It's a CHRISTMAS thing!!

MME is a fantastic paper design company (not to mention all the yummy matching embellies!!!). I've just discovered their great blog, so i've done their most recent challenge. The challenge was to do a LO with the theme "It's a _______ thing", following a sketch and using MME products! Here's what i came up with:

I love the tag i've put the title on! It's a simple acetate tag that i put through my cuttlebug then inked the back with some white stayz-on! Cute, hey?

I chose to do this page because something we do EVERY year at Christmas is put up the tree on 1st December. This year Calvin was able to help, and he just loves all the decorations i've put everywhere!! What a cutie :)

I'm off scrapping at Scrapbooks Etc at Underwood tomorrow night, so i'm looking forward to that. I've been finishing some OTP's as gifts this week - for my 4 little cousins up here (all girls!!), i'm making them a Kaiser handbag pencil holder thing each. I hope they like them!! Off to keep working on them now!

Up to the 12th day of Christmas already?!?!

As if this year hasn't flown by quickly enough, this month is absolutely flying too!! Just one more week until we hit the road, heading down to Sydney for Christmas with my family. I can't wait!!

6/12: Finished all the Christmas Cards

Well, it seemed like it took forever, but i managed to make 38 cards this year - though this wasn't quite enough, so some people only received bought cards (sorry if you're one of them!!!). I think i sent about 50 cards this year, all with a newsletter included of course!!

7/12: Water fun - a must in an Aussie summer!!

Well Calvin had a ball this morning (excuse the pun!!). It seems that the ball pit was left open overnight and one side had a couple of inches of water from the rain!! Calvin and i spotted it at the same time, but he was just way too quick and in he went! Instead of grabbing him out straight away and taking him in to dry and change him, i went and got the camera. He was just having way too much fun to stop him!!

8/12: Nora Bailey's Funeral

Today was filled with all sorts of emotions. Nora, my aunt's mother in law, passed away last week. She was an old lady of 92, but certainally didn't seem it. We all sort of thought she'd be around forever - she was so much a part of the furniture in the Bailey's household. She was such a lovely lady with a really fabulous sense of humour. Boy did she love Calvin and Jeremy!! She'd always ask me when i was bringing Jeremy over because she was going to steal him off me if i wasn't careful!!

Her funeral was really lovely and afterwards we went back to my aunt's house and had a bit of lunch and just spent some time together. It's been a bit tricky to get over to see my aunt as she's about 45 minutes away from where i am now so it's a real day trip getting over to see her! Unfortunately she doesn't get over to see me much so if i want to see her i usually need to go to her, but that's ok. It was lovely to spend some family time together. Calvin had a great time playing with toys that i remember playing with as a child!

9/12: Posting the Christmas Cards

I didn't know how i was going to do it, but i managed to get a photo of Calvin posting a Christmas card!! Perfect for the album, and he was pretty chuffed with himself too!! Unfortunately it was taken on my iPhone so the quality isn't fabulous, but it's good enough for me!!

10/12: Daycare Christmas Party

11/12: Watching Dad Mow the Lawn

This photo just speaks for itself doesn't it!?!?!

12/12: Piano performance by Trinity and Bridget

Today Jeremy's cousin's family came over for a piano 'performance'. I've been teaching the girls piano this term, and they have come a long way!! It was really just a great chance to hang out as a family - and to finally meet Brent!! Trinity played us about 4 songs in the end, and Bridget played 1 - though we really had to coax it out of her!! In the end, she was bribed with a lolly :)

Here's the girls with Calvin in front of our tree. Calvin did NOT want to sit with the girls - he just wasn't himself today. Turns out that he's either teething or has a virus because he spewed up at dinner. Hope he's feeling better tomorrow because i'd like to get some SANTA PHOTOS done tomorrow!!

Kraft It Up & Scrap The Boys

I had a busy night last night at my LSS, Fancy That Scrapbooking in Springfield. It's a nice little shop and i'm really enjoying going there - especially since they don't charge for their crop nights!! A rarity these days!!

A couple more shares today. Firstly a challenge from the Kraft It Up blog. The challenge was to scrap a Christmas photo using non-traditional Christmas colours. I took inspiration from the yummy Bo Bunny range that has come out this Christmas and scrapped in Purple, Aqua and Lime Green - how yummy does it look!!!

The ribbon i used on the LO was quite a find!! I had to do 3 laps of the shop until i found exactly what i was looking for, and boy does it suit!! So shimmery and such gorgeous colours :) I've used lots of paint and glimmer mist and glam on this LO - i was quite into the paint last night!!

