living artfully

december scrapbooking classes

At the end of this week we will be welcoming in December and another beautiful holiday season. For many, it's a time of year filled with festivity and tradition. It's a great time of year to consider making a mini album, participating in a photo challenge, or doing something else special to document the month. If you're new to the concept or are just looking to shake things up a bit, here are some ideas for holiday classes this December.

 

For the ninth year in a row, Shimelle Laine is offering her popular Journal Your Christmas class. I'll be following along with JYC for the third year in a row and it's easily one of my favorite classes. Shimelle provides 37 daily PDFs filled to the brim with journaling ideas and inspiration layouts from class participants. And my favorite part of all? Once you purchase the class, you are invited to join year after year at no cost. Talk about an amazing value!



Also a great value, but with a little less structure, is the December Daily concept by Ali Edwards. At no cost to you, on her blog Ali provides ongoing inspiration throughout the month of December to scrapbook a page per day. There are no rules about size or content, so you can turn your December Daily album into whatever works best for you. I'm also taking inspiration from Ali this year by using her kit from Studio Calico and by including day-to-day happenings in our album.

 
If you want inspiration from lots of big names in the industry, Big Picture Classes is repeating their 12 Days of Christmas workshop. This 24 day-long class is taught by 12 BPC instructors, including Amy Tan, Stacy Julian, Kelly Purkey, Wendy Smedley and Elizabeth Dillow. For $24 you receive 12 daily emails from the 12 instructors for the 12 days leading up to Christmas with a photo prompt and instructions. Then in the 12 days after Christmas you receive instructions on how to turn those photos into beautiful layouts.


Studio Calico is also offering a class this year, entitled 25 Days. If you need more stucture to complete your December Daily, this $19 class will give you tips & tricks, finished page samples, and a bonus PDF from Ali Edwards with 25 prompts of stories to look for in December. This class has an exciting list of contributors, including Maggie Holmes, Amy Tan, Kinsey Wilson, and Marcy Penner.


Lastly, I love the idea of following a photo-centric course like Tracey Clark's Picture Winter e-course through Big Picture Classes. This is a self-paced instant download for $30 that gives you 30 daily inspirational emails. This class will help you focus on the wonders of winter, while also leaving you inspired to keep your camera in hand for the new year.

Do you have any specific plans for scrapbooking this holiday season?

hugs, sharyn 

welcome ladies' home journal readers!

If you're stopping by from Ladies' Home Journal, thank you so much for visiting and taking time out of your day to get to know us!


 
Here are just a few links that you might find useful and that will help you get to know the site better...

Christmas Ornament Wreath: here's the link to the tutorial to recreate the metallic ornament wreath featured in Ladies' Home Journal 

Holiday Posts: looking for more holiday inspiration? here are all my posts related to holidays, including ideas for home decor, scrapbooking, baking, and creating family memories 

About Sharyn:  just a bit about me and what this blog is all about 

If you have any questions, writing in the comments section is greatly encouraged. I try to answer all comments and other readers can benefit from your question. You can also reach me through any of the methods on the About Sharyn page.  

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoy your time at Living Artfully... and if you do, please consider subscribing!

hugs, sharyn 

10 things: christmas traditions

One of the things that has always excited me about having a family is establishing holiday traditions. Christmas is one of my most favorite times of year and with this being Jude's first Christmas, I can't wait to start new traditions for our family. Over the years I have been collecting ideas and want to share 10 great ideas for Christmas traditions.



1. Receiving mail from Santa. While the kids are still young and believe in Santa, I like the idea of creating a little magic. One way to do so is to send a self-addressed postmarked letter to North Pole, Alaska, and the post office there will send you back your letter showing that it was mailed from Santa. Visit the USPS website for instructions. Looking for more ways to help your children believe? Here's a great article from iVillage with 20 ingenious ways to prove Santa exists.

2. Feeding the reindeer. Everyone knows you are supposed to leave cookies and milk for Santa. But what about the hungry Reindeer?! Mix up a batch of reindeer food by combining 1 cup of rolled oats, 1/2 cup of red and/or green sugar crystals and 1/2 cup of Christmas sprinkles. Then simply spread the reindeer food on your lawn at night on Christmas Eve. Here's an adorable poem to go with the activity:

     Sprinkle this reindeer food outside tonight
     The moonlight will make it sparkle bright
     As the reindeer fly and roam
     This will guide them to your home. 


katherinemariephotography.com

3. Advent calendar of winter or Christmas books. Most advent calendars help you countdown to Christmas with a daily piece of candy. But if you want less sugar and more quality time together, how about a countdown where you unwrap and read a different Christmas book every day in December until Christmas. If you need ideas for books, Ali Edwards shares her family's favorite Christmas books and SouleMama shares their winter reading favorites.

4. Opening one gift early on Christmas Eve: pajamas for the whole family. Growing up, my parents always let us open one gift early in the day on Christmas Eve and I remember I could hardly contain my excitement. I also have loved getting cozy pajamas for Christmas. Why not put the two ideas together? The pajamas could even be in a similar style or color for the whole family. Then everyone will be comfy on Christmas morning opening presents while wearing their new pajamas.


personalized Christmas ornament from TimberGreenWoods

5. Annual Christmas ornaments that are saved and given to the child once they leave home. With this being Jude's first Christmas, we've been on the lookout for great ornaments that display the year and will commemorate this special holiday. Which got me to thinking... how wonderful would it be to build a collection of ornaments by giving him one every year that represents a special interest or accomplishment. We'd save them and turn them over to him when he grows up and leaves the house. I often wish I had ornaments from my own childhood to place on our tree!

