Our theme this November, winter past times, has me longing to stroll down memory lane. I am warming to the idea of snuggling up in a comfy chair on a cool evening with a mug of peppermint tea (or a peppermint martini, depending on the quality of the day). December Daily or winter vacation albums rest on my lap as I thumb slowly through them, relishing the sweet expressions on young faces.
Winter is the time for comfort,
for good food and warmth,
for the touch of a friendly hand
and for a talk aside the fire:
it is the time for home.
By Edith Sitwell
Image by fotografierende from Pixabay
Cold, Snowy Play vs. Warm, Indoor Creativity
Here, I selected some traditionally done layouts along with one new digital layout using older photos. When thinking about favorite winter activities, my mind goes to colder weather. After living in the Deep South of Louisiana for the past seven years, I truly miss snow. While living in NJ, we thoroughly enjoyed building snowmen, having snowball fights, making snow angels, going skiing, and, believe it or not, I loved shoveling snow. This winter born baby is probably in the minority of liking the process of moving the cold, wet stuff. Sadly, I don’t think there is one photo of me shoveling, but ironically, there are plenty of my husband, who actually hated shoveling. Weird, right? There were also days we preferred staying in by the warm fireplace and working on craft projects or baking cookies together.
Our Love of Gingerbread Cookies
Baking and decorating cookies together was a yearly winter tradition for many years. This digi layout of decorating the cookies was created in Photoshop using photos from years ago. The design was kept simple with warm reds and yellows using Ali Edwards’ digital scrapbook kit called Stars: Multi-burst Pattern 7″x8.25”, Yellow White Star Pattern 12″x12” and So Good Starburst Die Cut. I used the font called Thirsty Script.
Snow!
For this double-page layout of catching snowflakes on our tongues, I went on a hunt through my stash for all papers with muted blues, grays and whites to give it a cold, wintery feel. Also, I pulled out sparkly, silver or blue embellishments, snowflakes, gems, threads and glittery chipboard letters. Script journaling was printed (via computer) onto vellum.
Winter Craft
We had such a fun time making white winter animals out of styrofoam when the kids were young. It was a project from Family Fun magazine. This was another stash bashing layout. I used an old Creative Memories winter kit with light blues, greens with whites snowflakes graphics and matching embellishments. You may have noticed that the silver glitter letters, silver snowflake beads and eyelets are the same as the previous layout. This was the era that I loved stamping story details. Here, I stamped white ink on curved paper pieces. I try to be consistent in noting names, ages, and year of story or event on all my scrapbooking for posterity.
Snowflakes are Kisses from Heaven
The color combos are my favorite on this one. Purple, turquoise and bright lime green really helped to brighten up the muted whites of the snowy photos and highlighted her lavender jacket. The papers are a mix of BoBunny’s Winter Joy, Creative Memories and DCWV glitter cardstock. The same snowflake eyelets and embellishments from previous pages were used here as well. Journaling details were stamped, this time in purple.
I wonder how many of us take sufficient quiet time to enjoy and reflect on past photos and family stories during the busy-ness of the winter holiday season? Sadly, I have not made this into a yearly tradition…YET. But the idea of it strongly appeals to me in this season of life… on the cusp of the empty nest. So, just for today, I am eagerly looking back to winters past when family time together was longer and much more light hearted.
Check back throughout the month to see what the rest of the ScrapHappy Team share about their winter past times.