We Are Family! Xmas day photos!

Happy New Year Everybody!!!

Hope you all had the most wonderful, post Christmas week! I hope whatever your plans may be this evening, may you all have a good and safe time!

I am going to bring in the New Year spending it with the love of my life. He has worked almost every year so this will be special for us. No plans except to be together, which sounds pretty good to me!

I wanted to share some photos of my family from Christmas day. Of course you'll see these again next year when I scrap them. I like to save the holiday to scrap the following year, I do that with most of the holidays. Did I ever do last Easter? Hummm?

Enjoy the photos and see you next year my crafty sisters!!!

Scotti~

Daddy and Cody

Katie and Jords and our doggy Muggie

My Daddy and the turkey (not related, I swear!)

Mommy and me

Kerri and family, Maddie and Jerrel (their first married Xmas together)

Kika (as she's known to us) and little thumb sucker

My 2 blonde peas in a pod, Amy and Jords

xoxo Leah

Santa says I've been a good girl!

I have been a good girl this year and remember that bedroom makeover? Well, let's just say that little children aside, I am a very good wifey and have a very happy husband! =o)

And since I know Santa personally, he's been dropping me a few hints...well not hints really but little excited comments here and there about his excessive nature. So I had an idea that he had gone a little "chestnuts" this Christmas. So I lived in fear of Christmas morning for months prior (being a Virgo and a little more like Scrooge then Santa when it comes to spending).

I'd share the video instead of just the photos but you'd be as disappointed as Santa was on my non enthusiastic reaction to my presents.

Now the photo does not include the set of 3 wooden frames that were painted by each of my kids and included a photo that they had chosen themselves. Or the cute "family" collage photo frame, the newest book release by my favorite author (Mary Alice Monroe) or...well not sure what else I missed but you get the point....

And here we go......

I guess I need to use that new Photoshop and edit out that stuff because I really like this photo of me and you all know how hard it is to get a picture of yourself that you like! LOL!

Okay so my goodies included the Imagine, about 20 carts including mostly ones for the Imagine but a couple old ones (amazingly I had only 2 repeats!), the ENTIRE collection of Distress Inks, the newest release of Adobe Photoshop AND a new DSLR camera! I can't believe I have a real camera now! SO excited about that!

Well thanks for letting me share! And no, I won't share my husband...so don't ask! LMBO! This doesn't include the fact that I thought we were just buying for ourselves and I bought some stuff from J's.com and a nice fat box of stuff from PapertreyInk! =o) However I opened that before Christmas! Now I'm glad I did!

If any of you have the Imagine and you wouldn't mind sharing your email address with me, I'd love to have someone to go to if I have questions. Let me know! Thanks!

Snow in Love With You ~SOUS December 24~

Snow in Love With You

First and foremost~ Merry Christmas!!!

The big day is tomorrow and I couldn't be any more excited! Another happy holiday with more blessings then I could ever start to count! I wonder what Santa brought me, apparently I've been a very good girl this year! LOL!

Okay so...onto the page done for Stuck on U Sketches reveal day! Please check out the other designers and the fabulous pages they did!

Now normally I am awful with posting the sketch as well but today I wanted to kinda explain myself, since it looks like I went rouge with this sketch. LOL! So...I came up with the "wooden wall" for the dark grey part, then got inspired to, instead of using the circle doily, to use my snowflakes but tuck them around the photo. I wanted to explain because I know I have seen more then a few scrapbook pages and wondered where on earth the sketch was! LOL! But again, they are to be used as ya want! Right?

This was probably the most techniques and inking and whatnot that I have done on a page. Starting with using 2 colors of kraft cardstock, embossed and inked with multiple colors, for the wooden wall and then the photo frames.

I didn't wait, come on, how could I? To open my box of PapertreyInk products. And one thing I got was a set of their text stamps! Love them!

Large snowflakes were cut with my Cricut via the G. The small snowflakes were a new CB die cut set. The small blue flourishes were Sizzix dies (all part of a Xmas box from J's...ya didn't wait on that one either!) Flourishes were inked with 2 distress ink colors and then sprayed with copper perfect pearls.

The 2 large, plaid snowflakes were embossed using UTEE.

And lastly, and because it was so darn gorgeous...my letters! Inked on one side with Tumbled Glass and then inked on the other side with Antique Linen and then the edges lightly hit with Vintage photo. Which was used also for the text stamping. I just adore how these turned out! So much so that I didn't use the layer that I had cut for this using my Cricut, I just kept the shadow I had cut!

