Top Twelve of 2012?

Happy New Year to my friends who are already ringing in 2013 and wishing a fun celebration to those still waiting upon its arrival! :)

I'm jumping in, a tad late and less organized than last year, with my post of favs for 2012. Since I create all types of projects, however, I couldn't necessarily narrow it down to just 12, thus the question mark in my title!!  I'm really, really close though so I do hope you don't mind the couple extra eye candy goodies to peep out. 

In no particular order here are some of my fondest projects created during the past year 

Love the randomness of this LO documenting my daily life and favorite things: splatters of tar gel, bold colors, clouds, washi tape, chipboard, doodles - oh my!!!  Surely a Scarlett LO :)

Love this card for the embossed stenciling technique I used with Pan Pastels to boot!  The sunburst makes me happy as well!  Again lots of color, doodles and clouds - paired with some messiness.

This is a fav for the pictures first of all - love that I captured my daughter at 12 still playing with bubbles!  The background was totally fun to build up and I really like that it has an actual bubble wand on the page.

These artsy cards are made completely of scraps!!!  Lots of bold colors, doodles, clouds....yeah you all know me and my style by now, LOL!!!

Really love green - my favorite color - and I adore these shots of my boy's hand holding this itty bitty frog.  I'd been holding on to them for soo long and getting them scrapped was an achievement in itself - to like how it all turned out?? Even better!!

I often warm up my creative self with tag play - this was one I really liked and have hanging up in my space on a jump ring along with some others I'm inspired by - just a reminder to let go and have faith!

Ahh, my heart, my Vito.  Gone but never ever will be forgotten.  We didn't lose him in 2012, yet I was able to finally scrap about him this year.  This page is dear to me.

This is an arch I had published in an issue at SNR magazine.  I don't have many pictures of my hunni and I so this is kind of a fun way to show off one of my favs of us. I like the grungy textures and shower of sequins! :)

This double pager was done for my GDT gig with the gals of the Inspiration Elevator Challenge group - I was very honored to be their first guest and was terrified I wouldn't be able to meet the challenge but alas I did and I lurve this!!  The photos are interchangeable and I swap them out often to reflect the current haps of our family!

My first stab at bookbinding - woot! woot!!  It worked and I am hooked beyond belief - stay tuned because I will be giving some tutorials on the ScrapFX blog in 2013!!!  Lots of ScrapFX goodness all up in here!!

Love my cowgirl boots - what more can I say???  Well I can say I love ScrapFX stencils as well - all the purple chevrons were made from the rockin' Chevron stencil they have.

A photo taken with my iPhone then played with some photo apps, blew it up, printed it at home and mounted it on some wood and created to my heart's content to make my hubs an anniversary present.  We fly kites on our land a lot and see tons of rainbows so I adore the piece that sits in the center - really suited us.

Proud of the felt embellishments I handmade for this LO - I am typically not the sewing type whether it be hand, machine, or otherwise so these are truly an accomplishment! 

Thanks to all my wonderful followers and readers for your lovely comments and support throughout the year!!  It means so much to have had you by my side through the good times and the not so pleasant ones as well.  For the notes of encouragement, cards, and tokens received, prayers that have been lifted I am ever grateful.  In many of you I have found friendships I never could have imagined!  How blessed am I!!  I look forward to another year of friendship and love and making many new ones as well!!

Creatively this year was amazing for me in many ways.  I learned to fully embrace my style and really mix in my knowledge of goops/mixed media with my scrapping!!   I made my first manufacturer team, ScrapFX, and adore every minute of creating for them, with the product, and with a super group of gals! I delight in scrapping away with my chickies in Norway at Skissedilla!! I had the opportunity to GDT with some lovely ladies and spots.  I've had tons of fun taking part on Instagram with other creative peeps.
But most importantly I've learned its important to do what you love and stay grounded while you do it - I give God all the glory and praise for blessing my hands with the talent I have!!!  I'm looking forward to taking all I've learned in to 2013 and growing.

