Fantasy of Lights - Two Page Christmas Scrapbook Layout

 I'm on a roll here with posting my Christmas layouts from a few years back. It's been fun reliving the memories as I share my layouts with you. 

I love the paper with this layout. It reminds me of vertical light strings. I added the simple evergreens with white "snow", and cut a few strands of mini lights to drape across the top. Love when you can save the free pass and use it for the title!

I had the two glittery scraps (journaling background and horizontal piece) that match your layout perfectly. I love to use scraps!

I hope you are inspired by this layout. It's such a busy and exhausting time!! Here's to getting everything done and then being able to relax and enjoy the magic and peace that follows.

I'm planning to post a few more, if I can squeak in the time.

Silent Night - Two Page winter scrapbook layout

 Hello again! Yes, this is my second post this week. :) I'm on a roll.

These pictures were taken the evening of Christmas Day 2019. The back of our house looks so much better now. We now have beautiful Craftsman style posts with stone bases and some additional trim up in the peak. Much better than the crooked lumber holding it up in this photo.  The underside of the covered porch is still unfinished today (much to my dismay), but it will be finished some day!

I love the Kraft paper with Christmas wording, even though this was obviously NOT a white Christmas! I found the woodsy stick images including the title in Cricut Design Studio. It was all one image, but after cutting, I moved them around on my page to accent the photos.

I added a few strips of scrap Christmas paper and wrote out the journaling with my Cricut. I love that feature, since my handwriting is terrible....per everybody in the family, except my husband who has gotten pretty good at deciphering it after 37 years of marriage. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Hope you find some inspiration for a crafty weekend!

Together - Two Page Christmas Scrapbook Layout

 Here's another Christmas layout. Who is ready for some extended family time? I know I am. My husband's siblings are the best friends that we have and right now, I'm missing them so much.

Love the chevron woodgrain paper, even though it's not Christmas specific. We always gather a few weeks after Christmas because we have some family in retail. Any earlier and it's just too hectic. I found a whitewashed look woodgrain scrap with a large snowflake pattern for a banner to frame the title, and cut some simple white snowflakes to place around the layout. To tie in the blue title, I added blue dots to the snowflake by hand. I am happy with the way it turned out. Nothing fancy about this page, but the pictures are telling the story.

The silly pictures are a requirement with the grandkids and sometimes with all of us. I love their antics!! 

Hope this inspires you as we race into the Christmas season! Enjoy your time with family!

Merry Christmas - Two Page Layout

Here's another two page Christmas layout from 2018. These pictures are from our celebration with our boys and their families. So precious to me!! It's always tough to fit in all the pics that tell the story. As I've mentioned in the past, wallet size pictures help so much, and they add a little variety to the layouts.

It's fun watching the "big kids" open their gifts too. I try to shop throughout the year to find fun things that are unique and special. Especially for the girls!! Raising two boys was fun, but shopping for these girls is a special joy...something that I looked forward to for so long. So I spoil them a bit!

I love watching the expressions on all of their faces as they open things from each other and from us. There's nothing better. 

This paper is from the same Christmas pack as the last layout that I shared. I love the rich colors and the patterns. The title was cut with my Cricut. I used some Wink of Stella to add some shimmer on the bow and also on the poinsettias that were punched with StampinUp! five point flower punch.

Three different patterned papers that all look great together and help show off the photos. I was able to use 10 pictures on this layout and still add embellishments, journaling, and a title. 

Thanks for stopping by for another Christmas layout! Hope your days leading up to Christmas are productive, fun, and memorable for years to come!! 
 

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "More Presents"

Here's an after Christmas layout with our extended family at my son's home. We always celebrate in January with my husband's siblings' families. It's always a crazy time of presents, games, laughing and other ridiculousness. We wouldn't have it any other way.

 I just love my family! We actually enjoy our time together. I know that's not the case for some families and that makes me sad, but I also "get it". Family dynamics can be tough. I am so very thankful that we are family, but also friends, who choose to make time for each other.

 I hope that you have enjoyed some special times with your family and friends this Christmas! You never know what life will bring you, so enjoy each moment that you are able to.

May God bless and keep you and your families during 2019. Happy New Year!!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Our Home for the Holidays"

I still have a few Christmas layouts to share with you.

 I apparently forgot to add the date on here. There's no journaling, because it's pretty obvious the pictures are of our (previous) home decorated for the holidays. I believe this was 2016. At this point, we had purchased our lot and were trying to finalize our home plans for our dream home to be built in the following year. This was our final year of fully decorating that home for Christmas.

