MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's a coupon for you to save 30% off your purchase in my shop at ScrapMatters:

need a last minute gift?

This is a great thing to keep on hand for those last minute neighbor, teacher, friend, etc. gifts. Just print one of these bottle wraps that say "Have a sparkling holiday", wrap it around a bottle of sparkling cider, attach a gift tag and you're good to go!



This comes with a ready-to-print bottle wrap and a sheet of gift tags... PLUS it's on sale for 20% off this weekend!

book advent

Wow... I can't believe it is already December 10! I had good intentions of writing some fun holiday posts this month, but it is flying by too fast. I also realize I may have sounded a little braggy a few posts ago... you know where I boasted about having my Christmas shopping done? Yeah, well rest assured until a couple days ago that is the only thing crossed off my list! And that's only because my mom, sister, and I are part of the
crazyambitious 4 a.m. Black Friday crowd. We go every year, but I go with a list and try to get everything on that list, whether it's a doorbuster or not! I face the shopping craziness for one day so I can avoid it the rest of the season.

Anyway... I wanted to share a tradition I started with my kids a few years ago. Rebecca Cooper posted about this same tradition on her blog at the beginning of the month, so you may want to check it out. We have a book advent where I wrap up a Christmas book for each day in December until the 24th. My kids get to take a turn unwrapping a book each night and we read it together before bed. I first saw this idea in Family Fun magazine a few years ago, so we tried it. We've done it every year since, and my kids really look forward to it. Here is my basket of wrapped books for this year:


So, there is one more thing I got to check off my list! Ideally I would have had these ready to go before December 1, but it just didn't happen. I finally got them all wrapped around the 6th or 7th, so for the first few nights we just played catch-up and opened more than one book. The kids didn't seem to mind.

Here is a list of the books that made it into the basket for this year:

• I Smell Christmas by Mercer Mayer
• Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear! by Don & Audrey Wood
• A Merry Little Christmas by Mary Engelbreit
• Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell
• Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
• The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia Scarry
• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Mary Engelbreit
• A Snowman Named Just Bob by Mark Kimball Moulton
• Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson
• Queen of Christmas by Mary Engelbreit
• I Believe in Santa Claus by Diane Adamson
• The Tale of Three Trees retold by Angela Elwell Hunt
• I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz
• Olive the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
• The Christmas Blizzard by Helen Ketteman
• You Are My Miracle by Maryann Cusimano Love
• You Can Do It, Sam by Amy Hest
• Santa's First Flight by Sam Beeson
• Frosty's New Friends by Richard Cowdrey
• Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini
• Frosty the Snowman by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins
• A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles M. Schulz
• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Christian Birmingham

There are some books (like The Polar Express which is probably my favorite) that I intentionally left out of the advent box so they would be out all month for us to read.

This is a really fun, simple tradition. If you don't have enough holiday books, you could even just do a 12-day advent or check some out of your local library to use. I have some other fun ideas I've gathered over time... I'll try to post more when I have a minute! Happy weekend!

giveaway time!

Make sure you check out Rebecca Cooper's blog today for a chance to win my latest Christmas releases as part of her Simple Christmas!

simple christmas + giveaway winner

Are you getting ready for Christmas? I love this time of year! My shopping is nearly done, and I am very happy about that. I like to get it done early so I can focus on other things during the month of December. Rebecca Cooper of Simple as That is doing a Simple Christmas countdown where she will have 25 days of fun-filled blog posts with ideas to help make the holidays a little more simple. You can get a glimpse of her Simple Christmas posts from last year by clicking here. Inspiring... lots of things I want to try!

Rebecca is an extremely talented person, and so nice, too! I plan on spending a few minutes each day perusing her blog for fun ideas. For the first day of Simple Christmas, she has a really fun Christmas countdown idea. Click here to check it out. This is a fun tradition we do in our home, too. My kids look forward to it every year.

Make sure you check her blog tomorrow for an exciting giveaway that I'm excited to be a part of!

