December Art Journal Friday

Here we are with the last Art Journal Friday of the year on the very last day of the year! If you haven't played along before, maybe think about making yourself a New Year's Resolution to try something new this weekend :)

To join in, all you need to do is to create an art journal page using any medium you like (paint, paper, fabric, collage etc etc etc) using this month's theme over the weekend, and if you'd like to share with us you can upload a picture here at The Scrappy Tree community AJF group - if you don't feel you want to share your page, by all means call in and leave some love anyway :)

For this month's prompt, I decided it was time to say goodbye properly to the old year and welcome in the new! I know that for many people 2010 has certainly had its challenges ;) my suggestion for this art journal page is that you write ALL OVER the page with all the things that you want to leave behind where they belong in 2010 - write whatever you like using whatever language you like and don't worry that anyone will see it because....

...then you're going to paint/collage/draw/write ALL OVER IT with all the good things that are coming your way in the new year! It could be good things you know are going to happen and are really looking forward to, or equally good things that you want to happen - you never know unless you ask, right? ;)

Hope you have fun with this one, I know I'm going to!!

Gayle xx

Merry Christmas

Hello everyone, on behalf of The Scrappy Tree team, we wish you a Very Merry Christmas and hope you and yours had a wonderful and blessed day.


Today was my day to share my favorite Christmas traditions or memories and I thought of a few but each and every one lead me back to things my Mom did or traditions she started. What I remember most about the holidays and Christmas Morning in particular was how special my Mom made it for us. She not only kept the spirit of Santa alive by always filling our stockings after we went to bed but she always made sure we had a wonderful mixture of things we needed wanted and loved. She knew how to shop for each one of us so well, it took me years to understand how important that was. It wasn't about the gifts themselves, although they were awesome, it was that she took the time to show us how much she loved us by knowing us so well and in turn always making it perfect! Whether money was tight or we were finicky teenagers, her ability to give the perfect gift was always a constant.
Stockings were her very favorite thing and to this day, my favorite thing and hopefully in years to come, my childrens favorite since I have carried on the tradition. As far as stockings go in our house, she made sure they were pouring over with lots of toys and candy. Every year we each got a book of lifesavers, never fail. The best part was each and every little thing, from the wooden toys from World Market to the socks and underwear, were all wrapped and with each small surprise a new smile.

The next best thing was her ability to make it fun. One year, we all received bikes for Christmas, but instead of just putting them in the garage or in front of the tree, we got miniature bikes in our stockings with notes that read, " find the real thing". And yes, we had to search the neighbors in our pajamas until we found them, good thing we lived on a small street in the country with only a few houses (and I think she gave us a hint). I carried on this tradition as well. When we bought out daughters a trampoline, we assembled it and put it over the hot tub, then disguised it with a tarp. On Christmas morning, they opened all of their gifts under the tree but there was one left, on the bench by the front door. It was a wrapped box, addressed to both with a string attached that went outside, through the courtyard, around the side yard, into the backyard and was attached to the trampoline. By the time the girls got half way I think they knew but I will never forget them starting to cry and hold hands as they rounded the corner and ran toward the tramp screaming and I have my wonderful, fun Mother to thank for that.

Mom was a baker and a cook at heart, if that was all she did all day long, she was her happiest. During the holidays however she was in rare form! From the rolled out peanut brittle on the top of the pull out dishwasher to the candy thermometers working overtime, to the roasted duck, pheasant and whatever else she could get her hands on, the girl got serious when it came to holiday cooking and baking! I have attempted to carry on this tradition as well. I am a fairly good cook, an average baker and a meek candy maker but I am getting better thanks to melt-able chocolate and sucker molds.

This year was kinda hectic and rushed but in the end I was done early, so my husband helped me make some goodies last night, he is quite possibly the best guy in the world btw, just sayin':) We made his favorite (probably why I got help) peanut butter cup cookies, My Grandmother's, Mom's and my favorite, Crescent Moon Cookies (Mexican Wedding cookies shaped like moons), Sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies. I have to say, baking with your husband, drinking champagne on Christmas Eve is a nice date if you can get it, I highly recommend it and am starting to get why Mom liked cooking so much :)



(Note to self, Hipstamatic not good for pictures of food, sorry!)

