Christmas 2011

Did I say I probably would not be blogging until 2012? Oops! I lied. ;)
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Here at the Collins clan household, we sure did.

The highlight was definitely watching Charlotte tear open all her gifts. For just being one years old - she seemed to understand that under the wrapping paper - there were toys to be found!

It's almost Christmas!

Wow! Christmas is right around the corner. Are you excited? I know I am! Seeing my little one tear into her gifts is going to be wonderful. We are also spending Christmas with a very special guest this year - my best friend, Angie. She even has her own stocking that has already been stuffed full of of goodies. We have already gone through a few Christmas traditions which include decorating the tree, visiting Christmas Town at Busch Gardens, and getting a picture of Charlotte with Santa. Of course I have some photos to share!

The main tree at Christmas Town. Isn't it gorgeous? Yes! Just like the rest of Christmas Town.

We had so much fun! Check out how bundled up Charlotte is in her snow suit. ;) Haha, it was way cold.

 Charlotte with Santa. She was a bit...put off by him, haha.

Our Christmas tree this year! The picture didn't come out to well. :(

Our Christmas lights this year. :) Love how they turned out around our circular staircase.

My next blog post probably won't be until year 2012 so I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

8.5x11 layout (The Perfect Model)

Up until today, I've only scrapped 12x12 layouts. I decided to go a bit out of my comfort zone. This is my first attempt at an 8.5x11. I can easily say I'm addicted to smaller layouts now! They are so fun, easy, and stress free! Not to mention, having a variety of different sized layouts in my scrapbook will give it much more interest.

The photo is of my baby girl, Charlotte. There are actually quite a few similar photos in my stack of 4x6s. You see, I do not have my own SLR camera (much to my dismay). However, my father does and I borrow it as often as I can. Every time I borrow it - I make it a point to give my daughter a tiny photo shoot. For the most part - she cooperates as well as you can expect a one year old to. With that being said, she really is the perfect model! She seems to love her time in front of the camera and she is great at posing! I'm not sure as to whether she does the posing on purpose or if it just comes naturally to her.

On this particular layout I used Authentique's Free Bird - Blush series for the little squares. I inked the edges of each square with Vintage Photo (along with the edges of the base of the layout and the notebook paper). The card stock I used for the base is from Echo Park's "Happy Days" collection. Nothing seemed to flow along with the card stock base and the little squares until I added the notebook paper. I think that gave the layout such a nice touch! This may not be the last time I use notebook paper on a layout. ;) The embellishments are from various companies. The "Memories to Cherish" sticker and the two similar heart stickers are by Colorbök. The brown pennant sticker, safety pin sticker, other heart sticker, camera sticker, and girl's silhouette sticker are all by Amy Tangerine. The flower is from American Craft's Dear Lizzy Collection. I used bling to add a necklace onto the girl and then added it to the other clutter of embellishments for continuity. I splattered a bit of white paint here and there to tie in the rest of the layout with the white of the notebook paper. The word "model" is spelled out using cardstock alphas from Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe Collection. I wrote out the rest of the title and the journaling using my Zig Writer Pen.

Happy Scrapping!♥

Winner of the Birthday Blog Hop Giveaway!

Lizzie's Birthday blog hop was a success! I hope you guys enjoyed it just as much as I did. It's time to announce the winner for the prize I offered. The winner is.....

CARISA!!!!!!!!

Congratulations! To claim your prize, please email me at c.inezcollins@gmail.com with your mailing address.

Lizzie's Birthday Blog Hop (DAY 3)

It's time for Lizzie's Birthday Blog Hop! Hopefully you already checked out day one with JESS, day two with DEE, and of course the main post from Lizzie. There are amazing projets to be seen and prizes to be won! This is day three!

Happy Birthday to my sister from another mister, my twinnie, Lizzie!
In celebration, I have two projects to share with you today (and a prize to giveaway to one lucky winner!):

The first is a simple project that would be such an easy gift to make for someone (whether it be for their birthday or for the holidays).
It's a picture frame made out of very cheap matierial - cardboard!
The grogeous papers I used are from Authentique's "Gathering" collection aside from the blue woodgrain paper which is by Bella Blvd and it's called Family Dynamix - Roots.
The adorable little girl is a digital stamp from The Greeting Farms named "Cupcake Anya" that I colored with my BIC markers.
The word "birthday" is made up of Tinsel Thickers and the word "girl" is made up of cardstock stickers from Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe Collection.
I inked the edges with my all time favorite ink - Vintage Photo by Tim Holtz.

The second project is of course a birthday card! I kept it pretty simple. The base is your average Bazzil Cardstock.
I once again used that same woodgrain paper from Bella Blvd that I mentioned before.
The yellow pattered paper is from Authentique's Blissful collection.
The cute little digitally stamped cake was made by our one and only, Lizzie! I colored it using my BIC markers.
All the edges have been inked with Vintage Photo and I scribbled lines around each edge with my Zig Writer marker.
The "happy" is a sticker from that same Crate Paper's Emma Shoppe sticker sheet and the "birthday" is made out of tiny alpha stickers from Bo Bonny's Vicki B. Collection.

Now - it's giveaway time!
I will be giving away a 6x6 Authentique paper pad (the Splendid collection), a package full of the Vintage Finding's mini circle tags by Making Memories, and a package of Recollection butterflies.

How do you win? Leave a comment on my entry over at Lizzie's blog. A winner will be randomly chosen.

For extra entries to win you may:
- Comment on THIS entry in my blog.
- Follow my blog. (Let me know you are now following or if you were already a follower.)
- Follow me on Twitter. (Let me know you are now following or if you were already a follower.)
- Tweet about this blog hop! (Give the the url to your twitter so I can see that you have done so.)

Once again - Happy Birthday to the most wonderful girl in the world - Lizzie!
Enjoy the rest of the blog hop, everyone. :) You'll hear from Carisa tomorrow!