popular technique and is really pretty. This is simple and, more importantly, something I feel I can keep up with. That’s it!

So, who’s with me? Leave a comment if you're going to do a project. Go search through your stash; make a few foundation pages and get ready to capture the fun and magic of the season!

Happy Crafting!

Moanica

Be Thankful

Hope you all had a very nice Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for so many things, especially my family. We had a wonderful time cooking and hanging out together at home, so I was able to find time to create. 


In every issue of the e:Spire magazines we include a couple of digi stickers that I create especially for you. Digi stickers are not just for digital scrapbookers. They can be used by paper crafters as elements on  layouts or cards. They can also be used in home decor as I did here with the Thanksgiving sticker I created for the October/November issue.

Supplies: RIBBA Frame - IKEA; Digi Sticker: Be Thankful by Camille (www.scrapsofcolor.com)

For this project I simply printed the sticker on cardstock to fit the frame opening. 


If you haven't downloaded your FREE issue please do so. Make sure to also grab the free digi stickers found on page 12.


Happy Holidays and remember to be thankful for all of your blessings.


Camille

Thanks Giving

Hello everyone, Barb here. Can you believe we are standing on the threshold of Thanksgiving? I love this time of year. I love everything about it! The cool crisp weather, the scent of wood smoke fires in the evening, the beautiful Autumn sunsets, the distinctly Fall colors of pumpkin orange, faded green, rusty brown and butter yellow.

During this season of gratitude, why not send an ‘I am thankful for you’ card to the special people in your life. Not only would it be surprise, but it would also brighten someone’s day. I am a firm believer in telling people how they have influenced my life, or how much I appreciate them.  And what better way to spread a little love around than with a hand-crafted greeting card? 

Click to enlarge

Card Supplies: 

stamp sets: Holiday Best(Stampin’ Up!)

card stock: Vintage Cream(Papertrey Ink) Soft Suede, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango(Stampin' Up!) 

patterned paper: Traditions Floral Paisley(The Paper Studio)

ink: Antique Linen Distress Ink(Ranger)

accessories: Paisley embossing folder(Provo Craft), Filigree embossing powder(Papertrey Ink), Deckled Edge Rectangles(Spellbinders), ribbon(Memory Mare),Tiny Twinkles(Taylored Expressions)

 Creating “thankful for you” cards has become a tradition with me, something I work on all year. That way, I always have cards on hand when I need them. I know we all have our favorite holiday traditions…I am always curious about what everyone is doing. What is your most favorite Thanksgiving tradition?  Share with us!

My wish for each of you is that you have a warm, wonderful and memorable Thanksgiving. Enjoy your friends and family and of course the delicious food. Don’t forget to take lots of pictures, because we want to see your scrapbook pages later.

And make sure you carve out a little craft time to create something beautiful. Happy Thanksgiving!

So Thankful for YOU!

With Thanksgiving only a week away, I would like to take this time to say how thankful I am for being a member of the SOC design team and also how thankful we all are to have such wonderful readers and followers of the magazine and blog. It's hard to believe how quickly a year can go by when you're creating and sharing what you love doing.

Thankful card by Tena Ellison. Supplies - Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny;

Cardstock: Basic Grey Designer cardstock; Alphas: American Craft Thickers;

Leaf Punch: Marvy; Border Punch: EK Success; Ribbon: Hobby Lobby.

I have so much in my life to be thankful for...my family who's always been my biggest support fans, great friends and good health. I would also like to thank Tiare for giving me this chance to do something new and exciting with my scrapbooking skills again.

So if you haven't had a chance to check out the newest issue of the magazine yet, just click and download your copy today. It's free and always filled with lots of inspiration from sketches, digital designs, cards, altered art projects and more.

Have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving Place Card

Time is flying by! Can you believe Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away?!! For some people it can be a stressful time of the year, as they prepare to host lots of family and friends. For me, it is a time to re-unite with family. When I was younger it seemed that the whole family lived in one place (no more than 15 minutes apart). Now we all live in different states. So, the thought of Thanksgiving is anything but stressful it is exciting, filled with food, friends, family and fun!

Of course since I am not hosting Thanksgiving, there is no need to defrost any turkeys, shred any cheese for baked macaroni & cheese, clean and cut collard greens, peel and bake candied yams, or roll out any dough for pie. I have the luxury of just showing up! So, to help out all of those people who are hosting Thanksgiving dinner I offer my contribution to your table. I have attached a place card that you may print and cut out for the holiday.

Tips: Double click the image to download. Use heavy cardstock and fold the card in half to allow it to stand on its own. Also, if you print a large copy of the image you can use it as a place mat...at the kiddie table perhaps.

Gratitude Game and Giveaway

Happy Autumn, Ladies and Gentlemen! Autumn is one of my two favorite seasons! One of the main reasons why I love it is because of Thanksgiving! Of course, I'm grateful for my blessings and life experiences all year long, but the start of Autumn brings those things to the forefront for me. Last year I kept a gratitude journal for the entire month of November, and I'm making one this year too! I tried to "strongly encourage" my sons to keep one too, but that only lasted about a week! So, this year I tweaked my approach to getting them involved in recording their gratitude. Like most kiddos, my boys love games, especially when there is a prize involved! I decided to make a container to be placed in the family room (so it's always visible) that they can deposit a strip of paper with a gratitude statement each day.

