Miles Above the Rest layout plus Watching the World Go By layout

Are you recovering from the holidays?  We had a wonderful Christmas with all our family but I'll confess I'm enjoying a relaxing week with home with the kids over the rest of the holiday break from school, with no music lessons or school events.  It's bitterly cold outside, so perfect weather to for me curl up in the basement and have crafty fun!  And while I swore I was done baking after my Christmas baking marathon, the kids are begging for cookies, so I believe some cookie baking is in store today.

 I have two layouts today, both using the Echo Park We Are Family collection.  Over Thanksgiving, I attended a huge family reunion for my uncle's 90th birthday. This paper collection has been perfect for scrapping some the multigenerational family pictures I took.  Layout #1 was inspired by the hot air balloon paper and I found the perfect title on the Wild Card 2 cartridge (along with the hot air balloons), to reflect that our awesome extended family, spread all over the country, is "Miles Above the Rest".   Lots of pics of family groups hanging out and talking will go on here.

Cricut for layout #1-
Wild Card 2-title, hot air balloons, font
Paper-Echo Park We Are Family collection prints/stickers, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Layout #2 was also inspired by the paper, in this case the globe with the heart paper.  I found the title on 3 Birds on Parade-Watching the World Go By.  The journal box says "making memories".  I have lots of pics of all of us looking at the memorabilia celebrating my uncle's life that were displayed that will go on here.  The  sticker strips on the top and bottom were from the paper collection.

Cricut-
3 Birds on Parade-title
Paper-Echo Park We Are Family collection prints/stickers, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Holly Jolly Christmas layout (for BBTB2)

Merry Christmas week everyone!  The kids are out of school this week and my husband is off too, so we are going to be doing lots of baking and gift wrapping, while wearing our PJs all day!  (I already tried to bake Christmas cookies last week to freeze for Christmas day, but the kids mowed them down like a flock of locusts-not even any crumbs left!!!!)   Now I can hardly wait until Christmas Eve-we are having a huge extended family party and then all going to Christmas Eve services together to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Always so special!  And I still love watching my teens run downstairs Christmas morning to see what appeared in their stockings.  

Our BBTB2 challenge this week is anything Christmas.  My Holly Jolly layout is all from the CM Cheerful Seasons cartridge for Christmas pics (OK I'll confess they are for Christmas pics from LAST year…).  It's been rather dark and snowy here for days, so my lighting is not the best for this layout photo, but I was really happy with how it turned out (the layout, not the lighting).  I was singing Have a Holly Jolly Christmas along with my Bing Crosby Christmas CD while I made this until my hubby threatened to shoot either me or the stereo!  Perhaps he needs some Christmas cookies, lol!  Emergency Russian teacakes to the rescue.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and get to spend some time with the people you love.

Cricut:
CM Cheerful Seasons-all cuts
Paper-Echo Park Reflections collection prints, CTMH solids

Wish Christmas layout

So Die Cuttin' Divas is having a challenge this week to have a project inspired by a Christmas carol.  I have been humming We Wish You a Merry Christmas while making this layout, so I'm going to link it up.  I just got the Winter Wonderland cartridge and am having lots of fun trying it out for the first time with these cuts!  The print papers are from an old DCWV All Seasons stack that I've had forever.  The layout is VERY bright and colorful, but the pics to go on here are dark (from a school holiday music concert in the gym with dreadful lighting), so all the color won't be too distracting.

Cricut:
Winter Wonderland-all cuts
Paper-DCWV All Seasons paper stack prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Boys Will Be Boys layout

 While I have been busy working on Christmas projects, I needed a little change of pace creatively yesterday.  Since Fantabulous Cricut is having an anything goes challenge, I made a boy themed layout for some pics of my boys using some fun Echo Park paper from the stash in non-Christmas colors!  I was in a creative rut with Christmas red and pine green, so some bright primary colors made me happy!  The adorable dino and rocket are from the CM This and That cartridge and the title from one of my faces, Boys Will Be Boys.

Cricut:
CM This and That-dinosaur, stars
Boys Will Be Boys-title, rocket

Paper-Echo Park Little Boy prints, photo mats Echo Park Paper and Glue, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Ornament Christmas Card (for BBTB2)

It's getting closer to Christmas….I'm finishing up my last Christmas cards!  (I make a lot of them in October at the family Xmas card scrap with my mom and nieces, so I don't have to stress in December.) Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to make a Christmas ornament or use a cricut ornament cut.  I did two all white cards this year.  This one features one of the ornaments from the Joys of the Seasons cartridge.  For white on white cards, I like to add texture with either embossing or glitter paper.  I embossed the background here with a snowflake folder and embossed the ornament with my favorite all-purpose Swiss Dots (seriously, if you could only have one embossing folder that would be the one I'd have!).  I popped my ornament up on foam tape for some extra dimension.  It came out just like I was envisioning-which doesn't always happen, lol!  Hope you will share some of your Christmas ornament projects with us at BBTB2 this week!

Sorry my photo is so dark-when I shot it in a well lit area, all the white just washed out and you couldn't really see the embossing!

Cricut:

Joys of the Seasons-ornament/shadow cut at 4 1/2 inches

Paper-white card stock

Swiss Dots and Snowflake embossing folders

foam tape

The Stockings Were Hung layout (for BBTB2)

Happy Monday!  Last week has been a very busy at my house between school holiday concerts, birthday parties for Son#2, and getting the Christmas tree!  Things are looking festive now though, with all the holiday decorations up.  Speaking of Christmas decorations, our BBTB2 challenge this week is to use a Christmas stocking on a project.  I've made a layout using the Winter Frolic cartridge for the title, border of stockings, and tag.  I fell in love with this tartan plaid background paper I found at Hobby Lobby-it looks just like my Christmas tree skirt!  Take a look at all the fabulous projects at BBTB2 and link up your Christmas stocking project with us this week.

Cricut:
Winter Frolic-all cuts
Swiss dots embossing folder
Paper-TLC studios prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Merry and Bright Christmas card (for BBTB2)

Happy Monday!  Did you brave the shopping madness this weekend?  I did all my shopping online and skipped the crowds!!!  Definitely the way to go, in my opinion.  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to make a card with a Christmas tree-it's time to get those holiday cards out, so this is the perfect challenge!  I always like to do at least one all white Christmas card every year, so I used the Christmas trees from Doodlecharms and my snowflake and Swiss dots embossing folders for some texture for my all-white Christmas tree card.  There are some very festive Xmas cards to see over at BBTB2 and we hope you'll link up a Christmas card with us this week.

Cricut:
Doodlecharms-trees, cut at 3 inches
Paper-white card stock
Embossing folders-snowflakes and swiss dots
Stamp-???
Diamond Stickle