making a list and checking it twice...

A big warm hello to all of you go-go girls and Merry Christmas to you! With a big red bow on top.

We have a new lovely vintage Christmas challenge for this week. What are a few of your favorite things? What do you want for Christmas? What memories are triggered by the season, and what is it about the holidays that makes us all warm and nostalgic?

Maybe it's all the nice things you can't buy... like hugs, and fires in a fireplace and black and white photographs.

Christmas trees, old fashioned lights and ornaments, red flannel, chopping wood, baking pies, big family dinners, fireplaces, hot drinks in old mugs, quilts and aprons. Brown paper packages, string ribbons, old movies. Making footprints in the snow, singing carols, little girls in frilly dresses, black patent leather shoes and tights, stringing popcorn, faces of loved ones glowing in the lights from the tree.

If you want to play along, we're asking you to make a list or write down your thoughts on all the things that you love about the holiday season. Whether it's the presents or the sweets or the excitement of children and Santa or just winter in general – just pick up a pen or start typing, and don't think.

We'll start with Kim's amazingly inspiring project!


I call this 'automatic writing' (and there was a little art movement around this concept which I find quite inspiring) and it's a great way to pass on your thoughts as-they-come to someone else. Take maybe 10 minutes, give yourself a time limit and see how much paper you can fill up. Or see how long it takes you to fill the back of a 4X6 picture. Sometimes it helps to give yourself a ‘starting point’.

(This is a page from my art journal, prompted by something my boyfriend said.)

but it can just be a chunk of text;

and i took these words and typed them into flickr and made a little collage of inspirational images;

(1. Tea and cake, 2. Monty's Korner, 3. Well, what do you keep in your sock drawer?, 4. Untitled, 5. I♥, 6. Shhhhhhhhhhhhh…!, 7. Tea Corner..., 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled, 10. Christmas ahead, 11. ., 12. .those who feel the breath of sadness, 13. .so wait for the stone on your window, 14. ., 15. thermos, 16. day 115 - thermos, 17. Brown Paper Package ..., 18. KEPT US GOING, 19. ___________________, 20. lights101, 21. golden, 22. Untitled, 23. Untitled, 24. wood 2, 25. Second Snow, 26. Untitled, 27. just tired., 28. lunch time., 29. my mum, 30. happy., 31. lucy, 32. wedding dinner - a composition in sepia, 33. christmas sweater party polaroid, 34. campfire, 35. once upon a time..., 36. A quest for the most perfect yellow yarn...)
(Swooning over that gorgeous art journal page ...)

And now for our stellar special guest... the lovely, the merry and bright Sandy Pool! (You may also know her as PaperPoppies.) Sandy can be spotted over at Say It in Scrap and The Creative Type. We love this girl, because not only is she incredibly talented, but she's real and sincere and kind to everyone she meets. (And not just at Christmastime.)

Hey there!!! Well, I am beyond honored, and totally humbled to be here! I have so much love for Jen, and Kim and to get to hang with them for this challenge is a dream. What can I tell you? I'm a very shy girl, a Canadian girl, and I LOVE everything and anything to do with makin' stuff. I started scrapbooking in grade 7! Yeah, that would be oh....23 (holy crap) years ago. But now those pages, and my old love letters have mostly disintegrated. These days I'm a little more careful about things like scotch tape, and construction paper (well usually). This 'awareness' happened almost 4 years ago. (-; That's when I got married to my wonderfully nerdy husband Joe (yay nerds!), who has barely made an appearance on a scrapbook page since our little Ella was born almost 3 years ago. I thought it was time to pay homage to him.

I love Christmas, so getting an assignment like this was so much fun! To some people vintage means distressing, and lace, and classic design, but to me vintage means doing things up retro, and old-school. I had so much fun pulling out these old pictures, and looking back on my 'vintage' memories.

Have a wonderful season everyone!!!!!! xoxo


(Awesome, yes?! Chevy Chase lights ... haa!!)

And Jen!

This page is home to all of my very favorite black and white photos of my mom and her sister at Christmastime in their farm house in rural Iowa. I'm so lucky that my grandma was a picture-taker!

I adore the picture of my grandpa driving in the snow, the old tree covered in tinsel and garlands, and my mom as Mary in the church's Christmas nativity. The buttons I used were all my grandma's.

And this is a list of Christmas traditions that we have started with my little girl. Both of these pages are going into my Journal Your Christmas book (a December daily project with the lovely Shimelle Laine.)

And the winner from our last photo transfer challenge?

Ms. Glenda T! We absolutely adored your art journal ode to John Rzeznik (and what a perfect technique for a rocker page.) Email Jen at jgeigley [at!] gmail.com for your sweet prize!

Now go on and make your Christmas list. Document what you love about the holidays. (As Kim calls it, 'automatic writing.') Because we like to keep things simple during the holidays! And check back with us in two weeks for another chance to work your soul. Wanna know what you're playing for? Trust me, it's good.

You could win the Dorothea December kit from Kenner Road! Check out all the gorgeous details in this baby - it could be yours! (Thanks so much to Kerry Lynn for this loveliness!)

xoxo and Happy Holidays to you!!!