My New Camera!!

Woohoo!! I'm beyond excited for this new toy!! Dh got me a Canon Powershot S51S Digital Camera for Christmas!! It has 12x zoom and 8.0 megapixels!! I've been playing around with it a bit and already am soooo impressed with the pictures it takes!! Here's a picture of the camera!

And here are a couple of pictures I took of the girls yesterday!

We're going out to the playground in a few minutes so I can try out my camera some more! (oh yeah, and so the girls can play too!! lol)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I pray that everyone is having a VERY Blessed Christmas with your family and friends!!!!

Luke 2
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

I pray you will always remember the true meaning of Christmas!

Merry Christmas EVERYONE!!!

Christmas Traditions!

Each year at our home, we create a Gingerbread house! I used to do most of the work with the decorating but now its getting so all I have to do is mix the icing and Emilee and Sara do the rest They have such fun creating patterns with the candies, and of course, eating the icing that drips!

Here are some photos of them in the creating process!

Here's a picture of the finished product!

Send me a comment and let me know your favorite Christmas tradition!!

Making your Own Printed Ribbon!!

Here's a tutorial I put together for the challenge 6 of the Design Team Contest at Savvy 'n Sassy

Here's the challenge:
1. Create a Blog "How To" ribbon Technique - (anything you Like - altered or Layout) be sure to include extra images showing the process and the instructions. DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS....
2. use at least 2 DIFFERENT ribbons on your creation

So here's what I came up with!!

Have you ever wanted a ribbon that said a certain thing, but just could not find a piece in your stash to use?

Or, maybe, you have a certain color of ribbon and though, "Now, if only that ribbon had ______ written on it".

Well, now you can have any color of ribbon, any size - say whatever you want, by making it yourself!!

How do I do this????? (you ask....)

Here's how!!!

First, gather these supplies: ~ a sheet of printed paper ~ scissors ~ tape ~ two way tape ~ and or course, a printer!

1. Next, choose what ribbon you want to use! I find that the best ribbon is the kind that it at least 1/4 inch wide or greater. Silk ribbon does not work well, but most other kinds work great (especially grossgrain - like the stuff I used for my LO. You can find it here - White Grossgrain

2. Open up your Microsoft Word program and change the page LO to landscape. To do this click on FILE in the top left hand corner, then click on page setup, then paper size. You'll find a section to change orientation here, and you pick landscape!!

~~ Then decide what words you want printed and type them into the blank document. Play around with the fonts a bit and even the colors. You can really be as creative as you wish. As you can see in my photo, I decided to use the words, "Fun at the playground"

My font size shown here was 24.

3. Print the words onto your blank paper.

After doing this, place your piece of ribbon over the print to see if the size is right. Here's when you can either make the font bigger or smaller to fit your width of your ribbon.
Once you get the font the correct size, you can move on to the next step.

4. Use the 2 way tape to stick your ribbon OVER the print. Two way tape works especially well if you have a long phrase to print, because it prevents the ribbon from buckling as it's going through your printer.

Then use the regular tape to tape down the END of the ribbon that will go through the printer first. This allows for the ribbon to go through so much easier! Here's a close-up of what the ribbon should look like when it is taped.

5. Next, place the paper (with the taped ribbon) back into the paper feeder section of your printer. (if you are like me, you will not remember which way to feed it and will end up making two tries before the print actually shows up in the right place!)lol

Click 'PRINT' and watch your paper come through! VIOLA!!! you have a piece of ribbon with just the words you needed to add that little extra touch to your LO!!

Here's a picture of the printed ribbon still on the paper:

And here's a picture of it OFF the paper!

Remember, I said that creativity is really up to you. You can choose any font, any color, and any size (well, within reason to fit on the ribbon). Play around with the dingbat font too, and see what you can come up with!

Here's my LO I created! As you can see I added a little more than just the words I showed here!!

Products used for this LO:

pp - Fancy Pants Sweet Pea

Ribbon - Small Black Ricrack and White Grossgrain

Thanks for reading!!!

Old Fashion Christmas!

Look at my little girlies!! Aren't they just the CUTEST??

This past weekend we were involved in a Christmas Production at our church. It's called, "The Living Nativty". The production is an interactive one, where people walk through different scenes and then go into the main church to watch a play filled with singing, dancing, and music. Part of the scenes that people walk through is an old fashioned setting. It's AMAZING!!! There are storefronts, 'outdoor scenes' and then people who were standing in full old fashion dress. It's just stepping back in time! We were part of this. That's why the girls were dressed like this. This production went for three evenings! The girls did so well!!

Anyway, I just wanted to share how cute they looked! These curls in their hair took over an hour to create! lol

Thanks for looking!

Savvy and Sassy!!

Savvy 'n Sassy is a Canadian based Scrapbooking RIBBON kit club! (LOVE this original idea!) On the site they have a STORE, a FORUM , and a GALLERY full of inspirational projects! Also, if you check out their BLOG you will see all the wonderful ribbon kits for the month of December.

The next challenge for the Design Team contest at Savvy 'n Sassy came at JUST the perfect time! The challenge was to create an altered item using ribbons, of course!

Now, altered items are not usually my strength, but I faced this challenge head on, anyway! You see, every year, for the past 2 years, I have create a minialbum (kind of a brag book) for both my mother and my MIL. They don't get to see Emilee and Sara all through the year, so they look forward to getting this album full of photos to show off to their friends and neighbours!!

