Thankfulness Trees

Hello everyone!  I am sharing a fun new page today of the kids in my class.  Some of you know that I teach the pre-school age group Wednesday nights at the church I attend.  It is a super small class that I have while parents are at choir practice or group study, and the kids are a little young to join in with the bigger kids.  We do a little lesson and craft or snack and then we play.  Several of my pages feature the kids and I keep a scrapbook in the classroom.  Every so often the kids look through the book and remember some of the stories we learned about and I like this because I feel it helps cement the lesson in their minds or at least they recall it again, which can't hurt right?  Sometimes some of the older kids come back and look through the book too, which is sweet, or the little ones will see their bigger brothers and sisters in the pages and that is great too.  This is why I love scrapbooking.  Preserving memories for later is great to be sure, but cementing bonds in the short term is even better.  My kids will often look through the scrapbook and see themselves playing with a cousin they don't see often or even there current friends, and it reminds them 'these people love me' or 'I had fun with my dad that day' and so many other great thoughts.  In this page the kids learned their verse and then they told me things they were thankful for.  I then wrote those things, some of them even wrote the words themselves, onto leaves and we decorated a tree.   They seemed to get into the idea and came up with a lot to be thankful for.

To create my page I used this fun kit from Lynne Marie called Nutmeg.  She has a whole series that works together.  You can get them as a bundle or separately. There is also a free add on, which I were I got my background.

This is the Free add-on.  I love the tree rings and the frame.















Thanks for stopping by! 

Family Tree

One of the most popular posts on my blog has been a Family tree page that I did a few years back.  When I look at my blog stats and Pinterest pins that is the one that still gets the most hits and the post that I get the most emails about.  Unfortunately, since Stampin' Up! has stopped selling digital content, that download is no longer available.  Big frowny face here. :( 
With this in mind, and because I like to start albums with a family tree page, I decided to go in search of a new fun download for Family Trees.  I found this ADORABLE download, "Nutmeg," on a site called "The Lilypad"

There is a bundle that lets you get papers, journal cards and embellishments all at once.  The Bundle was on sale for $8.39 when I bought it, but the regular price is just $11.97, which is a great deal for all that you get. 












or you can buy papers and embellishments separately.
The papers are really nice, and they come in several colors,so you can see the pink tones woodgrain in this photo, but there are really several colors of this paper, as well as several colors of all the patterns, and solids to match.

 There are really cute journal cards too! You can use these in your project life type projects or as elements on the page!

 There is also a free add-on that has leaves with various family titles and a few blank ones to add your own.

 I started on a page that I thought I would share with you even though I have not finished.  I get so many emails about Family Trees that I felt that I would share this right away.  I am going to put photos in the frames and then add some leaves or other details to the page after the photos, just to see what I feel it still needs.
The site were this download is had a lot of sample pages to see so that you can get other ideas for how to use this download.  I love the fall colors in this kit and the pretty leaves it comes with.  I know that I will use it a lot this year. The papers are Beautiful.