You guys need to go enjoy being with your family & friends today, so I’ll keep this short & sweet.

You guys need to go enjoy being with your family & friends today, so I’ll keep this short & sweet.

Just a little shout-out to Christine! Your sweet husband, Jason, wanted to do something special for you for Christmas. Something to show you that he really pays attention to what inspires you. So he found a way to get in touch with me and … well … here we are. So hello to you! I hear you’re just the best wife & mother ever and from what I can tell, you are very, very loved. Merry Christmas, Christine!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend! Our family got a little snow fix a couple hours up the road and into the mountains a bit (Flagstaff, AZ). We may be in the 60s right now, but snow isn’t too far away.

Crew stayed pretty toasty warm with lots of layers (3 hats should do it!). Here’s the little snuggly bug snoozing in my arms while Porter & Claire were sledding and playing in an igloo with their cousins.

You guys have great questions about the Project 365 kit. I will soon be addressing those specific questions with a little Q&A. Today I wanted to further explain the concept of this project, this kit.

It’s a simple idea, really. Perhaps you have heard of this before. Maybe you’ve even done this yourself. Preserve a piece of your life every day this year. Can you imagine the end result? Really – I want you to imagine it. What an awesome representation of your existence.

A note to the scrapbooker: Project 365 is not another scrapbooking project to add to my list. Rather, this is actually replacing my traditional way of scrapbooking for the past 15 years. This is truly revolutionary for me as a scrapbook artist and family historian.

If you’re like me, there has always been so much focus on events, trips, and “favorite” pictures. But what about all the in between stuff? The everyday stuff that really is our LIFE? The pictures we take around the house “just because”? What happens to all of that? THIS IS IT. This is how we show a truer representation of our life … and, of course, the “big” stuff too!

A note to the non-scrapbooker: I can’t think of a better way for you to get a scrapbook without actually scrapbooking! Are you excited!? Do you get it? You literally are slipping things into page protectors. That’s it! Could it be any easier?

This is fantastic for anyone – male or female, adult or child, single or married. Never touched scrapooking in your life before? No problem. No skills needed. Seriously. Oh, except the ability to slip things into page protectors. Can you handle that?

Back to everyone: I tried this concept of taking a picture every day last year. After being frustrated with not being able to find the perfect way to store and display my photos, I knew this would be the next kit I wanted to develop! The Project 365 kit is custom to highlighting a week at a time for a full year.

Getting involved in this project will make you even more aware of your blessings, your priorities, and your surroundings. Don’t think you do anything worthy of photographing? Think again. What you think is mundane and ordinary is actually a collection of very cool & unique factors of your life. Not someone else. YOU.

Still think you’re life isn’t worth recording? Then let this project be the motivating factor to get out there and do something! Go for a walk (with your camera). Host a dinner party. Fly a kite. Try a new restaurant. Re-decorate a room.

Like I said, this is revolutionizing the way I scrapbook and already feel so liberated with this new approach to preserving and recording my family’s life. Are you with me?

Taking some of our favorite fudge to a few friends & neighbors and I’m thinking I need to do this FAST before I dig in and eat it all myself. Love this stuff (you can find the recipe here).

Speaking of gifts, some of you have mentioned that you want to give the gift of Project 365 this holiday season. GREAT idea! So here’s the deal: Since it doesn’t actually go on sale until Jan. 1 (no pre-orders, sorry) … here is a beauty shot of the whole kit. Print this out, wrap it up, and put it under the tree or hand it to a loved one. This is great for scrapbookers OR non-scrapbookers who wish they scrapbooked. : )

The cost of this priceless gift? Under $40. Now, that’s merry.

Oh, and I know you’re wondering how you start this album with the New Year when you won’t have the kit yet. No worries. I’ll be back in touch to tell you how.

Top 10 Reasons you want to do Project 365

10. Incredible value. We’re skipping the “middle man” so that we can bring this directly to you, the consumer – giving you a better deal. Yay for that.

9. The finished album literally can be a time capsule of an entire year. How fantastic is that?

8. Your photography skills will improve since you’ll be getting your camera out a little more often.

7. You’ll be among thousands of others involved in Project 365 in 2009. Cool sense of camaraderie among all involved in the project. Get your friends to join you with this New Years Resolution!

6. This can be one of the most uniting activities for your family this year as you combine your efforts to preserve your memories in 2009 … as a team.

5. In this age of digital photography, this is a great excuse to get many of those pictures off your computer and into a tangible book for all to enjoy year after year after year.

4. Can you hear it now? Those compliments will be rolling in! “Wow, how do you stay so organized!? What a cool display of your pictures! What a great record of your family!”

3. Sure, you can do your own version of Project 365, but good luck finding sheet protectors and pre-designed journaling cards that are custom to fitting a weeks’ worth of photos & journaling on a layout (times 52). Did I mention what a great deal this kit
is?

2. Cool design. Not too feminine. Not too masculine. And it all looks fantastic together. You don’t have to shop around for papers and elements that coordinate. And all the pieces come in stylish storage boxes, which can be used later, too.

1. As a scrapbooker who has been trying to keep up with products and techniques and layout designs and trends … this is one album that is completely stress-free of decorative scrapbooking! Think of the hours and hours of time you’ll save. And yet … you’ll still have a scrapbook in the end.

Keep coming back. I’ll be sharing more information about the kit, showing you everything that it comes in it, explaining the concept, passing along ideas & tips, and you KNOW there’s going to be a give-away, don’t you?