I've used a bit of paint on my second share for today - it's for the 1st Scrap The Boys December challenge "Dasher or Prancer" - scrap your boy strutting his stuff!! Here's Calvin pushing his little chair around the first time he figured out he would walk by pushing stuff. He loved it!!

The papers are from the Wander range by Basic Grey. They are such good boy colours. All of the chipboard pieces are from the same range, as well as those yummy tag type bits - how cute are they? Basic Grey has been doing these things for a couple of ranges now and i've resisted, but i thought they worked really well with this range. Might have to reproduce them myself next time though - they are just a piece of PP with some wire, popped up on some foam. Cool, huh!!

My Little Shoebox Contest on PageMaps

Another PageMaps contest (you all know how i love them!!!), but this one is a little bit different - there are 2 packs to win this time!! One is going to a cardmaker and one is going to a scrapbooker. Since i do both (though neither especially well LOL) i thought i'd enter both. Here's what i came up with.

The sketch for the LO is:

I used some Fancy Pants papers and other bits and pieces to make this:

I love this new punch i got on the ScrapBoutique retreat - it's a lovely Martha Stewart punch and SO GOOD for boy layouts and cards!! Not to mention, Christmas :)

For the card contest, the sketch i was working with was this:

Pretty nice isn't it?!?!?!! Taking some inspiration from this and using a lovely chipboard piece, some old Kaiser, some old Carolee's Creations stickers, some paints and my cuttlebug i actually came up with 2 cards. Christmas theme of course since i've been busy making cards recently!!

There's still time to enter these contests if you want to - just visit the PageMaps Blog. You have until 12th December (US), so it could be a great source of inspiration this weekend!

The first few days of Christmas

Every year, i see beautiful mini albums of the 12 days of Christmas or all of December etc. So, this year i'm determined to do one!! So, for the 25 days of Christmas i will be taking photos, collecting bits and pieces etc. - doing something Christmassy every day!! Here's my progress so far:

1/12: Trimming the tree

Calvin was a lot less interested in putting the tree up than i thought he would be. He did, however love it when i put the baubles up - and he started taking them down and leaving them all around the house immediately!! His favourite ornaments are these little red ones shown above, and cute little fluffy dog and cat ones i got free with dog food a couple of years ago!! He also showed intense interest in all of the bells i like hang off the doors!!

2/12: Making Christmas Cards at Playgroup

I've yet to take a photo of this, but Calvin 'made' a Christmas card at Playgroup today. It was the first time he had used stickers and he mastered them very quickly!!! Clever boy. After playgroup we had lunch with Belinda and Bridget - Sushi. Not very Christmassy, but Calvin certainly enjoyed his first sushi experience!!

3/12: Kissing Rudolph

Calvin was so cute with this little Rudolph toy today. When you press his foot he starts 'ho, ho, ho'-ing and it turns into ecstatic laughter, which Calvin finds hilarious and he tries to copy!! So cute. After playing with him for a bit he picked him up and kissed him on the nose!! Calvin went to daycare today and Jeremy and I went and saw Harry Potter together (Jeremy took the day off work). Great day out together - how lucky are we - 2 dates within a week (our anniversary was last week!!).

4/12: Finished the Christmas Newsletter

I try to have all of the Christmas cards finished and posted by 1st December each year, but it rarely happens!! I've made most of my cards this year, so that made it even more tricky!! Today i finished the newsletter, at long last. It was quite a drawn-out process this year, with computer issues and continual interruptions from Calvin!! We had a 'sick-day' today, with Calvin being a bit out of sorts. He mostly just lazed around on the couch with myself or Jeremy all day, not wanting to do much. It rained almost all day too, which made it even more miserable. An excellent day to spend at the computer on such a task!!

5/12: A Trip to the City!

Today we went to the city to see all of the lovely trimmings and do a bit of Christmas shopping. Here's Calvin having a great time sitting on the edge of a garden of Poinsettias with a lovely metallic angel in the background. Of course he is wearing a very Christmassy shirt with Rudolph on it (do you get the idea that i like reindeers yet?!?!) which is a little bit sparkly :) Calvin loved looking at all the trees and decorations everywhere, and even had a little wander around Queen Street Mall holding mum's hand. Jeremy got a haircut and looks really great now - he really needed it!!

Planned activities for the days to come include finishing and posting the Christmas cards, visiting people, cooking, getting a photo with Santa and all sorts of other things!!! Hope you can join me for the ride :)

Purple Pumpkin Giveaway

Check out this giveaway at Purple Pumpkin - it's a great little prize of super cute doilies, flowers, ribbons and buttons:

I'm entered 'cause i want to get my hands on some of them - especially the cute little buttons!!!