Merry Christmas and an EP Blog Hop Winner!!!

Hey Everyone, how are your holidays going? I hope everything is going smoothly and that you have time to enjoy your family and friends. I am one of those crazies who works non stop and never gets the chance to slow down and enjoy so I know how important it is. I have some sitting down time planned for tomorrow with my family so I am looking forward to that. Now you are thinking...."WHY is she chatting!? I want to know if I won that Echo Park Blog Hop!!!"  LOL!

I really hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I love giving out a collection kit to someone for the holidays! And I want to say thank you again to all of you for joining in these blog hops - Don't forget there is one every month. My winner this month is Orlanda!!! So please send me an email with your mailing address and choice of collection kits so that Echo Park can send that right out to you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Orlanda S. said...

Love your covered button and your snowflakes. Great details in this wonderful page. Love your kitty!!!

9:48 PM

Come back and visit soon because I have some more fun Photo Freedom layouts to share with you. :)

**December Echo Park Paper Design Team Blog Hop!!**

Welcome to the Echo Park Paper Design Team Blog Hop! Today the Echo Park Paper Design Team is showcasing projects from our latest collections. Be sure to follow the blog hop list below as you hop from one blog to the next. Return to the Echo Park Paper blog at any time for the next blogger on the list in case you get lost or confused! ONE winner will be selected from each blog to receive an Echo Park Paper collection kit of their choosing. To qualify for the kit, comments will be due by midnight EST, Sunday, December 23rd to qualify for the drawing. The winner will be announced on each blog Monday, December 24th  so be sure to check back to see if you've won.

Echo ParkPaper

Kandis Smith

Wendy SueAnderson

TamaraTripodi

Linda Auclair

Lowri McNabb

SusanStringfellow (You are Here)

Davinie Fiero

And back to Echo Park Paper

Now for a little holiday fun - Have you tried the Echo Park Photo Freedom collections? I had never done the divided pages and after playing with them recently, I found out that it's really alot of fun to try another format! I will be sharing some more of my pages soon, but right now I have to show you this page using the Dear Santa collection (Click here to see the collection because it fun stuff). After seeing some of my Photo Freedom layouts, my husband suggested trying a traditional type layout just for fun and this is what I came up with. Since this collection has Noel all over it, I had to do a Noel page :) and of course I couldn't keep things contained in their own pockets so my snowflakes and things are spanning out to adjacent pockets. Just a really fun thing to try. 

Another thing I tried was making my own covered buttons using the papers. I  used the Dritz buttons that are designed to be fabric covered and I cut a circle from the papers and a circle from the clear packaging of the collection and followed the directions for the buttons. It makes a cool shiny covered button - kind of like homemade flair. Here are some close ups

Gift box *DCWV "Traditional Holiday Stack"

Are you giving any small gifts and need a little pillow box? Cardstock weight patterned paper is just ideal! Check out these great holiday papers with gold foil from the New DCWV "Traditional Holiday Stack". This collection has holiday designs printed on kraft cardstock so it's a great weight for a pillow box and the gold foil just puts it over the top for me. One of my trees has lots of golds in the ornaments so the wrapping paper I use usually has gold foil or glittered designs. This collection is just perfect for the gift cards that I got for my mother-in-law. :) I cut out a little soldier and gift tag too. So don't forget you have a whole bunch of great gift wrap options in your stash!

My December Daily - part 1

Hey guys, how many of you are doing something like a December Daily? If you are, share a link to your gallery and blog to inspire everyone. I know everyone is making it look just so fun! I have to tell you that I have caved. I got a red Snap album and a good friend gave me the October Afternoon 8x8 Good Cheer pad so I thought I would start with that, add papers and embellishments from last year's OA "Holiday Style" collection and various sparkly tinsels and sequins from my grandmother. And then I was totally surprised when my scrapping buddy, Kristin, gave me the new October Afternoon holiday mini kit as a gift! I have enough cute goodies now to make 5 years worth! LOL!!!

So here is my game plan - Using the Snap album and all of these goodies, I wanted to do a photo a day for December showing all of the pretties that I love during the season. We start our holiday season the day after Thanksgiving though, so my book starts there with our Tree Day and decorating.

And you know how your house looks Christmas morning when gift wrap is everywhere? well thats kind of the way my book is turning out - lots of holiday chaos. I hope you like it. I will put a photo at the bottom showing the pile of goodies that I am using :)

So here is my book from Nov 23rd up thru Dec 2nd. I expect that very soon holiday life will get in the way of my creating and sharing so it may be mid January before I finish this and share all of it.