Thanks so much for joining me in this teeny bit longer recap - I wish you and yours many blessings and good things for the New Year! Scarlett

Ringing in the New Year with CropStop!!

Hey, Hey, Hey!! Happy Weekend to You!  I told you I'd have some exciting news to share and from the title of my post the cat is out of the bag!!!

I was so kindly invited to kick off 2013 as the GDT for CropStop - YaHooo!!! How cool is that??!  To see my little intro post you can go here and to check out all the goodies the store has to offer you can go here.  I am WAY excited and have already started crafting up a storm with one doozie of a project complete....mwhahahaha... and others in the works....mwahahaha......

Steampunk gear flowers with a glitter shine all attached to a lovely corner piece vine!  Chipboard pieces are all ScrapFX - seriously smitten with those teeny tiny gears - stay tuned to the ScrapFX blog for full reveal coming soon!!

This isn't an official CropStop project but it does feature an official Couture Creations embossing folder - the Damask one to be specific.  Oh my word do I love these folders!!!  Its been some time I must admit since I've really gone to town with my embossing folders and these have gotten me hooked beyond belief - quality is superb!  Deep embossing - and well.... you're just going to have to stay tuned because I'm going to have oodles of fun sharing and ideas for all you CropStop fans and readers of my blog! Can't wait - my posts go live on Thursdays so I will see you there!

Have great weekends and I'll be back soon with some ScrapFX goodness, a new Skissedilla sketch, CropStop creations, and more!  What an exciting time it is!! : )

Blessing to you and yours. Scarlett

Animal Kingdom - Skissedilla #190

Evening Everyone. There is a spectacular new sketch to play along with up at Skissedilla!  Did you see it yet?  No?! Well check it:

 

My take this week involved a little of this

A fabulous ScrapFX alligator all decked out with some Liquitex White Opaque Flakes that were colored and then I put my gel pen to work - add in a cutie lil' Amy Tangerine elephant stamp (yes I bought the stamp set almost purely for this, LOL), and some KI Memories smile washi tape and I'm a happy scrapper!!

And this

 Another fun ScrapFX animal - this time a cutie lil' birdie (decked out with a metallic pen and a Sakura Souffle pen) sitting atop another Amy Tangerine stamp, some fun Heidi Swapp Color Shine splatters, over some stenciling, and a some sequin leaves.

Of course there is this fun bit too

ScrapFX birds make me giddy, especially when you can add a feather to the bum!  This one was painted with Color Shine and the legs and beak touched up with my glaze gel pens. More Amy tangerine goodness here along with some splatters and fringed washi tape.

And since there was an awesome animal theme going on....

I had to add in a cutie lil' ScrapFX monkey!!! Oh yeah - perfect thing to hang out here instead of the two photos mixed with my all time favorite wahi tape from Freckled Fawn!! 

All these shots together make up this

A wonderfully bright and whimsical documentation of our trip to the Animal Kingdom in Disney World.  The kids and my hubby are standing by the Tree of Life which was a-maz-ing!!!  So many beautiful carvings I tell you what!  Unreal.  If you ever get the chance to go make sure this is on your must see list for real - we could have gazed at it for a good long while!

The background of this page is made up of a few simple layers - I used some  yellow ink through a Crafters Workshop Chicken Wire stencil around the edges, and another Crafter's Workshop stencil with light molding paste - this time the woodgrain one - for a layer to go under my photos. To finish it off I stamped some clouds around the page with a very, very light colored ink and splattered some Color Shine.  

Thanks so much for dropping by!  I'll be back again tomorrow with some uber cool and fun news!!  YAY!!! : )  Until then, take good care - Scarlett

Queen Bee - Playing with Beeswax

Merry Christmas to you and yours!  I hope you had a wonderful celebration with family and loved ones.  Ours was delightful, wrapping up today with one last visit to a grandparent's house. 

I had hoped there would be time for blogging before all the festivities began but I decided I wanted to leave my last post up for awhile instead.  Forever in my heart those babies and families will be.

