Nichol Spohr LLC

Thankful for... part 2.

Sorry for the delay in getting this up. I got on a roll decorating the house for the holidays and spending some much needed quality time with my husband and kids and I sort of let this slide. :(

Good news is that I think I found my Christmas Spirit just in time to start my Journal Your Christmas Album Monday. :) I've been working on my prep work so that I'm ready. Lots of die-cutting, stamping and punching. I have loads of little piles of goodies all over my work table.  Can't wait. :)

Here is the layout for this year's entry in our family's Thanful for minibook:

I am sharing this entry blank because these lists or notes can be really personal and I didn't want anyone to feel uncomfortable. Each of us have our own space to write a little note about what we're thankful for this year. 

Supplies:

Patterned Paper (Making Memories, SEI, Scenic Route)

Chipboard Alpha (Li'l Davis)

Diecut date (Graphically Speaking Cartridge by Cricut)

Digital Overlay (Gratitude Circles by Ali Edwards for Designer Digitals)

Scallop Punch (Stampin' Up)

Other: Buttons, String

I forgot to share on Wednesday that I have a new layout of the week up at Hero Arts. You can see the supply list HERE.

Ethan really likes this layout of himself, or rather he likes that owl stamp. It's all he could talk about the day I made this. :)

The diecut border on the left of this page was made using my Silhouette. I combined several copies of the same digital image (a ribbon border), ungrouped the images and deleted the parts I didn't need and then cut it out. Just popped a piece of red cardstock behind it for a nice contrast.

Thanks to everyone who left comments on what kinds of video tutorials you're interested in seeing. That helps me so much! 

I better get to bed. Lots to do this week before I leave for a long weekend to hang out and scrap/stamp with friends. So looking forward to a few days to just hang out and relax. :)

Night!

Pumpkin Roll

This post is for my friend Leslie who had to wait entirely too long for this recipe. I just came across her email regarding this last night and I thought this would be a good time to share. Sorry I am so lame at replying to emails.

Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs

1 Cup Sugar

2/3 Cup Pumpkin

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

3/4 Cup Flour

2 teaspoons Ginger

1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Chopped Pecans

Powdered Sugar

(Filling)

1 Cup Powdered  Sugar

6 oz. Cream Cheese

4 tablespoons Margarine

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat eggs on high for 5 minutes. Gradually add sugar. Add pumpkin, flour and spices. Line a jelly roll pan with waxed paper. Spread dough, top with pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. While hot, turn out onto a dish towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Roll up cake in the dish towel. Cool. Unroll and spread with filling. Reroll and chill.

(sprinkle dish towel with powdered sugar and roll up warm cake inside until cool)

(unroll cake and spread filling.)

(slice and eat. YUM.)

If you're looking for some fun holiday card/ornament/gift tag inspiration, check out the 36 days of... in the Designer Garden at 2Peas. Total eye candy!

For all my American friends, have a wonderful blessed Thanksgiving tomorrow. 

If you are traveling...be safe. 

And just a happy "shout out" to all my International friends. :)

Gratitude Album + a request. :)

Last year, the week before Thanksgiving I had these big plans to make a minibook to house pages that our family could fill out each year with what we were grateful for. Unfortunately we had just moved into this house two weeks prior to Thanksgiving and I greatly overestimated how much time I would have to create something like that. (Plus, I was sleep deprived from unpacking boxes, trying to get Christmas decorations up and having a little guy who was recovering from a nasty ear infection). So, after creating the cover of my album, I set it aside, forgotten, and eventually threw all the product I'd pulled for the album into a box to look at another day. And that new day came about two days ago. 

Here is the album:

It's a 6x9 Making Memories album that I painted with Ranger crackle paint and embellished with a MME rub-on title and several ribbons. Pretty simple. 

Supplies:

Album (Making Memories)

Velvet Scalloped Ribbon (Creative Cafe)

Decorative Tape (Heidi Swapp)

Rub-on (My Mind's Eye)

Other: Ric Rac and String

And here's the title page, defining my intent and use of this minibook:

Supplies:

Patterned Paper (SEI, Making Memories)

Title (Diecut with Cricut, Graphically Speaking cartridge)

Labels (Creating Keepsakes kit components)

Chipboard Monogram (Li'l Davis)

Stamp (Define Your Life by Stampin' Up)

Stamp Ink (Kiwi Kiss by Stampin' Up)

Sticker (SEI)

Other: Buttons, String, Staples and Circle Punches

I completely reworked the title page. I pulled out the page I started from last year and it was junk. It was only started, not finished and it just didn't capture the feeling I was going for at all. I feel really good looking at my title page now. :)  I'm quite looking forward to including this album into my family's scrapbook album library. 

