I am so loving the sheer alphabet letters (Upper and lowercase Atlanta) by Maya Road. I like to paint mine and then cover them in stickles (icicle) by Ranger. I can never get enough glitter and bling! So here is a sneak peek of an ornament I created for my Secret Santa. You can see how I altered the sheers. If you would like to purchase some sheer alphabets online I love to order from Scrapgal.com the service there is unbelievable. I am always amazed as to how quickly I receive my items. Carly is just the best!

I discovered I am be addicted to silver pipe cleaners. Seriously, I found that I only had a few left and had to run to JoAnns to get more. I have to be on my 4th pack by now. I can NOT stop using them on all of my holiday decorations. I just love the vintage feel they give. I will post the entire ornament once it has been posted on the MR blog Notes from the Journey. What great gifts have you created this holiday season? I would love to see some of your creations.

Sorry I don’t have any projects or layouts to share today. But here is a really cute photo of “Sonny” my golden retriever. He is wearing the Santa hat “Zeus” had his photo taken in a few days ago.

At the moment, I am working on several things for Maya Road and Cocoa Daisy but can’t share until Jan. 1st! I think this is the hardest part about being on a DT. I always want to share my creations as soon as I finish. The waiting just kills me. So, I found this really cute list of questions on the net and thought it would be fun to share them with you. I plan on making a mini album using all my families answers. On Christmas Eve I’m going to hand this out and have them fill in the answers. Then take a photo of each person and create a journal. I think it will be fun to have and reflect on in the future.

Christmas Questionnaire

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

3. Colored lights or white lights on tree/house?

4. Do you hang Mistletoe?

5. When do you put your decorations up?

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?

8. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

9. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?

12. Can you ice skate?

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?

15. What tops your tree?

16. What’s your favorite holiday tradition?

17. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?

18. What is your favorite holiday dessert?

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?

21. What is your favorite Christmas special/movie?

Here is a very simple project using a Bazzill Mini Mono Album. I think friends and relatives will love finding this attached to a gift bag or present or used as an ornament for their tree.

Supplies needed are as follows:

• Bazzill Mini Mono Album
• Silver Pipe Cleaner (I’m addicted to these)
• Heidi Swapp Bling (I cut up the rectangles)
• Rhinestones
• Pattern Paper
• White Cardstock
• Jump Rings
• Metal Eyelets (numbers or letters)

FYI… It is much easier to slide the pipe cleaner underneath the ribbon of the mini album when the album is completely open. Now decorate your album with pattern paper and bling, attach your selected photos, journal, tie closed and attach your eyelets to the ribbon. It is that easy.

Have fun!

ALWAYS leads to another in this house especially when it comes to creativity. I have needed a photo of Terri wearing a Santa hat for weeks. Well yesterday she finally let me take one.

Isn’t she just the cutest! So… after I got the photos of Terri I needed we both looked at each other and decided it was time to take some photos of Zeus for her Christmas cards. Poor little guy had no idea what he was in store for but I must say he is a natural. This dog will pose forever.

Click here to view more photos

We had so much fun. Now Terri just needs to pick one photo! She left the house with a proof sheet of 9 poses and will try to make up her mind by this evening. I wished her luck as she left the house. I love them all.

Whether it is yours or a disposable just give a kid a camera. You will love seeing what they feel is photo worthy. I have so much fun looking at what photos my daughter Ansley (12 yrs. old) ends up taking and am always amazed with her self portraits. She has quite the eye for photography. Here are a few really neat photos she took last night that I altered. I LOVE any photo with a Sepia tone.

I spent this weekend cleaning and organizing my scraproom. I now have all my Maya Road and Cocoa Daisy products organized and placed in drawers for easy access. Next, will be my PaperDillies products once that gets started in Jan. I have a few projects and Challenges I need to work on and try to finish today for Maya Road. I want to get a head start before projects need to be completed for CHA.

Wishing you all a “Happy Monday.” Hope you get to be creative and if so please share your projects with me.