Happy Holidays!

We hope you and yours are having a wonderful holiday and creating many cherished memories! And for when you're ready to scrap the photos from the season, remember stop in this week for our huge sale where all papers are 33% off.

If you have family gatherings still scheduled for the weekend, here's an idea for a quick Christmas ornament or creative gift tag using a Pink Paislee topsider, a tag from the Melissa Frances Christmas tag set and a few jewels. You can create this easily in 20 minutes or less!

"Recycled" Snowman

Looking for ways to make your scrapbook supplies go farther... or maybe looking for ways to be more "green" and recycle whenever you can? Well this winter fellow may be just the guy you're looking for! We've seen these cute snowmen on various blogs and internet galleries so we wanted to show you the steps to make one of your own. You'll be surprised at how quick and easy it is!

Start out with an empty Prima flower bottle. The Prima flower containers come in so many cute shapes and sizes, any of them will make a great "body."

Remove the Prima sticker from the Prima bottle.

Next, trace the shape of the jar lid onto a stryofoam ball. Use a craft knife to cut out a space to insert the lid, being careful not to cut yourself.

Using a strong liquid adhesive such as Crafter's Pick, glue the Prima bottle lid into the niche you created in the stryofoam ball. Coat the stryofoam ball with the same liquid glue or a decoupage medium (e.g. Mod Podge), then sprinkle the stryofoam ball with white glitter.

Fill the base with festive items. We used a holly sprig and some tinsel. You could also use jingle bells, marbles, beads, Prima Christmas flowers, a photo or whatever you decide!

Next create your jolly fellow's face. We used buttons for eyes, a snip of the holly sprig for the nose and created the dots for the smile with a black marker. You could also use brads, eyelets or beads. Of course, every snowman needs rosy cheeks, so blush those in with a touch of pinkish ink.Make a cone from scrapbook paper for the hat. We used wintery silver patterned paper from Pink Paislee. Glue the cone to stryofoam head. Trim with ribbon or lace. You can also attach a pom from a snip of pom pom trim at the top. Add a ribbon scarf and adorn it with whatever you wish. We used a Melissa Frances glittered chipboard snowflake layered with a Prima flower and a jewel brad. You could also use rub-ons to decorate the outside of the bottle with swirls, a festive phrase or even some snowflakes. If you make one of these, remember to take a photo and email it to us. We'd love to see what you come up with and you may find your own friendly snowman featured on our blog!

Be sure to stop by again soon. We've got more last minute Christmas ideas for you including a quick and easy ornament as well as some ideas for gift card holders.

Home for the Holidays

There's nothing like home for the holidays and these little houses are sure to get you into the Christmas spirit.

Here's a cute gingerbread house mini album created by design team member Mary Williams. This was for a recent class we hosted, but if you weren't able to attend we still have gingerbread house albums available.

This little house is created from a Melissa Frances vintage colonial house kit. These make great home decor accents or you could attach a string or ribbon to create a unique Christmas ornament. Be sure to add lots of glitter for a wintery look!

Countdown to Christmas---photo checklist

Wow, where does the time go... less than a week until Christmas! Be sure to stop by the blog this week as you take a break from your Christmas preparations. We've got some "last minute" ideas for you... so let's get started!

As we all know, Christmas is a perfect time to take lots of photos that can be used in our scrapbooks all year long. Here are a few ideas of the shots you may want to include in your "must haves" this year:

• Group photo in front of Christmas tree--you might be amazed at how much styles, family members and even the tree change over time. At the time this photo was taken, it was "just another Christmas tree photo" but now it is a cherished memory.


• Photo of someone opening the "perfect gift" to document the reaction

• Christmas tree ornaments with special meaning--you can later use the photos to create a layout so future generations who receive them will know their story


• We spend so much time preparing special dinners and desserts...be sure to photograph them. I love a photo of my Great Grandmother's Christmas dinner table. I couldn't believe how much food she had prepared! You could later create a special Christmas recipe mini book to share your favorite holiday recipes with others. Or maybe create a book to house recipes you've gathered from family and friends during the holiday pitch-in dinners.


• Traditions--whatever they may be, take pictures of them! Traditions may change over time and you'll cherish photos of them later.


• Photos of lights--turn off your camera flash and take photos of your lighted tree or your outside light displays at night. You may need to set your camera on a flat surface or tripod to avoid blurred or shaky photos, but the results will be amazing.


• Special gifts from children or grandchildren--you'll want to remember the special gift wrapping skills of children as they plan special Christmas surprises for you. Don't forget to take photos of these treasures before you open them...like this example of a gift wrapped in cardstock and ribbon found in "mommy's" scrapbook stash! (This photo also shows the look that can be achieved when turning off your camera's flash.)

Do you have other ideas to share? If so, please post a comment and share your Christmas photo tips with us!

And the final total is...

...$9,107!!!

Yes, $9,107 is the amount raised for our local Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation at this year's Crop for the Cure. Wow! We again express sincere thanks to everyone for their generosity in making this year's Crop for the Cure a huge success!!

Sharon Follendorf, owner of Bloomin' Scrapbooks & Stamps, presents Gwen Hicks of the Susan G. Komen Foundation with $9,107 raised during this year's Crop for the Cure.

Flower Challenge Winner!

Congratulations to Beth Marohn for being our flower technique challenge winner! Beth submitted these beautiful and creative ideas for new ways to use flowers.

On her layout "Blue-min Memories" (yes, we LOVE the title!) Beth stamped stems on her page then used a variety of flowers to highlight her gorgeous flower photos. Notice the flower in the lower left is folded into a bud and accented with a found earring as the base. Just beautiful!


For this project, Beth added tied floss around a die cut flower center for a funky fringe look.
Here Beth used Prima flowers to create butterflies for a mini album project. Beth tells us "On this page from my tinkerbell mini-album I made the butterflies by cutting out one petal of a basic Prima flower & then adding stickles around the other two sets to create "wings" of a butterfly & adding a second one on top for added dimension, then more stickles for the antennae." Stunning!

Thanks again Beth for the wonderful inspiration!