Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours! I do hope and pray that you had a fun and memorable Christmas today. The five of us had a nice celebration together and tomorrow we will be with Arte's family celebrating.






















This is a photo of us on the night of our Christmas party. It was such a great time and I'm so glad that the friends of ours who were able to find time to come, joined us in making some awesome memories together. We were truly blessed!





















A few more photos about sums it up. Food, friends and fun! I truly have been reminded this season why it's so important to set things aside and take the time to focus on being 'together.' One of our friends who was just at the party a few days ago, passed away this early Christmas morning. It all happened so fast. We are still in shock.

Please pray for his wife, Patty and family. I can't imagine how difficult this holiday season will be for them. I trust and know that the Lord will comfort them and that His goodness will shine through this situation as it always does.

I'm hugging my family a few extra times and hour and thanking God for my many blessings. This is such a reminder to me, that every day is a gift and that each person in our life is also a gift. Thank you God for the greatest gift of all, your son, Jesus.

My children will grow up with memories of singing Happy Birthday to Jesus on this day. I want them to really understand the heart of giving and not just receiving. They sure had fun receiving today, though. Don't get me wrong!





















Aside from the news, it was as Kelsey said 'the best Christmas ever.' Arte was able to get a shot of our tree. Had I knew of his secret 'Canon' knowledge, I would have snapped this one before the tree started to droop! Of course, I've been all over, on line trying to figure out how to get the settings right. Guess I should have just asked him!

I also wanted to share one quick photo of last Sunday. The kids did a little Christmas program. See the little girl in the red dress? Or should I say, see the little red dress? There's a cute little girl behind that program pretending to read the words and sing. I'm not sure who it is though. Can't be our Kelsey because we have NEVER seen her with a shy bone in our body...hmmm. Then there's the gorgeous lil' hunk next to her in the suite who seems to think he has the words memorized. Who needs programs anyway??





















One last thing. I said I'd have the winner of the RAK drawn tonight and the random generator picked.......................Amy Jo! Send me your addy and I'll get some pop dots and goodies in the mail to ya!

Merry Christmas and may the Lord bless your New Year too!

Fiskars Guest Designer!!!

It's our big party day here at the Overby's household. We are having an open house and everyone is invited. Come on' over!! LOL!

I'm also excited today to share with you a project I have made for Fiskars. I'm so completely honored to be a Guest Designer for Fiskars this month.

As as I was getting ready for company, I decided that my book shelf was in need of a good dusting. I found a few half full flip photo albums; you know, the 4x6 size that are so easy to just throw your pictures into when you first get them. I had fun smiling at some of the photos from 9 or 10 years ago. Even though there were no embellies or journaling, I still enjoyed flipping through it real quick.

It suddenly became apparent to me how much more fun it can be to sit down and flip through a mini album rather than a great big, huge 12x12 album. I've always loved adding so much stuff to my page that I tend to stick to large layouts. Maybe that is overwhelming for a little kid. I'll have to ask Kelsey when she wakes up tomorrow what size she prefers! Regardless, I think there will be more mini albums in my future. They are just simply starting to make more sense to me.

This was a fun little star album and it captured lots of different memories of a Christmas from a few years ago.

















Did you know that Fiskars makes adhesive foam dots? I was just thinking today as I was getting my card ready to send off, that the last three cards that I have had published all had the 'pop dots' or 'foam dots' on them. Seems to be a current trend! I'll never forget the day that the Fiskateer Legendary Lead May Flaum, said that I had won some Fiskars adhesive and in that package included foam dots. I have loved using them ever since. This is a small RAK but they have taken me a long way so I want to offer someone else the same chance to have fun with them. I have a brand new pack of Fiskars foam dots that I will send out to a random poster. I'll announce the winner on Christmas day. Maybe I'll throw in a few other things from my stash!

I really wanted to share one other card that I recently created. It also uses the foam dots. I've also used one of my most favorite Christmas lines of all right now; Tinsel Town by Pink Paislee. It is sooooooo purty!! I abosolutely love that it can make any Christmas project perfectly gorgeous but it's also a line that you could use for any season or occasion. Mine is a simple thank you card. So, so fun. Pink and green...total faves!


Thanks for taking a peek during this very busy season.

Merry Christmas!

Collage Press and another Publication!!

More good news!! This is making my Christmas week very Merry! Scrapbook Trends has asked to publish one of my Collage Press cards. It's probably my favorite card of all time so I'm pleased that it got picked up. Here is a quick look at it.


















The Scrooge and Marely Collage Press paper that was sent to us last month has got to be my favorite. I think I say that with every new line that comes! LOL! Here is a what I did with their products this month.

When I went to Canada in October, my Mum pulled out my most favorite toy that I had recieved as a christmas gift when I was a child. I'm not sure why I clung on to this one but I sure did love it! Then it got left behind at a hotel at one point and I'll never forget that feeling I had. I decided that I wanted to scrap the memory of one of my favorite toys. You all remember these, don't you??















