December Lay Outs (Let's get 2009 over with!)

Okay, I am ready to put up my last 2009 lay outs. There are only 4 for December as we didn't do too much this year.

The main event besides Xmas was that my mom visited for one week when she returned to Japan with me and the kids. Her week here was filled with shopping, puttering around the house and my various doctor appointments. We did go and have dinner at my host family's house though, so that was probably one of the highlights. (My host brother announced that he and his gf are expecting a baby and they were planning to get hitched soon. My mom and I were all geared up to attend the wedding, but I found out later that they went to city hall the following week and tied the knot, so I guess there will be no big wedding extravaganza. All for the best though. He seems really pumped about starting a family, and his gf seems really sweet.)

Okay, so here we go! Remember that you can click on the lay outs to view them up close.

For this lay out, I used the Winter Breeze kit by LivE Designs, something that I pull from frequently because all the papers and elements are so gorgeous. This is a Jessica Sprague template that I bought specifically with this theme in mind.

A few days before Xmas, Yusuke surprised me with a trip to Korea...for himself! I was a little shocked, but then realized that we had agreed on separate vacations a few times a year. This means that he can travel to other countries in Asia (countries that I cannot and don't want to travel to with kids) and I can travel around Japan to visit AFWJ buddies without having to worry about whether Yusuke will be bored. So, I made this cool lay out for him using Jessica Sprague's Echoes of Asia kit. I love this lay out for some reason! This is a Jen Caputo template (from Studio Jen) that I picked up somewhere along the way and had in my collection. Perfect for this topic.

This is a double lay out featuring the same photos I sent out in an email to many of my friends and family members. I tried to use the same story that I wrote in the email, but it was too long and I had to edit extensively. It took me a long time to work on this title too. I was trying to give it a sticker effect but couldn't remember how to do it, and I had to go back to one of the Type Writer class videos to study the technique again. I used the Katie Pertiet Snow Fun kit for this lay out. This is a Creativity by Crystal template that I altered slightly to fit my needs.

Again, the Katie Pertiet Snow Fun kit. This lay out design was one of our assignments for the Design Your Life class, and I think we were learning about repetition during that week. I was very lucky here because Ailin's Xmas dress (a present from her godmother, Shannon) matched perfectly with this paper!