I know I've mentioned it before but I am quite smitten with the new Graphically Speaking cartridge by Cricut. I just can't use it enough. So many cool designs there. Payton even made some diecuts today for one of her crafting projects. I love that we can play in here together. 

Come back on Thursday for a peek at this year's gratitude pages in the album. :)

Now, onto the request portion of my post tonight. :)

I'm working on some ideas and videos for this next year and I would like to know what you all would like to see in regards to the Silhouette die-cutting machine (or die-cutting machines in general). What ideas/techniques would you like to know more about. Just leave a comment here on this post with your request. I would so appreciate it!

Have a fabulous evening!

Twilight Review and Q&A

I liked it. 

I could give my long detailed explanation but I'm just going to leave it at this: I went in knowing that no matter what, it would not be the book. I am a bit obsessive and had done my research. I knew it was a small budget film with a more Indie-style director/actors and that it was not made with the mindset it would be this huge blockbuster. I kept my expectations low and all in all I thought is was good. Are there things I wish were done differently? Of course. Was I disappointed? No. 

On with the Q&A...

Q: What line of AC paper did you use on your clear stamp storage binder? (see THIS post)

A: It's the A La Carte Collection from American Crafts

Q: My question is how do you keep the stamps from spanning wider than the binder? Is it easier to sort them by mfg?

A: I do sort mine by manufacturer, rather than themes. For me, I know what to look for that way. I actually have more than one binder. The one from my post has all my Autumn Leaves, Heidi Swapp and Fontwerks clear stamps (and some random others). The other binder that I still need to personalize has all my Hero Arts and Technique Tuesday clear stamps. I also purge frequently. If I have stamps that have never been used or haven't been used in well over a year, I give them away. I am a big advocate for passing on little used items to others. :) Not only do they get use from them, I keep my studio from being overrun with too many things. (I do this with all areas of my home, not just my studio. :))

Q: A question, the binder itself is a generic office supply bought? or something special? (the binder from the clear stamp storage)

A: Nothing special. Just a cheap one from my local discount store. :)

Q: What size is the binder you fit all those into?!?

A:  The spine is 3" wide.

Q: I love how you put the frames on the photos with the dates and place. How did you do this? (from THIS post)

A: The frames are digital kits from Designer Digitals (see THIS post for info on the exact kits). I added the frames in my photo editing software (I use Photoshop).

Check back tomorrow a peek at my Thanksgiving minibook. :)

Have a great day!

Journal Your Christmas 2008

Warning! This is a kind of long post...

I spent a little time this week gathering supplies and pre-planning my album for this year's Journal Your Christmas class. In my last post I forgot to mention the best perk of taking this class: you pay for in ONCE. As alumni, if you have signed up and taken this class in the past, you may participate from then on free. :) Creating this album the past two years has really helped me refocus on the holiday season more and focus less on the commercial craziness. It's helped me reconnect to the reason for the season, so to speak. :)

Disclaimer: this is only how I am going about my album and in no way signifies how anyone else should create theirs. :)

I have given quite a lot of thought to how to proceed with my album this year. For my 2006 album I created album pages for the first of December all the way through the first of January (the class prompts go all the way through the 6th of January). Last year I didn't fair quite as well, only finishing pages through the 23rd of December. Chad asked me last night when I was telling him about the album for 2007 if I planned on going back and finishing up the remaining prompts and my answer was "no". Not only do I have no idea what was going on those days almost a year ago, I think the fact that I quit there tells a story as well. We were busy and as I read back through last year's album I still got a fabulous sense of what the season was like and what we were doing. I guess I don't feel it is incomplete. This year, just as the past two years, my goal is to complete all 37 prompts but if that doesn't happen I'm not going to make myself feel badly about it. I still journaled my Christmas. :)

The other evening as I sketched ideas for this year's album I decided to go with the "less is more" mentality this year. I am pre-planning a lot of pages (as much as possible anyway) to reduce the time (and stress) of creating a brand new page and design each day. However, part of the fun for me is to create, so with that in mind I like to keep my options open, just in case I want to do something completely different some days. :)

I always, always start with the cover. For me, the cover kind of sets the tone, the theme for the entire album. I have done a 6x6 album (2006) and a 6x9 album (2007). I try to keep my books slightly on the smaller side, easier for me to complete a page. :) This year I wanted to go with the square format again so this is a 6x6 album. I believe this album is actually from one of CK's KOTM (one of the kits Ali designed). I recently went through my studio and broke up kit components and rearranged everything and got rid of things that didn't inspire me. All this was in an effort to use the things I have. And to remember it's okay to not use kits as they are, to use the pieces that I love. 

