October CTMH Spotlight Blog Hop - Christmas Projects

Welcome to the Close to My Heart Blog Hop for the month of October.  If you have come from Chris Hill's blog, you are on the right track.  If this is your first stop, I hope you will follow along on the hop.  This month a fabulous group of consultants is featuring Christmas projects.  My project is something that has been in the works for 2 years.  Yep, that's right.  Not because it is such an elaborate project, but I only feel like working on Christmas projects around Christmas.  Unfortunately, like most everyone, I don't have much spare time around the holidays.  So, for the past two years I have put it away unfinished :(  Well, I was inspired to finish it for this hop.  I used a 9"x9" My Creations Memory Showcase to house my children's photos with Santa through the years.  The paper is Evensong Creative Basics, which is no longer available, but Mistletoe would be a great choice for a project like this with it's traditional Christmas color palette.  I have left room for a few more year's worth of photos.  There is also space to add some journaling for each year, as well as a journaling spot on the back cover.  Each page has hand stitching, and "Christmas" is stitched using the Stitch alphabet & cranberry floss.  A memory showcase in any theme makes a wonderful gift, either with photos or without so that the recipient can add their own.

Here it is opened up, with the past 3 years photos added.  I did journal the first year, so I do need to add journaling for the last 2 years.

A close-up of last year's page.  I used the same page design for all, just switched out the papers & flipped the orientation.

The back side showing the covers & pages for 2011 & 2012.

Here is the front cover.

Here is the back cover with a space left for journaling.

Thanks for stopping by.  Now, hop on over to Melinda Everitt's blog to see what fabulous artwork she has created.

CTMH products used:  Evensong Creative Basics Paper packet, My Acrylix stamp sets (Stitch alphabet, Playful caps, Playful lowercase, Friendship alphabet small, Card Chatter - Christmas, St. Nick, Connections), Exclusive Inks stamp pads (Cranberry, New England Ivy, White Daisy pigment ink), Exclusive Inks markers (Cranberry, New England Ivy), Cardstock (Textured colonial white, cranberry), Cranberry grosgrain ribbon, Colonial white brads, Sparkles, Embroidery floss (Basic assortment & Red/Pink assortment), corner rounder, 9x9 My Creations memory showcase

Other products used:  Spellbinders nestabilities (Labels Eight, Scalloped Circles large)

If you get lost along the hop or there is a broken link, here is the list of all participants.

Wendy K

Nikka Geers

Jill (Scrap Wench)

Traci

Kristie

Tracey Jean

Haley

Chris Hill

Debbie Carriere (that's me :))

Melinda Everitt

Vicki Wizniuk