For the past albums, I have always used a ready made album and created the pages to add to it! Because of this challenge from Savvy 'n Sassy I decided to create a minialbum totally from scratch! I used an idea from an online friend (Thanks HOLLY!!), took a little bit of a different twist! It's easier to just show the photos then for me to try and explain it!

So, here's the ALBUM!!

The 2007 numbers are actually a part of the cardboard page! I cut each page separately, the added key rings, ribbons, photos, embellishments, and voila!! (I think I wanna keep it for myself now!! lol)

Here are the inside pages!!

Here are the products I used:

cs - Bazzill
pp - Webster's Pages Vintage
chipboard lettering - Scenic Route Stencil Letters (Chestnut) and K & Company
Cosmo Cricket Autumn Phrases Rub-ons - Brown
Pom Pom trim - Brown
Hemp Cord
ribbon - BG and misc
bg - sticker letters

Thanks so much Savvy 'n Sassy for the great challenge!!

TOP TEN for Savvy 'n Sassy!!!

Defination of Savvy - practical know-how; common sense

Defination of Sassy - Stylish; chic

These definations show, exactly what the ladies at Savvy 'n SASSY are!! They are a group of ladies who have the practical know-how to be stylish and chic!!

Pretty neat hey??

This week there was another CHALLENGE posted for the Design Team Contest!! And it was a GREAT one!

I had to create a TOP TEN layout! Although I had to think about it for a couple of days, I think the one I had completed came together perfectly! We've had so much snow lately, I figured, what better topic to use then SNOW!!

Here's my LO!!

Title : Top Ten Ways to LOVE Snow

10. Take rides in Daddy's Snow Scoop

9. Jump in the snow banks

8. Build snow tunnels

7. Go sledding with friends

6. Play, "Catch a snowflake on your tongue"

5. Go skiing

4. Go ice skating

3. Build a snowman

2. Help daddy shovel

1. Drink hot chocolate with marshmellows!

Products used:

pp - Lil' Davis

Sticker lettering and numbers - BG

ribbons - BG

Hamble transparency edged with MM paint

chipboard letters - K & Company

Melissa Frances Glitter Chipboard Heart

Chipboard arrows - Fancy Pants covered with Lil' Davis pp

Thanks so much for looking!!

SNOW Day!!!

Wow!! What a day! We knew this storm was coming but as much as you think you are prepared for it, it seems I'm still amazed at how much snow can actually fall in a 12 hour period. The snow started at about 7:00 yesterday evening and it hasen't stopped yet! As of 3:00 this morning, we had 25 cm on the ground. That's not taking into consideration all the snow drifts (where the snow is so MUCH higher!). We are expecting another 25 cm before it stops tonight sometime. Dh is outside trying to shovel the driveway. I think he's got most of it completed now....well, until the plow comes along again!! lol

The wind is howling outside as I type now, and it make be feel blessed to have a warm home shelter us! Everything in the city is shut down, including the transit buses, all government facilities, schools, daycares, even the shopping centres. Emiee was listening to all the closures on the radio and amazed with all they were listing.

Snow days are great though! There's just something fun about being in a warm home, completely enclosed by snow!! So far today we have eaten homemade waffles, read stories, watched a Christmas movie, and made christmas ornaments out of egg cartons! And it's only 12:47!!

Well, I'd better go feed my children and dh! He just came inside! Here are some pictures I took of all the snow, about 15 minutes ago! Enjoy!

Here's Sheldon shoveling the driveway!

Here's the backyard

Here's the swingset in the backyard!

Feeling cold yet?? lol

KI Memories Contest at Scrapbook Heaven

We are having a KI Memories Contest this month at SCRAPBOOK HEAVEN !! So, pull out those KI Memories goodies and start creating!! Any kind of KI Memories product will do!

Here's what you need to know...
-The KI Memories will be open for entries as of TODAY, Dec 2, 2007.
-Entries must be uploaded to our KI Memories gallery to be eligible to win. The last day to upload entries will be January 21, 2008.
- Each contestant is allowed 2 entries. More than 2 entries will result in disqualification.
- Entries will be judged on best use of KI Memories products. Items accepted will be layouts (any size), altered items, and albums using KI Memories.
- Entries must contain 75% or more of KI memories products. PLEASE list ALL supplies used.)
- Scrapbook Heaven's Design Team members will be judging the contest. Winners will be announced on January 30th, 2008.
- No purchase is necessary to win.
- Winner will receive $50.00 in KI Memories products.
- Please be sure to register on the forum, as well as, the gallery, so that you can be contacted, and so we can get to know you!
- Although, participation in our forum is not mandatory, it may be taken into consideration when deciding on the winner.
- All prizes must be claimed within 30 days after announcing the winner.

Just in case you need to stock up on KI Memories goodies for this contest....click HERE for a load of product to choose from!!

We look forward to seeing all your entries!!

Savvy 'n Sassy - Challenge #2

Here's a card I created for the Design Team Contest on Savvy 'n Sassy.

The challenge was:

1. Create a Card (9 inches tall - 4 inches wide).

2. Incorporate Chipboard & Ribbons onto your Card (min - 2 diff ribbons)

3. Blog your Card - and link us to your blog entry in this thread.

4. Upload in the gallery before Deadline and post your picture in this thread!

So, here's my card!!

Supplies used:

cs - bazzill

stamps - Stampin' Up

Ribbon - Misc

Chipboard Flowers - Fancy Pants

Thanks for looking!!