Now its time to share a beeswax project! Starting with this sneak:

Since this picture went up on my blog in August of 2011 it has been my most popular post!!!  I must say, it is quite the sneak, right?  All sorts of texture goodness oozing everywhere.  It was created for the Rubbernecker stamp event at Scrapbook News and Review.  I can't even tell you how many projects I made for these events and for this magazine over the years I've yet to share!  Thanks to Ashli (soapHOUSEmama) of the PurpleMailbox I'll be making a very valiant effort to do this - I mean its all stuff I'm really pretty proud of - so thank you Ashli for reminding me of lost treasures!

Isn't this stamp just fab-u-lous??!  It actually wasn't even one of the ones up for grabs for the event!  The kind owners at Rubbernecker heard of my heritage and love of these stamps through the grapevine  and said by all means I could go ahead and use them - so cool!

 As I was trying to decide on some last minute ways to gift some foodie presents tins came to mind - but one cannot give just plain ol' tins especially when one is crafty right?  So as I looked around my space - this lovely lady gazed back at me - altered tins it would be - and that meant sharing this project finally for you!  

The stamped image was colored with some Lindy's Stamp Gang pigment powders - also courtesy of the SNR events and since I stamped the image on kraft cardstock I didn't have to worry about the skin tone color.

This all started on a band aid tin.  I wrapped it up in Echo Park paper and then began adding my beeswax.  In between layers the stamp was added, along with the bee sticker, a doily, and a border sticker (Echo Park) - these will be more visible in the last pictures to come. The last layer of wax was added along with the crown.

I wanted the honeycomb pattern to pop back out, it had disappeared quite a bit once covered in wax, so I grabbed some carving tools and replicated the pattern by carefully taking away some wax while it moderately warm. Next came a nice thick layer of colored tar gel - one of my very favorite mediums to play with!  Its not very user friendly at first, maybe even intimidating - there is a steep learning curve but once you get the hang of it - fun stuff I tell ya'!!  I drizzled to my heart's content and then embedded some beads into it as well.

*On a side note to tar gel - I wrote an entire series devoted to this and string gel (a similar medium) and shall share installments coming up to teach you - my wonderful readers - the joys of this medium if there is interest so let me know

In hindsight I wish I would have covered the top of this tin with paper - or more beeswax.  There is a portion of my being that likes the remnants of what the tin was before peeking through and portion of it that doesn't - such is life.  Overall this is hands down a favorite project of mine eva'!!  It incorporates all things I love in one piece and used up an old tin I'd been hanging on to for ages.

Thanks for stopping by - I'll be back again soon with a new page and sketch to share from Skissedilla!

Take good care - Scarlett

Scrapping A Tribute - Prayers Forever

Hi There.  As we head in to this last weekend before Christmas arrives I imagine many of you, like me, are busy with last minute this and that - or maybe you're quite organized, just soaking it all in and enjoying it.  Whatever the case may be -  there is still a pang aching in my heart....

I still find myself tearing up at times and cannot fathom what this Christmas will be like for the families of the little angels and the brave adults who cared for them.  I don't ever want their memory to be forgot or my prayers for their families to cease - I know their grieving will be surpass any press coverage given and my days will become easier swifter.

I chose to do this tribute page for my contribution this week at Skissedilla - #189 - because for me creating is a release like no other - therapy if you will at times - but its also a way to get a message out there through art. 

As you hug and rejoice with your loved ones on these coming joyful days, please take some time to remember those who are missing their angels in heaven.

Blessings to you and yours - Scarlett

Away In a Manger

Evening!  I am so elated to be writing this post as I can finally share with you all my canvas creation in full!! 

But first, lets take a peek at the process via some of my Instagram shots shall we

Color is slightly off since I took this oh at like 1 in the morning.

First layers began with some tissue paper crumpled on, torn bits of an Echo Park winter line, and some Golden Gold Mica Flakes

Layers Two and Three

Additions here include Light Molding Paste through a Studio Calico stencil which once dried was sprayed over with mist (read below to see how that went, ha!), White Opaque Flakes spread over the papers, Heidi Swapp Color Shine Sprayed on, Echo Park flourishes added with glitter glue spread over them, and a ScrapFX manger created backed with some Studio Calico paper, and finally some paint to outline the edges of my canvas.

