Katie the Scrapbook Lady

Our Christmas Cards

We booked a photo shoot with this wonderful photographer over Thanksgiving weekend and we had a scenic outdoor location all picked out. We got a few outside shots, but it was SOOOOO windy and cold that we just couldn’t pull it off. So we improvised and went inside a gelato shop. It ended up being a ton of fun and we all laughed so hard. I love that we have such great memories from the photo shoot!

We can be a tough crew to photograph, but she did a wonderful job and spent a lot of time capturing our personalities. I will be sharing more of the photos from this session at a later date, but for now I wanted to show you the one we picked for our Christmas card.

We decided that hot cocoas would be a fun prop for the photo and that made my daughter very happy. My son does not drink cocoa though, and is rather disgusted by whipped cream so we did consider this one for a minute. LOL!

I wanted a nice card design to go with our photo – something simple and elegant, so I was thrilled when I found Pinhole Press thanks to Peppermint’s pick of the week on episode 21  of The Digi Show. Both Hubby & I loved this one so it was easy to choose. We were a little late in getting them ordered so our friends and family didn’t get them until right before Christmas. That’s something I’ll do better with next year! I’m very happy with the quality from Pinhole Press and I will use them again in the future.

I scraplifted the idea from my printed cards to create a digital version to show here.

fonts are Eurostile & Constantia

I personally love holiday cards that include a photo (even as an insert) because I love to see the people I care about. We try to include a picture every year. It’s probably one of the more stressful things about Christmas for us because I never like to get my picture taken. I always just want to send out one of only the kids, but Hubby makes me get out of my comfort zone and get in front of the camera. Even though I battle him on this at times, I’m grateful that he reminds me of what’s important. I know it seems contradictory that I want everyone else to send me a picture of them, but I don’t want to do the same. I’m working on that, I promise! I do love that we have this picture of all of us together, I’m so grateful for that treasure. We had so much fun getting our pictures taken that it really made it a great experience. Thanks to my sweet friend Rachel and her fabulous Remember This Photography!

 

…

No Matter How You Say It

I’m signing off to enjoy a holiday weekend with my family. No matter how you say it, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Source: polyvore.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: flickr.com via jenna on Pinterest

 

 

.....

Source: etsy.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: etsy.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: etsy.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: etsy.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: flickr.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: flickr.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

 

…

Pinning the days away

With Christmas just around the corner, I find myself going to Pinterest for a creative little pick me up a couple of times during the day. Thankfully, my daughter has also found plenty to keep her interested there as well since she’s very anxious for the big day. I already did a post full of seasonal pins earlier in the month, but I’ve found so many fun things that I just had to share!

 

Source: thenester.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: organizeyourstuffnow.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: thinkgarnishblog.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: sassandperil.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: tasteofhome.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: gifts.personalcreations.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: juliausher.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: lhj.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: bakedperfection.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

.....

 

…

Did my holiday prep idea actually work?

How many of you remember this little project of mine?

•  
  • January I worked on my holiday card list + ideas.
  • February was about holiday recipes.
  • March was the time to plan out my blogging projects for the holiday season and plan attendance to some local seasonal events.
  • April was all about planning for holiday photos.
  • Then I got tired of the project and didn’t do any more prep work until I started with some online shopping in October.

The other day a reader left me a comment here on my blog asking if my holiday prep project actually worked for me? She wanted to know if it did indeed make my December easier and more organized. I’m so glad she asked! I had almost forgotten about this little experiment of mine and it was always my intention to report back in December to let you know how it worked out.

So… did it work? The answer is generally “YES”, but also a tiny bit of “NO” as well. Here’s why:

• The holiday card list + ideas activity was helpful because I forced myself to sort through the cards we received in 2010 and use that information to decide who to keep and remove from our list. There are a lot of people that I’ve been sending cards to who never respond with a card or even a simple response of any sort (verbal or written). I made the choice to cut them. I always feel bad over stuff like that, but I’m not too worried about it this time.
• Sorting through my holiday recipes was helpful. I didn’t really do as much planning as I thought I would, but it did get me to move my holiday cookbooks and magazines to a more accessible place in my home which was useful throughout the year and very convenient when it came time to put them out in December.
• Taking the time to plan out seasonal blogging and activities was a good mental exercise. I had to think about what kind of approach I wanted to take for blogging, and also what type of events I wanted to attend. I’m not sure this accomplished much though because I changed my mind about most of it by the time December rolled around.
• Planning for holiday photos was both a great success and somewhat of a failure. My hopes of getting that awesome family photo done in October so I was ready to go on Christmas cards was just a joke! I kept putting off the photo shoot and forgetting to get it scheduled until after Thanksgiving. Thankfully, I’m friends with a fabulous photographer who still had room in her schedule. We had a fun outdoor place all picked out but it was so incredibly windy that we had to quickly find an indoor location. I’m actually very pleased with the results! I would have never thought to use the setting that we ended up with and it is really fun. I promise I’ll share soon… but I don’t have the cards back from the printer yet. See what I mean? I didn’t totally learn my lesson on this one, but I guess that’s ok since it all turned out so great.

 

The overall consensus? It’s a “win” because I sit here on December 16th with most of my presents finished and wrapped, a decorated house, and enough time to work on some fun things like my December Daily album, and several other projects & classes. That’s a huge improvement over the last few years! I’m feeling much happier about December in general this time around. I think it was very worthwhile to take a little time in the off-season to evaluate and prepare for a better holiday experience.

…

December Inspiration from Flickr

It’s one of my own personal traditions to create a mosaic of inspiration each season from some of my favorite photos on Flickr. You can find my holiday and seasons mosaic set here.

December inspiration

1. holly after, 2. Brio train, 3. Photowalk 50 - Snowman., 4. The trees glow orange, 5. Untitled, 6.IMGP0451, 7. Paper church with bottle brush trees, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled, 10. Untitled, 11. White feather tree with vintage and new ornaments, 12. Red ornament with white dots, 13. Tiny wooden xylophone ornament, 14. Festive Felt Christmas Trees, 15. sjo, 16. saarbar

Created with fd's Flickr Toys – mosaic maker

…