Now, for the winner of my new printable advent calendar:




Congrats! Shoot me an e-mail so I can get your prize to you!

new printable advent calendar + giveaway

Can you believe December is almost here? I can't! I've been gearing up for it, though. One thing my kids love during this month is a daily advent. I put together some advent envelopes to use this year and they are now available here in my shop at ScrapMatters. I hung them up as a garland on a banister in our hallway. You could also string them up on a wall, stack them in a cute basket, or even use them as tree ornaments! I am going to write a fun activity to do as a family on each of the cards and let my kids take turns each day opening the envelopes to see what we will do for that day. You could also write a thought or a scripture for each day on the cards. I think it would be fun to write a part of the Christmas story (or the coordinating scripture reference to look up and read) on the card.





I would suggest printing the envelopes on a thinner paper (even just normal copy/printer paper would work) and the card inserts on cardstock. I had some used grocery sacks in my recycle box that I pulled out and decided to repurpose into 8.5x11 sheets that I could run through my printer. I took some photos of the process and put together some simple instructions below if you want to try this. It's actually quite simple, and I love the look of the envelopes printed on the sack paper.

1. Carefully undo flaps on bottom of sack (if this bottom part tears, no worries, you're going to cut it off anyway). Cut along one corner of the sack so it opens to one big flat piece. Cut off bottom part. *Note: At this point, it would probably be easiest to iron the whole sack to flatten the creases. I cut first and then ironed each piece, but I think it would make it easier to cut if it were ironed first.
2. Cut bag into 8.5"x11" sheets. You'll need 12 sheets if you are going to print all 24 envelopes. I was able to get 6 sheets from one sack, so you'll need 2 sacks. (You could also do the 12 days of Christmas instead and only print envelopes 1-12.) When I laid out my unfolded sack, the short end was approximately 17 inches, so I just cut down the middle to make it 8.5" wide. I then cut those 8.5" wide strips into 11" lengths. I used a paper trimmer to get nice straight edges so it would feed through the printer easily. Some of them were up to .25" smaller on either dimension, but they worked fine.
3. If you didn't iron in step 1, you may want to iron out the creases of each piece now... it makes the paper more easily go through the printer.
4. Print all your envelopes on your newly cut sack papers... make sure to print on the blank side of the sack. Print the card inserts on the cardstock color of your choice.
5. Assemble the envelopes according to the instructions included in the printable (found here in my shop).
6. To create a garland out of the envelopes, clip them to a piece of twine, string, or ribbon. (I found my snowflake clips at World Market). You could also punch a small hole in the top of the envelope instead of using clips. If you don't want a garland, it would be cute to stack the envelopes in a little box or basket, or you could use them as tree ornaments.

I think these would also look great on regular paper (white, tan, kraft... whatever color you want!) if you don't have grocery sacks handy. You can grab these printable envelopes/cards today at ScrapMatters for 25% off through today!



Do you want to win this printable set of envelopes and cards? Just leave a comment on this post by the end of today (11:59 pm MST)! Get extra an extra chance by posting about this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook or your blog – or all three. Come back here and post links in the comments section. Post as a new comment each time so every entry counts towards your chances to win. (If you buy the printable envelopes while they're on sale at ScrapMatters and are chosen as the winner, I will give you a gift card to my store for the amount you spent.)

I'll announce the winner sometime on Tuesday. Good luck!

start your engines!

My son recently celebrated his birthday, and he decided he wanted a race car themed party. I love throwing birthday parties for my kids, and I'm always looking for ideas, so I thought I'd share what we did. I created the invitation in Photoshop using Erica Zane's kit Jack's Track. This kit was perfect and had exactly what I was looking for. Here's what the invitation looked like:



Some photos from the party:



