December Daily Prompt...

Welcome to your prompt for today for the "DDIG - Anything Goes" Facebook group...

 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make a journal card or page commenerating a Christmas tradition or traditions.  This could be a tradition you remember from your childhood or one you do now.  It could be a picture of your tradition or a journal entry.  After all, "Anything Goes!" in this group...

 

Here's what I did...

I started writing down some of the traditions I remembered from when I was a child and those I do now.  It was interesting to see the things that didn't change. Now, THAT'S tradition... :)

If you're stumped, start asking yourself these questions:
Do we do an Advent calendar? 
Do we bake cookies?
Do I take a picture of my favorite ornament?
Do we cut down our own tree?
Do we open our gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
Do we drive around looking at light displays?
Do we host a party?
Do we go to a Christmas pageant or Church service?

Once you start thinking about it, you'd be surprised what you remember and the list can be endless...
so go now and have fun! 

December Daily...

I'm doing my first "December Daily" and I actually have the first couple days done... OH MY GOD!!  What an accomplishment for me!  Aren't you proud Susan?!!

 

My friend Susan started a facebook group called "December Daily Inspiration Group - Anything Goes" (click HERE to join us) and it has been wonderful.  Looking at everyone else's creations just confirmed to me that I didn't want to be left out in the cold... literally!  This has been challenging to keep up with but LOOK, I'm up to Day 4 and it's only Day 6... HUGE!!

 

The upper right hand panel is supposed to represent my album cover.  Susan gave me the printout when we were together last Saturday and it just fits perfectly in the ongoing theme I have thru out the rest of the book.  Each month has an actual calendar on it.  Why shouldn't December's be bigger?  It's a special month...

 

So, wish me luck on this endeavor and we'll see where we end up together... :)

Not ANOTHER group...

Yeah, I joined ANOTHER group.  This one was started by my friend and co-conspirator Susan Hiles... uh, I mean co-crafter, co-crafter, that's it!  Anyway, it's called "December Daily Inspiration Group - Anything Goes".  Come check it out on Facebook...

There was a FLASH challenge to make a tag and this is my entry...

This is a Scrappy Background that I have embossed and cut with a Sizziz Label Die-cut thru my Big Shot.  I punched a hole for the ribbon and reinforced the hole with, are you ready for this?, reinforcements!  I know, right?!!  CRAZY!!!  :)

The center piece is something that was gifted to me years ago that finally, FINALLY, found a use...

I've never done a "December Daily" but let me be the first to tell you... this GROUP is uber-talented!!  What GREAT inspiration I'm going to see.  :)

October PLCS Swap...

I joined another group on Facebook called "Project Life Card Swap".  In this group, you sign up for "themed" swaps.  You make eight of one kind of a themed journal card and receive eight different themed journal cards back.  I signed up for two swaps.  The first swaps I could be involved with after joining were for October.  This one was called "Color Theme - Autumn". 

 

I decided to do a Mixed Media piece.  I used very colorful napkins, kept the top layer and modge podged pieces of it to my journal card.  When they were dry, I trimmed the edges and added the bling.  I loved them but wasn't sure how they would be perceived by the group...



 

The second swap was called "Getting Cozy for Fall".   Again, doing Mixed Media, I created these. There were alot of different steps involved but the final result was interesting. The longest part was letting the piece dry before sending it to the hostess...

 

So, what did I get in return you ask?  Take a look...

 

 The one on the left is "Getting Cozy for Fall" and the one on the right is "Color Theme - Autumn".  I was SOOOOO blown away by the quality of the cards I received back that I couldn't stop doing the happy dance.  They are AMAZING!!  And I can only hope that those people who received my cards are just as happy with mine as I am with theirs... :)

 

So, the following month (November) I signed up for FOUR swaps... ou vey!!  :) 



Paying it Forward...

 

I'm trying out a new group on Facebook called "Card Swaps for Card Addicts" that matches you to a partner once a month and you swap that months "themed" card.  Before I was matched up with my partner however, I received a "Pay it Forward" card from a women in the group.   The idea is that once I receive the card from her, I post it, people like and comment and I pick two "winners" to continue the game.  These are the two cards I made to send to my two winners.  I was very pleased with them as they're using up the flowers I make from
the Mixed Media monoprints that I enjoy doing...

I was so pleased with the "Pay it Forward" idea that I introduced it to Seongsook's Stampers.  This is SOOOOO fun that I can only hope I will be picked again to play the "Pay it Forward" game.  What a fun, fun, concept... :)



From the Die-cut Swap...

We had a die-cut swap in the group Seongsook's Stampers back in October.  I finally got around to using these precious pieces.  We only got one but, boy, if I had twenty more of these I'd make twenty for Operation Write Home.  FIVE, I mean five... :) 

Since Sandy hasn't been receiving as many cards from cardmakers of late since the drawdown, she has requested we make no more than five on any given design...
 

O Holy Night...

 The Ernman wants to give out twelve Christmas cards to his co-workers this year and he wants them all to be different. I told him to look thru my blog and see if any previous designs jump out at him.  This is one he picked from last years collection (see HERE).  This is an updated version of that card.  This year, I distressed the edges of the "Very Vanilla" cardstock before adding the stamped image.  That image is also heat embossed.  Instead of an embellishment, I did the double bow with ribbon I purchased from the Flower Factory while out in Ohio.  I made four, so three will go in our personal stash.  If I hadn't run out of the burgandy and deep green paper, I would have made more for our personal stash... oh well!