Chanukah, Oh, Chanukah

One day in late October, I received an exciting email from the lovely Stephanie Howell, asking if I'd like to create some Chanukah projects using My Mind's Eye products. Uh, yes please. Well, just opening that box of goodies was an experience on its own. Then I got to work and had a thrilling, and productive, time, creating and creating and creating.

Today it is all up and running on MME's blog, but I'll post it all here as well.

I do not usually work with a whole line of products. I just usually have bits and pieces from many different companies. Here I worked with MME's Cut and Paste, as well as Lost and Found-Record It. I was pretty shameless about mixing the two lines together; I couldn’t get enough of the grays, and vintage elements in Lost and Found, and then I liberally added pieces from the Cut & Paste collection for pops of holiday color and cheer.

Each night of Chanukah we light the candles together, and sing the blessings and the prayers. In my layouts, I like to capture the event, but I also liked to add a little detail that captures a little something about us as a family. So, I felt it important to record for posterity, that we are not very good singers- especially by day 8 of Chanukah, when the novelty has long worn off.

Chanukah food is pretty dang tasty, and while latkes get all the press, jelly doughnuts are a family favorite. We are lucky to live a block from a kosher bakery that sells fresh doughnuts each day of the holiday, and we are usually there first thing in the morning to buy our daily dose.

Since there are so many traditions that happen every year, I decided to make a mini album as a home for this year’s photos. And just because it’s Chanukah, I made eight topics for my album; Thanksgivukkah, candles, singing, gifts, latkes, doughnuts, chagigah (a party), and a Chanukah story. I tore right into the Lost and Found 6x6 paper pad for the base of the pages, and layered on elements from both collections. I am not an avid mini album maker, but this process was so quick and easy- everything just looked great together right away.  All of my pages were ready before Chanukah even started, and as soon as the holiday is over, I can pick out my favorite photos and pop them right in.

Now here’s something you might not know about lighting menorah. It can be a messy ordeal. There are menorahs, matches, and candles. At our home, we also light an oil menorah, so we have a bottle of olive oil and wicks that we use each night. So, this year, after many years of good intentions, I decided to make all this “stuff” look prettier.

First I created a decorative bottle for the olive oil:

Then a tin for all those little tiny wicks:

Inside that tin, fits a cute, matching match box.

Or the matches can be left out for this adorable, little tableau.

 And just because I was having fun, I made another matchbox too:

If nothing else, this year is definitely shaping up to be the prettiest Deutsch Chanukah ever, thanks to My Mind's Eye!