Christmas Cards

In my earlier post today I said I was going to work on the photocard that we would send out with our family photo on it. Well...I got sidetracked and decided to play with paper and glue instead of jpegs and pixels and made some "regular" Christmas cards!

In October I took a class at BPS called Giving Well. The instructor was Kolette Hall who is a stamp and product designer for Hampton Art (you probably have some of her designs if you have ever shopped the dollar stamp bin at Michael's!) Besides giving us 14 great gift idea projects during the class, she also provided us with designs to use on tags and cards. I used the card designs today to make these cards:

These are very different cards for me...usually I spend time designing one or two cards and then make several more identical ones. This time I made fourteen different cards using the same materials. Each one was trial and error and I just did whatever I felt looked good with each of the little templates from Kolette. It was fun to not have a plan for a change! In addition to a few pieces of 8.5 x 11 cardstock and 2 sheets of 12 x 12 double sided paper I also used some brads, ribbons and buttons I had in my stash, so this was a very inexpensive project!

I think I'll work on the digital photocards tomorrow!

Happy Scrapping!

Noreen

OH...I also changed the template on my blog to three columns using instructions and HTML code from this blog. There was lots of good info - check it out!

Christmas Photos

Who knew it would be so hard to get four people outfitted with coordinating clothing for the yearly Christmas card photo shoot? Well, the work paid off and the photos turned out very well! Have a look!

I really like the way they turned out! Now to play with making this year's Chrismtas card, which I will post when I am done!

Happy Scrapping!
Noreen

30 Days of Holiday Projects

Holiday Alert!!!!

I was just doing some Creative Memories business (creating my holiday newsletter) and I came across an amazing little resource, right on my own CM site - Creative Memories' Design Team is showcasing a project a day throughout November!

I can't believe I am just finding this now...especially when I have been focusing on holiday proejcts for the past little month already! There are all sorts of sorts of fabulous projects already posted, and since it is only November 17, there will be 13 more to come!

Click here to see the 30 Days of Holiday Projects. I will post pics of any projects that I complete, and I would love to know if you try any of them!

Happy Scrapping!
Noreen

We're on an organizational roll!

I guess getting my binders organized last week has spurred me on to bigger and better things! I am reading a book on organization by Sunny Schlenger and ideas are "clicking" for me in a few new ways, so I hope to continue getting things done! It feels great! I really have accomplished a lot!

1) On Thursday we FINALLY had our dishwasher and garbeurator installed! When we bought the house we knew there was no dishwasher and I said to Shane that it would have to be the very first thing we did. Well...it has taken 18 months and lots of other things were done ahead of it, but it is finally in. I am listening to it's oh-so-quiet hum right now. No more dishpan hands for me. Yay!

2) Sammy's nursery is complete. I had painted the walls a few weeks ago and finally found time to finish up the trim work this week. Shane set up the crib and then I spent some time decorating and putting things away. I used the same layette that I had in Grayson's room - it is a sun, moon and stars theme in soft shades of blue, yellow and green. It is very calming and VERY sweet! I had made an altered wood frame as the challenge this week over at JustCr8 with the intent of giving it as a gift, but it turns out to match Sammy's room perfectly! Here's a pic:

I used this collection of papers from CM, some chipboard embellies from the dollar store, a few buttons and a scrap of ribbon. Easy and inexpensive gift idea...even though this one is staying in Sam's nursery! I guess I have to put more frames on my TO-DO list now!

The best thing of all about Sam's new nursery is that he is actually sleeping in it. The transition from beside/in my bed went quite well. He had naps in his new crib on the first day, then he slept from 8:00 pm until 12:30 am on the first night, until 4:30 am on the second night and then all night last night! Sleep may be returning to our house after all (and that is probably why I actually have enough energy to do some of these projects around the house).

3) I sorted and organized my clothes and moved them into our bedroom closet. (I had been using the extra closet in Sammy's room, so I had to get out!) The problem was that I had four sets of clothes...pre-maternity fall, maternity, pre-maternity spring/summer and the few things I had to buy this summer because nothing fit me. So it took a while to figure out what fit and what was appropriate for the season and for a SAHM. I got rid of a lot by taking it to the Salvation Army, and I always feel good about giving things that I can't use away. Now my clothes that actually fit and work for my lifestyle right now all fit into my half of the closet in our bedroom. It sure makes it a lot easier each morning to get ready for the day.

4) We vacuumed out the newly created storage room in the basement and brought in some of the shelves from the garage. Then I put away a lot of the boxes that have just been hanging around while we did the renos. While I am not finished this task, I am pleased by the space I have freed up and by how accessible the boxes are now that they aren't stacked on the floor.

Alas, I did not work on my scrapspace yet...maybe this week!!!

Happy Scrapping,

Noreen

Getting Organized

My house has been in a state of CHAOS ("Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome" according to FlyLady!) since we moved in over a year ago. We started renovations on our 40 year old bungalow before we even moved in and we have been at it ever since. Right now I have a missing cabinet in my kitchen where the dishwasher is supposed to be installed in the next couple of weeks and all the dishes that were stored in that cabinet are on the kitchen table. Sam's nursery is 95% complete...we just have to actually set up the crib once we find it in the storage locker we call the garage. Our newly developed basement looks great except for the masses of rubbermaid blue totes that need to be labelled and stored in our storage room...which still needs shelves. Sigh...it goes on and on and on!