Our last tradition is, Christmas pajamas! When I was a kid we used to get our new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve or by our bed Christmas morning (depending on how on top of wrapping Mom was) I have carried this tradition on as well but will not embarrass my family with the pictures of us in matching pj's, instead I will share a few from our day today.


Again, I hope your day was a fantastic one and you made many memories or started or carried on a few traditions. Merry Christmas!

Kxx


PS. Our winner from yesterday's tradition question was Barbara,congrats! Please send us your address to thescrappytree@hotmail.com,thanks!

CHRISTMAS EVE BLOG PARTY!

Here at TST we hope everyone is enjoying celebrating this Holiday Season!

We had a very busy and blessed year and are looking forward to even more fun in the near future! Personally I was so happy when TST girls asked me to join the Design Team, I hope I can bring you Scrappy projects, tutorials and challenges that inspire you to create.

The BLUE challenge was such a successful charity challenge for World Pneumonia Day we are working on a few more for January and February that will be assisting the SPCA and Save the Children, so look out for more on those coming up soon!

The team is also working on a few new types of projects that will help organize and inspire us all through out the next year, sneak peeks for those are coming next week!

If you haven't checked out our new Groups on our scrappy community http://thescrappytree.ning.com/ take a peek and look for even more coming Mid January.

Groups

1. Kristen’s WCP Monthly Challenge (Words, Colors and Pictures) , the next challenge will be on January 8th.http://thescrappytree.ning.com/group/wcpchallenge

2. Julie's Inspiration Challenge, she will post a new inspiration photo on the 2nd Monday of the month.http://thescrappytree.ning.com/group/juliesmonthlyinspirationchallenge

3. NEW! Diana’s Mini Album free tutorial, every 3rd Wednesday of the month.
http://thescrappytree.ning.com/group/dianasmonthlyminialbumtutorial

4. Gayle's AJF (Art Journal Friday) every last Friday of the month, the next one will be on the 31st, don't miss it!http://thescrappytree.ning.com/group/artjournalfriday?xg_source=msg_mes_network


I am happy to be representing TST on this amazing Christmas Eve Blog Party. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, my husband and I have two traditions, on the 24th we go to midnight mass, sometimes we get to church a little early and listen to the beautiful concert the church’s chorus offers, our other tradition is on the morning of the 25th as soon as we wake up we go and check what is in our Christmas stockings, I’m sure that once we have kids we’ll be adding more lovely traditions to our holiday.

Do you have a Christmas Tradition you will like to share with us? Add a comment telling us about it and we will pick a lucky winner for our Scrappy Tree Bag with fun scrappy supplies inside.

We want to thank you for your continued support and encouragement.

From our Scrappy Tree family to yours, we wish you a Very Merry Christmas and A Happy and Exciting New Year!

Don’t forget to continue the party in the rest of the Amazing Blogs:

Gayle - Altered Orchid http://alteredorchid.blogspot.com/
Julie - A Creative Journey Through Life http://julieboeck.blogspot.com/
Leanne - My Little Life Of Scrap http://littlelifeofscrap.blogspot.com/
Kristin - Places, Things & Me http://rurunews.blogspot.com/
Sherry - Sherry's Simple Blog http://sherrysimpleblog.blogspot.com/
Barbara - Baraginie And Co http://adventuresinyouke.blogspot.com/
Diana - The Scrappy Tree http://thescrappytree.blogspot.com/
Michelle - Happenings On This Side Of The River http://momma-paparazzi.blogspot.com
Kelly - Journal Journeys http://journaljourneys.typepad.com/


MERRY CHRISTMAS!

=Diana

P.S.

Congrats to our Christmas Carol Giveaway Winner: Heather Laundry :) please send us your address here: thescrappytree@hotmial.com so we can mail you your prize.

The countdown is on!

Happy Holidays Bloggers!

Well the countdown is on! There is about 1 - 2 days left (depending on what side of the world you are on) before the old guy with the white beard appears. We hope you are winding down your shopping, almost done with your piles of wrapping and ready to enjoy some well deserved time off with friends and family.

