The Third Date of Christmas

We went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science's Body Worlds brain exhibit for our third date. We'd seen another Body Worlds exhibit before, and this one was very similar. I had hoped it would be more about just the brain. Still pretty cool.



This is my simplest layout yet. I got the template from Oscraps (Simple Template No. IV) and duplicated the red flower. I then changed the layer type to Luminosity to make it green. Background paper is from SP "Seasonal Sampler" Holiday Paper Green. Fonts: Parchment and Popsies. Voila!

Pay It Forward

Well, I've managed to come down with a cold (this happens during every break I have from school), so the 12 dates are postponed until I start feeling better.

In the meantime I thought I'd share two layouts I made for a Pay It Forward I participated in.

This first one was for one of my blog friends. I put it in a black frame and mailed it out (on time) back in October.


Credits:
Fonts-Unnamed Melody & Trajan Pro

The second one didn't make it into its owner's hands until last week. Thankfully it was for one of my best friends, so she didn't complain that it was two months late.



When I handed her the gift she thought it was an empty picture frame. Imagine her delight when she actually opened it and saw this!



Here's a close up.

The Second Date of Christmas

For our second date we went to a session at the Houston Temple, and afterwards we did some Christmas shopping at the church bookstore across the street.

There is a certain beauty to each temple, but I especially love the Houston Temple because it is the one we were married in and because it looks like a fairytale castle. =) I also love how in love I feel when I cuddle and whisper with my husband in the Celestial Room. It's truly the closest place to heaven on earth. How could I get a better date than that?

Credits:
Bg paper-SP Seasonal Sampler Holiday Paper "Ornate"
Frame with paper clip-Fei Fei's Stuff "Save It"
Ribbon-R. Penner's "Express Yourself" kit from SP
Font-Little Lord Fontleroy NF

Merry and Bright

Love, Allison & Henry

Twelve Dates of Christmas

Instead of exchanging traditional gifts with Henry this year, I decided that it would be more fun and productive (you know, quality time together, strengthening our relationship, yada, yada)for us to go on a dating spree. Digital scrapbooking wasn't the only thing that suffered during this past semester of school; date night fell by the wayside too. So, this Christmas season we're attempting to go on twelve dates.

Why twelve? Contrary to what this blog may be leading you to believe, 12 is not my favorite number. It's twelve dates to go along with the twelve days of Christmas, which, according to Wikipedia, are "the festive days beginning the evening of Christmas Day through the morning of Epiphany." (I really don't know anything about the day of Epiphany. Does anyone celebrate that? Basically, I just got the 12 date idea from Oprah and I think it'll be fun.)

We've gone on three dates so far, and I'm going to try to scrapbook each one.

Here is the first date of Christmas:



My parents live about twenty minutes from the Johnson Space Center, but it'd been years since I'd been. We had fun on the tram tour though I have to say it was a wee bit chilly outside. Our favorite part was playing around with the indoor exhibits.

Credits:
Template-Little Dreamer Designs "Love"
Ornament png-Fei Fei's Stuff
Christmas trees-SP Seasonal Sampler
Dark green bg-Designer Digitals color challenge 12-7-08
Light green bg-2 ps Martha Stewart kit
Red polka dot paper-Designer Digitals Everyday Inspiration 11-23
Red and Brown dots-SP "Sunporch"

October 12th

My parents came to visit for the weekend, and we made a special dinner to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary!

Credits:
-template: Little Dreamer Designs "My Boy"
-bg paper: Shabby Princess "Promise" Paper Leaf
-other papers: SP "Vintage Floral" Paper Dots, SP Kristie SF Orange Paper, Designer Digitals dz ad challenge 5-4 Paper 3
-"Sunday": Little Dreamer Designs, Michelle Coleman Hand Stamped alpha
-other text: Rosewood Std

Back in the Saddle Again

Hi. I know it's been a while. A little thing called grad school, which turns out, is not for the faint of heart, came between me and digital scrapbooking. But now I'm out of school for a whole month and there are new layouts on the horizon.

Today I did a page for Thanksgiving. It was my first time ever to use a layered template. Not as self-explanatory as I thought it'd be, but after a quick tutorial I was in business. It was definitely faster than creating a layout from scratch, but it also doesn't feel as personalized.



