Letter to Santa

It's here! The final day of Christmas in July. I'm sad but at the same time I am so glad to finally be able to embrace SUMMER. Enough of the fake cold weather and listening to Christmas music to get me in the mood to craft. So without further ado, let's dive into this layout.

As a kid I believed in Santa! It was a big reason why the season was alway so joyous and magical. One of my fondest memories of Christmas is the year that I swore I saw Rudolph flying through the sky pulling Santa's sleigh, and I couldn't wait to tell everyone I knew. Now as an adult a lot of the mystery and magic of Christmas has faded away and I realize what I saw that night was probably an airplane, but every time I think about it a large smile still appears on my face and I still get the feeling of wonder and happiness. When I sit down each year to make a wish list of what I want for Christmas I remember back to those days when making a list for Santa took an entire month with new things getting added every day. I wish that I had kept all of those letters to Santa that I wrote a child so that I could look back on them today. That was my inspiration for this layout. 

I was going through some of my Christmas themed paper when I came across this beautiful sheet of cardstock from DCWV stack and it spoke to me. Although the layout is simplistic I think it says a lot. I added a spot for a 4 x 6 photo since that is what scrapbooking is all about, showing off your photos. But, I think the true star of the page is the Santa envelope in the top right corner. It is a great place to tuck a letter to Santa so that it can be kept next to the picture forever. I left a space above the photo mat for journaling so that none of the important details would be forgotten.

The 'Joy' of Dies

For the final Christmas in July card I decided to keep it simple once again and use a die that I recently got at Tuesday Morning.

The die that I used is Holiday Greetings by Spellbinders. It's one solid die that cuts a 4 x 5.25 inch panel that fits perfectly on to an A2 size card. I decided to keep it incredibly simple and just use the die on a piece of white cardstock and then glue the die cut piece onto a colored picece of cardstock (the same size) before adding the entire panel to a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card base. 

I hope that you have all enjoyed my Christmas in July series and I will see you on Thursday with the final layout of the 'not quite' Christmas season.

Trip to Santa's

When I think back on Christmas as a child, the one thing that stands out the most is probably my parents taking me every year to Bass Pro to sit on Santa's lap. It was perfect for me because I got to tell a jolly fat man in a red suit everything I wanted for Christmas and then leave with a sugary sweet candy cane that made a mess all over the car. My parents loved it because it made for a great photo. Now as I've gotten older and the presents and candy canes seem less important the photos from back then have become a treasured keepsake.

For today's layout I decided to go with something pretty, simple and classic that would make the photo the star of the show. I saw a similar layout on Pinterest I knew I just had to make it. I decided to make two different styles of this layout depending on whether the photo was taken portrait or landscape. I also made it a double photo mat so that either a 4 x 6 or a 5 x 7 photo would fit. 

Christmas 3 x 4 Cards

Welcome back to another Christmas in July Tuesday. Today's card is similar to that which we made last week, in that it features cut aparts once again. The biggest difference… The size. Typically when I make a card I stick to the standard A2 size card (which is 4.25 x 5.5"). But, this week I was definitely inspired by the particular cut apart sheet that I had. Instead of each cut apart being 3 x 4 they measured approximately 2 x 3 and fit perfectly on to a card who's final dimensions or 3x4.

While these cards might cost more to mail, they make great card to hand out at the holidays or attached to a gift for an extra special touch. The other great thing about making 3 x 4 cards is that the entire card easily fits into a Project Life style album page so it can be shown off along with the photos of that year's Christmas. 

The neat thing about this card is that it can be made even without a cut apart sheet. Simply replace the images with stamps, diecuts or other embellishments of your choice. It's easy to make this card your own. 

Here are some photos of just a few of the cards that I made. By using just one 12 x 12 cut apart sheet from the Cosmo Cricket Jolly Days Collection I was able to make 28 of these 3 x 4 cards. 

Christmas Countdown

Today marks day two of our Christmas in July series and the first of our Christmas themed layouts.  And, what better way to start out than with a countdown layout that would be great as the first page in any Christmas Album.

OK, so full disclosure, I actually put this layout together back in January of this year. It came from an awesome kit that I got at the end of last year's Christmas season. I've tried to find the name or company for this kit to include with this post but I haven't been able to. My goal is actually to try and re-create a layout similar to this using items from my stash, so keep an eye out for that sometime in December.

The kit included everything seen in the photo except for the holly photo mat. Each of the numbered squares opens up so you can hide images or words representing each day. This December I plan to do  an activity where each day is a new winter or holiday inspired event to get me into the Christmas spirit. It will be both cute and interactive.

