Christmas Gift Nugget Tins

Here are some Christmas gifts nugget tins that I made. The candy wrappers were made using Avery labels. The tags were made using my Cameo with a print and cut file from the Silhouette store.

You Are Seriously Awesome Gifts

I made these cute Ghiradelli Chocolate gift bags using my Silhouette Cameo.

Nugget Tin

I'm giving these nugget tins for Christmas presents this year. I was able to purchase the empty tins as part of a share with other crafters. Each tin holds 12 Hershey nuggets. This tin is wrapped in StampinUp! ribbon, and the tag features a 3D poinsettia made with my new Silhouette Cameo. I will share more tins later!

Here is a closer view of another poinsettia I made. The detail of the leaves is just beautiful.

New Cameo!

My Christmas present this year was a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine. I still love my Cricut, but I've always admired the intricate cuts that the Cameo can make. Here are a few examples of cuts from the machine.

Another wonderful feature is the print and cut. You can print images using your home printer and then cut them with the Cameo!

Thank You Cards

Here are some random thank you cards...

December Daily 2011 Video - Episode 42

Here is a video overview of my 2011 December Daily Album. The inspiration for this album came from Ali Edwards. Here is a link to her blog posts about Ali's December Daily process. The majority of the paper and stickers are from Fancy Pants Saint Nick collection.

This was my first attempt at a December Daily album, and I learned a lot about the process! My goal was to have it completed by mid January, and I succeeded. The key to finishing was my motto, "done is better than perfect." I just wanted to keep up with each day as it came. Since I don't have a photo printer at home, I had to get my photos developed once a week. I kept track of what happened each day in my calendar.

I did a lot of planning and preparation before the first of December. This was good in that I had ideas of specific pages I wanted to include. The down side was that since I pre-made pages, it was sometimes hard to fit the daily picture or story with the page.

For 2012, I will probably do a smaller album. I felt like there was a lot of blank space on my pages. I'm not sure. I will definitely plan specific pages, but I will not glue things down until I have pictures and stories ready to go.

I plan to do more journaling!!!

You're A Hoot Card

The love this adorable owl. The image is from the Basic Grey Owlet stamp set. I stamped him in brown ink and used pink ink for the eyes. The paper is from Basic Grey's Clippings 6 x 6 pad. I love this paper!! The sentiment is from the My Pink Stamper's Punny-licious stamp set. Brown twine finishes the card!

Eiffel Tower Card

This simple card was made using My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Union Square paper. The base card is made with kraft cardstock. The fold is at the left side. I trimmed off 1 inch from the front. I used clear embossing powder to create the swirl image on the inside of the card. The square on the top right was on the same sheet as the Eiffel Tower. I set it off using red ink around the edges. 

Thinking of You Card - Episode 41

For this card, I used paper from Cosmo Cricket's Little Girl Biography collection. The paper is so cute! I used one of my all-time favorite Cricut cartridges, Storybook, for the flower. It's a simple and sweet card.

Scrapbooking On The Go - Episode 40

I love to attend scrapbooking crops. It is a fun time with friends and family where we all get together and work on scrapbooks or cards or any crafting project. I have a fun group of friends that I met on the Cricut message boards a couple years ago, and we love getting together. These events are called Swarms, and they are a blast.

In this video, I show you how I prepare for a crop/swarm. I love to spend most of my time chatting and socializing!! In order to get anything accomplished, I spend time before the event preparing pages so that at the crop all I have to do is assemble the pages and journal. I do most of the "thinking" beforehand, so I can concentrate on having fun!!

December Daily, Day Twenty-Five

It'a day 25! Merry Christmas! We spent the day with Randy's side of the family. We had so much to be thankful for with each of our three nephews. Our oldest, Danny, and his wife Keena brought their sweet son. It was the first Christmas in many years with a baby around! We had so much fun watching him.

Our middle nephew, Brian, was home from serving in Afghanistan. We thought he was in a hospital in San Antonio being treated for his wounds. He surprised us by showing up at our house for Christmas with his sweet wife Becca.

Our youngest nephew, Adam, was also home from overseas. His unit was one of the last to leave Iraq. He and his wife, Nicole, were in North Carolina. Although we didn't get to see them, we are so grateful he is back in the US. We are so proud of all of our nephews. 

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Back page

December Daily, Day Twenty-Four

Day 24 is all about Christmas Eve with my side of the family. Shelby got "The Big Bang Theory" board game, and she, Sarah, and Samantha had fun playing it. Those three girls are like sisters. I love how close they are. The rest of us had fun chatting!