All of us here at The Scrappy Tree thought you could use an early Christmas gift, So share what your favorite Christmas song/carol is and why with us below and we will randomly pick a winner to receive our Scrappy bag with some fun scrappy supplies inside. Comment by 11pm PST 12/23, winner to be announced tomorrow and check back in then for another chance to win some more scrappy joy :)



Have a wonderful day!

Kristin

Note Card Set & New Segment Announcement

Hello, Diana here, today I would like to share this Note Card Set I made. Every year my coworkers and I exchange small Christmas gifts, I made 3 sets of note cards for ea of the girls.

Again I used the same design for all of them, it is a huge time saver, I decided to make 5 cards per set, once I picked the Paper, Adhesive Paper Borders and Ribbon it was just a matter of gluing everything together.

With leftover paper I decorated a Paper Bag to put the cards inside and keep them in a nice place, it also adds a good presentation to the gift, and to finish a Manila Tag that says: “from the desk of ……”

Supplies Used:

Pattern Paper and Paper Borders: K&Co Greenhouse collection
Ribbon and Lace: American Crafts

Twine: Martha Stewart

Craft Cards and Envelopes

Manila Tags

Brown Paper Bags

Cotton Twine
Border Punch: EK Success

And now my Announcement, I am so happy to be starting a new Segment here at TST, every 3rd Wednesday of the month I’ll be giving a Free Mini Album Tutorial.

I really like to make Mini Albums, the size is perfect for creating albums with a specific theme and they also make great gifts.

Here are some examples of previous Mini Albums I’ve made

Remember the 6"X9" layouts I shared here:

http://thescrappytree.blogspot.com/2010/12/one-theme-album-using-collage-photos.html

This is the cover of the album:

The Title for Januaries mini album is: “Favorite 2010 Moments” so get those pics ready.

I will be giving a complete supply list the day of the tutorial, but for now you can have the following ready

Outside:
3-Ring Binder, I used a small 7"X9" but the size is up to you.
Canvas Fabric, again you can use any type of fabric of your choice.
Needle and Assorted colors of Floss
Stitching Template (Optional)
Sewing Machine (or you can hand sew)

Inside:
12 pieces of cardstock cut to fit the inside of your binder
Your Choice of Pattern Paper and Embellishments to match
Distress Tool
Distressing Ink or Chalk Ink
Whole Puncher
Variety of Border Punchers

I hope you can joing me, and I would love to see your creations.

Sneak Peeks Soon!

=Diana

P.S.

2 More Days for Christmas Eve :)

Christmas Memory

Today is my turn to talk about my favorite Christmas memory, I have lots of memories from all the Christmases we celebrated at my fathers families hometown, it was so great to see all my cousins again, and even though we did not see each other that often, we would just continue from where we left off the last time we played.

My grandmothers house has witnessed a lot of laughter and fun family times, but it is from this season that we all have the greatest memories, and it is so nice to see all the new generations enjoy themselves as much as we did as kids.

I really liked how Christmas was celebrated with all the beautiful Mexican traditions, my favorite has to be the Piñatas, even the grownups had fun breaking the piñatas, and we had more fun watching them.

I am really enjoying reading about the TST girl’s favorite Christmas memories, and the stories from you our readers, if you haven’t yet, share your favorite memory with us, we would love to read them and get to know more about you.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

=Diana

Calendar gift

Hello! We're counting down the days to Christmas here, are you ready?? I am trying, really I am :) but the postman just doesn't like the unseasonably snowy weather we're getting here in the UK and he has some parcels I need to wrap!

At least I have some of the gifts here in the house (phew!) - thank goodness that there were supplies here to make gifts from! ;)

My project today is a calendar using family photos from the past year that I'm going to be giving to my Mum - I don't want to share too many pages because that will spoil the surprise if she spots this ;) but here's enough to give you an idea if you too are waiting for Santa to deliver your gifts on time!

January includes pictures of a trip me and Mum took to London to see Wicked the musical and shop in Harrods...

...and June simply had to include pictures from our eventful trip on a canal boat to Stratford (that's one family holiday we're sure to remember for a LONG time!)...

I made a calendar like this for my Mum last Christmas and she liked it so much she asked me to make another one this year :) last year I could only include one picture for every month, but this year I've discovered photo collages so it's going to be packed!

