ListEn iN

Last Day with Aphra...

Hi everyone.  It's been such a fun week for me hanging out here at Adornit.  I have just one more layout to show you before I'm off to celebrate the New Year.

 

As soon as I saw the colors in the Misty collection, I thought of Christmas.  I pulled out this sweet photo of my kiddos in their red and grey sweaters.  It was just meant to be!

 

 

As you can see, I love to use lots of layers of patterned paper while still leaving myself some white space.  Using strips of paper allows me to meet both needs. 

 

My journaling was a bit too long for just one Misty Bird cardstock stickers, so I used two.  To complete my little cluster, I added a third sticker and embellished with two birds cut from the Wonderful Misty paper. 

 

 

I love that the Love Blooms stickers come with so many word stickers.  I was able to use two of them for the title of my layout.  I used foam adhesive to pop them up and then added a heart sticker and parenthesis sticker to draw a little more attention to this area of the layout. 

 

It has been such a fun week here with all of you.  Thanks for having me.  Happy New Year!

Day Three with Aphra...

Hi ladies.  I'm back for Day Three, Vintage Groove.  And let me just say, as much as I love Fern and adore Pink Hoot, I am so crazy in love with Vintage Groove.  I love the variety of colors, especially the bright blue and pops of red.  All that color inspired this layout about my little one.

 

 

One of my go to scrappy techniques is layers of borders and the Vintage Fun sheet in this collection made that so easy for me.  I just cut up several of the strips and piled them up.  And there are even two broder strips on the sticker sheet, too.  Eeek!!!  Fun.

 

I did some more layering to embellish my layout.  First, I fussy cut some flowers from the Vintage A paper and layered them with some of the Vintage Moments, Vintage Family, and Vintage Love stickers.  Then, topped them off with a tied button.

For my title area, I cut out part of a tag from the Heirloom paper, layered on another flower, and then added my title.  The smaller words are Adornit's red and white tiny alphas and the larger word are some foam Thickers from my stash. 

 

I've got one more layout up my sleeve, so I'll be back tomorrow to share some Misty.  See ya!

Day Two with Aphra

Hi again, Scrappers.  I'm back to share my Pink Hoot mini album.  Like I said yesterday, I am a momma scrapping two boys.  You might think I wouldn't be excited to receive a collection that features so many girly colors, but I was.  You see, I have a couple of theories about using pink to scrap pictures of my boys.  First, if the picture is a close up with lots of skin tone, well I can use pink because it complements their peachy skin nicely.  Second, if I am in the photo, then I can use pink.  In fact, if ANY girls are in the photo, I can use pink.  Ok, I know it's not perfect logic, but it allows me to use a lot of great products.  Like Pink Hoot.

As you can see, my album is pretty simple.  The Pink Hoot papers and stickers are so cute that you don't need to add much.  All I added from my stash was a few buttons and some pop dots.  Gotta love that!

 

Thanks for popping in!  I'll be back tomorrow with some Vintage Groove.  Toodles!

Guest Blogger... Aphra Bolyer

Hello scrappers! My name is Aphra, and I live down South in Louisiana with my Alaskan oil man Jeff and our two boys, Jonathan (10) and Ethan (3). While my husband is tromping around in the Alaskan tundra for weeks at a time, I'm home working part-time at a doctor's office, chasing around two rowdy boys and our miniature dachshund Max, and staying up into the wee hours of the night scrapbooking.

I fell in love with this hobby back in 2000 when my oldest son was born, and I get more and more addicted with each new product release. It's my passion, my creative outlet, my sanity! Mostly, I create layouts of my family, but I also enjoy making cards, gifts, and decor. Honestly, I will use any excuse to get to scrapbook!

 

I was so excited to receive the Fern collection.  It is a dream for a momma scrapping two boys.  The colorful papers and playful patterns are just perfect for any of my scrappy occasions.

 

 

For my Dream card, I used a kraft cardstock base and two of the fun Fern patterns.  Then, I just used several of the Life's A Hoot stickers to adorn the card:  the blue border, the brown scallop, scalloped owl circle, and scalloped dream circle.  The finishing touch was a strip of Dotty Ribbon.

 

 

This layout was inspired by the Owl Hoot B paper.  The cute owls perched on the circle trees were just begging to be fussy cut, so I obliged.

 

 

I added a few brads and a couple more Life's A Hoot stickers, my title, and some journaling and the layout was done. 

 

I'll be back tomorrow with my Life's A Hoot Pink project.  Hope to see you then!

Reindeer Cookies...

Last weekend I was invited to my very first Cookie Exchange - it was sooo fun! Everyone had to bring 4 dozen cookies and then you exchange the cookies so that means I went home with with a ton of declicous cookies!! Yes we have been eating very well here in the Hall household. I chose to make these cute Reindeer Cookies. Here's the recipe.

Snicker Doodles

 * 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup shortening
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

   1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

   2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.

   3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

   4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Immediately add chocolate covered pretzels and allow time to cool. Once the cookies are completely cool use icing to add Red Hots for the nose and Chocolate Chips for the eyes.

Scenes from December...

