Month: January 2026

HO! HO! HO! Tis The Season To Sparkle

~ dddesignz ~ Leave a comment

I love the magic of this season, and have fun scrapbooking our memories of this special time. I started the tradition of buying Christmas pajamas for my children several decades ago. After dinner, they would excitedly open their presents and immediately go upstairs to put them on. I’ve carried this Christmas Eve tradition over to my grandchildren, who look forward to it with excitement. They always humour me by letting me take their photo before the tree. I think you can see from their faces that they enjoy this annual ritual as much as I do!

I was fortunate last Fall to purchase a Creative Kit from Mintay Papers that included a slew of products from the Merry & Joy collection. It was priced at $50 and included products that were worth at least $200. This kit is going to give me a lot of options to scrapbook our latest Christmas memories. If you get the opportunity to purchase a Creative Kit from Mintay in the future, I strongly recommend it. I promise you, you will not be disappointed!

As soon as I saw the patterned paper with Santa peeking through the window, I knew it would be the perfect background paper for this layout. After adhering my picture to the design, I chose coordinating Die Cuts from the ephemera pack included in the kit. I’m a lover of dimension to my projects, so I used several 3D Foam Squares from Scrapbook Adhesives to layer the ephemera on the page. Most of the ephemera was adhered to the top of the layout, but I also layered the nutcracker and presents at the bottom of the page.

I fussy-cut a doily from the Decorative Vellum sheet included in the kit and adhered it with vellum tape to the right-hand side of the page, over the green window shutter. Next, I cut the phrases from the sheet of Christmas phrases, also included in the kit. To complete this section, I added the date using Lily White Alphabet Soup puffy stickers from Doodlebug Designs.

To reinforce the page title with a sparkle reference, I adorned the star ornaments at the top and bottom of the page with miniature gold gems from Spellbinders. These gems came in two tones, and I utilized both on the ornaments. The Christmas tree at the bottom of the page also had a star on its top, so I added a bright silver star from my stash to complete the sparkle elements. These gems and sparkles help enhance the Christmas tree lights in the picture.  

I’m very pleased with the final results on this page. It helps convey the anticipation of Santa’s impending visit and captures the joy my grandchildren felt on Christmas Eve! Thanks for stopping by to share in this magical moment. Until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!

Ben & Cocoa Take An Elfie

~ dddesignz ~ Leave a comment

Happy New Year, my scrappy friends! I hope your Christmas was full of love, laughter, and wonderful memories. We were very fortunate to have our entire family home for the holidays this year! A rare treat, and we enjoyed every moment together. Christmas is extra special when you have a family member who still believes in Santa. It makes every day special and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day magical! Our youngest Grandson still believes in Santa Claus and the magic of his Elf on a Shelf, Cocoa. This year, my daughter took a cute picture of the two just before Christmas. Ben was so excited to count down the days as Christmas approached.

I dug deep into my patterned paper stash to find this background paper from 3bugsinarug, entitled Reindeer Games. Peartree Cutfiles had the perfect cut file to document this special picture. The Take An Elfie cut file contains two cut files: the title and the elf with a camera. I chose to back the elf and the camera with multiple coloured cardstock pieces, used vellum for the camera lens, and the Holographic 2.0 paper from Lawn Fawn for the camera’s flash. I find working with small paper pieces like the eyes in the elf quite tedious, so I opted to use Concord & 9th’s black enamel dots instead. Next, I backed the Take An Elfie title with patterned paper from BoBunny entitled Mistletoe. This patterned paper has also been in my Christmas collection for several years.

To complete the layout, I adhered the two cut files on either side of the picture. The elf and the camera were adhered using double-sided adhesive foam tape. I did not adhere the foam tape to the back of the vellum lens. I used Doodlebug Designs Black Alphabet Soup Puffy Stickers to add the names and date to the layout. And finally, I added some gold accents to the page using Vicki Boutin’s Thickers from her Print Shop and Warm Wishes collections.

And that’s a wrap on my first Christmas layout for 2025. Thanks for popping in today. Until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!