I went to Partyland and picked up balloons and checkered flag banners for decorations. I used bright yellow for the tablecloths and party sacks and bright red for the plates, napkins, and cups. I have a big car mat from Home Depot that I laid out on the floor with our big bucket of cars for the kids to play with as they arrived. Once everyone got there, we started with the activities and games. We played Pin the Wheel on the Car (also created using Jack's Track) and had relay races in the backyard. For the party favor, I used canvas and felt to make a road mat for each kid. As one of the party activities, they got to decorate their mats however they wanted with permanent Sharpies. They were so creative and loved drawing homes, trees, restaurants, etc. on their mats. At the end of the party, we also gave each kid their own new Hot Wheels car to take home with their roads. I made the cupcakes using plastic race cars and checkered flag toothpicks (both also found at Partyland) for the toppers. It was a successful party and I think all the kids had fun!

manic monday sale - 50% off

Can you believe we're already half way through November? Seriously, where does the time go? I'm really excited for this week... I LOVE Thanksgiving. We're meeting at my mom's on Thursday for yummy traditional turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. Mmmmmm! Then on Friday, my mom, sister, and I wake up before the sun is even up and go brave the crowds to score some good deals. To be honest, at this point it's less about the good deal for me (although I love that, too) and more about the tradition we have of going each year and how much fun we have. It really is a good time, and I hope to get all of my Christmas shopping done that day.

To help keep me organized during this busy season, I use a holiday planner. I make lists for just about everything, and the gift lists in my planner really help me out for Day After Thanksgiving shopping. I have these printable sheets in my shop and they are half off today only (just click on the image below to take you to my shop)!



That is a great deal, and now is the perfect time to pick them up so you can use them for the next month. I actually keep my planner close by year round in case someone has a change of address or if I have a great gift idea in July, for example, I can jot it down so I remember. Very handy.

I hope you all (here in the U.S.) have a great Thanksgiving day and get to eat lots of good food!

clickinmoms

Have you heard of Clickinmoms? It's an awesome community of photographers who learn from each other and willingly share tips with each other. I joined a few years ago and have learned a lot from perusing the forums. There are all kinds of tutorials and very experienced photographers who are members and willing to share their knowledge. It's a great place. Right now they are having a giveaway for a photo editing class that looks amazing. I would love to take this class.

Go to their blog to check it out.


You can also sign up for their newsletter while you're there. You don't have to be a member of their site to get the newsletter, and if they get 20,000 subscribers by Black Friday they're giving away a huge digital gift pack that's full of all kinds of useful information.

If you decide to join their site, I would love it if you click through to the site from the link below because then it registers that you were directed there from here. I'm not sure how it all works, but I believe they have an affiliate program that will give people credits if they refer others.

and the winner is...

Winners, actually. Thank you all so much for your nice comments. Since this is my first digital kit giveaway, I decided to choose 2 winners. Using random.org, the winners of my new Merriment digital kit are:







Congrats, Kari and Scarlet! E-mail me so I can get you details on how to redeem your prize.

Also, I'm going to leave it 20% for one extra day. So, if you didn't pick up Merriment yet and want it, grab it before 10 pm MST tonight while it's still on sale.

new kit and a LOT of holiday printables

Is it too early to think about Christmas? I don't think so. I like to start early so that once we get into the full-blown season I have time to enjoy it more. I have a new digital kit out today that coordinates with the Christmas Treasures freebie from my post yesterday. It's called Merriment.



You can save 20% on it through Sunday! I'm also giving one away... check the post just below this one to enter. I'll draw a winner first thing Monday.

Krista of Sahlin Studio and I have teamed up again to create these holiday printables. There is a huge assortment here that are already done for you. They are all ready-to-print to make the holidays just a bit easier!



The bundle is the best deal, but if you are interested in just some of the printables, you can also buy them individually in my shop.

Jessica Sprague Art of Digital Design Blog Hop

Hey, welcome to my little blog. If you're following the blog hop we have going on, you probably came here from Tonya's blog. If you haven't heard of this blog hop, it's put together by some of the graduates of Jessica Sprague's first Art of Digital Design class. We've basically put together a huge Christmas collab digital kit, and you can gather pieces of it (for FREE!) at each of the blogs participating in the hop. Here is what the whole kit looks like:




Here's my portion. Click on the image to take you to 4shared to download. If you prefer to download from Box, there's a link below. Link expired. The blog hop is over, but if you missed my kit, stay tuned... it will be added to my shop soon.

