Allison's Creations

Monday, January 7, 2013

Emily's Christmas Gift - Part 2

Along with the Christmas mini album I give my sister-in-law Emily every year, I also made her a Greeting Card Organizer. I made two and let her choose which one she wanted and kept the other for myself. (BTW, if you were curious, she chose organizer #2!) Do you find yourself making things for other people and NEVER making anything for yourself? I do! So, sometimes I make two of something so I can keep one.

I bought the kits from Joey Otlo at the Cat's Creations Scrapbooks National Scrapbook Day Retreat last May. If you click on Joey's name, it will take you to her blog where she has more kits for sale, including the Greeting Card Organizer kit. The kit includes the organizer and the matching cards!

Organizer #1:

Organizer #2:

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Emily's Christmas Gift - Part 1

Every year I make a Christmas mini album for my sister-in-law Emily. She opens it on Christmas Eve, ooohs and aaahs, and hands it back to me! Yes, she hands it back to me because it does not yet have photos in it. A few days later she gives me her stack of Christmas photos, and usually by the end of January she gets back her completed Christmas album WITH photos!

I always use a kit to make her Christmas albums so they are nicely coordinated. I buy my kits at Cat's Creations Scrapbooks in Mineral Wells, TX, my local scrapbook store. I attend her twice monthly crops and 4-day retreats - that's where I work on putting together the album every year and then completing it with the photos. So, thank you, Cat, for making gift giving easy! Visit her website often and subscribe to her blog to see some of the beautiful album classes she teaches. She can mail kits to anyone who might see something they want to make!

Here's this year's album without the photos yet!

Front Cover

Center Spread

Some of the Other Pages (this was a much larger album than I usually make):

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Mom's Christmas Gift - Part 2

Welcome back for Part 2 of my mom's Christmas gift - the cards that match the box I decorated for her! If you missed the box, I posted it yesterday. I used the same paper and ribbons on the cards as I used on the box and just added images and sentiments along with some dies. I made 16 cards in all so I made multiples of some of these cards.

This is my favorite of the bunch!

Image colored by Kaylie

Friday, January 4, 2013

Mom's Christmas Gift - Part 1

I always make something for my mom and sister-in-law for Christmas, but for some reason I never thought to post the creations on my blog. Well, DUH! This year you get to see their gifts now that it's January and the gifts are safely in their hands.

For my mom, I decorated a box to hold cards and filled it with 16 cards that coordinate. I bought the box and all the papers I used at Cat's Creations Scrapbooks, my local scrapbook store, and made it at the November retreat Cat hosted. The inspiration for the colors came from the monthly ribbon club I belong to with Really Reasonable Ribbon. In the spring, we received a package of ribbon that had black and neon pink ribbons - these are some of my mom's favorite colors. In fact, I think she likes any neon color paired with black. I knew she'd love the ribbon so much that I ordered another package of the ribbon and mailed it to her as a surprise!

Today I will show you the box (part 1) and, if you come back tomorrow for part 2, you will get to see the selection of cards I made to put in the box!

On a totally unrelated topic, fellow blogger Karen Howard posted files for a 2014 calendar and I wanted to share it with you in case you might be thinking about working on Christmas gifts for next year or even something for yourself! Click HERE to see an example page from her calendar. She even sells wooden bases made by her husband to hold your finished calendar. What a wonderful crafty gift it would make!

Front of Box

Inside Center Section - eternal calendar on left, cards on right

Right Side - envelope storage

Left Side - envelope storage

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Another Love Card CASE'd

I just love this card layout so much that I CASE'd from Bonnie, owner of Really Reasonable Ribbon, that I used it again! (You can click HERE for details from the first time I CASE'd her card.) I hope you're not tired of it because I plan to use it for some other occasions as well (birthday, missing you and thinking of you!). This is also my submission for WOW Wednesday at Cat's Creations Scrapbooks.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

January Doodle Pantry Release Day!

Woohoo! Hello 2013! Not only is it New Year's Day, but it's also the new release day at Doodle Pantry. As usual, Laurie has a wonderful selection of digital images, sentiments and papers for you. I chose to create a card with the new Rose and Bud set - this image is only available in outlines right now, but I really enjoy coloring flowers the most.

Being in Texas, my mind went immediately to the Yellow Rose of Texas, so I had to do a yellow rose first. Then, I thought I'd do a pink one as well. I have to admit that I'm not the best at shading and am still learning. After I finished coloring, my "shadows" looked wrong to me, but there you have it. If you don't try, you can't improve, right?!

Don't forget that the Doodle Pantry Digital Challenge is back after the holiday break - the only requirement is to use a Doodle Pantry image on your creation. EVERYONE will receive the Cupid Turtle set for free just for playing along plus be entered for a chance to win a gift certificate to shop in the online store. The deadline to play is January 24, so go create something FABULOUS!

This month's free with purchase set is Olive You and the 35% off sale is still going on for a few more days (ends January 3)! So, go check out all of the new releases for January and do a little shopping!