The Sixth Day of Christmas - Holiday Parties

BPC 12 Days of Christmas workshop
6th Day of Christmas
Photo Prompt - Photo of you at a holiday party
Teacher - Kelly Purkey
My Layout - Annual Ornament Exchange 2008-2011

I really liked Kelly Purkey's layout for this prompt with three photos taken of her & others at a holiday party. She used small photos and included memorabilia and journaling. However, when I saw that the prompt was Holiday Parties, I knew I wanted to scrap about my friend Iris's annual ladies' ornament exchange.

Iris began hosting this event in 2008 and I had photos and memorabilia in my storage binders for the past four years, so I created a double-page layout. I had one of the invitations I handmade in 2008 to include. I also had the invitation I printed in 2010 and I cut my title block and the ornament embellishments from that - it's perfect because Iris used the same paper for this year's invitations.

Each year after we've exchanged ornaments, I've taken a photo of the entire group. You might have noticed that my 2008 photo is not as tall as the others - that's because I cut off the inch of ceiling that I captured! 2008 was the first year I had my digital camera, and I was just excited that I knew how to work the self-timer so I could take what has become my traditional place front and center in the photo.

The 2009 photo is a little better, although the angle is a slightly off since I had the camera precariously propped on a chair. In 2010, we had several more ladies in attendance, however I was able to capture the entire group from that low angle once again. However, in 2010 I finally remembered to bring the tri-pod! I'm so glad I did because our group had once again grown and we had 29 ladies & girls (plus one little baby boy) in attendance. I think it's my best group shot so far - not too bad for a little Canon PowerShot SD870 IS point & shoot that's a little battered after having traveled all around the world these past four years!

I can hardly wait for next year because Santa brought us this . . .

My plan for 2012 is to learn all about using our DSLR camera and the two lenses (from our film Rebel) that go along with it. What are you planning to learn in 2012?