A different portion of the canvas showing a ScrapFX chipboard star added along with some doodling added to highlight the circles on the tissue paper.

 

 This session brought about a hot mess at first lemme tell you!!  I was worried for a bit - just wasn't flowing. A few sprays of mist were entirely shocking and I quickly need to dab that up with paper towel and spray water to get the color diluted.  This of course started to moisten my paste and that started to smear a tad but it was all good because the smear was good - so I say embrace the hot messes my friends when working with mixed media, K it'll all work out! Lets keep this show moving on...

Layer Four

Baby Jesus is the highlight of this canvas to me.  It was ornament made by son in kindergarten and has hung on our tree for many years - he is now 16!  I love that this piece of his childhood art has been brought together with mine.

I added some more ScrapFX chipboard pieces that are meant to be flowers but totally worked as snowflakes in my opinion - you can see them peeking in the lower left and upper right corners.  The wreath was sprayed generously with Color Shine and I added some burlap up top because the manger was looking a little bare.

Layer Five

Time for adding in details and more texture!  The chipboard 'snowflakes' were painted with Lumiere paints, doodled on, and blinged up, flourish outlined with a paint marker, glittery sticker trees added, some raffia misted up and stuck in behind Baby Jesus,  and some fake snow and glass glitter adhered over the edge of the manger to blend it in to the canvas.  The letters used are my absolute fav ScrapFX product - Itty Bitty Bets!!  This is the groovy font. The numbers are the new playground font and there are matching letters available too.

Now what you've been waiting for the full piece!!!

Away In A Manger

This piece is already hanging up decking our halls and I know I'll have a hard time packing it away.  In fact I'm not all that sure I will.  It may just get hung in my creative space once the Christmas season passes after all Jesus is with us with everyday!

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing in my joy over this process and creation.  If you want to know more about the ScrapFX products used head on over there as the full list of products and links is live and you can be inspired by the other DT gals Christmas creations as well!!

Have You Heard? Good Things to Come!

Hi Friends!  How's it going in your neck of the woods?  Long day here with no fun involved - went to the GI doc (I do love the guy I see but still) bright and too early - I mean really where's the fun in that, LOL - good news is though my tiny, gastro problematic self is holding it down and he gave me mad props for maintaining even though my insurance still won't approve the med I soo very much need - so yay me!  However I was wiped after, am a tad behind, and should realistically be posting the super fab Skissedilla page I've created for you all to be peepin', but alas all grand plans are foiled for the moment because I'm a perfectionist and I've a few deets to squeak on yet - ack! So instead......

I'm sharing a DT call my friend Bella (super sweet, very talented - check her out) shared with me and asked if I'd spread the love.  She has been on this DT for some time and once I headed on over there and checked it out further my socks were blown right off - I am especially smitten with the stamps - swoonin' over here I tell ya'. 

Here is everything you need to know in case your interested in giving this a go:

2013 Inkido Design Team Call

The Design Team term will run from January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013 

The Requirements:
1. You must have an active blog and Facebook account.
2. Commitment to a minimum of 2-3 projects per month. Projects can be layouts, cards, mini albums, mixed media or altered. One of these projects should be a layout.
3. One of your posts every 3rd month should include a tutorial.
4.  Submit project blog posts with links to products in the PaperCraft Scandinavia store.
5. Must have excellent project photos.
6. Publish projects to your personal blog. Posting the projects to galleries. Participation in blog hops.


The Benefits:
1. You will receive a generous welcome package from us with the possibility of making a wish list for your favorite products.
2. Generous product shipments filled with Inkido products to create with.
3. Your picture, name with a link to your blog listed on our Blog.
4. Access to an exclusive Design Team Facebook group to share and learn tips, tricks and techniques. 
5. Your assignments will be provided in calendar form in advance.
6. A specially designed PaperCraft Scandinavia Design Team badge for your blog.


