Sweet Dreams, Baby!

The new prompt is up at Scrap That Baby! This time, we're scrapping pictures of baby sleeping. It took me a while to find a picture for this one, because Jonah hardly ever sleeps anywhere but his crib. And well, we don't really take the risk of waking him up to sneak in his room and snap pictures of him sleeping.. lol! But, he did somehow manage to fall asleep in his stroller... at the airshow, of all places, with jets zooming overhead. Maybe the big ear protection Daddy made him wear really works? lolI finally got to use the Sassafras Mix & Mend collection, and I absolutely love it! It may actually be my favorite line that Sass has ever made! It's just so absolutely perfect, it makes my heart smile! :) Again, I used burlap on this layout.. are you ladies used to hearing that by now? lol I have A LOT of it! But this time I used it as a mask. :)

Anyways, head on over to Scrap That Baby and submit your layout for a chance to win a prize from our lovely sponsor, Catch the Moments kits!

-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Sketch 231

It's MONDAY! I hope your week is starting off on the right foot! A new sketch is up at Scrapbook Challenges today.


Sketch 231:
My take:
I used more of the Anna Griffin Christmas paper that I just HAD to have! I love it soooo much! I've been meaning to scrap this picture for a year now, but just couldn't decide on how to do it. It was hard for me to try to make a Christmas layout and still try to add in the blue since it was so important. Can you believe that dang Santa had blue gloves?! LOL HORRIBLE SANTA!

If you ladies do the sketch, head over to SC and post it in the gallery and the sketch 231 thread! You will have a chance at winning a prize from our wonderful monthly sponsor!

-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Gift Wrap

I'm always looking for a way to recycle something or save money somehow. Christmas wrapping paper is no different. It's so expensive! And with my money saving, coupon clipping ways, I buy at least 4 newspapers a week to get the coupons. Sooo let's just say that I have a lot of newspaper laying around. Why not turn it into wrapping paper, right?!

I know this isn't the best picture, but I had to take it at night time really quick because my husband was DYING to open it.. lol! He "needed" his new running watch, so I had it shipped 2-day so that I could wrap it and surprise him with it.

Anyways, I wrinkled the newspaper up and inked it with distress ink and then sprayed it with some homemade glimmer mists. I sandwiched it between wax paper and ironed it on low so that it was flat like normal wrapping paper. Once it was wrapped, I added the bow. And let me just say, I'm horrible at making bows apparently. My friend, Jenny, had to make the bow for me. Thanks Jenny! :)

You can use all kinds of scrapbooking supplies to dress up some newspaper or a roll of kraft paper! So dig into your stash! If you make your own paper, let me know! I'd love to see pics! :)

-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Gift Tag

Honestly, I hardly ever make tags. I just never really have a reason to, but I decided to challenge myself. I've always liked the idea of using pictures on gift tags. It's perfect for kids that aren't old enough to read yet, and also you could reuse them as ornaments. If neither of those, at least it adds a nice homemade touch to your gifts.I really love this paper!! I've been eying the Anna Griffin Christmas papers ever since Halloween, and I finally bought some today. It was 40% off at M's. :)

Also, I wanted to share an awesome idea that I saw the other day. I haven't had a chance to make them though. I think that it may have been in Family Circle magazine, but I don't remember. Anyways, they used cookies (I'd say gingerbread men) for gift tags! GENIUS! They decorated them and piped the name on them. I have to say, I may try that this year for some special gifts! :)

25 Days of Christmas: The Spirit of Giving

First off, I'm posting this like a lot late.. sorry! :) I had planned on posting a few things having to do with cards. Let's face it though, I'm not a card maker. I'll try to post the projects that I made later in the 25 days. I have something more important that I want to post today though.

There is a program called Holiday Mail for Heroes. We did a small card drive in support of this program at Scrapbook Challenges for Veteran's Day. In this program, the American Red Cross accepts cards and distributes them to our service members serving overseas and the wounded at Walter Reed Medical Center. I wanted to go ahead and get this information out there because the cards have to be postmarked by December 10. Any cards postmarked after the 10th will be thrown out. If you want to participate, your cards MUST be addressed as follows:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD
20791-5456

Head to their website for further information and guidelines.

Also, I want to take this time to get the word out about a fake message that goes around every Christmas on social networking sites and email. I'm sure you have all seen the message saying something along the lines of "While you're doing your Christmas cards this year, take the time to send one to a soldier. Address your card to 'Any Recovering Soldier" and send them to Walter Reed.....". I just want to let you all know that Walter Reed doesn't accept cards that aren't addressed to a specific soldier because of safety concerns. They will just throw your cards out. And I've been seeing this go around for as long as I've been an Army wife.. lol :) So, if you see this, PLEASE let them know about the Holiday Mail for Heroes program!

To all of you that will be sending cards, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support of our troops! :)
-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Advent Calendar

Happy Thursday! Only 23 days until Christmas! Can y'all believe it's almost Christmastime? I most certainly can't. We got our Christmas tree last night, and as soon as I smelled the fresh piney scent of the tree lot, I knew Christmas had arrived. It seems like just yesterday I was complaining because it didn't get out of the 60's all summer.. haha!

Anyways, today I'm sharing an advent calendar. At first, I was going to just add daily Christmas activities to the backs of my fridge magnets, but I started looking through galleries and was inspired. I wanted to get a pre-made, plain advent calendar to alter. Of course, my M's let me down again. They didn't even have small trinket boxes that I could use for it. I ended up using toilet paper rolls cut into thirds.
A little bit of paint disguised the toilet paper rolls pretty well, I think. I used a 2" circle punch to make the circles, and they fit nearly perfect over the rolls. The book pages are slightly inked on the edges, but the rest of the distressing is natural. I got lucky a few months ago and found an old 1950's encyclopedia at Goodwill for $1. It makes the perfect accents! I used modge podge to stick them to the toilet paper rolls and to stick the toilet paper rolls to the burlap (yes, I'm STILL stuck on burlap. I have a ton of it left, too!). I weaved a painted dowel through the top and added some modge podge to get it to stay. And lastly, I put some bells on the ribbon and tied the ribbon to the dowel. And voila! A homemade advent calendar comprised of things that I already had around the house and in my stash. Well, all except for the jingle bells. They are 40% off at M's this week though, and I thought that was a good enough deal.

I'm pretty proud of it.. mostly of how cheap and easy it was. :)
-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Fridge Calendar

Hey! I'm alive! :)

I've been neglecting my blog, and I apologize. But for the next 25 days, I'll be posting daily! I'm going to be posting something Christmas related every day starting today until Christmas day. The great thing about most of the projects that I'm going to be posting is that they're made using things from my stash. I hope you all will check in daily for Christmas ideas.

Today's project is a calendar for the refrigerator. I LOVE this idea! I was inspired by an advent calendar on a frugal blog that I read. I love it so much that I plan on making one for each month of the year, so keep an eye out for that!
I'm finally putting my Cricut to good use. I've had that thing for over two years, and I've used it more in the past two days than I have the whole time I've had it. All of the squares measure 2"x2" (the green inside measures 1 7/8" x 1 7/8" and the houndstooth measures 1 3/4" x 1 3/4"). Also, all of the products used came from my stash except for the magnets on the back. I found a roll of magnet at M's for $5.99, which I thought was a pretty good deal. I still have enough left for 2-4 more calendars!

Check back tomorrow for another project.. I'm really excited to post it!