Customer Appreciation Sale - 40% Off!

Hi everyone! I hope that you are looking forward to a new year of fun, excitement, joy and happiness. Lots of new memories to scrap!

I just wanted to let you know about a quick sale that Scrapbook-Elements.com is having right now. Take advantage of it and get 40% off!Have a great day and I hope that 2011 brings your every wish come true!

My layouts fo December

Hello everybody ! I want to show you my favorites kits from Kiki Halbert Designs this month ! And I hope you had a great christmas time this year ! I started with the amazing kit "Symphony Page Set". It is very elegant and is also great for the holidays and available at Scrapbook-Elements !!!

And here are my pages with it:

Then I looked out the kit "Slim and Trim" for our little girl. It is in reality a wonderful kit for all people like to do to lose weight or have been removed. But I have for children's sports used, which to visit my daughter once a week.It is available at Scrapbook-Elements, too !

And here is my page with it:

FONT: Octin Sports Free

I hope you like it and I wish you all the best for 2011 !!!
Your Danny

Super Saturday Stretch Inspriation--Merry Christmas!!!

It's Christmas Day, and if you are reading this the main events must be over! The children are playing with new toys or trying on new clothes...the parents might be napping. If you are a "crazy scrapbook mom" you might be pouring over the photos you took. Whatever you are doing right now, take a moment to relax and enjoy the moment. So many times we rush, rush, rush to get food prepared and presents wrapped and unwrapped. Take time this Christmas Day to be in the present--no not the Christmas present--to really connect with the peace, joy and the NOW of the moment. Don't let it rush right past you out the door and into the world. Grab it, embrace it, watch it, love it and hold it right there for all to enjoy. Christmas cheer, love and warmth of your family together on this very special day.

Take a moment to journal your thoughts and feelings. Has Christmas gotten to commercial for you? Do you want to change a tradition or how it went this year? Slow it down? Write out those feelings for later. Do it now! Jot down the funny stories, things people said, how the tree looked or the smile on a child's face. Take the time today to write it out during the quiet moments between unwrapping, eating and napping. Find the time to do it now!

Wednesday Sweet Recipe

Ciao !

Another wednesday with a recipe, Wendy here and this time I bring you all a sweet roll recipe that I love. My girls loves this dessert and ask me to prepare it at least twice in a month and its very easy to do you need like 30-40 minutes to do it, so let's see what you need.

Pionono (Jelly Roll)

5 eggs

5 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon honey

5 tablespoons flour

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In a stand mixer, put the eggs, sugar, and honey, and beat on high speed for 8 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper and grease with butter or spray with cooking spray.

After 8 minutes, you should have a fluffy batter. Add the flour in all at once and beat for one minute more, until incorporated. Pour the batter onto the cookie sheet and spread gently with a spatula (you don't want to de-fluff the batter!) Make an even layer covering the cookie sheet. Place in the oven for 6 minutes.

Wet a cotton (not terry-cloth) towel and put it flat on the counter. Sprinkle it lightly with sugar. Lift the parchment paper off of the cookie sheet, and lay the pionono face down on the wet towel, paper-side up. Carefully peel the corner of the paper off, and continue, careful not to rip the pionono, until the paper has been removed. Fill as below or as desired. Roll carefully (too long on the wet towel is not good) and slice. Arrange on a plate to serve.

Filling: Nutella, Penaut butter, fruits jam, or other sweet cream. You can do this roll also with some mayo, ham, cheese, tomatoes, or whatever you like.




Buon apetit!

Super Saturday Stretch Inspriation

I have been working on an altered canvas project for my husband's grandma. I want it to be "just right" and have it mean as much to her as it has to me while making it. It is difficult to spend hours, days or months on something and wonder if on Christmas Day she will love it or wonder why I didn't just go buy something. I am pretty sure she will at least like it. Do you ever worry that your handmade items won't be well received?

It's that age old problem that our brains have. We can not know what someone else is truly thinking or feeling. We don't know if they were hoping for something knitted instead of art or maybe they needed something in particular but the news never got to you.