I used a blank calendar by Papermania and in these pictures you can see patterned paper by BoBunny and DCWV, calendar inserts by Anita's, and Thickers by American Crafts - there are also flowers from my stash but I'm afraid the good thing about this project (which is being able to use up bits and pieces) makes it difficult to name everything properly - apologies!

Hope you're managing to get everything ready without too much stress ;)

Merry Christmas! Gayle xx

A Christmas Memory and Jar

Hello! It's Julie and it's my turn to share a Christmas memory. One thing we love to do in our house is to put up and then decorate the tree.

The kids are in charge of the tree for the most part. They help put it together and string lights. Then they make ornaments and tie bows on the tree! They really enjoy doing this each year!

Our tree is always an ecclectic mix of decorations and we wouldn't have it any other way!

In addition to a Christmas memory, I'd like to share something my daughter and I do each year...make little gifts for her teacher. My little crafter picked her paper, loaded a jar with holiday mints, and set to work!

She used a Marvy punch on the My Mind's Eye paper and then I helped her apply the Melissa Frances rub on. She then put on some Hero Arts metallic pearls and then we used Glue Dots to adhere the scalloped circle on the lid.

She then set off to decorate the jar itself. Once again, she used My Mind's Eye paper and she picked a Prima flower to glue on. Then she glued on some sequins for the flower's center. We will apply her teacher's name to the side and then we have a simple, but fun, little teacher gift for this holiday season!

Bags and Tags

Hello everyone, Kristin here to share some bags and tags. We give bottles of wine to our work friends and neighbors each year, this year I went with tall wine bags with some stenciled trees and simple tags to accent. Wine is a great gift, I know I love wine lol and it can be packed or wrapped so many fun and cheap ways!




I used the same stencil I used this year for my Christmas cards I and kept with the natural basics. Recycled paper and bags, white bags and off white canvas and felt and added a few rhinestones and cording for some shimmer and shine.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you are done or nearly done with your shopping and can begin to enjoy your town or neighborhoods filled with lights, your children's excitement over Santa's impending visit, some hot chocolate or a hot toddy by a warm fire and some time off with friends and loved ones.

~Happy Holidays~

Kristin

'The Snowman' Christmas cards

We're nearly there folks, just over a week to go! :)
One of my favourite children's films at Christmas is Raymond Briggs' The Snowman; I have very fond memories of watching it as a kid :) so I was excited to see that Trimcraft brought out a craft line last year with lots of lovely images that certainly remind me of Christmas :) last year I just kept it and looked at it, this year I made some cards! :)

I kept it quite simple by cutting out and inking the edges with Faded Jeans Distress Ink, and then stamped some holiday sentiments using 7gypsies and Papermania Christmas stamps, followed by lots and LOTS of Icicle Stickles and a few jewels from my stash.

Most of these have gone to friends of a similar age who I know share the same childhood memories; I know that it will give them a smile :)

Hope you're having a scrappy Christmas! :)

Gayle

Christmas Cards

Hello, Diana here, today I want to show you a few of the Christmas cards I made.

I enjoy making Christmas cards for my family and friends, I’ve heard from other scrappers that they prefer not to send hand made cards because most of the time they end up in the trash or people do not appreciate all the work put in to making them.
This is not how I think, sending out a hand made card is my way of saying: I remember you during this beautiful day and I care for you so much I took the time to make you this. My advice will be not to think of what will happen to the card in the future, but to think of the joy it will bring to the receiver when they first get it.

Every year my list has gotten bigger, so I figured that to save time I would make cards using the same design.

Once I decided on the design I matched paper with ribbon and embellishments and started the process of cutting and gluing.

Supplies used:
Pattern Paper-Basic Grey
Glitter Paper-K&Co
Flair, Chipboard pieces, Rub-Ons & Ribbon-American Crafts
Small Scalloped Circle-Martha Stewart
Big Scalloped Circle-EK Success

I hope you get some inspiration on making cards, have a great day.

=Diana

December's Inspiration Challenge

Happy Holidays Bloggers! This month's inspiration challenge takes a beautiful shabby chic Christmas image from pfeifferphotos as a jumping board for creativity this month! We'd love you to play along and use this image to make a card, atc, inchie, altered item, scrapbook page, or any thing else and upload to our COMMUNITY by Monday December 20th.



