Stamps Ahead

This weekend I went on a scrapbooking retreat, fairly local to me.   I completed a couple of layouts for some challenges as well as other layouts and 36 artist trading cards, which I can't share just at the moment.  Here is the first one for The Memory Nest . Here is the challenge layout: A little about the photo.  My sister made me an advent calendar for Christmas 2016 - It was a mini-muffin tin and inside she put lots of little surprises for me to open each day.   I have used some of the embellishments on the layout.   Here is a close up of the string of Christmas icons. Thank you for looking, I will be back soon with the other challenge I completed on the weekend. Off to dinner now.  Cheers, Margaret :)

The final part of making my sister's advent calender was to complete a layout for my records.  I have used some of the paper and embellishments that I used to create her advent calender.  Of course, she has not yet opened all the envelopes but she is liking all the little gifts and especially the sayings I have put in each day. I have printed out the sayings and put into the bag on my layout.

Advent Calendar 2013 for my sister This is an advent calender I have made this week for my sister - I am delivering it today to her home and it is a surprise for her. I have made each day from Stampin'Up! (r) Designer Series paper or used their Tag a Bag Gift Bags. The envelopes are made using Envelope Punch Board (of course, with the exception of the Sour Cream container for Day 9).  I have used a variety of embellishments (some not SU) to decorate each day. I did not have numbers that I liked so I searched the internet and found this free download of numbers which just matched the paper perfectly. Each day has a little gift inside (I spent no more than $3 on each gift and the hunt was on to find small items that I knew would mean something to her) and a Christmas saying I sourced from the Internet.  One bag has chocolate - I was very restrained - wasn't I !!! Here is a close up of several of the bags and they will go in a box I got from a discount store - wall space ...