Christmas White Elephant

My husband is from a very large family; nine siblings and countless nieces, nephews and cousins.  Last year, in lieu of traditional gift-giving, it was decided that we would do a White Elephant exchange.  Words cannot describe the fun we had.  I laughed so hard I cried.  One cannot imagine the "stuff" that can be gifted.  Here, my sister-in-law, Peggy opens up a child's bowling ball. 

This layout features one of my favorite manufacturers, Moxxie.  The Joys of the Season collection is new for 2010 and features seven double-sided papers with coordinating stickers and rub ons.  I love the use of the non-traditional blue and yellow hues in this collection. 

What a retreat weekend!

This weekend was the Crop Til You Drop Oktoberfest Extravaganzaa scrapbook retreat and what a weekend it was.  My friend, Jen, and I worked mostly on dog-themed items that we're donating to a wonderful cause, the Placing Paws Pet Rescue.  Jen adopted two dogs from Placing Paws and has fostered others.  She is very involved with the organization and being a pet lover myself, I was excited to be able to make some things to sell as well.  I also worked on a few sports layouts for a friend of mine.  This retreat was the inauguaration of the Pazzles Inspiration machine, so I used the embossing tool and Core'dinations Color Core paper to make the background words .  I think it turned out awesome:

Christmas Mint Layout

Here's a layout I created using the Christmas Mint collection.  As I stated earlier, I find this collection to be sophisticated, so I'm looking for just the right picture to put on it.  I'm thinking of playing with the Sepia tones in a few pics to see if maybe that works.  I'll let you know how that turns out. 

JOY to the world...Christmas is coming fast!

It's that time of year again around here...new Christmas product is coming in fast and furious and for me the dilemma of which collection do I work with first.  This year I chose the Christmas Mint collection because of its unique color scheme and sophistication.  Since we are hardly sophisticated at our house around Christmas time, I couldn't find a single picture that would look nice on this paper, so I decided to do an altered art project.  I purchased paper mache letters (about 8" tall) for about $1.99 a piece and painted them mint green.  Then I decorated them using several elements from the Christmas Mint collection.  Admittedly, I like how they turned out (I am often my own worst critic).

You can see the Christmas Mint collection from SEI in its entirety by clicking here. 

More fall altered art

I've had so much fun creating altered art this past week that I've done a few more things.  Here is a hanging plaque piece that I've hung from our mantle.   I used Kaisercraft's Beyond The Page tag kit along with the Fall Frolic collection from Moxxie (you know they're one of my favorite manufacturers). 

Fall Is In The Air....

I've really enjoyed working with the Fall Frolic collection from Moxxie over the past couple of days.  Here's a quick centerpiece I created using a few sheets of paper and some rubons from the collection.  You can see the entire collection along with a few other layouts and project ideas here. 

New Altered Art Project

Sometimes it's just fun to take a break from traditional scrapbooking and do an altered art project.  Here's a fall wreath I created using a metal hoop, scraps of ribbon and a few dried gourds.