(altered canvas pre-photos and embellishments)

I have put a lot of work into this canvas. From the hours of mixing paint, painting, drying, painting more, inking, cutting out paper, finding just the right antique buttons and flowers to making sure the photos to be used on the canvas were good....not to mention the stress of finding the right frame. Even now it sits on my workbench taunting me, telling me it is missing something, but I am not sure what. A quote? A word? I am still not sure. I sit here doubting myself and wondering if it is "good enough" for the Matriarch of my husband's family. This woman is amazing. Will she know all the love I put into this work with each stroke of the brush? Will she know how long it took to get the flowers glued in position or the beeswax melted with mica powders over certain papers...will she feel the love? That is what I hope she sees when she looks at this work of art hanging on her wall. Love from a family that doesn't live that close anymore, but thinks of her often and misses her. I can only hope that this gift from my hands and heart will touch hers and show her how much we really do care.






Sometimes we have to just believe in ourselves, believe in our craft and know that the power of love shines through even if the people on the receiving end don't know how to show it.

Merry Christmas!
Amberlee

Super Saturday Stretch Inspiration with Amberlee

Christmas Time Fun! It's the 11th of December do you know where your homemade gifts are? Are they ready to go? Or are you still working on them? Do you suddenly need something for a party at work or a child's teacher? Then you have come to the right place!

1. Altoids or plain Tins--you can make an album for family members with photos, for a teacher using quotes, or your best friend. You can print out pages once you measure the tin. For more ideas on how to create a small album from a tin here are a couple great links to get you started.

Altoid Tin on MonkeySee (there are multiple videos)

Mini Album

Shopping Survival Kit (so cute!)

2. Websites with Homemade Christmas Gift ideas

Family Fun for kids who want to create fun gifts for everyone

Mom's Who Think has great ideas as well

Martha Stewart's handmade gift ideas

3. Another great idea is to take the old CD jewel cases you may have laying around and create a calendar to put inside. You can measure the inside of the case (which stands up and holds the calendar pages inside) and create digital calendar pages to print, cut and place inside. I didn't use a template, but I am sure you can find some online as well.

4. Create a tag album using tags and your circle or snowflake punch. Using 4 to 6 tags you take your punched out circles and fold them in half and use them to attach to the tags to create an accordion album. You can add snowflakes to the circles or, if your snowflake is large enough, use just the snowflake. Add quotes, small photos and embellishments. Can also be used as a card or tag mini for decoration on a package.

5. A special Christmas Recipe booklet, tin or album. Share your favorite and most cherished family recipes with your children or someone special. There are lots of references on the internet for a variety of styles.

I hope that helps you come up with something quick, easy and from the heart for those on your list you haven't been able to make anything for yet. Or save this page and start early for next year! Have a great weekend!

Tips for Christmas photos

Hi everyone! I've been searching the Internet for some fresh ideas for Christmas photos. Of course I had to share my finds with you.

16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas
>Have yourself a merry little Christmas photo album
Top picks of Christmas card photo ideas for families
How to Take Great Christmas Pictures
11 Tips for Better Candid Photography

 I hope these inspire you to try something new when capturing those Christmas memories.

Scrapping You

I am afraid there is someone terribly important missing from a lot of scrapbookers photos and layouts. Without this person there would be no photos or layouts, but they don't appear in any. Heck they often aren't even mentioned without a photo. Wondering who that person might be? That person is you.

As scrappers we take dozens (or hundreds) of photos of events. We painstakingly create layouts so that our families can look back and smile at all the wonderful memories. And future generations will get to know a lot more about their past because of these wonderful pages we are creating. But someday, even if you live to be a 105, someday you won't be around to explain who you are or why you aren't in any of the layouts.

You may have to remind someone to take a picture of you, but do it. It is important that you appear in the pages of your scrapbooks. Consider creating a "Book of Me". Layouts about "you" don't have to involve a lot of journaling.

In this layout, I think I share quite a bit about what I like to do. But is it wordy, nope. Just a few word strips on the left hand side of the page tell the story. But it is an important story to tell.

This layout was created using Girl You R A Dreamer by Kiki Halbert.  It's feminine without being too girly and the word art makes it perfect for a layout about "you".

This week, I encourage you to think of ways to include "you" in your layouts.  I know for some of us that isn't the most exciting thought in the world.  But one day, your family will thank you for it.

Time to brighten up our life.....

I am sure many of your may be buried in snow, freezing cold weather and of course Christmas. You want to go here it is warm? The way to do it is in your scrapping!! While we wait to scrap this years Christmas photos, drink our hot chocolate and say brrr, think warm and garden and look no further than Recherche by Kiki Halbert's kits Dan Un Jardin...a wonderful collection for your garden and spring photos. This kit has beautiful spring colors and adorable gardening elements. One of our CT members, Pamela made an adorable layout with this kit. I think I am ready to plant something!!!  Don't you just love that picket fence???