 Supplies: Patterned Paper, Stickers, Chipboard: Crate Paper; 

Ribbon,Stamp: Maya Road; Ink:Jenni Bowlin; Embossing Powder: Tim Holtz

I recycled a chip container to be the deposit box. I used Mod Podge to secure the book paper and patterned paper to the container and then decorated it! I cut a hole in the lid of the container so that the slips of paper can be easily slipped in. Easy Peasy! The container is sitting on a table with a pad of paper and pen so that we can stop by anytime and drop a gratitude note it in the box! So, if your kiddos are motivated by competition or rewards like mine this is how I set up the "Gratitude Game" that we will play for the month of November (maybe longer):

1. Each person should deposit a gratitude statement into the box each day. I had to give my boys a limit for each day because my youngest son is a clever one and quickly thought that he would write a bunch in one day and fill up the drop box! So, I told them there was a max deposit of 3 per day and if they felt the need to document more then they should use a journal, too! Ha! Have to stay one step ahead of these kiddos!
2. At the end of the week we draw a random winner to win a little prize like a small toy, renting a movie, getting to have a later bedtime for a night, or getting to nix of a chore for a day.  My boys are  motivated by "winning" so I stress the point that the more entries they place in the container the more likely they are to win for the week! I love to hear the various things that we are all thankful for, so in addition to drawing a weekly winner, we read the sentiments aloud. It's a fun family activity that can generate great conversation at the dinner table. I'm keep the strips of paper and may make a mini album or tuck them in an envelope on a layout. I plan to make this a yearly tradition, and it will be fun to see how we change from year to year. I'm also thinking that we will take our Gratitude Game with us on Thanksgiving day! We will set it up at the door and have the guests write a statement and then at dinner of afterwards we can read everyone's gratitude statements and maybe do some random prize drawings there too!

Now... on to the GIVEAWAY!!!!!

A Grab bag of Studio Calico goodies!!!

I would love to see what Thanksgiving projects you have created recently. And, if you have not made any I would suggest making one of these little gratitude canisters because it's really easy and fun.. I didn't think of this until just this moment, but you could have each person in your family decorate a canister instead of having just one!  If you need a starting point check out page 12 of the current issue of Scraps of Color E:spire because Camille created a super cute digi that you can use an an element for your project! And, there are Thanksgiving layouts on page 28 to use as inspiration for creating a project, too.

To enter the giveaway leave a comment with a link to your new or recently created Thanksgiving or autumn project (altered art, card, layout, or anything else you create) and you are in the drawing to win these goodies! Easy as pie! 

And if you would like an additional entry blog and/or facebook (an additional entry for each one) about the giveaway and leave another comment with the link to your post!  


I will draw a winner on December 6 on my next SOC E:spire blog post, so you have plenty of time to get crafty! Again, thank you for reading and supporting Scraps of Color E:spire! I am so grateful for each of you!

***I can only ship within the USA.***

HAPPY FALL!!!

Hi there,

Happy Fall!!! Can you believe that Fall is here already?? I love this time of year. The tree leaves are turning into beautiful fall colors and the weather is so cooperative. In North Carolina, we have such a variety of beautiful trees, plants, and shrubs that we get an opportunity to enjoy the most wonderful colors this time of year. I like to take full advantage of the photo opportunities during this window of time. Fall scenes can be breathtaking and Scenic photos can become instant cards that are perfect for all occasions.

I took the following photos while on Lake Norman. As I enjoyed the lake, I could see all of the card opportunities as I took in all of this beauty.





The best part of these photos is the variation in color of the trees, but I also like that if I choose- I can print in sepia or black and white to get a completely different effect and I can also expand my set of All Occasion cards. Late October – December is usually a very busy time for us, so creating quick lovely cards is always a plus in my book and photo cards enable me to add to my collection instantly. The themes can be endless: Thinking of you, Missing you, Birthday Wishes, Hello-the list can go on and on. See my instant photo cards are below…



In Sepia...


So, are you taking full advantage of your Fall photo opportunities? I hope so. You could be building your card collection as well.

Hugs, Karen

Happy November Scraps of Color!!!

I woke up this morning simply feeling GRATEFUL.  Could it be because it's November and time to start planning for Thanksgiving?  Or maybe it's because the sun is shining, the fall colors are in full bloom and I am at home enJOYing a pajama day!  One thing is for sure, this is indeed a great time of year.  It all starts in October, when I gather with my girls for a weekend of laughter and creativity and the fun continues with Halloween and then on into November for Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas and we begin the new year with a bang out party at my house!  It's just such a fun time of year for me and a great time that I cherish with my SOC Sistah friends.

Since moving to Georgia 8 years ago I have made so many friends and many are now like my family away from home.  Having them makes getting through the holidays a bit easier and more JOYful.  We are growing closer and enJOYing more time together each year.  Speaking of which this past weekend, I had the pleasure of hanging out with some of my SOC Sistahs, their hubbies and kids at the Southern Belle Farm.  What a GREAT day.  We played like big kids, enJOYing the rides, maze, some tasty eats, the pumpkin patch, pig races and bike race.


I am forever grateful for the love, laughter and especially friendship they bring to my life.  I cherish each moment and I am so thankful, at this time when missing family back home in Chicago becomes prevalent in my thoughts.  They are always here...just when I need them.  Thank YOU!  And as you can see...they provide great picture taking opportunities!  Which means they also enrich my scrappin' life!  Yay!





This is just a great time of year to remember, to share, to laugh, to cherish, to create and to hold dear those who have touched your life! Don't forget to say, "Thank You,"  and break out those cameras for all of the fall fun this season brings!  And if you need a bit of inspiration be sure to check out the October/November 2011 Issue of the SOC Magazine, it's chock full of great, fall ideas!


Happy November!