 We sure did love our old home in so many ways, but we were also very excited about the fact we were in the process of making our dream home a reality...finally. We had 28 years of memories in this, our first home. Our tiny dining room was bursting at the seams now that our oldest boy has a family of four and our youngest was at that time engaged (now married). Even though it was tiny, we managed and always seemed to make it special for everybody.

We tried to make it a place where everybody was comfortable with a little bit of magical ambiance. Now that we are in our new home, I look back at these pictures and it's bittersweet. Love all of the memories that I'm preserving with my scrapbooks. But I also LOVE making all the new memories in our new home. Two days from now we will have been in our new place for a full year, completing the full year of holidays and memory making in our new home. We are so thankful and blessed to have a little more room for our growing family to enjoy when they come for family dinner each week and especially for all the holiday meals. We are truly blessed to fulfill our LONG time dream of building. For a little taste of our new home (before we moved in), you'll have to come back tomorrow for a sneak preview layout!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Come back soon!

Two page scrapbook layout - "Merry Christmas"

The grandkids, even at this young age, have learned to be patient about opening gifts. We usually have brunch first, and then do stockings in order of our age (youngest to oldest), and then the presents in the same order. We like to spread it out and watch everybody opening their gifts. I know many enjoy the mass chaos of everybody opening it all at once. I personally want to see the expressions on their faces as they open each gift one at a time.

This is an older layout from two years back. I love being able to look back at previous years and see how my kids have grown and changed and also, of course, how the grandkids have grown. What a blessing each of them are in our lives.

 And, I was wrong about that being the last Christmas in that home! Our home building plans were just getting started at this point, and we assumed the house would be done, but we ended up not getting into our new place until right after Christmas 2017.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! May your Christmas be blessed and full of joy!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Cookies"

Do you and your family have the tradition of making Christmas cookies each year? We do! I'm actually surprised how much my grown kids seem to enjoy it and this year, the grands were really enjoying it as well. I love our time together!!

This was the last time making cookies at our old house. Such sweet memories there, all packed in around the dining room table. What a mess, but so much yummy fun! When the cookies were all decorated, of course we had lots of frosting left in the tubes so my youngest boy and his wife decided to take care of it for us. Katie squeezed the tube so hard, the top flew off and frosting went all over her face and jacket!! She took it like a champ. What else can you do, right?

I love my family so much!  We just celebrated our first Christmas with these crazies in our new home. What a blast! I love making all of these new memories in our new place. We made cookies last Saturday together and I can't wait to put together a new cookie decorating layout to share.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Hope you are up to your elbows in Christmas festivities!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Holly Jolly"

A few years back we took the grandkids to the Street of Lights show in Marion, IN. It's a bit of a drive, but usually they're excited and don't mind it.

 These pics are from two years ago. We wanted it to be an annual event, but we never got around to doing it in 2017 since we were in the process of moving from our house of 28 years to a brand new dream home. Let's just say it was a crazy fall, winter and holiday season!

 But, our outing is planned again for this Friday night! They'll spend the night with us and we'll celebrate Christmas with the whole family the next morning at our house. It will be a brunch, but we'll still need to have our ducks in a row. You know, like having the presents all wrapped and the food all made in advance. LOL!

I'm so looking forward to having them over again. It's a little easier at our new home since we have more space for them. Can't wait to see the lights together and a special treat of some kind on the way home. Love these two so much! They are such a blessing to us!!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Warm Winter Wishes"

Here's a layout of our 2016 Christmas tree hunt at the Tree Farm. I love that or kids all meet up with us to help us pick out a real tree. We always pick either a Douglas or a Frasier fir. Unfortunately, they rarely have them in the cut your own tree area. But we always find a nice one that's already been cut...and let's face it..that's just super simple.

 The kids rode the train with Uncle Jacob and Aunt Katie. Super cute pictures! Our big lumberjacks carry the tree out to the car and get it secured, and then we all go to lunch!

 The littles seem to love checking out the nativity scene and enjoying the whole "real tree" experience. I know we love having them with us!!

More Christmas layout to come! See you soon!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Big Kids"

Watching your kids grow up and become awesome adults is a major blessing! We snapped these photos of our sons and their wives enjoying Christmas last year.

 Our grands were already done opening and were playing with their gifts. Now it was time for the big kids to enjoy theirs.
These two boys are such a delight to us. We are so proud of who they have become and LOVE spending time with them just getting caught up on their week.They both live nearby and we can see each other often. That, alone, is a blessing!

I used super simple embellishments on this page. The gifts are simply rectangles with bakers twine tied around them and the poinsettias were made with StampinUp's 5 petal flower punch, doubled up with wood buttons in the center. For quick leaves, I used the same 5 petal flower punch with green paper and cut into multiple leaves and tucked them under each flower.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! More Christmas layouts to come!