I hope you like it and I will see you on Tuesday with another Christmas card.

Christmas in July Card 1

Hey peeps, today is the official launch of the new twice a week posting schedule and it is working out great. I have managed the first day so the rest can't be that hard right? right? Why isn't anyone saying anything? Oh that's right Ashley, because no one is actually reading your blog but yourself. But, here is to hoping that this is the magical post that changes it all.

So, you ask (not really) what are we going to do to mark this momentous occasion of a weekly schedule change? Well we are going to do.....CHRISTMAS IN JULY!! Yes that is right we are going to deck the blogging halls with cards and scrapbook layouts not made of holly. Wow that was a pretty crappy pun Ashley.

Lets start this series out REALLY simply and make some cards using cut-aparts. What is a cut apart you ask? It is a sheet of card stock that contains multiple 3x4 or 4x6 rectangular images that you can cut apart from each other easily (hence the name). 

These are super simple and incredibly addicting to make. They take very little supplies and you can make a lot with very little effort. 

Below are just a few examples of the cut apart cards I have made for Christmas. 

Schedule Change Announcement

Hey guys, so I have a new announcement for you. Starting tomorrow I am only going to be uploading on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This three day a week thing is proving to be too time consuming for me right now and lets face it Monday's are hard anyways and there are to many things that keep popping up on Friday's that make it a difficult day for me to upload. Hopefully it will be easier for me to manage only two days a week and then once I feel like I am getting a rhythm going I might try to do three days again.

What does this mean for Flashback Monday, Make a Card Wednesday and Layout Friday? Well I will be integrating flashback Monday in with card making and scrapbook layouts.

For now the schedule will be as follows:

TUESDAYS= Card Making
THURSDAYS= Scrapbook Layouts

Thank you for your patience and understanding as I try to deal with learning the ins and outs for blogging.

Have a BLAST

Hey guys, it's Friday!! I hope you have all had a good week. People are still shooting off fireworks in my neighborhood but at least by now they are are stopping around 11 pm so it is easier to get some sleep. They are beautiful to look at but annoying when you are trying to sleep.

Since Monday was July 4, aka Independence Day, I thought that I would share a patriotic themed layout with you this week. And, I have to tell you I am completely in love with how this layout turned out!!

For this layout I was loosely inspired by a single page layout I saw on youtube/pintrest by one of my favorite scrapbookers, Faith Abigail Designs. She used SVG files that she bought online to create her layout, but I decided to test myself to see if I could recreate a similar layout only using supplies I already own. It took a little time but in the end the result is WAY better than I anticipated!! 

I was able to use a coupon that gave me a free trial of the Cricut subscription service,so I had even more cartridge options available to me. It is definitely something I am considering subscribing to but that will have to wait for awhile (aka when I have money). In the end I used three cartridges that I own (Teddy Bear Parade, Stand and Salute and George an Basic) and only two that I don't (Old West for the barrel and Independence Day for the wagon and flag banner.)

I hope that you all enjoy this layout as much as I do and that you had a happy and safe 4th of July!!

With Sympathy Cards

Hey guys.

I mentioned in Monday's blog posts that I had recently lost two members of my family. The first was my uncle in March followed by my great uncle in April. I needed to make a few sympathy cards and I wanted to keep them as simple as I could, since I wasn't in a particularly crafty mood.

The cards that I made are actually the same, I just oriented them differently. I used a sketch that I found as my inspiration for these cards (http://mojomonday.com/Sketches/Mojo435Sketch.gif).  I actually think that my favorite of the two is the portrait one, maybe it is because the flowers that I used were so large but it just reads slightly more polished to me. But I liked how each of them turned out in the end and that I was able to make two cards at the same time that are both similar and different.

News

Hey guys, first of all I want to apologize that it's been so long since I last posted. Life is been CRAZY. We have had two deaths in our family that have shaken us all to the core. One kind of came out of nowhere and the other, although slightly expected, was still just as traumatic. On top of all of this I also got sick, I'm not really sure if was the stress and grief that caused it or if there were other problems (such as anxiety and depression) that played a bigger role.

So as part of the process of getting my life back on track, I'm going to (hopefully) resume my weekly blogging. Just because I've been MIA from my blog does not mean that I haven't been crafting a little. Luckily that means I have a backlog of things to show you LOL. 

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to keep doing flashback Monday, Make a Card Wednesday and Layout Friday. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself as I get back in to blogging. But, I am going to try to still post something every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.