Gavin's First Christmas

Boy, oh boy, are we having fun!  Everything that was old is new again! 

All kinds of "baby's first Christmas" activity going on over here.

Spoiler alert:  I got to be the official photographer for my DD's first Christmas card.  We had planned for a day at the park, but December weather in Colorado is just too unpredictable. Very windy.  We went inside by the nice warm fire.

I got 77 pictures, but I'm only sharing one photo...my fav.

On the 5th, we took our little peanut for his very first visit to Santa.  He didn't cry!  Nor did he pull Santa's beard (good thing, too; as this Santa had a real beard!).

And on the 7th, our dear sweet Grandson celebrated his "1/2" birthday.  He was in a really good mood for his (six month) photo shoot. 

As you can see, I'm really loving the "animation" feature of Photoshop.  Can't stop myself!

Later that same afternoon, we kidnapped the "little kid" for our own Christmas Card photo shoot.  As he gets older, he gets harder-and-harder to photograph.  Besides the never-ending drool, his two new six-month tricks are blowing raspberries and shaking his head (with not much coordination yet).  On any other given day, this Grandma finds those antics hilarious, but not on Christmas photo day! 

"Hey Santa, Grandma needs a wireless shutter remote, please!" 

I won't be sharing spoilers.  Sorry.

Jingle

Confession:  I've had my Silhouette Cameo machine for a year now.  It is awesome for scrapbooking and paper crafting, but I have never used it to cut vinyl (or tried any of the other special uses for it).  Stupid me.

Not anymore!  I am officially a vinyl-er? (made up word)

Oh em geeeee!! Why did I wait so long?

Love it!  Love the product and love the result!

I think this project is a hybrid scrapbook/vinyl project.  The 12" x 12" shadow box was made for the 3D scrapbook pages that you don't want to smash in your albums.  I already consider myself an expert on the machine (disclaimer:  NOT the software) and have used it numerous times in my scrapbooking.  Cutting vinyl is awesome!  I watched many tutorials before I even attempted my first cut, and truthfully, was just to darn scared to try.

Second confession:  the first two cuts were trash.  One was not sized properly for the 8" vinyl and the other was not loaded into the machine properly.  Yes.  I wasted some vinyl.

But...oh the third!  Smooth as butter.  I might also mention that I loved the "weeding" process (i.e., removing all the little bits of vinyl that do not appear in the finished product.  Think "negative" space.)  Tedious yes, but perfect for my OCD.

The vinyl is adhered to the outside of the glass. Maybe I'll learn the "mirroring" technique and try that next time.  I don't know if you can see the detail, but the paper is actually printed with the Jingle Bell lyrics.

Products:

• 12" x 12" Shadow box:  Michael's
• Jingle Bells:  Hobby Lobby
• Jingle All The Way Cut File:  Kerri Bradford
• Paper:  Teresa Collins
• Vinyl:  Cricut

Guess what the girls are getting for Christmas?