Stop #3 - ScrapMatters' Black Friday Freebie Blog Train

Welcome to my part of the world, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest! My family and I are actually out of town, visiting the grandparents to celebrate Thanksgiving together. Our hotel room view is just spectacular.

No amount of words truly embody the gratitude I feel as I contemplate all I've been blessed with. The material possessions are the least of the blessings... all the wonderful people that surround me in love, all the great experiences that I have under my belt... all I have in my life is exactly what I need. Thank you, Lord, for your blessings.

When we return home from this trip, my daughters and I will begin the exciting preparation of our home for Christmas. We love unraveling our {fake and pre-lit} tree and adorning it and the rest of the home. The girls have their own {lavender} tree they hang their handmade ornaments on. The advent calendar will be ready to unveil its goodies, and all throughout the house, you will be enveloped in Christmas music. I am unabashedly thankful for the true story of Christmas and will recount it nightly with my girls at bedtime. A frenzy of baking will scent the air of all things delectable!

I love this time of year.

To thank you for stopping by, I want to gift you this CD holder, made of our fabulous ScrapMatters collaboration kit, Comfort and Joy:



(Click image to download) edited: no longer available - thanks!

I actually got to design a paper and an element for the jam-packed Comfort and Joy kit - needless to say, I'm thrilled to be in such good company. You know how great the designers are at ScrapMatters.

And here is a layout with paper I designed - the precious little girl pictured is the daughter of one of my good friends, Brenda:



My blog is stop #3 - you should have visited the following stops already:

ScrapMatters Team Blog
Andrea's blog
Britt's blog

Your next stop is at Australia, home to my friend, Sharon. Tell her I sent ya!

Have a great time picking up all the goodies on this blog train - they're quite spectacular, really!

I love this hobby!

One of my favorite digi designers, Erica Zane, and I have teamed up to create this calendar that conveniently fits into a CD jewel case:


(click on image to go to the ScrapMatters store)

Here's a closer look:

Click on the image to see the calendar in its entirety:


One of my layouts was featured - it's funny how I can work on some layouts for days and they can be ho hum, but this one I whipped together in less than half an hour.



edited: layout was pulled for publication in the December edition of the Artisan Notebook - !!!

This hobby is so much fun and a good outlet for me in the midst of the crescendo of holiday busy-ness!