Christmas photo tips

Hope your holiday shopping is "wrapping up" and you're getting settled in for a weekend of family, friends and unforgettable memories!  Just wanted to take a few minutes to give you some quick holiday photo tips and ideas.

Take photos in similar locations each year.  Looking through some heritage photos, I realized just how many family photos were taken in front of Christmas trees over the years.  Imagine a themed page or album titled "O Christmas Tree."  Other ideas might be photos each year with Santa, or photos with the cousins all in front of the fireplace.   Maybe start your own tradition or look for common themes in your current holiday photos and continue them this year!

Mom's family in front of the tree 1955:

Dad in front of the tree 1967:

Our family in front of the tree 1971:

One week old, in front of the tree 1992:

Coordinate your family's outfits. It sounds almost "silly" but a great idea for getting good photos of your kids together at Christmas is to dress them in clothes that match.  The photo of my son and nephew below is visually pleasing since their shirts match! Imagine the same photo with one wearing light green and the other wearing bright purple and yellow...not nearly the same effect as when they coordinate.

For portrait type shots, get in closer.  Although you defnitely want to capture the action, decor and sights of the holiday gathering, take a few portrait type photos of groups or individuals.  For those friends and family you don't see often, these photos become treasured keepsakes as well as great photos to use for non-holiday layouts.  Since typically everyone is in a festive mood, it's also a great opportunity to capture personalities.  The photos below are all ones taken at family holiday gatherings---just remember to get in CLOSE!  :-)

Santa's wish list

Don't forget to send your Santa in to shop for all the favorite scrapbookers on his list!  We've got lots of great gift ideas and if you'd like us to point him in a certain direction for you, just let us know!!  For the extra good crafters, Santa might want to consider giving the gift of an entire weekend of scrapbooking with us from January 15-17 at the beautiful French Lick Resort.  If you've never been, the resort is a treat in itself.  Built in the early 1900s, this hotel has a rich history and retains all of its glorious heritage.  Online registration begins December 10.  Check out their website here.  Hope you can join us!

We also wanted to share this Prima canvas album we created to house this year's Christmas photos.  Because it comes with both canvas and transparent page protector pages, it provides a great background to try new techniques as well as utilize lots of different textures.  The best part--sewing in the book is completely optional!

Here's a closer look at the cover detail.  To create the Santa embellishment, use a punch out circle from a Graphic 45 Christmas die cut sheet.  Adhere it to a button, then cover it with a clear page pebble.

For the title page, use letter masks to spell a holiday greeting, then spray with Glimmer Mist.  Adding buttons to dot the "I" and adhering ribbon gives it a homespun feel.

Create this cute snowman page by spraying a canvas page with Glimmer Mist.  Paint two chipboard circles with Ranger crackle paint.  Add ribbon scarf, button eyes, pearl smile and a cardstock carrot nose to make your snowman come to life!

On this page, paint the background with acrylic paint and add a cut out from Graphic 45 Christmas paper.  Use your Crop-a-dile tool to punch holes down the entire side of the canvas page.  Tie in ribbons and jingle bells to give your book a true Christmas feel.

Here's another technique to try.  Place a crocheted doily or lace over a canvas page and spray with Glimmer Mist.  The lace acts as a mask and once removed, can also be used as a lovely accent on another page.

Use buttons to create a one-of-a-kind Christmas tree:

A few more photos of the outside:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

If you're out doing your Christmas shopping this weekend, don't forget to stop in and see us!  We have lots of great sale items and Christmas inspiration ideas on display.  If your plans are to avoid the stores this weekend, here's a great weekend project for you to create.  It uses the fantastic Christmas papers from Basic Grey, along with a small album we painted pink.  This would make a great gift album, or keep it for yourself to house this year's holiday photos.

Christmas Cards from Scraps

Are you one of those crafters that cannot bear to part with even one small leftover scrap of paper, or a scrap piece of ribbon "that I might work into another project"?  If so, I'm glad I'm not alone!  Ha!  The holidays are a great time to make use of those scraps and create beautiful holiday cards.  Cards make a perfect canvas for trying out new techniques without worry of ruining an entire two-page scrapbook layout.  An added bonus is not having to spend extra money on holiday cards this year.  We're also sure those who receive your cards will love having a handcrafted creation made just for them!  Here are a few we came up with using scrap papers and notions:

Ideas to note:  Use holly leaves from old Christmas decor and buttons as berries.  Since it's a card, you don't have to worry about archival safety.  You can also cut out scenes from paper (like the sledding dogs), attach it to scrap chipboard then mount on pop dots for a unique card embellishment.