6. Seeing a Christmas production. Even as an adult, I'm absolutely mesmerized by the local productions of A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker. I saw the Nutcracker just once as a child and absolutely loved it, so I'd love to do something similar once Jude is a little bigger. It could anything from a larger scale production of one of the Christmas stories, to heading to the movie theatre to see a new holiday release.


7. Elf on the Shelf. For a little magic every day in December, the Elf on the Shelf tradition has you place your elf in a different place every night. He watches your kids and reports back to Santa whether they were naughty or nice. Blossom Bunkhouse shared 101 ideas for your Elf on the Shelf. And I love this idea from Balancing Home with a goodbye letter from your Elf to your children.

8. Dinner by candlelight on 12/21, the longest night of the year. Your candlelight dinner tradition could include your family's favorite foods. Or for a twist you could do something special like french toast and hot cocoa for dinner. This falls just days before the holiday and would be a great reminder to slow down and cherish your time together as a family.

9. Holiday treats and movie night. I love the idea of making a special treat together, such as homemade marshmallows to go with hot cocoa or candy cane milkshakes. Then pop in a Christmas DVD and curl up to watch the movie and enjoy your special treat. Maybe even have a "sleepover" under the Christmas tree that night!



10. Creating a December Daily / Journal Your Christmas album. 2012 will be my 5th year documenting December with an album and I don't see myself stopping any time soon. The minibooks are a joy to look through as we reminisce about Christmases past. I think about fast-forwarding even just 5 years and how thankful I will be to have documented this very special season in detail.

Do you have any great Christmas traditions in your family that I haven't included here?

You can visit more bloggers sharing their ten things by clicking here. 

hugs, sharyn 

2011 layouts: oct-dec

I finally just started scrapbooking 12x12 layouts for our 2012 album. I've been so focused on creating Jude's scrapbook, which I will be sharing soon, that I haven't taken much time to work on our 2012 family album. My crazy and probably impossible goal is to finish up our 2012 album by 2013 so I can focus more on scrapbooking in real time. Here's hoping!

Here are my much belated layouts that close out our 2011 album. As with the rest of the album, I took a lot of inspiration from sketches and my scrapbooking pinterest board.










sketch by page maps




sketch by sketch support 

Can't wait to make some serious progress now on our 2012 album!

hugs, sharyn 

beauty favorites: october

Heading back to work in October meant some major changes for me in my beauty routine. Now I have to worry about having an efficient and effective morning beauty routine. I don't want to waste my time with crappy or ineffective products. So I was happy in October to try a few new products that have made the cut. 


 
As you may have already heard, I absolutely love having painted nails. Now that I'm back to work, I wasn't sure if I'd still find the time to paint my nails a few times a week like I did over my maternity leave. But thanks to a top coat that dries in just 45 seconds, I can paint my nails before bed without worrying about scuff marks. I totally love the Kensington Caviar quick-drying top coat from Nails Inc. It's ten dollars, so it's on the pricier side of top coats; but I think it's completely worth it since it works so well. And besides drying my polish super fast, it gives this awesome glossy shine. As for the colors I painted my nails in October, I'm loving nudes, dark neutrals and dark reds for my fall nails. 



The look on the left is Essie Recessionista, a creamy dark maroon red from their fall 2012 Stylenomics collection. It's a tricky shade in that it looks much darker on the nails than in the bottle. It's such a beautiful creamy color on the nails and is just dark enough without ever looking black. I have a couple of polishes that look similar in the bottle, but none of them dry to this pretty shade.

The middle look is Modern Love by Deborah Lippmann, just released this fall. For an unexpected twist, I am wearing it as a French manicure with black tips instead of white. I absolutely love wearing nudes and prefer polishes like this that are fully opaque. This one has a beautiful mauve-ish almost-greige look to it, which makes it feel updated. It would be gorgeous on its own but I love this edgy French.

The look on the right is OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know, from the spring 2012 Holland collection. It is far and away the prettiest brown shade I've ever worn. It's the perfect medium-tone brown with gorgeous gold micro-shimmer. The gold shimmer gives it so much dimension, especially when it hits the light. This has now become one of my favorite OPI shades ever.



This month I started using a new eye product that has quickly become a new favorite: the Revlon ColorStay liquid eye pen in blackened brown. I haven't worn liquid eyeliner since high school and never thought it looked very good on me. Turns out the problem was the tip applicator in the tube style liners; they're just too hard for me to apply. But the pen style? For me, it goes on so smooth and even. When I want a defined eye that doesn't smear or wear off throughout the day, this is the answer. The blackened brown is dark without being harsh, so I love it with light eyeshadows as well as smokey looks. I found myself reaching for this eyeliner almost every day.

And for lips, this past month I pretty much constantly wore the nude shade in my new Smashbox Image Factory Lip Enhancing Gloss duo. The nude color is called "chic" and it's the perfect shimmery neutral for my skin. The red "luxe" color is also gorgeous. And though luxe is a really deep color, I like it because it's buildable; one thin coat gives the perfect hint of color for day and a thicker coat is great for an evening look. I am really impressed with the formula on these glosses. They feel moisturizing and decadent on the lip without ever feeling sticky; plus there's no weird smell or taste to these glosses. I'll definitely be purchasing other Smashbox glosses.

So those were my must-have products for the month of October. Have you tried any new beauty products recently? Anything you love?

hugs, sharyn