Christmas layouts - "The Hunt" and "Joyous"

I'm sitting here at my desk and my hands are ice cold, it's raining outside, and very gloomy. We have the possibility of some flurries AGAIN later in the week. Since I still have several recent Christmas layouts to share, I figured today was as good a time as any.

I recently was blessed enough to win some glorious blog candy. All of what you seee here was made with this great set of winter paper. It was so much fun to work with it and have all of the cute embellishments to match. The majority of the paper was from Echo Park "Wintertime". These pictures were taken when we were searching for the perfect Christmas tree. It's a tradition that I love more and more each year. This year we had to find our Christmas tree earlier than normal since my husband and I were getting ready to head out on an anniversary (25th) cruise the first week in December.

The decorations on the tree were punched out of snowflake patterned paper. All of the accessoreis were included with this great kit of goodies.

We ended up picking our tree from the fresh-cut trees in the barn. We warmed up with hot cider and then went to dinner together at BWW's. I'm so thankful that our kids will still participate in and enjoy these traditions with us even though they're all grown up. I loved the 12 " border stickers on the bottom of this side. Stinkin' cute and easy!

Here they are side by side. I wish I could remember the name of the blog where I won this paper set so I could post it here. Maybe she'll see this post and remind me. I sent her a thank you card, because I was just so excited to get it and her gift was so generous!

The pictures in this second layout were taken on Christmas Eve when our immediate family got together at our house to celebrate with a meal and presents. I love making a special meal and decorating the table for Christmas. Always a litlte stressful to get everything done on time, but always worth the extra effort! I'm pretty sure I burned something a little bit this year, but now that it's March, I can't remember. I guess it's good to have a short memory sometimes. =)

Again, this is all from the Echo Park "Wintertime" set of paper, except the gold ribbon and the metal "Family" trinket which I had in my stash.

I almost always end up with some kind of grid of pictures on my page. It's just the easiest way that I've found to fit in a lot of pictures. I managed to squeeze in 11 pictures on this double layout. Another little trick I use is to order the "true digital" size rather than 4x6. They are just slightly shorter in length and it gives you room for a little bit of paper to peek out behind. These are actually cropped down even a little smaller in length to create room for my title. The only thing cropped out is the distracting backgrounds in each shot. The glitter chipboard letters were also in my stash and I used a mix of the colors to spell out the title.  

Not sure if you can read the journalling, but it's all about the blessings of family and how much we are enjoying our daughter-in-law. She is a treasure and it's fun watching their relationship grow. 

Have a great week...Oh, and keep checking back because there will be some yummy blog candy in the very near future. I need to get a picture of it and figure out the best way to give it away. =) It's so cool, that I bought 2....one for me and one to give away to my fellow bloggers. =) More details soon....