I am constantly thinking about storage and organization and how everything will look and function once I am done. I dream of having organized, color coded closets and shelves full of perfectly aligned matching rubbermaid totes with matching Dymo labels. In my scraproom I imagine finding a place for everything so it can be right at my fingertips...how many more layouts I could create! I am working towards that dream, but does anyone ever actually finish organizing? Or is it a constant ongoing project?

But, I am happy to report that I have had sucess on TWO fronts! I have finished creating two organizational planners that will surely help me stay organized in other areas! One is the Christmas Planner I was mentioning that I am making as part of a BPS class called "Cut the Crazy out of Christmas". The other is a Household Notebook inspired by both FlyLady and Organized Home. I put the "guts" of each together over the last couple of days and then because I wanted them to look great sitting on my shelf or counter I stayed up way too late last night and created covers and spines for both using my digital scrapbooking program from CM - Storybook Creator Plus.

Here is the Christmas Planner:

I used a free digital kit from Shabby Princess called Holiday Magic for the artwork and LD Coffee House as the font on this. Because I didn't have a digital copy of the photo I wanted to use, the cover is actually more a hybrid project...I started by making a template, printed that out onto cardstock and then added the printed photo and journaling onto the cardstock.

The inside of the Christmas planner has custom made dividers using artwork from the BPS class, and then I personalized it by stapling on strips of gingham ribbon along with the divider tabs.

And here is my new household notebook! How sweet!

I used the Recipe Book Digital Kit from Creative Memories for this cover, and a font called LD Telegram. I love the vintage feeling they both have! Inside I used ready made pocket dividers which will come in handy for slipping items into.

I created both covers as 12x12 layouts in my Storybook Creator Plus program and then simply trimmed them down to fit inside the outer sleeves of each binder. Because I knew I would be trimming them I kept the majority of focus more towards the centre of each layout. I did the spines as two 3" x 12" strips, printed them both onto one sheet of cardstock and then trimmed them down to fit the side sleeves on each binder.

On the whole I LOVE how they turned out and I think I will really be inspired to use them often!

OK...only 978 more organizational projects to go!

Happy Scrapping!
Noreen

Bye Bye October...Hello Christmas Rush!

It happens every year so I should know by now to expect it, but the day after Halloween seems to mark the pre-Christmas craziness! And I have jumped right in...I am taking 2 Christmas prep classes @ BPS...Giving Well 2008 which is almost over, and Cut the Crazy out of Christmas which has just started. I have lots of fun project ideas under my belt and am now in the process of creating a customized Christmas planner so I am well on my way to getting organized! I know I know...I say every year that this year will be different, this year I will be organized, but I really have a feeling that this year I will make inroads to that goal!

Today I also had a Creative Memories booth at the first of three trade/Christmas shows this month. It was great - I got to meet a lot of other moms that have home based businesses and made a good amount of sales and contacts. A lot of people were really interested in Digital Scrapbooking, Photocards and Storybooks/Photobooks. This is really where my focus has been lately, so it was fun to initiate some digital newbies! And, I picked up a couple of Christmas gifts as well. I met a wonderful lady named Roxanne who sells personalized children's music CD's so I picked up 2 - Elmo singing songs about Grayson and Barney singins songs about Sam! Love them! We had a great chat about online commerce and it really got me thinking about about additions to my business, especially on my personal website. I have a few ideas that I am putting into place and will post when they are up and running.

In the creativity department, I finished up and submitted this layout to the Just Cre8 challenge which was to use a rebus on your LO. Mine uses letters and pictures for the title; "You Love To Read".

"You Love To Read" 12 x 12 LO by Noreen Smith. Paperbilities cardstock, Stampin Up letter strip, unknown patterned paper strip and brads. Century Gothic font.

I cannot believe the talent in this group of contestants and am really enjoying seeing their work. This weeks challenge is to design a LO based on one of three ads posted on the site. It's due Wednesday, so I better get working!

And, I can't resist posting pics of my pumpkins. Literally! Grayson was a pumpkin for Halloween and was oh-so-sweet! Sammy got to wear a Winnie the Pooh outfit, but was pretty unimpressed with the whole deal this year! (Next year I'm sure he will kick _ss!)

Here they are just before all the Halloween festivities began. They are getting to be good friends. Man I love these 2!!!

We went to a local mall for Halloween activities during the afternoon with our good friends Wendy, Amy and Sean and got to make slime and trick or treat with lots of other little ones. Here they are - the Pumpkin, Princess and Pirate!

Then in the evening I took Grayson around to a few neighbours.

Although he has been out Trick or Treating before, this was the first year he was really into it. He kept saying, "Just one more house Mom, just one more!" It was fine weather (17 degrees during the day) so I didn't mind being out walking around. (*I remember Halloweening when I was a kid and it always seemed to be so cold...you had to choose a costume that either had lots of layers or could go over your coat so you could keep warm!) Anyway, he had such a good time and what a candy stash he ended up with! He couldn't believe it! It was a really great day!

SO...onto the next holiday! Good luck getting organized...I'll post my planner once it is in the works!

Happy Scrapping

Noreen