Christmas Eve with Cousins Layout

I'm getting back to our Christmas photos (hopefully it doesn't seem too scattered around here, some December layouts now, and I'm working on Halloween tonight).  This is one of those layout that I'm doing in double, one for Ellie's book and one for Carina's book.  They are almost identical, a couple of photos are different. 

A couple things to be careful of when you do doubles:  1) don't make it too complicated and 2) make sure you're keeping track of your product.  If you've only got one sheet of a particular print, you need to either make sure you have enough for both layouts, or have something comparable on hand to use on the second layout.  Sorry if this sounds obvious, but I have definitely been guilty of violating both of these rules before (sometimes at the same time) and it always amounts to more time, and time is precious.

For this layout, I placed my photos where I wanted them, and I knew I was going to do journaling around the outside, but it needed a little more pizazz, so I added the twine.  This is my favorite way to lay down twine.  I hate to use a lot of adhesive when I'm working with twine because I feel like it makes a huge mess and invariably ends up somewhere I didn't want it, so instead I pierce holes in the corners/junctions and thread the twine through.  I think it looks cleaner, neater, and the twine lays more naturally.


The little sparkly pieces are cut from American Crafts Hollyday collection Man With All the Toys paper, and the letters were cut using the Cricut Plantain cartridge using the Little St Nick paper from the Hollyday collection.

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Cranberry Cardstock; American Crafts - Holly Day Man With All the Toys and Little St. Nick
Other:  CTMH - Bonding Memories adhesive; The Twinery - Peapod Twine; Kaisercraft - Toffee Apple Tiny Alpha Stickers; Cricut Plantain cartridge