Ten on the 10th: Christmas Cookies

I love a good cookie recipe!

Every year, I bake lots and lots of Christmas Cookies to bring to parties and give as gifts. In honor of Shimelle's 10 on the 10th, here are 10 Christmas Cookies I am baking this year.

1. Cranberry Orange Shortbread
2. Mocha Slice
3. Cream Cheese Walnut (my husband's favorite!)
4. Sugar Cookie Cutouts 
5. Black Forest Cookies
6. Cherry Vanilla Snowdrops
7. Chocolate-Espresso Snowcaps
8. Lime Meltaways
9. Buttered Rum Meltaways
10. Crackled Crescents

Last year's Buttered Rum Meltaways...yum!

As you can see, I'm partial to Martha Stewart! With the exception of the lime meltaways, these are all my tried and true recipes I make year after year.  I'll let you know how the lime ones turn out!

My assembly line!

Right now the dough for five of these is in the freezer, waiting to be baked next weekend.  I'll probably make a few more batches of dough this weekend too.

Love these girls!

Now that I am up and running with my new computer, I've been going through my PSE files and realizing how many layouts I've created that I haven't yet shared here! I made these two while at a scrapbooking retreat with some on-line friends this summer. They feature two of my favorite scrapbooking subjects, my nieces! The photos were all taken last Christmas while we were visiting them in California.

The problem with waiting so long to post them is that I don't remember what sketches I used as inspiration! I think these were both based on Pagemaps sketches...my apologies if I am wrong!

Thanks for looking!

Thank you, Santa

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently took Allison Davis' Sketch Support Class over at My Creative Classroom.  I've enjoyed Allison's sketches for a while, but I definitely picked up some tips on how to tweak and modify a sketch to your own tastes. This layout was based on the sketch from week 4.  I didn't deviate too much from the basic design of the sketch.

The papers were some old Fancy Pants that I've had in  my stash for a while.

For the embellishments, I used Tim Holtz' rosette die, cutouts from the patterned paper, and buttons.

I also broke out some coordinating rub-ons I've had as long as the paper!

Thanks for stopping by!  I think I've found my blogging groove again...hope to be back soon with some more layouts!

December Daily: Days 6-10

Welcome back to another installment of my December Daily album!  I relied heavily on Ali Edwards' design, and used her layered templates and overlays for most pages. I finished these pages over a week ago, but finally got around to editing them in Photoshop Elements.

For some of the days, especially typical work days, I really didn't have much to write about so I included various Christmas cards we received throughout the month.  I found this to be a good way to display those photo cards we receive every year, but never know what to do with at the end of the month!

For my earlier pages, please click here and here! 

Thanks for looking!

Blog Neglect!

It certainly has been challenging to find time to scrapbook and keep this blog updated now that school is in full swing! During the week, it's nearly impossible for me to complete any layouts, since I leave for work at 6 am and don't return home til 6:30 pm.  The downside of a 77 mile commute!!  Thank goodness I only have to do this 8 months out of the year! I have been managing to get one or two layouts done each weekend, but haven't been posting them here. Without further adieu, here are some of my recent creations, inpsired by May Flaum's Use Your Stash Class at Big Picture Classes as well as challenges over at Scrapbook Central on iVillage.

Star Wars Fever: This LO feautres my niece Elena enjoying some new and old Star Wars toys on Christmas Day. I used some newer Echo Park paper and stickers, along with some older buttons & journaling spot.

Emily: For this next one, I pulled out by 2001 storage binder and came across these pictures of my best friend's daughter's birth. Dug deep into my stash of patterned paper here, using some old EK Success papers. Also broke out some Quickutz dies and a border bunch.

Visiting Jimi: I am really happy with how this one turned out! I layered some older coordinating My Mind's Eye paper, Thickers, and grungeboard flourishes that I inked up with distress ink.

Greetings from Camp: Finally, this 2-page spread features my nieces on a camping trip last year. Used some Cosmo Cricket paper that I won at a crop a while back.

Thanks for looking!

Blog post, Take 1

Hello out there! I am attempting my first blog post.  I still haven't decided what I plan on using this blog for, other than sharing my latest scrapbook pages with anyone who is interested! So here are the first two layouts I have created in 2010.  The first features my cutie pie niece Elena showcasing her funky fashion sense:

And here she is again, demonstrating her love of snow!

I am lucky to have such a photogenic subject! Thanks for looking!