Getting Ready To Party

Are you ready? It's almost 2013! Whether you are celebrating with your little family like we are, or having 50 of your closest friends over, here are some great ideas to help you get ready for tonight.

I found these gorgeous party hats over at the Spellbinders blog. You can get the full tutorial and whip up some fun hats using your beautiful scrapbook paper.

You can get all the info on these yummy looking meatball sliders at the Better Homes and Gardens website. I think I'm looking forward to these more than I should... and they are done in the crockpot so they can get cooking while I'm making my hats!

Ok, who am I kidding? I'm definitely looking forward to a strawberry champagne cocktail the most! You can find the super simple recipe at the Food Magazine website.

So, put on your party hat, have a little nibble, make a toast and give your loved one a great big kiss. Have a fun and safe New Year's Eve!

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Christmas Gift Layout

The presents are all opened, the food is all eaten, and you have a ton of new pictures just waiting to be scrapbooked!

Here is a quick layout for you to make that will get you started... 

Get a 12x12 piece of Christmas or Winter scrapbook paper and a coordinating piece of 12x12 cardstock. You will also need a small piece of white or cream cardstock... smooth texture would be best.

First, cut 2 - 1 1/4" strips of your coordinating cardstock and ink the edges if you like.

Next, save the bow pattern and open it in a photo-editing program, or Word. Adjust the size to 5.61" high by 7.21" wide, so the bow is 5 5/8" wide. I know, weird sizes by that's how it worked out. =0)

Print, cutout and trace the pattern onto the back of your coordinating cardstock. After cutting out the pieces to your bow, you can choose to ink the edges... this will give it a little dimension and make the layers stand out. Next, glue the pieces of your bow together.

Cut a 2 1/2" x 4" rectangle out of your white cardstock... I like to ink the edges with silver. As you can see, my silver gets a LOT of use! 

Next, write "From: Santa" on your rectangle to make it a tag. Or, you can write To: and put the name of the person or family that are the subject in your pictures.

Now it's time to put everything together!

Place one 2 1/4" from the top, and place the other 2 1/4" from the right side (or left, if that is what you prefer).

Next, WITHOUT any glue, take your tag and lay it on the page and then lay your bow over it. Get the placement of the tag that you like and glue it down. Be sure to not glue next to the edges, that way you can slide your pictures underneath when you place them.

I like to use foam adhesive or pop-dots for the bow so that it gives it extra dimension. Whether you decide to use that, or to glue it flat to the page is up to you, and great either way. Just like the tag, you just want to be sure to not glue the ends of the "ribbon" so that you can slip your pictures underneath them.

Last, but not least it's time to add in your pictures. You can either place 3 - 4" x 6" pictures like I did, or you can cut them smaller and add more photos to the page. 

I would love to see your version of this layout! Send me pics!!

*** All free layouts and patterns are provided for personal use only and copyrighted by A Scrap of Time! Do not recreate for commercial or resale purposes.

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Zuppa Toscana Soup... in the Slow Cooker!

The mornings are starting to be a little chilly... in Southern California, that is the first sign that Fall is coming! It has been so hot, I can't wait for the weather to cool down... not to mention I have this really cute pair of boots that I got at the end of last season and I have really been looking forward to wearing them!

Anyways... along with the cooler weather comes the home cooked comfort food. One of the best things about this is that a lot of them can be cooked in the crockpot, and we all know that means less time cooking and more time scrapbooking! 

This copycat version of Zuppa Toscana is done in the crockpot, and SO GOOD! I found the recipe at Get Crocked, and you can find the entire thing here.

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Back to School Time

It's school time again! My kids started back last Thursday and so far they both LOVE their teachers... AWESOME! They weren't too sure they were happy to go back, but once they saw their friends again, it was all good. 

And of course, since it's the beginning of school I had to get the annual pictures right? Yeah... it's not as easy as it used to be! For some reason my kids don't like hamming it up for the camera anymore. I did manage to get a couple though. I always like doing nice ones, and then doing a couple with them making funny faces or goofing around. I put them, along with some journaling into our School Days scrapbook page set... perfect for those first day pics!

Have your kids started back yet?

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Accents

 What are paper accents? Well, these are the small details you place within your layout or on your embellishments that give them that little extra eye catching “pop”. These range from the sparkly stuff such as small pearls and rhinestones to other items like ribbon, brads, and eyelets that give the page or embellishment a little dimension.

For instance, here is a basic paper pieced flower that has no accents.

The edges are all inked to give the flower some dimension and even in this state it is a pretty embellishment and ready to use on a page. But as we all know in the scrapbooking world, we can’t stop there! So by adding a small pearl or rhinestone in the center of the flower…

…the embellishment now has some added dimension and will only improve the overall look of your layout.

So break out those small accents, get creative, and have some fun!!!

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