Click here to download at 4shared.com.
Click here to download at Box.net.

The next stop for the blog hop is Earl. When you're done here, click on over to see what he has in store for you!

If you get lost or want to see the complete list of blogs, stop by Lisa's blog here. She has the complete list posted.

**NEW RELEASE SNEAK PEEK**
I had so much fun creating this mini kit that I kept on going. I have a brand new kit being released at ScrapMatters tomorrow that coordinates perfectly with the Christmas Treasure mini kit I made above. It is called Merriment and here's a sneak peek for you:



Come back tomorrow to see what the full kit looks like! As long as we're giving things away, how about a chance to win this kit? Just leave a comment below by Sunday, November 14, and I'll randomly choose a person to win this kit. I'll post the winner on Monday, so make sure to check back! If you want to follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I'll update those when the winner is posted.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to head over to Earl's blog to get your next part of the Christmas Treasures collab!

blog hop tomorrow!

Remember the big blog hop starts tomorrow.



Here's a sneak peek of what you'll find from me:


See you first thing tomorrow morning!

it's digital scrapbooking day!

There's a huge sale going on at ScrapMatters right now, which means you can stock up on great kits and templates. Except for bundles (which are already a huge savings), my whole shop is on sale for 40% off! Click hereto go check it out. Plus, with any $20 purchase, you get this huge collab kit Many Thanks for free!



If you're following the ScrapMatters blog train, this is stop #15. I created this page of my son's school program using the SM Many Thanks kit.



I've turned it into a QP that you can download for free this weekend! Just click on the image below to take you to 4shared where you can grab it. (Before you click away, read the rest of this post so you can see where to go next!)

Freebie link expired.



On another note, I recently completed a digital design course at JessicaSprague.com and am now considered a "Certified Digital Designer" (woohoo!). A bunch of us that were in the class got together to create a huge collab that we're giving away in parts during a blog hop on November 11-14. So, mark your calendar and stop back by so you can get an awesome (free) kit! If you want to follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I'll send out a reminder!



Okay, for the SM blog train, your next stop is Jen from Graham Like the Cracker. Click the image below to go to her blog.



If you get lost or just want to make sure you don't miss a stop, the master train list is posted on the main blog at ScrapMatters.

sale starts today

This amazing sale starts today! Come back tomorrow because there's a huge blog train with lots of freebies!

happy halloween

I hope everyone had fun celebrating Halloween this weekend. As for us, we have far too much candy.

on sale today

You can snag my Originality kit for 50% off today only as part of Manic Monday at ScrapMatters!



Some inspiration:

new kit and a coupon!

I have a new kit out today... Moments... and you can get it for 20% off through the weekend with this coupon code: SJSMOMENT20



Need some inspiration? Check out these amazing pages created by the ScrapMatters CT:

another great manic monday deal

Head on over to ScrapMatters to check out all the great Manic Monday deals. Here's what I have on sale today:



Happy Monday!

manic monday

Lots of good deals today at ScrapMatters. You can grab this gift card box template for 50% off, but hurry, deal's only good today!



You can check out all of the Manic Monday sales here. Just click on "Manic Monday" in the category list on the left side of the page.

new release and a deal

One of my favorite elements to add to my pages are labels. I love them. I like that you can use them to date a page, add journaling, or just as a design element. New in my shop today are these labels:



And just for my blog readers, here's a coupon to save 20% on these labels:

SJSLABEL20
Hurry quick, though, this coupon is good only today and tomorrow.

explore.learn.grow. printables up close

Here are what some of the printables that Krista and I created look like up close. It really is a great set. You can get the bundle with all three printable sets for a sweet deal! Check it out here.

Hexagonal Box Photo courtesy of Debra Pierce.