Wishing you Happy Holidays

Be it Christmas, solstice, full moon, etc. here's a greeting from me.

Designer Credits:
-background: Vintage Album Collection: Open Books Paper Pack by Joanne Brisebois
-paper edge: Edward by Vicki Stegall
-frame: Gratitude @ Infinity by ninigoesdigi
-gold, poinsettia, brush: ArtPlay Palette Christmas Magic by Anna Aspnes
-twig, button: Oh Joy by Paula Kesselring

Christmas Letdown: Back in Time

I'm not positive of the year, but this is part of my brother's family in the midst of the post-unwrapping debris. It is not a good quality photo, but I finally think I have a way to make it work. I was surprised to realize the purse in the lower right was mine, one I only remembered when I saw it in the photo.

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Designer Credits:
all Anna Aspnes
-background: ArtPlay Palette Family
-tree transfer: ArtPlay Palette Christmas Tree
-transfer: ArtPlay Palette Christmas Nostalgia
-brushes: ArtPlay Night Before Christmas BrushSet
-star: Acrylic Christmas No. 1
font: cinnamon cake

Heritage Photos in the Snow

Snow is predicted to arrive rather soon. Not looking forward to that, but it seems like a good time to share two pages I put together recently. The first is my mother and me when I was a baby. It sure looks cold! The song was even written the year I was born. The second is Dick's Aunt Gladys as a young woman, maybe 1939 or 1940. Her grinning in the snow always makes me smile. She was a super lady.

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Designer Credits:
by Anna Aspnes
-background, transfer: ArtPlay Palette Christmas Tree
-card: 4 X 6 ArtsyKardz Christmas Tree
-wordart: Nostalgia WordTransfers No. 1
-alpha: Glitter AlphaNumberSet No. 6
-border: Doily Edge Overlays No. 2
fonts: Staccato222 BT, Boopee

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Designer Credits:
-papers, sparkles: Shimmer by Kitty Designs
-bells, bow, snowflakes: Santangles by Maya de Groot
-brush (the "branch"), trees: ArtPlay Palette Christmas Tree by Anna Aspnes
font: Mystical

A Decoration of Butterflies

This week's lift challenge featured a tree of bokeh lights. I had to see tutorials to even know what they were talking about. The challenge though was to "decorate" a tree more or less in our layout. Somehow that led to use photos Dick and I took last fall of butterflies. We both like the look achieved. The text comes from some quotes or poems I found through Google.

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Designer Credits:
ArtPlay Palette Sophistica by Anna Aspnes
font: James Fajardo

Butterfly and Angel: two views of a Christmas kit

We were challenged to use a Christmas-themed kit for a subject unrelated to the holiday. I chose a beautiful kit and a butterfly photo from last September. The butterfly is called a wood nymph. It always surprises me when I see it farther west like this as there it has large pale areas on the wing that the ones where I live don't have. I used the same kit for one of the regular monthly challenges too. This was the web inspiration one based on a holiday photo. I like the (unintentional) pairing of winged beings!

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Designer Credits:
kit is Santangles by Maya de Groot
the poinsettias have a photo mask from ArtPlay Palette No. 10 by Anna Aspnes
butterfly fonts: Kredit, Liberation Sans Narrow; angel fonts: Cardinal, Huxtable

Chock Full of Christmas

For the first 12 days of December we've had a daily topic to photograph for Christmas. That is paired with a template for a 12 photo collage for our 12 Days of Christmas. The topics are: 1.family, 2.food, 3.sweets, 4.color(red/green/gold/or silver), 5.stockings, 6.Santa, 7.decoration, 8.Christmas trees, 9.snow, 10.holiday lights, 11.holiday foliage, 12.candles. For food I have a photo of bags of oranges taken while grocery shopping with my sister. They reminded us of the oranges or tangerines and assorted nuts that came in our stockings as children. The snow I'm happy to report had to come from a source other than outdoors, in this case wrapping paper. The tree is at the shopping mall as are a number of others. The lights are on a house down the street.

I'm really glad to have been prompted to do this challenge. I would never have taken many of the pictures nor would I have this very happy holiday collage. I do think it is chock full of Christmas and holiday spirit. I hope it will bring a smile to each of you too.

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Designer Credits:
-template: 12 photos of Christmas by Timounette
-background: Magical Christmas by Lydia Designs
-overlay (also used as separator bar): GoldPaint Overlays No. 1 by Anna Aspnes
-red paper: ArtPlay Palette Ablaze by Anna Aspnes
-green papers: MonoBlendz Sage No. 1 by Anna Aspnes
-bow: With a View by Kathryn Wilson Designs
-twig: Twiggy No. 1 BrushSet by Anna Aspnes
-gold leaf: GoldLeaves No. 1 by Anna Aspnes
-25 token, snowflake: Santangles by Maya de Groot
-white button: ArtPlay Palette Sphistica by Anna Aspnes
-frame: Oscraps Collab A Hopping Halloween
-family word art: Oscraps Collab Family

My Kind of Santa

We have a challenge for a "Letter to Santa" layout. We were in a store with lots of incredibly lovely trees decorated with items for sale. They were happy to let me photograph their store displays and especially those trees. One had various Santas and what they called forest elves. I fell in love with the latter and bought one of the smaller ones. His nest contains tiny eggs while the larger one has an actual bird. He became the focus of my page. He currently is on the bookshelf above my laptop.

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Designer Credits:
-background, swirl brush: ArtPlay Palette Santa Nicholas Add-On No. 1 by Anna Aspnes
-transfer used as photo mask: ArtPlay Palette Sophistica by Anna Aspnes
-snowflake overlay: 12 x 12 Snowy Overlays No. 1 by Anna Aspnes
-bird: Photographed in Black and White by Sue Cummings
-reindeer: Santangles by Maya de Groot
fonts: HansHand, Celtic Hand

Decorations on Display

Color challenge this month is four colors only plus black and white. I wasn't too excited by them, but think I found a way to use them to accent a photo I got from a store's pretty display of lots of Christmas decorations. They were so glittery and bright.

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Designer Credits:
-green papers: Oscraps Collab Family
-gray paper: Subdue by Creations by TinaMarie
-frame, green flower: Free to Fly by Vera Lim
-large leaf: MultiMedia Leaves No. 2 by Anna Aspnes
-pink flower: Happy to be Me by Lydia Designs
-red branch:  Oscraps Collab Life
fonts: Pea Aimee, James Fajardo

Christmas Morning

We had another lovely and gift-filled Christmas morning this year. We get to feel just like little kids opening all the goodies. The penquin is a collectible box (very ingenious) containing a tiny igloo charm. It was a gift to me from Dick. He received a handsome blue pot from his brother for that wonderful hibiscus he sent back with us last fall. For dinner we had a roast beast (rib roast) that couldn't be beat. Our once a year indulgence. The next day we went to my sister's 80th birthday party. I'll have to get back with pictures from that.

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Designer credits: The Day After Christmas by Golden Sun Designs
fonts: Liberty BT, Bahamas