I never thought I would actually look forward to warmer weather, but here it is

Last fall I planted some tulips and so far this is the only one out of the five that’s sprouted. An interesting note about this photo: while I was shooting, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I turned and saw a squirrel had stopped halfway up my stairs and was staring up at me. He stared at me, not moving, and just as I aimed my camera in his direction, he turned and sprinted down the stairs and into the woods. It would’ve been a great shot!

Here’s the digital layout I created using the photo above. I hate to admit this but I think I’m really liking digital scrapbooking

Supplies:
Emma digital kit from Jen Martakis Designs
Fonts: FUTURA, Jellyka Gare de Chambord

Here’s the latest release from Jen Martakis Designs: Robots! This collection is ridiculously cute–I love it I also created a digital layout with a photo of my nephew Landyn:

What a great weekend! I’ve been able to spend a little more time at my craft desk then I usually do. And if you’re wondering, I managed to meet my 2010 NY Resolutions by just a smidge! I made 2 cards earlier this month, one of which I didn’t post because it used similar supplies as this one, and a 12 x 12 layout yesterday.

I’m still trying to find an adequate photo editing workflow though. Right now I’m using a combination of iPhoto, Lightroom, and sometimes Photoshop CS. I love processing photos in Lightroom, especially now that I understand the awesomeness that is Nikon RAW, but I prefer iPhoto’s organization and face-recogition system. It just feels a little clunky switching from one to another in a session. And because the Lightroom version I have is version 3 beta, I’m hesitant to do ALL of my photo editing in Lightroom since I’m afraid of all of my photos getting “trapped” in an expired version, but I’m still going to do all my photo editing in it anyway.

Supplies:
Jen Martakis Designs Notebook Basics DigiKit
Stampin Up Ruby Red card stock
Stampin Up Kraft card stock
White card stock
American Crafts Small Sentiments stamp set
Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink in Dark Brown
American Crafts Precision pen in Black
American Crafts dotted grosgrain ribbon
Cricut Storybook Cartridge
Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly Punch

Valentine’s Day Tulips, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

In this layout, I used Jen Martakis’ February DigiKit as well as her Notebook Basics kit. The Notebook Basics is definitely going to be one of my new favorites! I love the versatility.

Supplies:
February DigiKit
Notebook Basics DigiKit
Bazzill Swiss Dots Paper
Bazzill Basics 8.5 x 11″ Kraft Card Stock
Bazzill Basic 8.5 x 11″ White Card Stock
Die Cuts With a View Rub-On Quote Stack for Cards

Happy Birthday with Bella Blvd., originally uploaded by krisalis903.

Yep, I’m still working through my stash of stuff this month. This is the first card I’ve made for February (I have another one I still need to photograph and post).

I do love my Scor Pal tremendously and use it every time I make cards. On the other hand, I’m looking at the Martha Stewart board and I’m thinking–narrower scores! That would be awesome! Still I think the only way I would trade in is if my Scor Pal broke or if for some reason I found a need for the narrower scores (which you can still achieve with the Scor Pal anyway) and the envelope tool (I don’t have any issues making envelopes as it is).

You can read the comparison for yourself.

Happy Birthday, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

Supplies
Stampin’ Up Certainly Celery card stock
Stampin’ Up Certainly Celery classic ink
American Crafts Ultimate white pen
Kelly Panacci border stickers
Happy Birthday embellishments

Supplies
Stampin’ Up Baja Blue card stock
Stampin’ Up Whisper White
Making Memories Eliza patterned paper
Imaginisce All Kinds of Happy Cupcake Stamp
Imaginisce All Kinds of Happy Happy Birthday Stamp
American Crafts Ultimate White pen
Copic Markers Y17, Y21, B32

Supplies:
Stampin’ Up Kraft card stock
Making Memories Eliza die cut
Card embellishment
Stampin’ Up Short & Sweet stamp set

I finished my December 2009 album! Although I didn’t finish it before the end of December, at least I finished it before the end of 2010 because believe me, there was definitely potential for that to happen

If you can’t view the Flickr slideshow below, you can visit it here.

So if I could give a few tips to those who want to try a daily album next December, here are a few to note:

There’s a Reason Why They Say to Prepare In Advance

Definitely take every opportunity to create as many layouts as possible ahead of time. You might even consider over-preparing and creating a little more than you know you might need. You never really know until that day what type of photos you’ll have available or how much you want to journal.