This was a Thanksgiving of firsts: my first Thanksgiving away from my parents, first with my in-laws, and first to host in my home. For the first time ever I was in charge of planning and cooking the meal though Henry helped a lot. It was really a team effort. We made turkey (we stuck to just cooking a breast. maybe next year we'll go for a whole bird), sweet potatoes, a pineapple cheese log, corn on the cob, cheesy potatoes, rolls, and a pumpkin pie. Our family brought over brisket, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, more rolls and bread, and about six pies! Everything was delish, and I think everyone had a good time too. We played Cranium, Clue, and Worst Case Survival game before heading over to Lara and William's to watch a movie. It was a nice day.

Materials:
Template: Designer Digitals Ad Challenge 2-10-08
Ribbon: Shabby Princess "Festival Ric Rac Coral"
Font: Vaguely Repulsive

September 12 of 12

I finally finished my 12-of-12 for last month! I made it hurricane themed since I spent most of September 12th glued to my TV, wondering what was going to happen to my hometown.


Got up that morning and worked out. Went to Friday Forum and played a little pool at the Institute. Came home and read a forever long chapter. Watched minute-by-minute coverage of Hurricane Ike for about 8 hours (yikes!). No sign of rain in Austin. Picked Henry up from work. Thought they'd closed early because the windows were boarded up. Apparently there was a mix up with a store in Houston, so they got sandbags and boarded windows at their store...to weather the half inch of rain we got. lol. Gas shortages. Brought the plants inside to protect them from high winds that never came. But really I am thankful. My parents' and other family members' houses were spared from any major damage. It could've been a lot worse.

Materials:

-bg paper: worn teal from SP's "Spontaneous Delight"

-grid lines "splotch02" from 2ps Future Rockstar

-Grunge overlay from 2ps Future Rockstar

-Inksplotch "splotch01" from 2ps Future Rockstar

-Font: Rosewood Std

August 12 of 12

I spent the day home sick, so this one is kind of boring. I was going for an Olympics feel with the rings around the pictures & Chinese character on Page 1. What do you think?

Materials Page 1:
-bg paper from ShabbyPrincess "Sun Porch"
-font: Blackadder
-trees from two peas "Proud To Be Digital"
-buttons from ShabbyPrincess "Vintage Florals"
-alpha letters from ShabbyPrincess "Vintage Florals"
-stitched circles from ShabbyPrincess "Urban Kiwi"
-crisscross stitching from ShabbyPrincess "Two Soon"
-Chinese "joy" symbol...don't remember!
-journal block from ShabbyPrincess "Promise"

Materials Page 2:
Thankfully this one has fewer materials!
-bg paper from ShabbyPrincess "Sun Porch"
-font: Blackadder
-tape strips from designerdigitals
-leaves from two peas "Proud To Be Digital"
-crisscross stitching from ShabbyPrincess "Two Soon"

Attempt #2

I forgot to mention that all of the elements I'm using are FREEBIES I've downloaded.

Materials:
-bg paper from ShabbyPrincess.com "Seasonal Sampler-Amore"
-Stitched heart from ShabbyPrincess "Splendid"
-Black swirly frame (around the kissy picture =P) from designerdigitals.com Web Challenge by Kellie Mize
-Stamp over kissy picture from ShabbyPrincess "Urban Kiwi"
-Black frame around large picture from twopeasinabucket.com I don't remember which kit, but it's by Rhonna Farrer
-Sanded overlay from ShabbyPrincess "Shabby Mommy"
-Journaling circle from twopeas "Proud To Be Digital"
-Fonts: Albemarle Swash, Albemarle Demo, and Perpetua Titling MT

July 12 of 12

Here is my very first attempt. I don't absolutely love it, but I think it's okay.

It was way harder to fit 12 pictures on one page than I expected!



Pictures are from: revising my diagnostic reports, eating at the Brick Oven, boat tour of Town Lake, picnic in Zilker Park, preparing for my Primary lesson, and watching a production of "Beauty and the Beast" all in celebration of my birthday which was three days later.

Materials: bg paper is from the free Martha Stewart kit on twopeas

A New Frontier

About a month or so ago I got into digital scrapbooking. If I remember correctly, it all started when I clicked on a link for "free blog background papers" or something to that end. What it lead me to was ShabbyPrincess.com, a site that offers free digital scrapbooking kits. I downloaded some goodies and tucked them neatly away into their own folder on my computer.

A couple weeks later I stumbled upon the 12-of-12 challenge. I LOVE taking pictures and I love journaling. It seemed like a fun and unique way to combine the two, so with that I began my digital scrapbooking hobby. This blog will most likely be devoted to just scrapbooking, a way to share my layouts with others. I hope you enjoy them!