Ready for some more eye candy?

Molly had her school Christmas concert on the 10th and I just love this picture of her and two of her friends – the word art is another digital oldie from Ali Edwards and I added some star sequins from my stash.

A picture of Molly singing at the concert and another with her beloved teacher (she was filling this fall for the regular teacher who was on maternity leave and she will be sorely missed!). I also added a Stampin’ Up! transparency and some Freckled Fawn stars to one pocket but forgot to take a close up – sorry!

The night of the 11th was our last Keeping Track of Life class before Christmas and a couple of us decided to take advantage of the fact we were out anyway and go grab some food – love doing that after classes! The awesome script paper is from the DD kit while the wood veneer and red metallic alphas are from the SU! kit.

This is one of my favourite spreads in the album for two reasons: it’s got my 12 on Twelve pics, which I love each month, and it’s got that amazing chipboard page from the DD kit which I heat embossed using gold, silver, and gold glitter powders. It’s super awesome. I added a transparency which I stapled on and then I added bits and pieces to the holes.

That’s the front and back. Isn’t it great?!? I really love how it turned out!

I used another 1/2 sheet of printed transparency as a divider between the chipboard and the photos for the 13th. The kids had breakfast with Santa at church and then their Christmas pageant rehearsal.

Christmas Pageant day! M&G were two of the three “wise people” plus Gabe lit the Advent Candle and Molly did a scripture reading. Then my Dad took us all out for lunch – big day all around! The “JOY” letters were simply stapled to a page protector that I cut up and slipped into the pocket.

One the fun nights each year is The Paperie Members party.  There’s always a group shot plus Heather and I always manage to have crazy pictures together – I think we’re the wacky ones. 🙂

A couple of months ago our new fitness centre and pool opened – a *huge* upgrade from the place we were in and the kids are loving their lessons in this big bright place. Luckily, most of the instructors made the move over too so we still have the same awesome swim coaches for the kids.

Today also had a fun little visit to Gabe’s classroom to see all the Christmas art projects he’s been working on and to hear the songs he and his classmates have learned. All those four- and five-year-olds singing and dancing? The best.

Day 17 is my other favourite spread. I convinced the kids (Molly required bribery) to let me get some pictures and I love how they turned out. I’ve already shared Molly’s and Gabe’s here on the blog but they needed to make it into my album too. I’m pretty sure you’ll also see them on a LO or two in the future! I kept things super simple with a large gold initial in one pocket and a puffy heart sticker in the centre of each page.

Molly had her last climbing night of the year and managed a 5.8 overhang, with a little help. I have no idea what any of that means since Darrell is the one who takes her wall climbing but they were both very happy with that news when they got home!

One of my favourite things to do each Christmas is to go see a local group, The Ennis Sisters, do their Christmas show. They travel right across the island part of the province, singing in churches, and they donate part of the proceeds of each show back to the communities they perform in. They’re amazing and I always feel like Christmas truly starts once I’ve gone to the concert. I added the playbill and ticket in one of the pockets.

Woah! Another long one but only one more post to go – tomorrow I’ll finish it off!

Cheers!

S.

Ok people, grab your favourite cup of something and settle in! Even though I’m breaking this up into several posts there are still lots of pics. I’m give a quick rundown but if you have any questions just ask in the comments and I can answer in more detail. Enjoy!

The first spread in my book has pieces from the Freckled Fawn Christmas Embellishment kit and the Ali Edwards December Daily kit. Those two, along with a mini Project Life Christmas Kit from Stampin’ Up! made up my supplies for this year.

I love the full-page papers from AE and thought this was the perfect way to start the season, with the addition of a little bling, of course!

Another full-page paper with some embellishment additions and the sheet Molly had to fill out for school listing her Santa wishes.

And December 1st is not complete with Advent Calendars – Lego ones here, as always! I used an old Ali Edwards overlay in Photoshop for the picture.

On the third I started decorating and Gabe brought home a colouring page from school. He loves to look through the mini albums and see his things so he asked almost every day to have his school work added in.

I wanted to show more of the decorations but not have them a focal point so I used a Simple Stories flip pocket to add in a couple more pictures.

Whenever I have two days on one spread I try to separate them with an acetate divider. I totally stole this idea from Ali Edwards – I loved how the transparency overlays looked when cut in half.

I added Gabe’s end-of-session report from Gymnastics and I still have to include the reindeer the kids are making in the picture. The washi tape is from the Freckled Fawn kit and I gold embossed the circle of stars and the “3”. Almost all the wood veneer numbers are gold, with a few silver thrown in for some change!

A bunch of odds and ends for Day 4 – Stampin’ Up! wood veneer embossed with gold and silver, a glitter tree stickers, lots of diagonal stamping and a small pocket from last year’s DD kit to hold a lunchbox note I gave Molly. It cam back with a heart and a note on it for me. 🙂

Day 5 was all about the Santa picture. I think I’ve figured out the timing to get at Santa without the huge lineup – I’ve manged to beat it the last two years! This is my favourite Santa picture ever – I’m sure the photographer thought I was nuts when I said I didn’t want the kids looking at us but it turned out perfectly!

This year, my sisters- and mother-in-law decided to have a girls only Christmas shopping trip. I decided we were doing a Santa picture and yes, I totally bullied them all into it. Isn’t that a great keepsake though? All the girls on my husband’s side of the family – that doesn’t happen very often!

We also went to the Bowring Park Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony and naturally Molly and Poppy would only pose together if they were crazy pictures. Someday I will have a nice one of those two together!

The see-through element here is made up of the bokeh star, a piece of tissue confetti, and a number from Freckled Fawn. I added more confetti and a puffy heart sticker to the back. Those puffy stickers in the DD kit? Maybe my favourite embellishment this year!

Another double day spread for 7 and 8. I taught a kid’s class at The Paperie on Sunday and we put up the tree (minus decorations) on Monday. I had originally stamped that card with numbers 1-8 but ended up attaching the big gold 8 instead and just stamping some sentiments.

 I had a chance for some fun with Lori on the ninth and it took us forever to get a decent picture of the two of us – I’m not sure we ever succeeded! I pulled an Ali Edwards and journaled some notes to M&G with different size pens on the large paper page – I love how it looks! To highlight the “9” I coloured it with my red Wink Of Stella pen and doodled with Sakura’s Clear Stardust Gelly Roller.

Whew! Are you tired of pictures yet? I  hope not! Tomorrow I’ll have some more of the album, including my two favourite spreads of the year!

Cheers!

S.