Happy New Year's Eve!

I don't know about anyone else, but it's hard to believe that 2011 is coming to an end. I have to admit, I say this every year, but it seems like the older I get, the quicker life is passing me by :(

Looking back, 2011 wasn't a terrible year, in fact, it was pretty good for the Harper family. We had lots of blessings, and very few valleys, and I feel so blessed that we are together, healthy and happy.

On to scrappy related things, I have managed (so far) to complete all of the Count Down to 2012 challenges that have been posted over at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. I have to admit, that several of them have been super challenging for me, but that just makes me love the challenge, more.

Here are the rest of the challenges that I've completed, so far:

December 26th: Progressive Challenge

Day Four - Add something that has been misted/painted/stickled/smootched and a metal embellie

I misted the lace with two different colors and then added the tiny metal "t" at the bottom. The "t" stands for Toby :)

Day Five: Add a title with at least two different fonts and add your journaling

December 29th Challenge: What you may have missed in 2011

I did this layout about my mom. I need to remember that she is often alone, now, and I need to make sure that I check in with her several times a week. I love and appreciate her so much, and I need to remember to tell her these things. 

I used the August Birds of a Feather kit for this layout.

December 30th Challenge: Bucket List

I had a ton of fun with this layout. I've wanted to do a Bucket List for a while, now, and this challenge gave me the push I needed. I was totally inspired by THIS awesome layout from Wendy McKee. 

Here is a look at the journaling that I included on the tags. 

Okay, off to see if I can get anything accomplished on my December Daily. I've only printed the pictures for the next two days, TWICE, and now I can't find them (roll my eyes).

Anyway, off to get crafty. I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve!

Count Down to 2012

Happy Thursday! I don't know about you, but it sure doesn't seem possible that 2011 is almost gone! The older I get, the quicker the time seems to fly.

Well, this week over at Birds of a Feather, Amy and the DT have put together a Count Down to 2012 challenge. Each day, one of the gals post a challenge, and you have until midnight (your time) to get your layout posted. There are prizes for each day, and I have been having a blast doing some 'fast' scrapping. Seriously, it usually takes me FOREVER to put together a layout, so knowing that I only have until midnight is an added challenge that I am loving! 

If you want all of the details for each challenge, you can check it out, HERE. So far there have been three challenges, and I am happy to say that I have completed all three of them. Here is a look at each of them:

December 26th: Progressive Challenge:

This challenge is probably the hardest one for me. We have certain steps to follow each day, and in the end, will have a finished layout.  Since I like to plan out my layouts before I do any gluing, this has been the most challenging for me. However, I'm getting into the fun of it, and have to admit, I'm liking what I have, so far. 

Day One: Two pictures, cardstock background and three different patterned papers. 

Day Two: Three brads and at least two pieces of chipboard.

Day Three: Add a tag or ticket next to a picture. 

December 27th Challenge: 2011 Year in Review:

A closer look at the journaling. I printed it out and then cut it all apart. 

December 28th Challenge: Color of the Year:

Now to wait to see what today's challenge has in store for us :) I have to make a run to the grocery store, too. I'm thinking I should do that, first, so that I can spend the rest of the day scrapping!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a magical and blessed Christmas Day! May God's love and blessing surround you today, and in the coming year!

December Daily

Happy Christmas Eve, Eve!

It's been a busy one, today. I got up and headed out to do my last minute shopping. I ran by Home Depot to pick up stuff for a DIY marshmallow shooter for Kaleb, then Game Stop to pick up Jon's and Zack's last gifts, and finally to Walmart for groceries and some stocking stuffers. 

Once back home, I put everything away, finished up page 9 in my December Daily album and then started working on cookies and goodies with the kids. I made cookies, Taylor made cookies and Kal worked on the Buckeyes (which I wasn't going to make, but made special for him). 

After all that baking, I decided to get started on Christmas dinner, working to get some of the prep work out of the way, since we will be gone for a while tomorrow. 

Now I am relaxing, thinking of working on my December Daily some more. Usually, I don't even start my DD until after December, but this year I decided to try and work on it during the month, and even though I'm behind, I'm still loving the process. 

And, speaking of my December Daily, I wanted to share those pages that I've already finished. I've been using mostly Echo Park's Season's Greetings and Authentique's Wonder lines

Here is the cover. It has a window cut out in the center, and you can see the picture that is on the next page. 

 

 The cover opens up to show the Introduction Page.

December First:

December Second:

December Third:

December Fourth:

December Fifth:

December Sixth:

December Seventh:

December Eighth:

December Ninth:

I am starting on December Tenth, but it's going to be hard because it's about my very last visit with my grandpa. I almost stopped my album after everything that happened with Grandpa, but since I'm a good, bad and ugly type of scrapper, decided to continue with the album. After all, this project is all about what happens in our lives during the month of December, and Grandpa's passing is one of those happenings. 

Okay, off to see if I can make any headway with the next couple of pages. I have a feeling I may not be doing too much scrapping the next couple of days!