And here is a layout I created for Triple the Sketch. It was a super fun sketch. Probably my favorite so far. Sketch #37. Check it out here! This is just a few out of about 100 photos that I took when we were visiting in Tigard this fall. They all turned out so great. I hope to get some mini albums done with them at some point.





















Well, we are having a 'snow' day. LOL!!! As Northwesterners always laugh at that because there's barely a layer of white on the ground (not enough to play in,) but because of the condition of the roads, they cancel school. I'm getting ready for our big Open House Christmas party here tomorrow. It's for our entire church and I don't have a clue how many people are coming. I've probably prepared way too much food. Now it's time to get the house all cleaned up and ready.

Have a fantastic, snowy and safe weekend!

It's a Wonderful Life

I finally got to watch that movie! I told Arte on Friday that I'd never seen it and then on Saturday when we got home, he sat me on the couch, told me to close my eyes and he stuck it in the DVD player. It was a great movie and a great memory.

The next day, I decided to cook a big turkey dinner and get out our china to have a nice dinner. Not sure what came over me. I guess I just can't wait for Christmas!!















Some other memories we are making this season is building our Gingerbread house. It's the worst lookin' thing ever and it was for sure the most fun to build ever. We had frosting EVERYWHERE and the kids were bustin' up laughing. I had put too much in the bag and it was oozing out the top. They kept calling me 'Frosty' with my white hands. Kids don't care how it 'looks' anyway. Fun times.


























Yesterday was a crazy day. Kelsey had some kind of infection and was in a lot of pain. She really needed to see the doctor. The schools closed and now I know why! As we driving to the doctor which is quite a ways away, we ened up sliding into on coming traffic. We spun around a couple of times and then slammed into the bank. The kids were pretty alarmed. Everyone was okay (except Arte's jeep!) We easily could have hit another vehicle and I know that the Lord was watching over us. There were angels all around us.

No crafty stuff to share today but I have some things to share tomorrow!! Hope to see you back and don't forget to say 'hello!'

Hope you are all enjoying this very cold week as we get ready to celebrate our savior's birth!

Fiskars Crop and CARDS Publication!!

Could get any better than those two things combined?? Yes!! It's snowing!!! We are so excited and we are off to decorate our Gingerbread house in a bit. I wanted to let you know that there is a fabulous online crop going on at the fiskateer site right now. These are always jam packed full of fun!

I also wanted to share a bit of fun news!! Do you remember this card??? I made it a while back out of a fun line by Heidi Grace called A Little Bird's Tale.


















Cards magazine picked up for publishing. I'm so excited! I'll have to go remove it from all my galleries once I send it in.

I also wanted to share a quick fun project that I made for a few people. The kids can even do it if you have an easy squeeze punch like the Fiskars circle squeeze punch called Round n' Round.





















All you have to do is punch out 5 circles and then fold them in half. Then you glue one on top of another until they fold out like an accordian into a circle and then you have your little bulb or ornament! You can glue a piece of ribbon or yarn in the middle to hang it with. These are just quick fun lil' paper projects that you can decorate some of your most little trees with!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

Well, although the tree is up and most the shopping is done, I just can't believe it's December 7th already!! It just doesn't seem possible. This year I decided to make a commitment to focus on having fun with my kids during December. That means, not overfilling the calendar with any 'extra's,' not working on too many projects, and not as much computer time. Already it has been so rewarding. My blog, however, has been a bit neglected!! Did you know that you can subscribe to this blog and will be given an email when it's updated? That way, you wouldn't have to keep checking back for updates. You can do it through feedbiz (the white box on the right side) or through the blogger. The option is to 'follow this blog.' What a cool feature! Once I discovered that, it saved me a lot of time when I wanted to visit different blogs that inspire me.

I have a few projects to share that I created with the Windsor line last month.




















I wanted to tell you about my sweet friend Christine. She has a wonderful blog and has been an inspiration to me. She just sent me the most amazing RAK with the most gorgeous card. I came to discover not too long ago that not only is she very creative but her daughter is as well. She designed this VERY cool shirt about 'waiting' for true love. It's fabulous. If you have a minute check it out by clicking here and then you can even sign up on the site and vote for it if you like it. I know there's a few of my dear friends out there who would love to help out this cause (the message!) The voting ends on the 8th so hurry!!

Here is the card that Christine sent me. Isn't it pretty?

A Cherry On Top Guest Designer!!!

I've been so excited to share this news and now I finally can!! I was selected to be A Cherry On Top's Guest Designer for this month. This is one of the top scrapbooking sites and it happens to be one of my favorites. You can't imagine how thrilled I was to find out. If you've never checked it out, this is a great time to do it! I got to work with SEI's line called Windsor. It's such beautiful paper. Here is a few of the layouts I created.






























I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were gone visiting family. Thus, the delay in wishing you a happy holiday! It was a fun visit for us. Being with family was of course the best part but we even got to visit the zoo. That was bonus and the kids loved it!!

Happy Monday. I'm off to catch up. We are decorating later today so there's lots to do!!