To Apply:
Include your name, full address, and email address. Applications should include:

1. Short Biography. We want to know more about you! Also, tell us why you think you would be a perfect fit inkido´s design team and what your favorite projects are.
2. A link to your blog, Facebook, creative resume (if applicable), and any other galleries you want to share with us.
3. List any other design teams that you are currently on.
4. Post your 5-6 favourite projects on your blog, name the post “Inkido DT Call” and include the link in your application email.

 E-Mail all of this to inkidodtcall@gmail.com by December 28th , 2012, midnight. Applications must be received by December 28th to be considered. If selected you will be notified via email and the new team will be announced here on our blog and on facebook. Questions? Email the above address with the subject of "DT Call Question".

 We look forward to your application!

Alrighty so over the next few days my blog will bombarded with creations galore - oooooo weeee!!  I can't wait!!!  I've got a super cool canvas coming for you and my Skissedilla page!!

Here's a sneaky peek of the canvas:

 There will be lots of details and process shots and I'm like pee your pants excited to share this with you all!!!!  This will go live on the ScrapFX blog in full, along with several other beautiful Christmas creations from my teammates, before it does here.  The breakdown will be exclusive to here so be sure to come to visit both spots!!

Blessings to you - Scarlett

Tonight I Will Shine a Light

It is with a heavy heart I write this post.  There will be no bubbly chatter, no creative endeavors to share.  I purely felt moved to share here what I've shared other places.

This image was taken from Facebook - the original source unknown as it is circulating amongst many.

It seems like such a small gesture amidst such a grand tragedy that has stricken this school, town, state, and country.  My prayers and sadness are endless for the families of those who lost loved ones today.  For a community grieving.  For a nation shook.

My tears poured out knowing how blessed I truly was because my children were going to come home to me and how on a daily basis I've taken that for granted at times.  How foolish.  So my light will shine here with prayer and my hope is you will lift some prayers, special thoughts, or your own way of remembering for these little ones and their teachers, now angels amongst us.  Give your own tight squeezes and be ever so thankful they are with you tonight.

Love Lives Here....

....and I am so glad it does!!! 

What? What? A post two days in a row?? I must have the December flow - and some mad crazy rhyme skills, LOL.

Today I happened to be gazing upon a favorite canvas of mine and thinking of all the canvas projects I have around my house I've never shared!! (insert a big ol' gasp here) Then I remembered my wonderful friend Ashli a.k.a soapHousemama (gosh she is ever inspiring to me) has this super cool feature on her blog (purplemailbox) called Layout Love Linky - you'll have to go there to see what its all about, but this month I'm linking up finally with a canvas project I've never shared here!

A sweet whimsical scene - so my style, right? For a sweet photo of my kids.  Really wish they were still this size.  They are growing fast!!  Had fun with creating a corrugated cardboard branch - some felt birdies - a tree swing very similar to the one my boy made for my girlie when we moved to our house here - transparency sun stitched with some sequins inside (see I can sew Ashli, LOL - tho' I did break the machine and had to have hubbie fix it) - real pebbles embedded to the canvas - and lots of paints, pastes, and other good stuff - any questions just fire away please!! I love to share. :)

This is a piece I created just for fun and used for my ScrapFX design team application - good thing I had it on hand. ; )

Here are a couple deets from my iPhone of course - the colors change a bit but i like to Instagram - if anyone out there can please tell me how I can get my feed in my sidebar I would be very thankful. : )

This chipboard house (pre-ScrapFX days) was decked with some  colored molding paste through a stencil and while that was wet I added the Maya Road window to it along with my papers.  Once dried I added my stamp and letter stickers.  Super proud of that word stamp I carved - totally won't lie considering it was only the second word stamp I ever carved!

Handmade flowers made with some of my My Favorite Things dies courtesy of the Scrapbook News and Review events I participated in.  Seriously love these dies!!!  I also used heaps and heaps of Creative Inspirations paints on these and this whole project in general. 

There you have it one canvas of many to come as I work my way to back share all of the gems tucked here and there.