Memorial Wreath

This has been a super crazy month for all of us in the Harper household, especially me. My grandpa went into a nursing home right before Thanksgiving. On December 8th, he made the decision to stop dialysis and go into Hospice. He passed away quietly, on December 13th, surrounded by his children. In my heart, I know he was ready to go, but it has still been hard for me. His showing was this past Sunday and the funeral was on Monday. Now it's time for the family to grieve and then begin to heal. Instead of sending flowers to the funeral home, I decided to make a special wreath for my mom, full of pictures of my grandpa. This way, I figured she could keep it and hang it up. Since I was already making something similar for my mother-in-law, I had a lot of what I needed, and picked up the rest of the stuff at Hobby Lobby. Since red was Grandpa's favorite color, I knew it had to be the dominate color on the wreath. I gave her the wreath on Sunday, right before heading up to the funeral home, and she cried. I am so glad I decided to do this for her, and it was really worth the time and effort. 

Here is a picture of the wreath. Please excuse the reflection of me...it was REALLY hard to get a good shot!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

It's December 4th!

I can't believe how quickly the days are slipping by me! This is both good and bad. It's good because I have a very challenging group of students this year, and days moving quickly mean that I am quickly moving towards May 23rd and the last day of school. However, it's also bad because this means that life outside of school is also flying by and I can't seem to enjoy everything!

Anyway, is anyone else working on a December Daily album? I've done one for the past three years, so am super excited about doing it again this year. I'm going to try a couple of different things this year. In the past, I've kept my journaling on a Word document and then gone back in January (or later) and put the album together). This year, I want to try and work on my pages during the month, getting things done at night, after work, or on the weekends, if possible. Also, in years past I've picked one scrappy line that I love and do the whole album using that line. This year, I've put together a total hodge-podge of papers and embellies and am totally excited to see what I can create! 

With that all said and done, I am going to work on the album cover today and see what else I can accomplish, after we get back home from Zack's indoor soccer game. Hopefully I will have something to share with everyone tonight or tomorrow :)

One more thing before I get off of here, I wanted to share the last Birds of a Feather layout challenge that I created this month. For this one, we had two pictures for inspiration, and I picked this one:

And this is what I created. I picked up the papers at Hobby Lobby and then had a ton of fun using my new Sizzix Big Kick to cut the flourishes and flowers. This was a little out of my comfort zone, since there's no real patterned paper, but I loved the end results, especially the fun bright colors! 

Okay, off to look for the perfect papers for the cover of my December Daily album and then jump in the shower and get ready to head out to the soccer game. I hope that everyone has a blessed Sunday!

Welcome to November

Wow...I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post! I was doing so well at keeping up, but the end of October and the entire month of November has just kicked my rear. Zack finished his soccer season, there were practices for his spring season and indoor soccer games. Taylor continued with gymnastics and Kal joined an indoor soccer team, too. Add to that birthday parties, Thanksgiving and lots of Christmas decorating, and I just haven't had a ton of time for scrapping or blogging. However, things have started to settle down and I have vowed to get all caught up and back to the world of blogging.

So, I want to share the layouts that I've been working on the past few weeks.  

This first layout was created for the November sketch challenge over at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. It was a Pagemap sketch and I had so much fun using pieces of the October BOAF kit and Prima leaves on this one.

This next layout was created for the November stash challenge over at Birds of a Feather and for the November recipe challenge over at From Here 2 Scrapternity. I loved playing with these chipboard frames from Crate and even threw some Shimmerz on the background, too. 

This next layout is for the November color challenge over at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. and I also used the November BOAF kit. The Simple Stories papers are perfect for heritage layouts. 

This last picture is for the November journaling challenge over at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. and for the scraplift challenge over at From Here 2 Scrapternity. I just love Christmas ornaments!

 This shows all of the journaling tags that I tucked behind the ornament pictures.

XoXo Blog Hop Winner and Reminder!

Happy Monday, all!
It was another super busy weekend in the Harper household, with Kaleb playing in two tournament soccer games and Zack playing in one. Add to that the Opening Night performance that Zack had on Saturday, and I am worn out!
Anyway, I wanted to take a minute to let everyone know my winner for the XoXo Blog Hop! I tossed all the names into a basket and had Mr. Kaleb Michael pick a winner, and he picked out Ms. Kayla's (mustangkayla) name!! So Kayla, just send me your information and I will get your GC out to you!!

Also, before I go, I want to remind everyone that there is still time to enter the October XoXo challenge. The deadline is October 31 :)

Have a wonderful Monday!!

Just a Reminder....

You still have time to participate in the True XoXo Blog Hop! To get started, just head over to the True XoXo blog and get started! Remember, there are lots of prizes up for grabs!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Birds of a Feather Crop Challenges

Happy Tuesday, All! I just wanted to take a few minutes to share some of my latest layouts. Last weekend I played along with the Birds of a Feather Birthday Crop, and was happy that I completed 8 of the 10 challenges! I'm a SUPER slow scrapper, so 8 in one weekend is HUGE for me! 