Ideas to note:  Who says Christmas cards have to use Christmas paper?  You may recognize the script paper as one from 7 Gypsies from a few years ago.  Another technique is to use your cool border punches to create a visual design element (like the red strip above) on your card.

Ideas to Note:  If your paper is a printed image on a white paper (such as the Santa), color it in with chalks or ink.  This also works well with papers printed to look like newpaper ads.  Tying thin twine scraps through buttons gives your projects a vintage feel.

Ideas to Note:  Cover chipboard shapes with paper to create cute embellishments like this snowman.  And don't forget to raid your button and ribbon stash to find the perfect "clothes" for him to wear!  (You may recognize these scrap papers as the Cosmo Cricket Christmas line from a couple of years ago.  Still so pretty!)

Holiday project tips

The holidays are the perfect time to get more from your scrapbook supplies!  We used the beautiful Christmas/winter product lines from Melissa Frances just to see how many tips we could find to share with you. Our first project was this Christmas layout:

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  Tip #1--Add pearls or jewels to chipboard elements to give them some spice.  The glittered chipboard holly leaves were nice as is, but adding the pearls helps it really stand out.
  
  
  
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  Tip #2--Create embellishments from the product packaging.  The holly leaves were part of a punch out sheet of glittered chipboard shapes.  The photo corner to the bottom left of the photo was cut from a corner of the glittered chipboard packaging (the part that remains after all the chipboard shapes are punched out of it.)  It perfectly coordinates and didn't cost a thing!
  
  
  
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  Tip #3--Use sandpaper to distress stickers and papers.  The "Holiday Bear" label had a shiny surface and didn't fit the vintage feel of the rest of the layout.  Lightly sanding the top and adding ink makes it fit right in.
  
  
  
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  Tip #4--Use your layout leftovers to make a card:
  
  
  

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  Tip#5--Make a vintage star to use on the card!  Ink the edges of a chipboard star.  While the ink is wet, paint the star with Ranger crackle paint so some of the ink blends into the wet paint.  Using a hairdryer to dry the paint will cause it to really crackle (more than air drying does).  Thread twine through button and tie a bow, then adhere it to the star.
  
  
  
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  Tip #6--Recycle household product packaging to make a COOL holiday gift container. Here's how.  Cover an empty clean cardboard package with patterned paper.  We started with this container:
  
  
  

We added our leftover scraps from the layout and card projects to create this unique package just ready to hold candy or other Christmas gift goodies!

Only 60 Days Until Christmas!

With Halloween only a few days away, it's hard not to think ahead and realize Christmas will be here before we know it! If you're one of those who loves the holidays and can't wait to get started on Christmas crafts and handmade gifts, here's a project for you to try-- an adorable Christmas star wreath from Kaisercraft. 

The wreath is comprised of wood stars, ready for you to personalize to create your own special keepsake. 

We couldn't wait to try this project ourselves!  Here's what we did.  The stars are packaged so two stars are attached together with thin wooden strips.  Using very gentle pressure, we broke the thin strip so each star was separated.  To smooth the edge and remove any evidence of the wood strip, we sanded each star.

Then we inked the outside edge and top edges of each star with brown ink.

Using each star as a template, we traced around each and cut the paper just inside the pencil lines.

This step was repeated for each star and the papers were adhered to each star.  For two stars, we used photos rather than paper. Double sided paper works great for this project since the colors on each side are typically made to coordinate.  Once all the stars were covered, the stars were assembled and adhered to the wood circle base.  A liquid adhesive works well to assure the parts stay together.  If you'd like a hanging loop on the back of the wreath, attach it to the wood circle base prior to gluing the stars to it.

For six of the top stars, we added jingle bells.  To do this, we punched holes in the stars with the Cropadile.

We put ribbon through the holes and tied a bell to the top.  Back of star:

Front of star:

The completed project!

Hope you'll give this fun project a try!!

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.