Sorry to make this so long...and I am sure most of this will go unread as it's a holiday! LOL! Many blessings to you all, my wonderful friends!

xoxo Leah and family!

Ornaments ~Generations Crafting~

Ornaments

Today we have a special post at Generations Crafting, a post with the entire design team! I hope that you will check it out and that you are all ready...Christmas Eve is tomorrow!!!

This card was made with Echo Park Everybody Loves Christmas. I made my very first window card using Clear Cardstock from PapertreyInk. Embossed with Sheet Music by Sizzix.

I cut the window using my Cricut and the tiny scallop in red to accent the window a little more. The ornaments are from the Element Stickers. I am becoming a big fan of using stickers from scrapbook lines because they are a more inexpensive way of matching the paper line and you can do so much of the embellishing yourself on them.

I used a good amount of Glossy Accents on the card, for the ornaments and the berries on the card base. Also to adhere my twine, so it wouldn't go anywhere. Couldn't get the best photo though for that.

And see you tomorrow with the post for Stuck on U Sketches! Merry almost Christmas!

Makeover Holiday Surprise!

Well last night at 1 am my husband finally made it home (towing a trailer from LA in the middle of the rain storms) from a 4 day work trip! Way too long to be gone during the holidays. The good part though is that he has 4 days off around Christmas now. Which is great!

I am never able to surprise him with anything so I thought this may be my chance! A bedroom makeover! I know nothing about TV's so a couple weekends ago I gave him the go-ahead to get us a decent sized TV for our bedroom, I thought that would be a great addition to the room.

So anyways...here are the before pictures of the room....

awful picture due to the lighting and the window there...

and the after!!!!

new paint! new cozy, thick down comforter, new pillows, bedskirt. moved the bed a bit to give him a larger nightstand. and my most awesome "headboard" I found at a local, high end consignment shop, 2 iron pieces from Mexico that I love and think look super cool in here! I rearranged all the photos and put all pictures in from our Yosemite trips. I wanted to room to be a bit like a cabin and remind us of our favorite place. I just need to spend some time and pick up some other "cabin like" nicknacks or I may just wait and pick up things as we find them on our trips!

I wanted to share with you guys what I have been up to! And I'll have some more posts for you this week!

Echo Park Christmas cards ~Generations Crafting~

Echo Park Christmas Cards

We all know that some projects are more fun then others and sometimes I just love putting together cards. They are quick (or usually more then putting together a scrap page) and they give you instant gratification! LOL!

I used Echo Park Everybody Loves Christmas and what I love is EVERY sheet of paper from this line. Now how often can you say that?

All the card sentiments were cut from Journaling Cards and then I picked matching papers from the line.

This is a mix between using the Journaling Cards paper, Elements Stickers and Alpha Stickers.

Other then the sentiment, all the other pieces were cut from Borders. I punched the peppermint candies and then layered them behind the sentiment. I actually did this card first and loved the punched candies so much that I used them on the christmas tree project that I posted on wednesday.

This is a pretty huge mix of prints from the entire line. But this really was fun to put together and my first time trying a card of this style. Fun!

You can find these cards in the store gallery along with much more detail on the products used over at Generations Crafting! Thanks guys for coming by!

Merry Christmas Tree ~Generations Crafting~

Merry Christmas Tree

I had the best opportunity this Christmas to work with my first project using Kaisercraft Beyond the Page from Generations Crafting! I have got to tell you how excited I am to play again with their products again! Plus I think it is an extremely reasonable price point and would make a fun project to do or as a gift to give!

This project features the Scallop Hanging Tree.

The amazing paper for this project and all those cute embellishments came from Echo Park Everybody Loves Christmas.

All the embellishments are from the Element Stickers. Nice quality, thick stickers. The birdie, and the snowmen eyes and buttons were Glossy Accent-ed.

The large tree was stamped with a Hero Arts cling, Music Background in clear embossing powder. The smaller tree has some Stickles and also Glossy Accents.

Santa's beard is flocked, eyes and nose Glossy Accents and some black pearls. If you notice the Santa has some texture, or distressing on his coat. That's what I like about Echo Park, even the stickers have been given the same treatment as the papers so they are really much more interesting then basic stickers. Plus with a little imagination you can really embellish them!

Ribbons are all from Mrs Grossman. Distress inks were Vintage Photo and Tumbled Glass.

