Saying Goodbye to November and Hello December!!

I love November and the entire fall season, and saying goodbye to it is always hard! However, I also love winter and all it's festivities!! So to help bring in December my Design Team Ladies are all going to be doing a blog entries for the entire month!! That's 20 days of fun tips and ideas from some of the best designer in the scrapbooking world!! Woo Hoo, I can't wait to see what they all bring to my blog!!
I have a few special projects to share with you, first is this adorable Christmas Planner that Nathalie Leonelli made using file folders and my North Pole Night paper line. The print-outs on the inside are available here: christmas-pocket-planner I love this planner, it's so very cute and creative!!!





DT Diva Deana Boston made this sweet layout using my North Pole Nights paper line, however it's a non-Christmas layout! I absolutely love it, Deana did a great job using these paper for an everyday layout. Also I have to do a huge shout out to Jill who owns Jillibean Soup for these awesome corrugated alpha letters!! I love them so much!!

Jill's booth at CHA was right next to mine and we got to know each other a little bit, and she is such a sweetie!! I've loved that we've now become friends!! I made this layout using Jill's corrugated alpha letters along with her papers and my papers together. I thought they complimented each other well!!

I also made some Christmas tags using Jill's Sprouts, Little Yellow Bicycles journaling tags, K & Co stickers and my North Pole Nights papers and stamps...





My little elf stamp fits perfectly on library card envelopes, so I made several of these, one for each of my nieces and nephews with a little special message on the backs of the pull out cards!! I hope you got a little inspiration from some of the projects for the Holiday season!! Have a great week! -Nikki

So so much to be Thankful for today...

I have three families, my mom's family, my dad's family and the family I've made with Dan. Being surrounded by all this love is wonderful, but creatively planning all the dinners can be difficult and I have to say VERY FILLING!! This year we started at my Dad and Donna's house with my sisters and their families! Here are a few pictures from that part of the day....
The Table:

Dan and one of the twins, Max:

Mollie the other twin:


Ellie, Max and I:

Sweet baby Victoria:

Cade just chillin':

We ended the day at my Mom and Denny's house with my brothers. Unfortunately I forgot to charge my battery so I only got a few pictures. Here they are....

Everyone zonked out on the couch, and floor:

On my way home tonight I realized that my Victoria's Street paper line would be perfect for all those Thanksgiving pictures around the table and then later on, on the couch!! Here are a few that I thought I'd share...
Created by Hilde Janbroers:

Created by Deb Harter: (Deb isn't on my DT, but I loved this layout!)

Created by Mimi Leinbach:

Created by Nathalie Leonelli:

I hope you enjoyed these layouts and hopefully they inspired you to create a little something about your Thanksgiving feast!! I had a wonderful day and I'm thankful for everything in my life. Right now in this very moment I'm most thankful for dear husband Dan, who is always by my side handing out love & support when needed, and ALWAYS making me laugh!! I love you babe!
Happy Thanksgiving! -Nikki

My first CHA 2010 teaser......

Here it is my first teaser for one of my Spring 2010 paper lines!! But that's it, my lips are sealed for a few more weeks, not even going to tell you the name of it yet!! I've just been chomping at the bit to show a little something to you all! More to come later....


All 6 collections for the spring 2010 arrived last week!! So fun to see this huge semi drive up and unload pallets and pallets of paper!!

This is my baby brother, DJ and I. He came over to help us all out!! Thanks DJ for all your help!! (Isn't he a cutie!) Okay well that's it for now!!

Oh wait I forgot one more thing, here is the a link to a blog for you to see an adorable kit for November http://www.scrapattackscrapbooking.com/ of course it has a few of my papers in it too. hehehehe Have a great night!! -Nikki

And the winner is.... Paula Hanna!!

The challenge was to "Create a layout about a holiday memory from your childhood" using the papers from my North Pole Night's collection. I had sooooo many wonderful layouts submitted and it was a tough decision, but Paula's layout really caught my eye. I love the way she we wrote her journaling on the ledger paper, stitched down the scalloped ribbon, and decorated the tree with glitter and rhinestones!! The candy cane chipboard letters brought it all together. (Paula, who are the chipboard letters made by?) Congrats Paula!! Thanks for sharing this very sweet layout about you and your brother getting matching tricycles for Christmas!! Paula's blog: pollywogpearls

I also asked a few of my design team girls to take part in this challenge, which is also my "All About Me" monthly challenge, where we all make a single layout about ourselves, so we can leave behind the memories of our lives. {Next month we'll be using my "LOVE" paper line "U R My Favorite" for the December challenge.} So if you want to join in on the fun and create a layout about either your first love... be it a cat, dog, bird or of the human kind, or how you met your spouse, boy/girlfriend, life partner etc. then I'd love to see what you create too. More details will come later. (There will be a prize offered again.)
Here is what my Doghouse Diva's came up with for this AAM Challenge....
Created by Julie Tucker-Wolek:

Created by Claude Campeau: (I love that this 8x8 page is just about Claude's memories and she doesn't need a picture to tell her story.)

Created by Deana Boston: (I love that elf hanging from string! Adorable!!)


