Christmas 2024

Last week was the final game of Bash Bowl VII. After two games, the score was tied. My team, Twisted Scissors, won Game 1. Our opponents, Scrappin' Banshees, took Game 2. As they say, it all comes down to this. 

Here is my contribution for Game 3:

Christmas 2024 (affiliate link)

It's busier than my layouts usually are, but I'm happy with it. I've had those patterned papers and die-cuts for years; SEI released "Holiday Cheer" in 2011. So I'm glad to finally have used them. 

Here are the elements for Game 3:

I earned three points for Twisted Scissors: one for ephemera I sprinkled at the top left and bottom right; one for a textile (that's a white ribbon above the photo); and one for the Project Life cards that I layered above the photo and that are holding my journaling. It would have been easy enough to add buttons, but I didn't want the lumps and since I wasn't going to do paper distressing anyway, it would only have meant a single extra point.

Thanksgiving 2021

We hosted Steve's family for Thanksgiving in 2021. This including the newest member, our great-nephew. It's been awhile since we've had a toddler in the house; it certainly makes you look at everything with fresh eyes! He too was seeing our house with fresh eyes - a rabbit to meet, stairs to climb, and a large container of balls to go through. He is a delight. 

Thanksgiving 2021 (affiliate link)

I kept this layout really simple. I started pictures of everyone around the table, except me (although that's my plate of food I photographed), then added a picture of the dessert buffet. I added a journaling card, a random scrap to hold the date, a border sticker, and a sticker for the title. My favorite part of the layout is that the StickTogether mosaic of Trouble is photobombing everyone. 

Christmas 2016

Another long-overdue layout into the album! 

Christmas 2016 (affiliate link)

Until my parents moved out of state in 2018, our tradition was to spend Christmas Eve and morning with my family, then Christmas day with Steve's family. I combined photos from both events on a single layout with the photos roughly in chronological order (left to right, top to bottom). I managed to include at least one photo of twenty of the twenty-one people (sorry Uncle Bill). Other than that omission, I'm happy with how the layout turned out. 

Christmas 2015

I pulled out the Christmas supplies and scrapped the photos from 2015. It feels really good to fill those spots in the album. Here's Christmas morning with my family:

Christmas 2015 (affiliate link)

And here's Christmas dinner with Steve's family:

Christmas 2015 (affiliate link)

They're from the same day and will sit next to each other in the album, but I intentionally used different supplies and different shades of reds and greens to distinguish between the two. I'm particularly happy with the mitten embellishment I made on the second layout. Mostly, I'm really glad the photos are finally in the album. 

Christmas Means Family

Here's a simple layout from Christmas 2012. That's our family of three in the upper right. The bottom left is us with Steve's parents, sisters, brother-in-law, and nephews. The bottom right is us with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.  

Christmas Means Family (affiliate link)

It makes me happy. As does Trevor's snowman sweater. If the best thing about Christmas is time with family, the second best thing about Christmas is snowmen.