Got a lot of envelopes to lick? David’s big contribution to our Christmas cards this year, was sealing all the envelopes (oh – and fixing the temper tantrum that our printer had at one point). Know what smarty-pants did? He used a foam craft brush, got it wet and used THAT instead of his tongue.

There you go. A tip from David. : )

Oh ye people who tune into my blog. I have an announcement: As a scrapbooker of 15 years, I am no longer scrapbooking our family albums. Am I done with scrapbooking? Absolutely not. I will continue to do individual & personal scrapbooks for each of our 3 kids. But I am taking a whole new approach to preserving our family’s memories, beginning on January 1st.

So what is it that I’m doing, you may wonder. I would LOVE to tell you, because this is something I’m so excited about, and I want YOU to join me. See this? This is called Project 365 and it’s the January kit of the month. (Project 365 is not on the web site yet.)

While the end result is a “scrapbook”, this is not about decorating and designing pages. Heck, you’re not even going to need to use adhesive for this! Project 365 is about 2 things: Photographs. And journaling. (And not even that much journaling! Quick notes & anecdotes.) This project will be the absolute, very best representation of your family’s life (or your personal life) in 2009. Hands down. And the best part? It’s so easy! Trust me.

So much more to share, and I can’t wait! So keep checking my blog all week for updates & more about this concept and this project. Project 365 goes on sale January 1. Until then, let’s enjoy the holidays and get excited for our new, revolutionary way of “scrapbooking” in 2009. Are you with me?

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By the way … Are you a blogger? THIS is something you need to check out. Go to bloggled.com and learn about what they can do for you. They’re doing a huge promotion right now and you can be eligible to win something really cool … like a Cricut machine or, HELLO — an iPod Touch. I love my iPod Touch. NOT a blogger? You can still head over and be eligible to win, so that’s cool. Oh – and you need to enter TODAY.

In short, there are two cool services that they can offer: backing up your blog (it’s too easy to accidentally delete your blog) and … this is what I’m really stoked about … they can make a book out of your blog for you. LOVE that. Can’t wait to try it myself. I think this is especially cool if you keep an ongoing journal-style blog about your family’s life. Wouldn’t that be need to have it in book form? And also give copies of this to your kids or other family members? Yeah. Super cool. Anyway, head over to Bloggled and learn more.

For those of you who missed this earlier … there is a digital version of my baby kit. You can go here for the scoop and to create your own digital baby book in the land of Shutterfly. And I also wrote an online article (click here) that walks you through the photo book project, layout by layout. I share tips and insights to help you along.

Speaking of baby scrapbooking, check out Jessica Turner’s blog today. She has a great video clip showing how she has put her son’s album together so far … and a cute little accent and, AND … she has one of my baby kits to give away! So head over and enter your name in that drawing.

In the spirit of spreading a little holiday cheer, congratulations to Shanon! The winner of Candice’s online class is Shanon Gibson of Dornberg, Germany! Shanon, e-mail me and I’ll hook you up (bhiggins@ckmedia.com).

Speaking of holiday cheer, my new favorite Christmas decorations are these frames scattered throughout our Christmas tree.

Got them on clearance after Christmas last year, at Pier 1 Imports. I put some favorite pictures in them and just love how it totally adds personality to the tree. You could do this with ANY type of picture frame! Just tie some ribbon or invisible thread or something to the back so you can hang them from tree branches.

The “floating” ornaments above our kitchen bar has changed a little bit this year. Same concept (see Dec. 7, 2007 post) but new ornaments. Again, took advantage of the after-Christmas sales last year and scored awesome deals on these, all from various stores.

Added note: I believe these are called eyelet screws and you can find them at your local hardware store.

We just screwed these into the ceiling, tied a piece of invisible thread to it (found at your local craft or sewing store) and hung the ornaments from there. When I change the “floating ornaments” for each season, I simply snip the thread right at the ornament, leaving the thread in place and then tie the new ornament to that existing thread. Make sense?

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN

The ultra-talented and super-sweet Candice Stringham is doing a fun & inexpensive class over at jessicasprague.com that you should check out! It’s a 12 days of Christmas countdown garland project.

How about let’s give away this class to someone! Are you in? Add your name & where you live to the comments and I’ll randomly choose someone to enroll in Candice’s class for free.

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GOOD CAUSE

Scrapbookers are women known for their generosity and for rallying behind a cause. Cocoa Daisy wants to help the international scrapbook community join together during the holiday season to do what we can to help alleviate hunger both here in the US and in their home countries. In light of this goal, Cocoa Daisy will be sponsoring an internet food drive. If you’re interested in participating or getting more information on how you can contribute, go here. And hey, there will be prizes, too. This runs now through Dec. 20th.

I’ve been away from the ol’ blog for good reason. Enjoying life. So much going on the past week. We enjoyed the company of so many friends on Thanksgiving … truly enjoyed that day (complete with the kids jumping in the pool!). These are the place cards Porter and I made together. I scanned in his art for each type of “person” (dad, mom, boy, girl, baby) and went from there.

The next day, we packed up and left for California. We surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland and had a really great time together and with some good friends that came too. Loved the perfect weather. Cool enough for jackets in the morning and evening.

And just as soon as we came back and got to work on mounds of laundry, we had Porter’s birthday party. Our backyard was all boy that afternoon. So much fun. And these were the party favors we put together SO fast. Because holy cow — there was no time to really do much else before the party. They’re just little cellophane bags that we filled with candy and then I did quick bag toppers similar to the place cards. Porter’s scanned art and simple text.

Now the halls are decked for Christmas (pictures to come) and we are deep into the throws of the holiday season. Speaking of the holidays, if you need an appetizer idea for an upcoming dinner party, I posted a new recipe.