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December Daily, Day Twenty-Three

For day 23, I documented Shelby's ugly Christmas sweater. She always helps with the kid's Christmas choir at church and this sweater has been worn every year. Fun tradition! 

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December Daily, Day Twenty-Two

Several December Daily blogs suggested writing a letter to your child to include as part of your album. I thought it was a great idea so I wrote a short note for Day 22! My plans to make this a long letter fell by the wayside as time ran out, so I let it go to move forward. This is something I intend to work on more next year. 

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December Daily, Day Twenty-One

This is the left side of my day 21 layout. I decided not to post the right side, as I journaled some stuff just for me and Shelby. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful daughter!

December Daily, Day Twenty

I absolutely love this patterned paper with the trees and giant snowflake. I chose pictures of us just hanging around one evening and chatting in Shelby's room. I really do have the best family!

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Right side of layout

December Daily, Day Nineteen

December 19 was the start of my long-awaited vacation. It started off by a fun Christmas party lunch with my team at work which I documented for my December Daily day 19. The plan was to work on my DD during this vacation. Unfortunately, I caught a cold and did not feel like working on anything! I absolutely love this paper with the cute stockings!

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December Daily, Day Eighteen

For my December Daily day 18, I took pictures of Shelby and I going through stacks of college mail. She has been getting mail from colleges the entire school year, and we needed to narrow the search down. You can tell by her face in the picture that she was not all that into it! Oh well, we made some progress.

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December Daily, Day Seventeen

For day 17, Shelby and I gave ourselves these cute manicures. I did quite a bit of handwriting on this page, and I think it turned out pretty good!

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December Daily, Day Sixteen

For day 16, I included a poem by Max Erhmann. I found this poem on Ali Edward's blog in November and copied it to include in my album. I kept it to use as a "filler" in case I had a day that I didn't have pictures for. This was an especially difficult day for me, my family and friends, and I didn't take any pictures. This picture of me and Shelby is from our vacation in the spring. I was glad to have the poem. 

 

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December Daily, Day Fifteen

December Daily day 15 shows a fun evening with my family watching TV and playing Harry Potter Scene-It. Nights like this are what I was most interested in documenting in this December Daily. The little things that get forgotten over time but yet make our family close.

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December Daily, Day Fourteen

Day fourteen of my December Daily focuses of our Family Night traditions.

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December Daily, Day Thirteen

On day13 I attended our staff Christmas bowling party. I took these photos with my new iPhone. I couldn't resist taking a picture of my lousy score. There is more journaling on the text page, but I blurred it out because it involves the privacy of a friend.  

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December Daily, Day Twelve

December Daily, Day 12, is all about our dog, Albert. I printed out my "10 things I love about Albert" on vellum. I placed the vellum sheet over the Santa image. I love how the pretty paper shows through the writing. I added some paw print stamping to tie the pages together.

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Close up of journaling

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December Daily, Day Eleven

Day eleven features random events from the month. I really wanted to take a picture of the full moon in the early morning. The picture on the left side of the layout was the best one. I need to work on night time photography! The moon is stunning in the dark. For the right side of the layout, I talk about a Leader Appreciation breakfast that I organized for volunteers at church. It was fun to make these centerpieces using branches from the big tree in our backyard. 

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December Daily, Day Ten

Day ten is my "Ten things I love about Randy" layout. I printed his 10 things out on a 6 x 6 piece of Authentique paper and then cut it down to size. I left the life side of the layout alone, and I loved that I had the huge heart on the page. This time, pre-making the page worked out perfectly. 

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Right side of layout

December Daily, Day Nine

Day nine of my December Daily projects is the beginning of three layouts featuring my amazing family. I was going to start with Randy first; however, the picture below looked better on this background than his picture did. One of the drawbacks of pre-making pages. Again, as with all things December Daily, I'm not going to worry about it! 

I spent time writing things that I love about each person. For Shelby's page, I printed each sentence on kraft cardstock and then cut them apart. I love the way that it turned out! I actually like the little bit of handwriting that I did on the page. I took my time, and I think it turned out pretty well.

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December Daily, Day Eight

For day eight, I talk about the early morning walks that Randy and I take every day. It's a great way to be sure we get our exercise in before the craziness of the day, and it's a wonderful time to talk and just enjoy being together. Of course, it is a highlight of Albert's day as well!

Since it is usually dark outside, I snapped these photos on one of our weekend daytime walks. 

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