christmas card #1

I have joined a lovely group of ladies to help us all create Christmas cards throughout the year so there isn't that "end of the year crazy holiday time and ooops, I need to make some cards" panic this year. Seems like such a good idea.

Another good idea that I had is that I will be making five of each sketch each  month so hopefully if all goes well, I shall have 60 cards by December!! If I really get inspired by a sketch for a month, I may even make a few more. But the goal is five.

Here is January's sketch. Simple and fun.

Here is my take on it. Totally LOVE making these medallion flowers. They are simple to make and add that bit of dimension to the cards/ layouts whatever. The paper is from a holiday stack I picked up at Michaels. Hoping to use up most of it with these monthly challenges. That will give me reason to go shopping!! bwahahahaha...

Oh yeah... The snowman is a stamp I found a few Christmases ago on clearance. He is so cute. Generic silver brads and some lovely bakers twine that my favorite Alien sent to me. (Love that lady!!) 

I inked the edges of the white because I ran out of the dark green cardstock for all five cards and the last one is a plain white background and I didn't want to lose the matting on the card. Then I held the inked piece up to the green card, and really liked the look!! So a-inkin' I went.

Good day with the kiddos. No fights and everyone is playing nicely. Love that. Hoping it continues all week. I have a bunch of stuff I would like to do and if they are good... it shall happen!!

day off tomorrow

Which is so very needed after this busy weekend of ours. I could use the morning to grab some extra Z's and the staying home to work on some projects. We'll see exactly how much of both will happen with the kiddos home as well. ;)

layout challenge group creation

oh I am so darn happy today. At least on a small level anyways. First off my poor darling little man has a cold which today forced him to miss school. I am sad for him as I know how much he hates missing but when there is a fever involved I believe he should be kept home. I know I am one silly mom that way. 

As I am typing he is playing with his Pokemon figures and having a ball. oh yeah... no sign of fever either. Stinker.

Okay back to my happy spot... I was invited to join this amazing group of ladies on FB in a layout challenge group and a card challenge group. I totally work better if I am challenged. Not even doing it for the prizes but for the fun of scrapping and seeing what others come up with.

Anywho... here is the first sketch that we were given. Now isn't that the most dreamy of sketches?? I thought so too. 

And here is what I came up with. I hunted through my pictures and found these beauties that cried to be scrapped. I also happened to look up at my papers and had this amazing collection that I purchased at CKC Manchester last year that I have been dying to use on my fall pictures. A small amount of time later (about a week) I have finished. Definitely a labor of love and so happy I did this.

Now I am off to work on the card challenge for that group. And the best part?? We are making Christmas cards to get ahead of the game. I am so happy for this as I totally missed sending out handmade cards this past year.

ended the year scrapping!

I got a few minutes during the busy holiday time to sit at my scrap table and work on some fun pictures of Alex's birthdays. He ended up celebrating a total of four times the fact he was turning five. Not too shabby. Needless to say I had a boatload of fun pictures of my very photogenic little man. I decided to make some collages out of them to save time and frustration on my part. I could have all the great pictures I wanted AND not have to trim and cut and such. Easy scrapping here.

This is from his Chuck E Cheese party. This ticket blaster is the whole reason he wanted his party there. He got to do it twice since the first time his goggles fell off and he couldn't grab at anything. Lucky kid.

This is his party at my parents house. Love his reactions to his gifts.

Cake time at Nana and Papa's house. Wegmans didn't have a Sonic the Hedgehog cake (his choice of theme) so we got him a little Sonic figure to put on his cake. He liked it so all was good.

His crown at Chuck E Cheese. There were eight tokens around the outside of the crown, they didn't live there long!!

Here he is playing a bunch of games before the pizza came out. He LOVED the dancing game. And he was pretty good at it!!

Time to hang with the big mouse himself! Alex totally loved dancing with Chuck E.

Cake time at Chuck E Cheese. Yummy Hershey's chocolate cake. I made a couple of the medallion flowers to put on this page. I love how they came out with the papers I used. Old stuff from my stash. I stamped the 5's and the 'Your special day' on cardstock.

These were all done in 2011. It just took me some time to get them posted. yup... slacking again. I'll have to get my total pages scrapped up to date. I know I didn't do my 'goal' of 100 but I do know I made a ton of gifts and cards so I am happy.

if you want to....

... but don't feel you have to ;)

I have a second blog to keep track of my Project Life 2012. If you click HERE, you will go there. There is also a link on the right hand side -----> Foltz Family Project Life 2012 to get there from here.

But again... only do it if you want to. It's gonna be a bunch of pictures (hopefully one a day for the entire year) and some boring nothing rambling. I sure am talking it up aren't I?? Makes you want to go and check it out!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

We went to Kelly's today. oh yumm-o. I forgot to take a before picture, but this is the after. Nothing left but the crumbs.

cold but no snow

And I am not complaining about no snow either! We had a few flakes fall on Christmas day so I am good on the snow front for the year. I'm sure it is coming our way and when it does, we're in for some rough days.

Anywho... I am currently feeling pretty lousy due to a lovely head cold that has decided to pester me. It started the day before Christmas Eve but is now in full force since the beginning of the week. Lovely. My poor head is going to explode soon, I just know it.

Speaking of Christmas Eve... here is an adorable picture of my two sweeties before we went out to dinner. Hubby found the red Pikachu shirts and got one for each of them. They were quite happy to wear them and at least they were both in red! Love their little smiles.

I have been working on some pictures that have been hanging out on my desk since April. Yes they have been there that long. It is shameful but things got in the way of my scrapping. Lots of things. Hoping in 2012 that I can keep on top of things and still scrap. I have missed the creative outlet and am drowning in pictures that I want to do things with!

The pictures I have been working on are collages that I created with Picasa 3. Love that program and the fact that it is free... BONUS!! Anywho, since I had a zillion pictures on my computer at the time (fact be told I still do) I used the collage feature to create 8X10's and 5X7's of my favorite pictures for some events. Makes it much easier to scrap now with one picture going on the page instead of cropping and cutting and working in the ones I love versus the ones I just want to scrap. So far it's working great. Hoping to take pictures of the ones I have done and get them posted. We'll see. I have a LARGE pile of laundry calling my name.

Oh yeah... lovely daughter came to tell me she has a ladybug in her room. Off to remove said creature from her sight. She is not big on bugs at all. A mom's work is never done.

scout fun continues

Here was Scout's place on the 23rd. He was guarding presents from two little kiddos who insisted on shaking presents from Nana and Papa. Silly kids.

On Christmas Eve he was hanging from our light on the piano. He was relaxing from doing his self portrait that he left right below himself.

 Not too shabby for an elf!

This morning he left my point and shoot camera in Alex's room with a note to the kids to look at the pictures on the camera. They got quite a chuckle at his adventures through the house on his last night with us! He took over 60 pictures of himself ALL around the house. He had quite a good time. I will have to work on a collage of them all and post it, but the one below was one of the last ones on the camera. The note was there this morning for the kids, but Scout is hanging with Santa until next year.

It was a great day with family here. Good food and now time to relax. Kids were very good and enjoyed all the presents and family time.

Merry Christmas to all! Off to see if I can find my desk so I can scrap. I am feeling in the mood for it.