Scrapping from the Heart

 Today was a busy day, but a joyful one. When Taylor woke up, he discovered Elfie by a box with a note asking him to donate some old toys. It took some convincing but he did put some toys in the box. :) Then we dropped Taylor off at Trevor's uncle's and Trevor and I went to my job's Christmas party. After that, we went to go see the Hunger Games, great movie! Came back home and rented Grown Ups 2, that one was ok. Then we went to a pub near our house. It was nice having time to ourselves and going on a date. We need to do that more often!! Here 's the spread for day Twenty-One: Left:  I owe this inspiration to Ali Edwards Day Nine post. I love what she did with the starbursts, sequins, and enamel dots (all from the SC kit), so I recreated that look on my spread. Right: I included a gift card holder from the Pub because I loved the Christmas sentiment. And that "Good Cheer" is from a digital file I cut with my silhouette.

Today my boy was sick. :( Not too happy about him being sick for Christmas, so I decided to take him to the Dr. on my lunch break to get him on antibiotics ASAP. He had a nasty cough, sounded like croup or somethung, but can you believe Dr. said his lungs were fine. He had a double ear infection! The cough and runny nose was just drainage.  I couldn't believe it because he was not complaining about ear pain. But thankfully I got him on those much needed antiobiotics. Here's the spread:  Left:  Journal card with gold "20" chip, the backside of that silhouette-cut present, and some gold thickers and a gold star on a piece of patterned paper that came with the SC kit. Right: It amazes me how fast things change. How fast visits at the doctor change. Taylor is such a big boy now, and it's truly amazing. That arrow label was in a printable file that was included with the SC kit and I added another gold star.

 Day nineteen was all about the presents. There is a lot under our tree, and that's because our wonderful family sent us some from Florida. Here's the spread: Left:  I had to show a picture of one of my presents to Trevor because it was wrapped so pretty. And I love that Joy card from the Studio Calico kit, fit on this page perfectly. :) On the back of the Hambly overlay from yesterday, I adhered more enamel dots and a tree chipboard sticker. Right: A digital file of a present cut with my silhouette (from the SC kit), a photo of our tree that I added a digital overlay by Ali Edwards before printing and a 4x6 card from the SC kit that I journaled on.

 And just like that....all caught up! :D I decided to go with another single page for day eighteen. And I'm pretty proud of myself, I got a little crafty with this one. Although I wish I had a sewing machine!! I gave out nail polishes to my co-workers today and they loved it.  I had this old Hambly transparency with green circles and I wanted to combine it with one of the page protectors that I cut in half. I covered the adhesive that I used to combine the two with a white ribbon with silver thread that came with the Studio Calico kit. In the circles I added some enamel dots and a chipboard sticker. Here's a better look at the transparency:   And a look at yesterday and today's layouts in the album:   I just realized I forgot my gold "18" chip. I'm gonna go add that. :)

 One page for day seventeen... The Mega Millions jackpot is huge right now! $636,000,000, and Trevor came home with 100 quick picks. I loved that so I included it in my album. It made a nice Christmas wish.

 Welcome to Day Sixteen. Still loving this project, and even though I fall behind a little here and there, my momentum hasn't slowed down. I'm still enjoying the process, and the product! :) Tonight, I sat down and addressed our Christmas cards, late again! Just like last year. I really gotta cut that out! Here's the left page:  And the right:

  How did I get so behind in my blog? :(  On Saturday, we went to a Christmas party for the company Trevor works for. I believe this was our first Christmas party. We had a good time. I met a lot of people, and it's always nice to hang out with Trevor's dad and his wife as adults (baby-free :P). Here's the left page:  Love those glitter stars I found at Michael's! And the right page: I found the logo from the restaurant online because dumb me didn't get a business card like I planned. That see-through "Merry & Bright" card was included in the Studio Calico kit.

 Oh how I loved day fourteen! We went to breakfast with Santa at my school. And Taylor did great! He was excited to see Santa, willing to sit in his lap, and happily talking with him and telling him what he wanted for Christmas. It was so cute! Here's the spread:   I included a letter he scribbled on for Santa. There were all these stations there and Taylor had fun making a photo frame, ornament, and letter to Santa.  Here's the left page:  Two 4x6 photos with a white border. On the top photo, I included a digital brush from Ali Edwards . On the bottom photo, I added a glittery star, sequin, and enamel dot. I also added this cool stamp (just like a postage stamp) from the Studio Calico December Daily 2013 kit . A closer look at the letter I included as an insert:  I attached a tab with a strip of one of the papers included in the kit.  And another strip from that same paper on the back. Here's the right page:  A filler card (love the chevron) from a

 Today was about our advent books. We did this last year and Taylor loved it! He still loves it and we got a lot more books now. Just five more I think, and we'll have all 25 days! :)  Here's my spread:  Left page:   Right page:  Super simple!

  Got a little behind there, again, but getting caught up tonight! :) Tonight was the night of Open House at my school. All the classes performed three songs for their parents and students' art work was displayed for parents to see and take home. Thankfully, I was able to see Taylor's class perform before my class.  Here's my spread for Day Twelve:   Left page:  Love that Keep Calm stamp! Right Page:  A flyer from the event, title card, and journaling about what a little stinker Taylor was. He wouldn't sing at all!

 So sorry tonight's photos were taken on my iPhone. I am super tired! I plan to take more photos with my DSLR and update later. Tonight's spread is about our tree. I just love the cozy feeling a lit up Christmas tree creates. Here's the left page:   I used one of Ali Edwards 6x8 digital overlays on my photo before printing.  Here's the right page: Good night! :)

 Can't believe there's 15 days until Christmas. I had a lot of fun with my spread today. :) Taylor is always talking about his stocking. Always asking for me to get it down for him. Every day he asks if there's candy in it, and I say "no, you gotta wait for Christmas", and he insists on checking it himself. He really loves it. Here's my left page:   Journaling card, 2 3x4 photos and a card from the Studio Calico December Daily 2013 kit. Super simple. Here's my right page:  This was the fun part. I got some great use out of my 1.5 inch circle punch. Most of those patterned papers are from this year's kit, and some from last year's. The starbursts, sequins, joy badge and enamel dots all came with this year's kit as well. Super fun and I'm glad I got that story in the album. He's going to be one happy little man on Christmas morning.

  Hello twinkle lights. Hello christmas music. Hello ornaments, new and old. Hello tree. Tonight we decorated our tree. And I'm glad that Taylor could be more involved with it. But he is three, and his attention span is short. And he was making a huge mess with his toys while Trevor and I were doing the work. But he was excited to see the ornaments, and very anxious to put on the ones he picked out this year. Here's my spread for day nine:  This was a day I was so glad I had a nice foundation. I'm super tired but those snowflakes I made prior to December just make the page lovely.  Left:  Right:   I added some Ali Edwards' digital brushes to the photographs before printing. Then I added some star embellishments. Simple and beautiful. Now to get some rest. :P

 Cross it off my December Bucket List! This weekend, we made ornaments. I wanted two trees this year, a real one for our living room and our artificial one by the door for all handmade ornaments. Taylor is really into it. He kept asking to put more ornaments on the tree. It was so cute. Here's the left page:   I love watching Taylor make them and I love watching Taylor hang them on the tree. :) Right page: Here's a photo of the trees we made. Taylor did every one except one. He was like a machine. The magic in the top slot was a cut file that came with the kit.