I can hardly believe that Christmas in in three days! It seems like this holiday season has completely flown right past me. There is so much I haven't gotten done such as a few lingering decorations that were never put up and I just keep moving out of the way, a Christmas card that I designed but never printed or mailed, neighbor & teacher gifts never purchased, and wrapping that is usually done by now but isn't. BUT with all that I didn't do we DID do a lot - I think that's why the time has flown by. Here's some fun snapshots taken through December.

This is Boston helping  decorate our NEW - PRELIGHT Christmas Tree. I got a good deal on Black Friday. I gave my old Christmas Tree to my sister Jackie who is a newly wed.

Bob our magical elf brought the boys their traditional Christmas pajamas. But what's funny is that the kids will hardly put on pajamas. We will put them on and then when we check on them later they have both stripped down to their underwear. This started in the summer time when it was hot and I guess they've decided it's much more comfortable.

Sitting on Santa's lap at the McMullin Christmas Party. Boston asked for a Optimus Prime Transformer.

This was a big year for Daxton - he didn't cry when he sat on Santa's lap! Hooray! He was a bit scared so I had to go up with him but then he decided he wasn't so bad. Daxton asked for Farm Toys.

December 10-12 we had two Christmas parties in Salt Lake. Since it's hard to travel that far with two kids I decided we would make a weekend of it. The boys and I drove down Friday so we could go to the McMullin party. We stayed the night at my Grandma Jackie's house which was a lot of fun for me. I haven't slept at my Grandma's for several years and it brought back a lot of fun memories of when I was a little girl. The next day we woke up and went to TANGLED with my Grandma - I loved that movie! Afterwards we met up with my In-Laws and spent the rest of the afternoon with them. That night we went to Temple Square to see all the beautiful holiday nights. We spent the night at Aunt Nanettes with my In-laws. On Sunday we had our Forsyth Family party at Nanettes. WHEW! We were exaused by the time we made it home so Eric took the kids home and I went to Jackie's house to celebrate her birthday.

This is a picture of the boys in front of the Reflection Pond at Temple Square with the Nativity in the background.

We had friends over for Family Night and decorated these fun Gingerbread houses that I made hot glueing Grahm Crackers together. The kids had a lot of fun decorating!

And that catches up to tonight. We had our Christmas party at the Hall's tonight. We went caroling, had dinner, read the nativity, and opened up presents. Here's a picture of the grandkids - Boston a shepherd, Benson was Joesph, and Daxton was a wise man.

And finally the best part - PRESENTS!!

Vintage Groove Fabric has Arrived!

We are shouting from the rooftops with excitement for the arrival of our second fabric collection, Vintage Groove. The shipment arrived Friday and it filled the parking lot while we sorted and arranged inside the warehouse.

And hats off to my awesome Dad who spent the afternoon out in the freezing cold driving the forklift around helping arrange the boxes.

And I had to slip this one in just because he's so dang cute. Daxton had to come hang out with Mom at work, but I think he enjoys running around and hiding in the empty cardboard boxes.

Here's a peek at some the beautiful quilts that we have been working on using the new collection. More info coming soon.

Winners!!

A huge thank you to all the girls who made last week so inspiring - Liz, Suzanne, Melinda, Aprhra, Robbie, and Frances!

And a big thanks to all of our readers who commented, here our the winners chosen at random.

Day #1 = Kelly Massman (#13 Comment) = Misty Collection

 

Day #2 = Kathy (#25 Comment) - Vintage Groove collection

 

Day #3 = Heather Robertson (#12 Comment) = Pink Hoot

 

Day #3 = Dana Tatar (#1 Comment) = Fern

 

Please email me your address.

Hopping with Adornit - Day 3

Today we thought it would be fun to get you all hopping into action with a little Potato Sack Race.  There is nothing as entertaining as watching a group of kids try to hop their way to the finish line, laughing and falling all the way.  We also thought it was a perfect way to show off our two adorable owl collections - Pink Hoot and Fern.  They are the perfect palette of brightness and fun to scrapbook the amazing children in your life.




For a look at some wonderful ideas on how to craft with this collection, please visit the blogs of some of Adornit's talented friends to see what they created.  Leave a comment on each of their blogs and "race" back here and tell us all about it and two people will be entered into a drawing to win one of these collections.


Melinda
http://thescrapfarm.blogspot.com/

Liz
http://lizqualman.blogspot.com/

Suzanne
http://scrappinthedetails.typepad.com/

Aphra
http://www.aphradeedesigns.blogspot.com/

Robbie
http://robbiesphotoblog.blogspot.com/


Frances
http://francessylvia.blogspot.com/

 

Hopping with Adornit - Day 2

Today we have a little "Sock Hop" to get our groove on.  To kick it off, we would like to share our amazing Vintage Groove Collection.  It's the perfect combination of reds, yellows, grays and blacks that will take you back in time, create nostalgic thoughts and put a smile on your face.



For a look at some wonderful ideas on how to craft with this collection, please visit the blogs of some of Adornit's talented friends to see what they created.  Leave a comment on each of their blogs and "sock hop" back here and tell us all about it and you will be entered into a drawing to win this entire collection.

Suzanne
http://scrappinthedetails.typepad.com/

Robbie
http://robbiesphotoblog.blogspot.com/

Melinda
http://thescrapfarm.blogspot.com/

Liz
http://lizqualman.blogspot.com/

Frances
http://francessylvia.blogspot.com/

Aphra
http://www.aphradeedesigns.blogspot.com/