Valentine's Day labels for food and candy gifts

Valentine's Day is less than a month away!  Get ready with these SUPER CUTE printable Valentine's Day tags that pair with food and candy.  For example "I'm nuts about you", "We're mint to be", "We make the perfect pear". Go to the Better Homes and Gardens website for the labels and instructions.

7 Gypsies ticket holder

I saw these cute wooden ticket holders at The Scrapbooking Studio and wanted one right away! I thought about doing New Year's Resolutions on a bunch of little tags. But instead I decided to create a "layout" inside and on the ticket holder. This picture is from the Tetons in Wyoming. I used Amy Tangerine paper and embies, cut a few travel shapes on my Cricut, and the memories sticker is from my stash. Oh and the cute little ticket stubs that you see on the right come with the ticket holder.

There weren't very many of the ticket holders left at the store when I snagged mine. So if you want one, don't wait too long!

Celebrating Winter

There's no snow in the forecast yet. But I do have a couple of snow themed layouts from my January design team assignment to share with the Winter/Christmas line from Crate Paper called "Peppermint".  The retro feel of the paper inspired me to use an old picture of myself as a kid. 

The layout was featured on the Crate Paper blog in December!  They said they had never seen their border stickers used as a banner and that it was "very clever".  :  )  Gotta love that comment coming from the talented folks at Crate Paper.  Buzz on over to The Scrapbooking Studio to pick up this versatile line.  Other supplies are kraft and wooden snowflakes from Maya Road.

The snowman below is made with bottle caps from Maya Road. I love the names of the bottle cap sizes.  I used the Jumbo, Mega and Super Mega sizes that are in the bulk section at the store.  If you wanted to make the snowman a bit smaller, you could use just the mini, jumbo and mega sizes.

It's super easy to make (except for step 2) 

1. Measure the tops of the bottle caps and cut circles to match (do not adhere until step three). 
2. Make holes on one side of the smallest and largest of the bottle caps and then both sides of the middle bottle cap.  Then use thin string or embroidery floss to tie the pieces together.  (The Maya Road blog says you can make the holes with a crop-a-dile. I personally could not make it work and so I ended up using a long paper piercer.)
3. After they're tied together, adhere paper to the tops of the caps. Adhering it after they're tied together insures that any patterns will align correctly.
4. Add buttons to the middle and bottom circles.
5. Create eyes, a nose, and a mouth.  I used chipboard letter stickers to create the eyes and mouth.  The eyes are the dots to the letter "i" and the mouth is a capital Q cut apart. The nose is just orange cardstock cut in a long triangle. 
6. The arms are Maya Road tree branches colored brown with brown ink.
7. The hat is cardstock: a square adhered to a squatty rectangle, with a border sticker added for color.
8. And finally some ribbon for a scarf. 
9. Optional step: add a little hanger to the back so he can be hung on the wall.  If you make the hanger fairly short, it will be hidden by the hat. 

Scrapbook Plaque . . .

I bought this cute little plaque a couple of weeks ago and hung it in my kitchen.

 

Too many Christmas pics?

If you took more Christmas pictures than you know what to do with, consider putting them in a Christmas mini album.  I created the below mini album for The Scrapbooking Studio.  It's theme is 25 days of Christmas, but the idea could easily be adapted to 25 Christmas memories, 25 favorite Christmas ornaments, 25 Christmas wishes, etc.  I just love all the little flaps and half pages of this album.

Supplies include ribbon and kraft snowflakes from Maya Road, rhinestones from My Mind's Eye, and resin stars from Melissa Frances.  Everything else is the Simple Stories line which makes it so easy to put together!

I'm only going to share a smattering of pages. To see the rest of the album, you'll have to go in to the store.  :  )

5 Tips for Awesome Holiday Pictures!



The Palmer House Hotel, Chicago



Getting scrapbook worthy holiday pictures can be a challenge. These 5 tips will help you take more memorable and better looking shots this holiday season.

 

1) At the beginning of December, think about what the holidays mean to you and what traditions you'd like to document. Also, take a look at past holiday photos to figure out what moments you may not have captured and what things you wish you'd gotten better shots of.

2) Don't wait until big events to pull out your camera. There are lots of great opportunities throughout December for pictures. Food preparation, wrapping presents, gift shopping, decorating, etc.

3) Prepare for low-lit holiday situations by surfing the Internet for information on things like white balance, flash, etc. and do some practice shots to better understand these settings.

4) Get your standard "safety" shots and then try out new angles, perspectives and shooting modes. Pass the camera around so you can get everyone's take on what's going on. And be sure to get plenty of candid shots.

5) If there's a certain spot where you know you'll be taking most of your pictures (like near the tree), prep the spot ahead of time by arranging lighting, removing background clutter, etc.

Tim Holtz is at it again!

For several years, Tim Holtz has done his 12 tags of Christmas making beautiful tags with his products.  Be sure to check it out.  His instructions/videos break it down the most intricate looking design into very manageable steps. 

The Scrapbooking Studio has listed out all the products used for each tag on their blog to make it easy to go to the store and pick up what you need!  I may be doing that for the pictured tag.  It is SO pretty, don't you think?

Have fun!