Created by Mieke Nagtegaal:

Created by Me, Nikki Sivils!

I created this layout about my Nan (grandma) and I getting "Teddy Bears" for Christmas one year from my Poppa (grandfather). When my grandma was young all she wanted for Christmas was a teddy bear, but during the Depression all her parents could afford was fruit for the stockings. Through the years she secretly always wanted a Teddy Bear, when my poppa found out he bought both of us Teddy Bears that Christmas! I got one Teddy Bear and a sweet little framed picture of a teddy bear and my grandma received two huge Teddy Bears!! She cried and held on to that bear, I'll never forget how that touched my heart! Of all the things she has received through the years this was by far her best Christmas ever, and I'm so glad that I got to be a part of it! This is what scrapbooking is all about... sharing, telling and passing our stories down to the next generation! Happy Scrappin'! -Nikki

Here are some great "Pre-Christmas" projects...

Hey there everyone I hope your Fall days are absolutely colorful and healthy!! I have some great Pre-Christmas project to share with all of you! I so love the holidays and these sweet projects got me in the mood for some holiday crafting!! My Doghouse Dive DT leader Susan Dupre created this happy little elf house (above) seriously adorable!! Nadhrah Maidin from my international design team created this fun and whimsical display using some of the cute characters from my North Pole Nights collection. I love everything about this....

Ria Mojica, another one of the international DT gals created this lovable 3-D Christmas House displaying a count down of all the important dates in her life for the month of December! I love this endearing little display of love!!





Susan and Ria both used my "Victoria's Street" chipboard house along with my "North Pole Nights" paper line to create these engaging little Christmas houses! Great job to all these ladies for these perfect ideas for the upcoming holiday season!! Happy Fall! -Nikki

Introducing North Pole Nights...

This may be my favorite collection of mine!! Or maybe it's just that I love Christmas so much? Whichever I hope that you'll enjoy these papers as much as I enjoyed creating them for you! North Pole Nights is all about what I imagined the North Pole to be when I was a little girl. Full of magical light colors and elves dancing about the light blue nights with huge Christmas ornaments hanging from the sky!! Ahhhhh.... I sure do like Christmas!! I also created this collection because I have two nieces whose birthday's fall right around Christmas so I wanted this paper line to be both for Christmas and birthday layouts or cards.
Here are some samples that two of my design team girls have created using this collection...
Created by: Kathleen Glossop

Created by Susan Dupre (I just love those boots!)

Have a great week!! And don't forget about my challenge and giveaway!! (See below) -Nikki

A Challange, a give away, and Hedi....

I've started an "All About Me" challenge with my design team diva's, because I think we don't scrapbook enough about who we are and about our childhood!! We leave behind great memories of our families but often don't tell our own stories. So I thought if I give my DT one question a month that they can answer in a layout then in one year we'll have 12 pages about who we are and why!! Well this month I decided to bring you all into the challenge also! You answer my question in a layout (any size) and email it to me at nikki@nikkisivils.com and in the subject line write: "AAM Blog Challenge!" you must use some of my products on your layout, I prefer you use my Christmas paper line "North Pole Nights" but you don't have to as long as you use some of my products on your layout. In return I'll pick one layout to win my North Pole Nights Christmas mini album kit to make this adorable mini album (see picture below), I'll put your layout on my blog and a link to your blog!
Here is the "All About Me" question: What was Christmas like for you as a kid? (If you don't celebrate Christmas, then pick a holiday you do celebrate and use that in place of Christmas!) This challenge ends November 20th, so hurry and get your layout finished and sent in to me!! I'll post the winner by the 24th of November or sooner.

Here is a picture of the completed mini album....


This is everything that comes in the kit....

I've made a new friend and her name is Heidi Sonboul, and she is so sweet, bubbly and a ROCKIN' good scrapbooker!! Check out her blog: Queen of Paper and check out her awesome layouts she created using my Henry's Brilliance paper line, My Sweet Cherry Pie and a bit of my North Pole Nights papers... I love that "flag" banner across her layout. Thanks Heidi for making my papers look so great!!




I hope you all will join in on the All About Me challenge and tell your story!
Have a great week! -Nikki

Happy November 1!!

Since it's November 1 I had to show off this very unique Fall banner!! Deanna Misner one of the Doghouse Diva DT ladies made this banner using my Henry's Brilliance and My Sweet Cherry Pie paper lines. Deanna made the pumpkins from my chipboard "tree" mini album, she just turned the trees upside down and cut part of the tree trunk off!! Very creative and cute!! I plan on making one real soon!! Thanks Deanna!!!



So I have the flu and have now for what seems like forever, which really has only been about 5 days, but I hate being "down" and this flu just wiped me out!! Due to the flu we couldn't pass out candy, and our neighborhood always has 100's of cute little ghost and goblins running around!! Dan put these notes up on our door and steps.....



Then Dan had to leave to take Henry to a Halloween party, soooooo....... I got up from the couch and put the dogs in their costumes.

Bella, Alfred and Savannah.



Then Dan came home..... and freed them!!! (And put me back on the couch.)

I hope all of you had a Happy Halloween!!
Check my blog later this week for a challenge and a great giveaway!! -Nikki