Supplies for cover:

6x6 Album (CK KOTM)

Felt Snowflake (something I saved from some pajama packaging from a couple of years ago and I'm finally getting around to using!)

White dot rub-ons (another CK KOTM...the travel tin/album, I believe)

Christmas Rub-ons and flocking, Button, Ribbon, Chipboard Numbers (MM)

Swiss Dot Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug)

I also want to mention that even though the majority of the pages in my album will be 6x6, I also took some 4x6 page protectors from an old SEI album and I will intersperse them throughout my book for those days where maybe I just want to include a photo. I purchased THESE and THESE digital overlays from Designer Digitals that I want to include over photos in my album. :)

Here's a peek at some of the things I pulled out to use for my Journal Your Christmas album:

Supplies:

Cardstock by Stampin' Up (Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red)

Kraft Cardstock (Hobby Lobby)

Stamps (Stampin' Up,  Hero Arts, Catslife Press, CK KOTM)

Punches (Stampin' Up, Martha Stewart)

Ink by Stampin' Up (Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red)

Snowflake Diecuts (Cuttlebug, Silhouette, Cricut)

Title Dicuts (Cricut "Journal", Silhouette "Christmas")

Background Diecut (Graphically Speaking Cartridge by Cricut)

Other (Buttons, String, Ribbons)

Even though these are the items I pulled from my stash to use with this year's album, I leave my options open. Some things I may use very little, if at all and I may add other product as I see fit. These are just things that inspired me at the moment. :)

Using primarily cardstock is a little new for me. I am a patterned paper girl. However, I adore these cardstock colors from Stampin' Up. They are like my favorite cardstock colors, ever. I'm really wanting to create a uniform looking album and cardstock is an economical way to do that.

Another thing you will see a lot of in my album this year is diecutting. I am completely addicted. I have way too many machines and tools and just keep wanting more! I love creating my own personalized pieces to a project and diecutting is such a great way to do that. The cool rounded background with the dot border is a Cricut design from the Graphically Speaking cartridge. I don't even feel bad admitting that this diecut and THIS project by Robyn Werlich is the reason I bought a Cricut and this cartridge! In fact, Robyn's project is the inspiration behind the design of my Journal Your Christmas album. :)

These are some of the components that I'll be using on the title page of my album:

I absolutely adore the jumbled up title diecut. It couldn't have been more perfect for this album. :)

My plan for this afternoon and throughout the Thankgiving Holiday is to pre-assemble several backgrounds, diecut items I'll be wanting to use so that they are all ready to go when I want to create (especially on those super busy days closer to Christmas) and to have fun. :)

I will be sharing my album here as we go along and I look forward to seeing other participants pages as well. I am finally starting to feel an inkling of holiday spirit and I can't wait to get started! Check back December 1st to see the completed title page and how I scrap the first prompt. :)

Tomorrow I have some scrapping Q&A's to get to plus I will share my opinion of the Twilight movie (because I've been getting a ton of emails regarding that!). And then later this week, I will share another new mini album that I've started for the Thanksgiving holiday. :)

Have a great Sunday!

Becky Higgings Christmas Card Kit

Just wanted to pop in here quick and say if you haven't picked up the new Holiday Card Kit by Becky Higgins, what are you waiting for? The holidays are fast approaching and I am looking forward to sitting down with my kit and whipping up some holiday card goodness. :) And ya'll know how much I love my holiday cards! (see this post)

Can you stand another Christmas Scrappy plug...

If you have the inclination or desire, check out this class offered by my new buddy, Shimelle. I have participated in her Journal Your Chritsmas class the past two years and it has been, without a doubt one of the most rewarding experiences of my holiday season. And this year with my lack of Christmas spirit I need all the motivation I can get! I am on board for another season of journaling my Christmas. My plan for this coming weekend is to gather my supplies and create at the very least a cover for my journal, at the most, get a basic design concept for my inside pages. :)

If you want to take a peek at my previous holiday journals go HERE for the 2006 journal and HERE for the 2007 journal.