Hope you've had a lovely day - I sure did!!  Spent it catching up with my best friend from high school and had such a lovely time.  Now its off to watch my daughter sing with her chorus and watch the band for the middle school Christmas concert and out to eat with the family!

Life is so good!

My Little Bear - Skissedilla #188

Hello, Hello!  Happy 12/12/12!  I've been trying to get at this post all day - hopefully this will be the time it goes live and more than one sentence gets written. ; )

Can I just share before I do the gals over at Skissedilla are the best - you already know the sketches there rock the hizz-ouse!!  But the ladies are really dear to my heart - they know why so no explanation needed - just had to give a shout out.  I do hope someday this body of mine will cooperate and I'll head overseas so I can visit them.  Even added a Norwegian speaking app to my phone today so I can learn since I'm picking up how to read it more and more each day - woot! woot!

To them: Jeg elsker deg!!!

Hello Lil' Bear

I knew right away these photos of my cutie lil' niece were perfect for the sketch at hand!  have you ever heard of teh story/song We're going on a bear hunt??  If you have then you know why I was all about this from the get go, if not then you must seek it out!  Too fun!

Terrific sketch from Linda - know this time of year is busy, busy but if you can grasp a spare moment we'd love for you to play along with us - shoot I was late in posting myself.

Skissedilla 188

Detail shots taken with my phone using the Hipstamatic iPhone app

Really just my ScrapFX chippies!!  Use them on everything.  Here I've used a flourish branch as a tree and added some glass bead gel that I colored and embedded some additional glass beads on top of, LOL. I also used a bear from the zoo set and added some flocking powder to that with gel medium and then a cutie lil' bee that is covered with gesso, gel pens, and gold mica flakes.  The letters are some of my favs - Itty Bitty Bets - can't go wrong with those.

This is the newest alpha from ScrapFX - the Playground font - and it is soo fun!!  There is also a number set in this same style!  I altered this up with some gesso, sprayed with some Color Shine and then dropped on some Diamond Glaze to make it look like wet.  I wanted to make this word look like it was coming from the spray bottle in my niece's hand - don't know if it does or not, but I like it anyhoo. :)

Alrighty, yay made it to the end of the post!  Now its time to add some links and head on out to the scrap space.  I think its about time to throw around some paste and paper and get to scrapping December. What'cha think?  You with me??  Link up your projects cuz' I'm all about spreading the love, really.  If I haven't made it by you yet, I sure will soon. :)

Thanks so much for coming by, means more than you know. 
Take good care, Scarlett.

December Happenings in My Neck-O-The Woods

Sunday Greetings to You All!!  Hope this day finds you filled with

Take time and find joy in today! Delight in the little things. Celebrate the sweet peeps that stand by you, no matter what, everyday.  This day will only come once therefore make a joyful noise!

This photo is posted to my Instagram feed and my Facebook page.  To my real peeps responding - I'm responding back with a heartfelt message of joy and love because I think its important to make sure my loved ones know just exactly how much I care about them - some I've never even met and I think that is so cool!  Have you stopped and taken time to do that today??  Have you celebrated the little things??  I sure hope so.  Today only happens once you know.  ; ) 

*This is a lengthy post so this is your pre-notice. : )

This picture will also become part of my December Daily/ Journal Your Christmas album - yes I jumped on board this year and actually I didn't even plan to - ha!  I started taking pictures on the first and consistently kept up - yay me!  

December 1st

On the 1st of December I was to take part in quite a large and long craft show.  As some of you know my health challenges are extensive.  This is what you may not know I live with lupus, fibromyalgia, gastroparesis, and a sleuth of other complications/conditions because of the fore mentioned.  Chronic pain and fatigue are my foes - making it hard to create all I want to at times.  This wonderful friend was going to help me the day of the show - the night before I emailed and said I can't do it - I wasn't even able to create enough stuff - I was in tears.  She said, "Are you up for going out at least for a bit - perhaps window shopping??" Hmm, sometimes I'm embarrassed by my challenges and how I look (I'm terribly skinny and can't maintain wieght - people think skinny is a good thing - sometimes it means you're sick) and walk because of them, but I apprehensively said sure.  On this day I celebrated friendship and the fact I went out with a GF for the first time on my own in 6 years - oh yes you read that right - 6 years.