I was instantly inspired by the tinsel garland and I knew my Webster's Pages tinsel trim would be perfect for a little tag that I plan to attach to my daughter's Christmas present.

Supplies Used:

Manilla tag from Office Max

Letter stickers: EK Success

Liquid Pearls

Webster's Pages tinsel trim

pink lace

vintage seam binding

DCWV patterned paper

Crate Paper Diecut snowman

Melissa Frances chipboard heart

tiny glittered snowflake from personal stash

I hope you are inspired today to join our challenge! We'd love to see what you create!!

~Julie

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

In the run up to Christmas, each of us at The Scrappy Tree are going to talk a little about special things that for us really get that Christmas spirit going - today, it's my turn! This year for the first time I've been working on a December album, and it's really made me more alert to the things that happen in December that make me feel Christmasy :) Last weekend I went out to a Christmas party, and this weekend we decorated the house and put up our tree.

One of the things I really love are Christmas lights; at our house we only decorate inside, but I love how beautiful it looks when there are lights decorating the trees. I took this picture for my December album while we were at the Christmas party last weekend (does anyone else really enjoy driving around looking at all the lights and decorations people put up outside their houses??)

My favourite thing about putting the tree up and fairy lights all over the house is the cosy feeling of switching all the normal lights off and just sitting in the glow from the Christmas lights - is there anything that feels more festive? Get yourself a warm blanket, cup of hot chocolate (or glass of wine!) and put some Christmas music on - bliss!

At our house, we have a bit of a thing for Disney Christmas ornaments :) over the years, some have been ordered specially from both sides of the pond, some have been treasured gifts from friends and some we even brought home from Disney visits to Paris and Orlando!

I love that our tree has ornaments that tell stories of lots of different Christmases and visits and family and friends - some of the ornaments are older than me, while the most recent were bought in Florida just a few months ago. I know he's not Disney, but even Dobby the house elf now has a home on our tree :)

It's usually me and my Mum that decorate the tree between us, and I love being the one to hang the ornaments on the branches because it gives you the chance to really look at each one before it goes on the tree and becomes part of the complete picture. Of course the tinsel has to be draped over the clock and the picture frames, the little village of Christmas houses has to be set up on the windowsill and the snowflakes have to be stuck on the window too!

It's the Christmas ornaments and fairy lights that really make me smile though :) Have you got a favourite Christmas decoration with a special story? Do you always decorate at the same time each year? Whose job is it at your house to decorate the tree?

Come on folks, let's get festive! I want to hear your Christmas stories :) look out for our next Christmas post from Diana next week :)

Have a Scrappy Christmas everybody! Gayle xx

Recipe Book for Christmas

My youngest daughter just moved into her first apartment and has already on each visit back home, asked me, what's in your Spinach dip again?, why do you steam them first?, what goes first in the Seven Layer dip? and is there cheese on top of that ? So guess what she is getting for Christmas, yep! A recipe book with all of our family recipes and a few helpful tips in it!


She has a very eclectic style and absolutely loved decorating her apartment. It's all bright colors, inspired by India fabrics and lanterns, she even covered a wall of her bedroom with violet lace and it looks incredible. So, needless to say that was my theme for her book. It may not hold up in the kitchen that well but she will have the family recipes and it will match her style, I hope!

The book is made with a chipboard front and back cover, natural corrugated paper as the dividers, all covered in DCWV Taj Mahal pattern paper. All the embellishments were random things from my stash that reminded me of her, some I had kept or collected thinking of her, so it was a perfect fit!


I used standard recipe cards that fit the colors of the rest of the book. The dividers tabs were chipboard titles with alpha buttons to mark the section of the book.

I added more bright colored papers to the backside of the corrugated paper, to match all the other color about in the piece and ran a colorful wide marker along the edges of the dividers to brighten up those as well.

This close up of some of the embellishments shows the beautiful pattern paper with elephants and camels parading as well.

Well that's it, on to the next Christmas gift on the list...

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful weekend. I hope it isn't spent inside a mall all day looking for gifts, fighting over parking stalls or shoveling snow.

Enjoy the season and be safe and happy!

Kristin