Getting that Perfect Christmas Card Family Picture

Last weekend, we decided that we needed to get ourselves together to take the always pleasant Christmas Card Family Photo. 


You know that annual picture where you lovingly request your children to put something on that resembles the Holiday season, then pose for a few hundred pictures. And for goodness sake, please look happy while we are doing it! Yes! We are a Happy Family! 


We wanted to take our big picture outside by the pool this year; but of course it was way too windy to do that on the day we finally get ourselves in gear to take the picture.  


So we move indoors to the living room by the Christmas Tree. I really wanted to use the lighted Palm Tree in the picture. 


Which was suppose to be by the pool. 


But it was too windy. 


Once again, procrastination ruins a good plan.

So we move the Palm Tree to the living room. 

Yeah. I know. It doesn't work. Darn. 

So the Palm Tree gets axed. In come the kids and the dog. 

Okay now let's make sure the remote clicker is working. 

Looks good. 

Look, I joined the picture now! That is the beauty of the remote. Very handy little device. 

Now if we could just get Maggie to look at the camera. 

Maggie, please look at the camera. Please.

Well, you know that old saying they have in Hollywood. Never work with dogs or

Children!

I think my motivation was gone by that last shot.

Thanks for visiting me. 

My 18-Step Christmas Card

Here it is.........

The Christmas Card that ended up taking way more time than I thought it would. 

When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to make for my card this year, the only thing I knew for sure is that I wanted to use my Copics. I discovered these awesome markers this year, and was on the look out for a stamp that I could color with them.

I was in Archivers looking at stamps when I looked at the back of a Stampendous stamp and saw this Angel. I wanted that Angel for my card. It was perfect! I asked the nice Archivers lady if they had this stamp. Of course, she said no, that the angel is last year's stamp. So now I'm on a mission to find this stamp. I finally found it online and ordered it. This was about a week before Thanksgiving. It didn't arrive until after Thanksgiving. And since I wasn't exactly sure how big the angel was, I couldn't start cutting anything yet. 

So then the first week of December started my mass producing card assembly line. 

So here is the list of my 18 steps:

1. Cut the white squares.
2. Punch the border along one side.
3. Stamp angel.
4. Color angel with Copics.
5. Emboss Wings. (You can see that in above pic.)
6. Color Wings with Copics.
7. Round corners on white angel square.
8. Cut Red Base of card.
9. Emboss red base with Sizzix Polka Dot Embossing folder.
10. Stamp & Emboss greeting on front of card
11. Cut & Emboss inside label with the Spellbinders Nestabilities
12. Stamp Greeting on inside label.
13. Punch 1/2 circle on my picture pocket.
14. Make picture pocket.
15. Edit pictures and add swirl & Holiday brushes.
16. Print and cut pictures to 4x4 size
17. Round corners on all pictures.
18. Stamp Handmade By Christie on back. 

Yeah, I went a little crazy again. 

Here is the inside of the card. I used these three different pictures of us that we took while on vacation in the Gulf Shores. 

Here is the back with my special 

"Holiday Card" stamp.

And I made 60 of them. Yes, 60. 

Thanks for visiting me!

Scrapbookers are the Nicest People

They are. Really.

I have been fortunate to meet the nicest people through my hobby. Most of them I have met online. Now people not familiar with the online scrapbook community might think it is a little strange. I can assure that it is not.
For one example, remember my post about my December Daily from last year that I finally finished but was missing the size of Owires I needed to bind it? I posted that and within 30 minutes had someone offer to send me the size I needed. And within a week, Marcia from OH, had sent me exactly what I needed. That sort of thing happens all of the time. You post on a message board that you have been looking for X and can't find it, and you will have tons of people looking for you at their local scrapbook stores. Sometimes I think it is a contest to see who can find it first and get it sent off to the lucky recipient.

All of this takes me to today. A few years ago, I got to meet Nikki. We had met online on the Creating Keepsakes Message Board. She is from Springfield, MO and since I live in St. Louis, we decided to meet up at one of their local conventions. First time we met was in Kansas City and then at the convention here in St. Louis. There was actually a total of four of us that met up. We took some classes together and even went out to dinner.

Well about a year ago, Nikki decided to start up her own scrapbook company, Nikki Sivils Scrapbooking. I was so lucky to get to see her lines when she was developing them back in April at the St. Louis CK convention. She has some really cute lines!

And today I get this box full of her products. She sent me a kit to make an adorable Christmas Album. How awesome is that!?  About a week ago, she emailed me and said she wanted to RAK (Random Act of Kindness) me something. I can't believe all of the goodies she sent me. I can not wait to make this album!

And isn't this pen of her mascot, Willie-Bee, just the cutest?! Love it!

So THANK YOU NIKKI!!! I love all of it and I am so glad that I got to meet you through this awesome hobby of ours. And I wish you nothing but the biggest success in the new year!

As for my other accomplishment, I got the first batch of my Christmas Cards in the mail today. Yippee! Once I know that most folks have received them I will post the actual card here.

Thanks for visiting me!

Cookie Night with Santa

Last night was Cookies with Santa night at the boy's school. I will be honest and say that I wasn't really wanting to go to this. It was rainy and cold outside. And warm and cozy in our house.  But they wore me down and convinced us to go. And we had a really great time! 

They had crafts for all of the kids to do. This was just one table out of about 10 tables with different craft projects.  

They also had a shopping area. The boys brought their own money and bought gifts. I believe they bought a gift for me, their dad and each other. I told them they had to buy presents first, then they could buy a little something for themselves if they had money left over. They both managed to have a little money left over to get themselves a little something. :-) (They get that honestly from both their mother and father!)

Then we wrote some letters to Santa and went to see the big guy. Connor has been having a difficult time coming up with something to ask Santa for. Here he is thinking about it. 

And thinking about it some more. 

Aha! Something finally came to him! 

Spencer jumped in there for a quick picture and to tell his list. Spencer has no problem coming up with lots of ideas for Santa! 

Then it was off to decorate cookies. 

Spencer came up with quite a masterpiece!

I'm still working away on my Christmas cards. I took this picture myself with the self-timer today. I thought it turned out pretty good! My goal is to have them all done and ready to be mailed out next Monday. That is my goal!!!


Thanks again for visiting me! 

Christmas Cards

These are the cards I made for family. I'm pretty sure everyone has got them by now, so I won't spoil the surprise!
The tutorial for these cards is found here. These were pretty labor intensive, but I think they turned out great! I made mine with the Kraft paper from Hobby Lobby. The snowflake stamps are from PaperTreyInk. I just discovered their stamps a few months ago, and they are so pretty! And a good quality. And the edges were done with the handy Fiskars Threading Water punch.

And I even used up some old supplies, i.e those large candy cane and snowmen eyelets.




I made lots of other cards too for friends and Chris' co-workers. I didn't take pictures of those. I feel like all I have done lately is make cards! I think I have made 60 cards so far and I still have a few more to make!

Merry Christmas!