In unrelated news, I just noticed tonight that I have finally been updated to the new Typepad design. (can you believe it Laura?!!!?) I was like, whoa! What happened to my typead account. New Techie Stuff + Nichol do not mix well. I am a slow learner. LOL

what do I do...

...when I am procrastinating assignments?
Create something completely random.
I have been wanting to customize the binders I'm storing my clear stamps in forever. Just never got around to actually doing it. Last night, after what could only be described as a horrendously terrible day that I'm glad is over (and yes things are wonderful and much, much better today), I sat down and just played. I grabbed some patterned papers I've had for awhile and never touched, some of my favorite alphabet dies and a couple of embossing folders and came up with this:

Close up of the spine. I used the Houndstooth Cuttlebug Embossing Folder to emboss the green paper and then added my title and embellishments on top. Nice, subtle texture.

I added punched tabs which I stamped the manufacturer info at the top of each and stapled the tabs to the top of the sheet protecters.

Here's a close up of the front cover. The title is alphabet diecuts plus stamping/embossing. The accents were cut from the patterned papers. Easy. :)

Supplies used:
Patterned Papers (American Crafts)
Diecuts (Magnolia and Mary Jane, Quickutz)
Embossing Folders (Cuttlebug)
Play Stamp (Heidi Swapp)
Alphabet Stamps (Hero Arts)
Tab Punch (McGill)
Ribbon (American Crafts & Making Memories)
Scallop Punch (Stampin' Up)

***eta: the links are now working. Thanks Bonnie & Kathy for the heads up on the bad link!***

And just in case you're wondering how I store the stamps inside the binder, HERE and HERE are the links to the blog posts where I show how I store them. I just moved all my sheet protectors/stamps to larger binders. :)

Jennifer McGuire also stores her clear stamps similar to this. Check out her storage system by clicking "Clear Stamp Storage" under Video & How To in her sidebar. (I would link you directly but for some reason I wasn't able to. Bummer.) :)

***eta: HERE is a link about Jennifer's storage system from 2Peas.***

Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday! Take care!

my baby is three today...

...and he keeps me laughing all day long. this evening he was modeling swim goggles and sunglasses. who knows what goes on in that funny little mind of his. :)

More tomorrow. Night!

Twilight :)

Christmas Projects + 2Peas Garden :)

So, I didn't post about this yesterday because I didn't know if it was up yet or not but I am happy to announce that I am a 2Peas Garden Girl (again). :) I was a GG many years ago and I am really, really excited to be back. Such an amazing group of talented scrappers. I can't wait to get started!

Usually, I am one of those crazy holiday people who can't wait to get the decorations out, get the tree(s) up and get my holiday music blaring but I am really resisting this year. I haven't quite found my holiday spirit yet. If any of you find it will you send it back to me? LOL

I decided to try and get in the holiday spirit by scrapping the holiday photos/cards we received last year. If you have read my blog for awhile you will know how much I love scrapping and keeping the photos we receive each holiday season. For my new readers, here are a couple of links showing the album I keep these layouts in plus the layouts in my album.

Album Cover and Layout

2003 Layout

2002 Layout

2005 Layout

More 2005

2000 Layout

2006 Layout

More 2006

1998 Layout

1999 Layout

2001 Layout

And here are the layouts for the 2007 photos.

This cool scroll frame diecut is a new digital design from Quickutz. Love.

The title is a combination of alpha dies: QK Mary Jane & Magnolia layered over the new MM snowflake flocked vellum.

Supplies:
Patterned Paper (Bo Bunny & Making Memories)
Flocked Vellum (MM)
Diecuts, both digital and Cookie Cutter (Quickutz)
Ribbon (SEI & Making Memories)
Brads (MM, KI & Autumn Leaves)
Snowflakes (Heidi Swapp)
Diecut (MM)

And here's the second layout:

The title is layered alpha diecuts again. I am becoming a alpha diecut junkie, I think. ;)

And this flourish is another new QK Digital Design. It is so cool!

Supplies:
Patterned Paper (Basic Grey, MME, SEI, Crate Paper)
Diecuts, Digital & Cookie Cutter (Quickutz)
Snowflake (Heidi Swapp)
Brads and Stars (MM)
Border Stickers (7Gypsies)
Diecut (MM)

I am all current and caught up now and ready for the 2008 photo cards! YAY!!!