And hope you are all getting ready for Christmas! Its just around the corner!

Holiday '10 Giftcard Holders

Yeah so I couldn't think of a title for this post! LOL!

But I wanted to post this quickly and show you guys what I did for my in-laws. They ask every year that we don't get them anything. Nice. But of course, we couldn't do that so we give them some giftcards. Which works out because honestly I have no idea what to get them! hehe!

I was pretty tickled though because this year was the best reaction I have ever got from my MIL and she even said she was bringing the card to work to show everyone. Now how cute is that!

Here is the little book I made:

The papers are all from DCWV printed paper stack I think from last year? And just to note, these gift cards and the exact size of standard sized cards! I just adhered the gift card with removable adhesive. It is 2 standard sized cards folded and then twine in the crease to keep it together. Very quick and very easy!

I had this idea for years now for my FIL but this is the first time I had actually made it! A golf ball snowman! How funny is he!

The card opens to a page where I wrote him a holiday note and then you open that to reveal a couple gift cards behind!

Now...this is NO slight, I promise, to those that could not come...but I wanted to thank the 2 and only 2 ladies (plus Kira) that DID come to my scrapbook day on Saturday! It was a wonderful day and I am so lucky to have best girlfriends like you!

Love you a lot Donna and Jennifer and Kira!

Kids Rule... ~SOUS December

I'd like to say a big Happy 8th Anniversary to my dear husband! Today is the big day and though we don't have any special plans, I still look forward to the day with you...it doesn't matter what we do as long as we are together! I am thankful everyday for our wonderful marriage. I love you more now then I ever have before and look forward to our future together! You are a great Daddy and it makes me love you just that much more when I see how much our children love you. Plus it takes one strong man to give up the budget to his tight fisted wife...I'll do you proud! hehe!

xoxo Bebo

and onto today's post~

Kids Rule and Mom's Drool!

At Stuck on U Sketches...we've got a challenge and got candy! What else could you ask for! No sketch this week but a die cut paper challenge, brought to you by Generations Crafting, also our wonderful sponsor for our candy! Yum Yum! The DT at Stuck on U used Bo Bunny die cuts but if you don't have any, that's okay! Just use any die cut you may have or make one on your own! But either way, come and play and get some Bo Bunny goodies!

Here is what I did:

At first I had only half the die cuts used and then looked at it and thought...hey, why not go big? So I added the other halves on top. I did pop the layers so they have a neat affect that way. I used Cosmo Cricket black chipboard and Basic Grey letter stickers for my title. The photo was taken last summer at my best friend's birthday. My 3, her 2 and then her SIL's 2, buncha cuties! I also used some black Stickles on the letters, though you can't see them well.

In the top die cut I wrote the names of each child and then their ages (perfect way to remember the ages of little ones around you). I also journaled some in the purple square scallop. I thought it was a lot of fun to add writing and doodling amongst the die cut! Like copying the black lines in the blue paper and drawing them into the purple square, just to tie it all together and add some more black to make the title work, also added some little black stars.

Make sure to come on by SOUS to see what the DT came up with and also to get yourself some candy!!!! Perfect in time for Christmas!!!! =o)

Wedding Gift

Man I am SO upset! Somehow it looks like ALL my photos of ALL my craft projects have somehow disappeared from the computer! No idea what happened but I have searched everywhere!

Now I bring that up because I had started deleting these photos from my camera when I thought "hey I wonder if I loaded these yet?" I didn't and deleted the much better photos. So this is all I have to share and sadly because of the sunlight the colors are a little crazy and you can't see the flower details well...what can I do?

I made this for my best friends wedding. That was the trip away I took a few weeks ago. This was a pre made mdf tag set that I altered.

The papers all shimmered, I stamped on the black with Versamark...so many details you just can't see! Argh!!!!

And I don't even have a photo of the back!!! I made these gorgeous envelopes with sweet Versamark stamped cards for inside. I used only Perfect Pearls for color. Love and Cherish was written on the back and I thought they could write wedding memories or notes to each other and tuck them into the back.

I have been a MACHINE in my house the last couple days! Not to mention baking and cooking all day yesterday. So I am about as worn out as possible! Luckily that means that because I am ahead of the game that I will be able to relax the rest of the week. My in-laws will be here, its my wedding anniversary and I am hosting a Cricut swarm on saturday! What a weekend!

I have lots of cards I have been working on so I'll be sharing those soon! xoxo!