This is the beautiful kit and it is available at Funky Playground:

Super Saturday Stretch Inspriation

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!" Last night was light up night for a small town near us. Normally I wouldn't go out to an event in the cold, but our son was performing with their small show choir and of course I couldn't miss that. I was reminded of the wonderful night I met my husband at the end of December 16 years ago now. I was transported back to a snowy night on one of our first dates where we went to the capitol steps in Lansing, MI and took in the Christmas lights and the Capitol Tree. Very romantic! Even now Christmas and the New Year are the most romantic times for us.

What are your Christmas stories? What is involved? Ski Trips? Sledding? Meeting with loved ones? Light up nights? Putting up the tree together? Do you celebrate Hanukkah? What do you love about this time of year? Write it all down. I challenge you to write down memories from the seasons past. I challenge you to write down memories from the present. If you want you could visualize Christmas or Hanukkah future! Write them down, take an entire page. Do a photo collage, or a journaling collage.

What is a journalling collage you ask? It is a page where you just start by writing. You can add in drawings, doodles, photos, altered pics from a magazine, but it all begins with writing your story. You can type it out on the computer and add elements and photos to it. You can turn it into a story book. Do something different. Step outside your computer screen and create your unique story!

Try using colors that you normally wouldn't for the holiday season. Bohemian Solids (from the Bohemian Blush kit from Recherché by KH Designs is a great set of paper for a funky Christmas theme.

Bright Skies Ahead is another that would set lots of blues for the holiday.

Kiki's Bubblegum Classic would work for Christmas or the New Year for a black and white look with a touch of pink!

Of course Kiki's Snowpunched Up is a wonderful Christmas/Winter scrapkit to play with too!

So think outside the computer box and write your stories!!! Your children and grandchildren will thank you.

Holiday Help so You Can Get Back to Scrapping

This is the time of year when everyone gets busy with holiday preparations and no one has time to scrap.  Then when the New Year arrives, we all find ourselves two months behind on scrapping. (Of course, if you are like me and still have years of pics to scrap, what's two more months? lol)  To help you have a little free time this season for yourself and scrapping, I am here with some stocking stuffer ideas to help you wrap up your shopping.

One easy idea is gift certificates.  Everyone offers them these days, so you can easily find one that your husband, daughter or mother will enjoy.  Even kids can enjoy gift cards to some place like ToysRUs.  Don't know where to look, or don't want to leave the house, then Amazon or iTunes gift certificates are the perfect fit for everyone.

I think you may already know my next idea, socks.  For kids and teenagers, stick some fun patterned socks in their stocking.  For women, maybe some trouser socks for work.  And for the man in your life? Whatever socks he likes, cause if your man is like my dh, the socks seem to disappear as fast as I can buy them. lol

Another great idea is cologne or perfume.  A small bottle will fit perfectly in their stocking and places like Walmart or Target place this stuff at the front of the store, so that it is easy to get in and get out.

My next idea, a trip to Bath and Body Works. And this isn't just for women any more.  They have some amazing scents for men like Oak or Twilight Woods for men.  And the sample sizes are perfect for the stocking.

Another great idea for your mother or daughter is earrings.  They don't have to be expensive and they fit easily in to the stocking.

For the man in your life?  What about a trip to the tools section to pick up a 6 in 1 screwdriver that contains multiple tips within the head of the screwdriver.  A leatherman or swiss army knife will also fit perfectly in that stocking.

When you are looking for kids stocking stuffers heading on over to the toy or arts & crafts sections will lead to stocking stuff heaven.

Last years mega gift, the Zhu Zhu pet, is this years perfect stocking stuffer. They are easy to find and they are still inexpensive.

Another inexpensive idea is crayons, markers or watercolor paints.  And these are the types of things kinds just don't tire of.

A small Lego set would also make a great stocking stuffer.

And I have one last idea for just about everyone on your list, lip balm.  For the man in your life, you can choose something like Burt's Bees Lip Balm.  And for any female in your life, there are fun lip balms to be had that they will find a fun addition to their stocking.  They even make lip balm with cute characters for kids' stockings.

Hopefully, I've helped you find a little more time for scrapping this holiday season (or at least made your shopping life a little easier).