A White Christmas- My Version

 I live in a warm climate. So, technically speaking, there is not white Christmas here. We have palm trees, cooler sea breezes, and holiday lights. I have only seen snow a handful of times in my life. It's a beautiful thing, but something I am glad I don't have to deal with every year. So, where's the white Christmas? It's hidden in the photos and memories I have recently scrapped of a trip to Colorado. It's the magic of tiny snowmen, the falling snowflakes, and crunch of the snow under your feet.
   One of the most magical things I have ever done with my son is to build this little snowman.

Pencillines sketch #262
OA papers, recollections snowflake stickers, ATD title sticker, glass beads, glossy accents, Jolee's felt snowman, Crate paper sticker, Kaleidoscope slide with transparency by magic scraps,glimmer mist in silver sugar, viva pink and electric blue

He was the tiniest of snowmen. At 6 inches tall, he was largest snowman that my son and I had ever built. I think we shall always remember him. Building him was not just a first for my son, it was a first for me.
  The magic of falling snow may sometimes be lost on people who deal with it on a regular basis. For us, though, even the tiniest of flakes was the most amazing and wonderful thing.

Unknown papers, doodlebug snowflake brads(?),Inkadinkadoo stamp with colorbox lagoon ink,Martha Stewart snowflake punch,waterfall stickles, sequins, glass beads, i-roc jewels, unknown vellum flocked with white snowflakes,unknown quote,glimmer mist in frost,moonlight and electric blue
title block received in a swaplifted from a page called "June Faves" by Lynette Pancho

To mimic the look of the snow, I added some bits of leftover punched bits. The bits were from a sparkly Bazzil cardstock. So when I sprinkled it over the glue, some turned up on the matte side while others were sparkly.It added a nice bit of texture.

   Of course, after admiring the beauty and wonder of the falling snowflakes, children will then wonder about catching them on their tongues. I guess nothing tastes as sweet as a falling snowflake.

 Unknown papers( one of which is a vellum with white flocked snowflakes), martha Stewart snowflake punch, i-rock jewels, unknown snowflake button, glass beads, glossy accents,Karen Foster alphas outlined with an oceanview blue bic mark it,inkadinkadoo stamp with colorbox lagoon ink. Based on an Lo by Dina Wakely called "oh Fun."

Though I may not have the option for a white Christmas, making these pages sure got me into the holiday spirit. I hope your family enjoys the holidays and has a wonderful New year ahead of them!

The Wave Machine

   For me...sunshine means getting outside to play in the pool! Living in a warm climate means that I have tons of poolside photos to scrap.So, I was very excited to see that Scrap Our Stash's April challenge revolved around the sun. I started off by pulling out my pool and beach theme project folder. It is bursting at the seams with paper and embellishments perfect for scrapping water based activities. However, the more I looked at the photos I had chosen for this project, the more I knew that these were not the right papers to use this time.
   Sometimes the story behind a page takes precedence over a traditional theme. This two page layout was just such a case. In the photos I had picked, my husband is pushing a raft up and down in the water to create waves for my son to play in. My son has come to refer to this as the Daddy wave machine. So rather than use traditional papers with a sun or pool theme,I decided to make things look a little more mechanical.

I chose a metallic silver card stock as the base. Splattering it with Sapphire blue glimmer mist gave the appearance of water. I staggered the photos in a diagonal line across both pages... giving it the appearance of movement, like waves moving up and down.I painted some Maya road gear shaped chipboard pieces with silver acrylic paint. I used a tuxedo black bic mark it to outline the cogs and gears. This gave it a little more detail and helped them stand out from the page a bit more. To make the word " wave", I hand cut some letters from the cover of a paper pad, then wrapped them in foil. I used Stream alcohol ink( from ranger) to give the turquoise color. I visually anchored the photos to the page using strips of recollections paper. and hand stitching. To make the appearance of waves in the machine, I used a template to trace a wave border onto a piece of blue textured carstock. it's been in my stash for awhile and was actually the only thing I used out of my project pack.

I used the same border template to make the journal strips. I traced it on a scrap sheet of white card stock, then moved the template down a bit and tracing the border again. I do recommend journaling before you cut out the strips. It makes it easier to write.