If You Signed Up for Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas, Don’t Force Yourself to Only Create According to the Daily Prompts

Left to my own devices, I usually don’t have any problems coming up with a topic to cover that day. Not always, but usually. Put me in a structured setting where I’m given an assignment, I’m going to try and do the assignment and sometimes if that assignment isn’t what I want to work on that day, I get stuck, and therefore frustrated. I learned that on some days when there were events I wanted to scrapbook about, I felt conflicted

If you decide to do Journal Your Christmas, use the daily prompts as a backup plan. Read the prompts in the morning, but let it marinate throughout the day until you finally get to sit down and work on your page. If something else came up that you want to record, do it! Don’t feel like you have to stick with the prompts just because it showed up in your inbox that morning.

That being said, if you are wondering, it IS possible to participate in December Daily AND Journal Your Christmas.

Keep a Topic Calendar

At the beginning of the month, I printed out a calendar and made notes of events I knew were on the calendar: company party, Christmas tree decorating, Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day, Dad’s birthday, etc. Make notes on days if, for some reason, you can’t scrapbook that day such as, “Did some baking today. Downloaded photos onto laptop. Maybe use the 4-picture layout with the brown background.” At this point you can come back to it later when you have to catch up.

Draw Inspiration and Motivation from Others

The great thing about doing some of these online classes is everyone loves to share. If you ever get stuck, don’t be afraid to browse the gallery of past prompts. And if you do end up “scraplifting” an idea from another scrapper, don’t forget to let them know and show them your finished product. There isn’t one scrapper out there who wouldn’t enjoy being someone’s inspiration!

Speaking of inspiration, here’s a list of other’s who have finished their december album:

Ali Edwards

Alissa Fast

Curiouser and Curiouser

Nita’s Journal

Here’s one of my first cards in compliance with my 2010 Resolutions post. I’ve had this Bo Bunny paper in my stash for a while and since I love the swiss dots pattern, I wanted to try and use it in a card. Some of these items aren’t available but below are the supplies I could find.

Supplies:
Stampin Up Kraft card stock
Chatter Box Journal Labels
Basic Grey (Mellow Collection) Maude Alphabet Stickers
American Crafts Glitter Thickers in Shoe Box

When I was in college, I worked as a student assistant in the Humanities department. The mail system at school utilized these large, yellow manilla envelopes, some with these ties that you looped around these plastic circles to close and secure the envelopes.

Since then, I’ve seen envelopes using a similar method at stores like Paper Source and figured they couldn’t be that difficult to make. Here’s a video tutorial on how to make these string and button envelopes.

Supplies Needed:
1 8″ square solid card stock (outside)
1 7″ square patterned paper (inside)
Kraft card stock or chipboard
3/4″ circle punch
2 small eyelets
Foam mounting squares
Hole punch and eyelet setter (I used a Big Bite in the video)
String (You can use whatever you want here–Linen thread from Stampin’ Up, Karen Foster’s Scrapper’s Floss, Janlynn Value Pack Cotton Embroidery Floss)

So I’ve become a huge fan of The Purl Bee blog and Purl Soho.

The other day, they posted this project on felt gift tags which I thought was such a great idea. I absolutely love handmade stuff, right down to the gift packaging. I bought 4 pieces of red and green felt, red embroidery thread, green embroidery thread, and white embroidery thread.

I could make 48 gift tags with the amount of material I have. Approximate cost per gift tag? 15 cents! Not bad Especially considering they’re super cute.

Day 2, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

It snowed today. It was so crazy this morning. I heard Jabari just about to leave out the front door when he called to me. “Kristine, it’s snowing!” At first I thought he was just saying that to get me out of bed (he’s jealous that I start work later than he does), but then I overheard him call someone on the phone to say it was snowing. I figured then that I had to take a look for myself. I couldn’t believe it. There it was–as clear as if I had my glasses on. I could see the large snowflakes blowing in horizontal streams and gathering in a white powdery blanket on the damp ground. Unfortunately though, the snow caused Jabari to slip on the stairs and lose half his batch of cookies for the cookie contest at work. Nevertheless, it was beautiful snow. Too bad it didn’t stick (although rumor has it it’ll snow again later this week AND it will probably stick because temperatures will be freezing). Crossing my fingers!

Journal Your Christmas 2009 Manifesto, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

I’m awake pretty late working on this page. Surprisingly it wasn’t due to lack of creativity, it was due to a certain someone who had a cookie contest at work and needed help baking. I started working on this page around 10 and finished a little past midnight but I got it done I’m hoping the next 25 pages don’t happen like this one!