December Daily.....WTF????

Anyone who knows anything about the scrapbooking world has heard of the December Daily album, an idea created by the scrapbook maven, Ali Edwards. The whole idea has always intimidated me, and I have studiously (and smartly) avoided doing one for a few years now.

My resolve began to cave when some friends of mine at Absolutely Alter It message board decided they were doing one. I thought maybe, just maybe I could pull it off.

I ordered a gorgeous kit from Paper Lovelies, which has a very fun and unusual Christmas line by Prima (North Country). I thought this might be a great jumping off place for the doing a December Daily book.
I began with a simple 6 X 6 spiral bound album which has about 20 page protectors already bound inside the album. I thought I'd take it really easy, since I am working 34 hours a week now, and I shouldn't be too hard on myself. Sounds good, right? Well, by the first day of December I was already feeling pressured to take photos, and prepare the pages for this thing!!! The photos I took the first day were a pile of dirty dishes in the sink that were threatening to reach the ceiling, and some flowers my daughter received from a boy she likes after her choir performance. They seemed really lame, and not very festive.

I have a crippling secret, and maybe some of you can relate. Creatively, I struggle from performance anxiety. Sometimes the urge to make something really beautiful and special can hinder my actual process. Maybe I should just make the stupid album, and let it turn out however it turns out. Who am I going to offend, anyway?

I do find that doing photos every day is very stifling for me. I thought it would be easier to just photograph the things I think are important to me during the holidays, and put them in the book in any order I please. So, maybe I don't have to stick to a DAILY album, and can just make it anyway I please! I know I sound like a brat! I'll keep you updated in my progress, or lack thereof...

One little layout....

I feel so out of it lately, but I was able to complete one layout with my Halloween counterfeit kit. I used some photos of my two youngest sons from this Halloween. Both of them dressed up as zombies, and I had them pose in front of the tombstones we had decorating the yard.


The sketch came from Pagemaps 2, and I really stuck closely to it, as I was not feeling that creative. At least I accomplished one layout!

I'm late to the party!

I wanted to make a counterfeit kit for Halloween, although October has come and gone. October's inspiration kit came from Little Red Scrapbook (September, 2010), and included a Halloween themed kit. I liked the kit, but wanted to make mine a little creepier, and less cutesy because my kids are getting older and are definitely into the spookiness of Halloween.

Inspiration kit:

My version:


I recently bought last year's Hocus Pocus line by Pink Paislee on clearance, and used that as a base for my kit. I added a few sheets of other Halloween paper I had laying around, one new sheet of Pink Paislee and a bunch of embellishments to top it off. Maybe I'll get a chance to do a few layouts from this Halloween with the kit.

A Little Something to get you in the Halloween Spirit!

It's been forever since I updated my blog. Now that I'm working, and I dropped all my dt commitments, I don't feel any pressure to create. In an effort to keep up with my blog, I feel the need to post SOMETHING.

I was browsing the internet recently and found a few really creepy vintage Halloween photos that I wanted to post. I don't know why old photos of children in costume are so much creepier than modern ones. Maybe it's because of the crude homemade masks, poor photo quality, or that the kid's faces are covered up. I love how weird they are! Enjoy!

September Masters of Forgery Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the Masters of Forgery blog hop! You should have gotten here via Lisa's blog. My last month on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge DT has been fun and a little bittersweet! Since I'm not an expert stamper, I really had to push myself to use my stamps creatively.

For the blog hop challenge, we were supposed to use our stamps in a "special" way on a layout or project. I was a little stumped on what to do. So, I decided to use my stamps in a couple of different ways, that are not the typical ways you might think of to use stamps.


First, I decided to use an old Halloween foam stamp for my Willy Wonka page. I liked the hat on the stamp, but did not want to use the rest of it. So, I masked off the part I did not want, and just stamped the hat part onto a piece of grungeboard. I then cut it out, and used it on my page. As you can see, I was a little sloppy with my masking, because my stamp ended up with a five o'clock shadow! I love stamping images, then cutting out to use on my projects. It's so much less intimidating than stamping directly onto the project!


Next, I stamped some twill ribbon to create the flower for my page. I love the way stamped ribbon looks, but hardly ever use it. I also stamped my journaling spot.

Pardon the terrible photos! I had my first day back at work today, and when I got home to take photos, my camera batteries were dead. I'll try taking better pics in the morning.

I hope you were able to come up with some creative ways to use stamps on your project! Thanks for stopping by! Your next stop on this hop is Meridy's blog. I'm sure she has something gorgeous to show you!

Stamp an embellishment!

This month at Counterfeit Kit Challenge we are having a ton of fun with stamps! Our third challenge is to stamp an embellishment to use on a layout or project. I admit, I'm not a huge stamper. Every time I work with them, it's really a matter of trial and error. I enjoyed trying some new things with my stamps this month.

I love the idea of tags! Tags are awesome because they can stand alone as a lovely project, which you can collect, or give away like cards. Or, they can be used on a scrapbook page!


I got the inspiration for my tag after seeing a photo of an ornate Victorian ceiling, which was covered by square panels. Inside each square was a cherubic (although creepy) face surrounded by wings. It was very cool, and I thought it would be fun to do something similar for this project. I have a beautiful set of wing stamps by Stampers Anonymous, which was given to me by my sister. For the face, I used a stamp I just got from Big Lots, which had a little vintage looking child's face. It's sort of creepy, like the faces on the ceiling. I stamped the face onto paper, punched it out with my 1" punch, then glued to a Tim Holtz grungeboard circle, which are miraculously the exact same size. That fit perfectly inside one of the bottle caps from my kit. I covered the surface of my image with Textured Effects. I stamped and embossed the wings onto yellow cardstock, then I went over them with some acrylic paint to make it even more gilded looking. I kept thinking of the words "Angels in the architecture..." from that old Paul Simon song, but that title was too long. Instead I used the nickname of Los Angeles, which is near the town where I grew up as a child.

I can't wait to see the amazing embellishments everyone made with stamps!

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