Then I instragrammed my friend Ashli a.k.a. soapHousemama (love that!!) and asked if it was too late to sign up for JYC20102 (Journal Your Christmas) with Shimelle because I actually continued taking photos everyday!! - she said no way and I was all about it because honestly I needed some focus and the sense of community to help me get grounded.  So here I am with photos in place and thought I'd share those while I'm in the process of getting my album together - I'm a slow creator these days. So sit back and I do hope you enjoy a glimpse of my December so far. : )

December 2nd

My handsome boy (actually a young man now - but always will be baby) standing in an old bank structure left as a historical landmark in our town square.  He chose the pose - love that he was a willing participant.

What a special treat to walk about with my son in town after he had his driver's ed course.  I love that he still wants to hang out with me at 16 - how blessed I am.  We walked around and chatted and just enjoyed each other.

December 3rd

Out and about on my own - our town is the Christmas card town - kinda cool, huh?

December 4

While I didn't actually take this photo on the 4th, I created it on the 4th.  This year I choose to walk away from the commercialism that has taken over the season - not that my kids won't get presents but its not the focus, KWIM?  I was totally dismayed this year on Thanksgiving to know people had to leave their families to go to work, seriously? - people were more concerned with 'getting good deals on stuff' and ready to shop. I mean really.  Just doesn't suit this gal at all.  I choose Jesus.  I don't choose to throw it in people's faces - but I won't hide it either - its my personal faith and love - the peace and joy I have found in Him is amazing and I thank those who have helped me along my walk. So this year I want to throw more of a birthday party round here and we are looking for a place to serve together as a family on Christmas Day.

December 5

A very special sister to me and Auntie to my kids celebrated her birthday on this day!  Instead of just posting a plain ol' greeting on her FB page I wanted to do something a bit more - and I'll totally admit I was not on the ball with getting a card out - so I put my daughter to work on a sign - she totally digs this kind of stuff - and we took this picture to post instead.  She loved it and I'm so glad she did.  You can tell how much my kids adore her because they both actually smiled in the picture, LOL!!

December 6

This was the 6th of December's sunrise at my house - breathtaking to say the least!!  There are no filters added to jazz up the colors - only some bokeh hearts over the top along with the text.  For me the text says it all. 

The love of God is better than my wildest dreams and I hold fast to this as my doctors have told me my medical conditions have come to the point of disability.  I used to be a classroom teacher and for some of you that know me well - you know this was the highlight of my life after being a wife and mommy.  I loved each and every one of my students as my own.  To hear this news was devastating - I held the hope of going back to the classroom and to know it was gone - well The love of God is better than my wildest dreams and there is much to come for me.  My path has changed and I feel new things on the horizon - great things are to come!!!

December 7

On this day I began creating - my intention was to really get going on my album - but I get distracted easily, LOL.  This CD and mainly this band keeps me going.  I received this in the mail - a gift.  All things come at just the right time. Love that!!

With the above CD going on my computer I was able to finally grasp some time to create - my space has been a bit of a disaster so smaller seemed more achievable.  I love handmade ornaments and since I'm pondering alternative options for a tree this year (thanks Amy!!) with 4 mischievous kittens (love them to bits - but they will be all up in a tree and I love my sanity more ROFL) in the house now, along with our other two that loved the tree too much last year - I went that route.

Not quite sure where these will hang if we don't actually have a tree but DD and I have some ideas up our sleeves - you'll have to stay tuned to our creative Christmas decorating. ; )

Noel had to be in the mix - made 5 of these total.  Wish I had more Maya Road rulers on hand because I was in the zone.

So there you have it - a peek in to the first week of December with me.  I have so many more pictures from this first week but these are some of my favorites.  It will be oh so much fun gathering together my thoughts and placing them in my journal to be documented for years to come.

Thanks for hanging on if you've made it this far!  I'd love to know what you've been up to this December so do share. : ) 

Take good care until next time - Scarlett