Challenge One: A Woman Never Reveals Her Age

For this challenge, we had to take our age and add that many of one particular embellishment to our layout. So, since I'm almost 40, I went with 40 tiny rhinestones that I added as centers to some of the background paper. I used this older picture of Miss Taylor Quinn and lots and lots of Simple Stories papers. 

Challenge Two: Celebrate Yourself

 For this challenge we were asked to create a layout that celebrates ourselves.  I had tons of fun creating this layout! I used the September Scrapbook Circle kit and loved playing with the fun colors and patterns! Throw in some of the fun stickers and my layout was complete.

Challenge Three: Banner Fun

This was a hard challenge for me, because we had to use a banner on our layout. Now, anyone that knows me, knows that I don't DO banners. I have always struggled to use them on my layouts, so I knew this one was going to give me fits. However, I did some surfing over at Two Peas and Pinterest and found the idea for this half circle banner. I then grabbed a favorite picture of Mr. Toby, added the October Birds of a Feather kit, and the layout was complete.

Challenge Four: Life is a Journey - Let's Celebrate It!

 This was a pretty easy layout for me to complete. Of all the journeys that I've taken in my life, and will take, being a wife and mother is the most important one to me. So, I pulled this picture of my kids and dh, grabbed the August Birds of a Feather kit and a Pagemap sketch and went to town! 

Challenge Six: The Year You Were Born

 This was a recipe challenge. I had to use four pictures, five different papers, eight of my favorite embellies (I went with flowers) and a one word title. I used pieces from a Scrapbook Circle kit and then added pieces from my stash, too. A Pagemap sketch helped me finish the layout.

Challenge Eight: Birthstone Monochromatic Layout

 For this challenge, we had to pick our birthstone, or the birthstone of a family member, and create a monochromatic layout based on its color. I lucked out because my birthstone is the garnet....I LOVE the color red....and the October Birds of a Feather kit had some of the perfect papers and embellies needed for the layout. I added these super funny pictures of Toby (taken by Miss Taylor Quinn) and the layout was complete!

Challenge Nine: Make a Wish

 For this challenge we were asked to create a layout about something that we wish for, right now. I had several ideas, but decided to go with my dream house. So, I scanned a copy of the house that I would love to someday have out at the land, pulled out another Pagemap sketch and grabbed more of the October Birds of a Feather kit.

Challenge Ten: Party Lyrics 

 On this last layout, we were given a selection of Birthday songs to chose from, then had to create a layout based on the selected song. I picked "When I'm 64" by the Beatles and then grabbed a favorite layout from one of my favorite artists over at Scrapbook.com, Lucy E. I loved playing with all the Crate papers and embellies....this is one of my favorite lines!

Well, it's been storming and raining tonight, so I'm off to grab a blanket and do a little reading before bed. Have an awesome night!  Oh, and by the way, don't forget that the True XoXo Blog Hop is still going on until October 20. 

It's a True XoXo Blog Hop!

Happy Thursday and Welcome to the True XoXo Blog Hop! If you have been following the hop, you should have been directed here from Kimmy Jaster's blog. If you are just stopping by for a visit and want to join the Blog Hop, just hop on over to the True XoXo Blog and start at the beginning. Then follow the links on each lady's blog, through to the end.

Now, if you do decide to Blog Hob with us, there are a couple fun prizes up for grabs. The BIG prize (this one will go to one lucky winner who visits each blog AND leaves a comment) is the True XoXo Guest Design Team spot for December! This means that the winner will have access to the True XoXo facebook page and will get to play along with us for the entire month of December! Also, I am offering up a little prize of my own. One lucky winner will win a $10 gift certificate to A Cherry on Top! In order to be eligible for this prize, you just have to leave a comment for me :)

Now, for this Blog Hop, each of the True XoXo Scrap Chicks was to challenge one of the other ladies on the team. For my challenge, Ms. Kimmy challenged me to create a layout using products for ONLY three manufactures. So, I grabbed the current Birds of a Feather Kit and went to town! I used products from Jilliebean Soup, Crate Paper and Imaginisce. I then grabbed some random pictures of our new puppy, Mr. Toby....and went to town!

Here is my finished layout. I loved layering all of the different papers and patterns in this kit, and the Crate chipboard pieces were so fun to layer and use. Add lots and lots of ink to the mix and the layout was complete!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and for participating in the True XoXo Blog Hop. To continue the Hop, just head on over to Maria Otake's blog, our September Guest Design Team member. Remember, if you finish up the Hop...that is, you visit each True XoXo Scrap Chick's blog and leave a message (along with the XoXo blog) you will be entered for a chance at the December Guest Design Team member spot. And...to add a little spice to the Hop, for any layout/project that you complete that is based on a team member's challenge or layout, we will throw your name in the hat for an additional chance at being our December Guest Designer. Be sure that your project/layout is linked the the Blog Hop post over at the True XoXo blog, under the Blog Hop post.

Off you go, to Ms. Maria's blog. Before you leave, if you like, I'd love to have you add yourself as a follower to my blog. Have a great day and I hope you enjoy the rest of the XoXo Blog Hop!