December Daily- the finished album

Yay! It’s done! I am so happy to have the whole album done – it feels like such an accomplishment. Even more so when I see 4 years of these albums lined up next to each other. Love looking through them and seeing our family in different stages, kids growing up, traditions evolving. So love this project and so happy I took the time.

Here are a few of my favorite pages. You can see the whole album in my flickr account here.

I rarely use black & white, but they’re always some of my favorite when I do. Added a small felt heart in the corner & some journaling on the photo before printing.

This one I added some words for each photo- would like to do that more next year.

Love these little page protectors.

I know you’ve seen this one before, but still one of my favorites

Used some of Ali Edward’s word art, colored red & put down to 80% transparency.

same here

and here – lots of the same theme & supplies, but helped a huge amount to streamline the process.

Love adding in little fun bits in these pocket protectors. Some of my favorite bits this year were Jennifer Pebbles etsy shop. I have always loved her work since she was involved with AMuse way back, and was so excited when she released some of her own products. The “Christmas” words on the chevron paper above came from her.

This year I decided to stop on the 25th, which I was very happy about. We spend a few days after Xmas with my husband’s family, & then have Julia’s birthday on New Year’s Eve, so last year I tried to stretch it to the end of the year- tooooooo much! Just say no Now I have project life to cover those things.

So, after finishing 4 years of this project, I love it even more now. Here are some things that I have learned work for me.

Simplify everything. Use digital templates whenever possible, then add some embellishments. I’m okay that they’re not my most original pages, or they look like other people’s.  Limit my choices- if I have too many embellishments, paper, punches, etc to choose from I get nothing done. I pull everything out in November, put aside the stuff I don’t like or know I won’t use. Everything I think I will use I put into a container that can sit out on my desk. I try not to spend a lot of time with fancy techniques or cutting files on my Silhouette- this isn’t the right project for me to do that (unless I do it ahead of time next year).

Things I want to remember next year:

-my favorite pages are the ones with one large photo & simple word art or embellishments. I need to remember that next year. I don’t need to get every cute photo in the album- just one or two.

-I’d like to try and get down more of the little stories too. more of the snippets of conversations, quirks, etc.

I also finished my Project Life album for 2011- woohoo! I’m amazed I was able to keep up with both. Will try to post some of those soon too.

Thanks for visiting!

December Daily

 

So, I haven’t forgotten about this little project- loving it more each year. Love love love how the cover came out. I was inspired by some others on the Studio Calico board that had used the chevron fabric paper from Amy Tangerine. I paired that with some charcoal acrylic paint (just mixed black & white), and then this $1 felt ornament found at Target. Love Target   It has a tiny bit of glitter to it too which adds a nice touch. Button from Ormalu. Haven’t decided what to do with the spine yet, and ordered more of the chevron fabric paper for the inside pages.

I find it hard when December finally gets here to find time for posting updates. I will get to sharing all of them- maybe just in January Still working on doing both December Daily & Project Life. I’ve found that my PL in December is a bit less detailed, and that’s okay. I’ve also found it much easier than I thought to find stories for both, which is great.

 

I’ve been traveling quite a bit for work and have found the weekends to be super busy with family & friends (which is always a great problem to have). So in order to keep things simple, I’ve used mainly the templates and digital pages from Ali Edwards. And I’m trying to keep the embellishments and perfectionism to a minimum. Some of them aren’t my favorite, but I can always go back later & adjust..although I know that will never happen- somehow it makes me feel better

Here’s one of Ali’s templates- I resized it a bit in Photoshop Elements to have it fit the space. Love this picture of the girls holding hands on the way home from the bus stop. Warms my heart - thought it was a perfect opening photo.

 

Ryan running to see Santa Another template from Ali & a tag from Bananafish studio’s etsy shop. Love her tags – my favorite stuff this year has come from her.

 

Ali’s post on the Silhouette inspired me to try my own. I just purchased a used Silhouette for a good price, and am still learning how to use it. Loved that tutorial b/c now I can use my favorite word art and cut it. Yay. Jenni Bowlin star tag- love these, wish I had 10 more   I added a conversation I overheard Ryan asking Tim about why the Santa from this year was different than last years (whew! Glad Daddy got that question instead of me!)

Going to add something fun to the top left pocket- a small picture of some of the fun places Elfie has been this month most likely (this page was about our Elf on the Shelf and the trouble she gets into).

Love this picture Tim caught of us watching Santa’s PNP video. This is something we started last year and is sooo fun. Ryan was even more captivated this year. Julia loved watching Ryan’s video, but the trauma of her Santa visit must have been too much because as soon as her video started and he said her name, she clung to me. At the end she said “I no like that Santa”. Oh the cuteness. Word art from Ali. Want to cut this one out with the Silhouette too when I get a chance to play.

 

You can see more photos & details in my Flickr Album here.

December Daily- the guts

Yes, I know it’s December 2nd already. ha! That’s how we roll around here. Here are the guts of my album, the base pages- just finished them up today.  Still working on the cover, but I have ideas in my head- just need to find time to play. These are some of my favorites- you can see the complete pages in my flickr album here. I stuck with Ali’s basic layouts and used her templates, as well as the Studio Calico binder from the kit. Honestly I’m okay with that given how busy things are and that project life continues too – I’m just so happy to have some time to play, and to get some things documented.  Most of the paper, transparencies and ribbon were from my stash.

Used some of my project life pocket pages and trimmed them down. Then put a punched out star in a pocket with some Martha Stewart Snow glitter & sewed the top shut. One of my better ideas in a while  

Typed this on my new vintage typewriter that I’ve been wanting forever & finally just bought myself. Yes, it’s almost xmas- but really how can you ask someone for a vintage typewriter when you really are picky about the color, look, feel etc? I finally just went for it ! yay!  Works almost perfectly – space bar just sticks a bit but easily fixed. I’ll have to take a picture to share later.

Coasters from SC kit (sold out), Joy tag from Bananafish studio on Etsy- my favorite purchases for this album have come from her. Star tag from Jenni Bowlin, and silver star is a $1 ornament from Target. Love raiding their Xmas section for good finds to include!

Bought some cork at the craft store a million years ago, and put it through my die cut machine – love!

The more I go through this album, the more I love it- although it’s starting to get a little tight and I’m thinking 3″ binders might not be enough? yikes! I stuck with my favorite classic red and limey green, with a little black thrown in, and stars- lots of stars.  I’m thinking next year a new theme is emerging- creams, whites and silver with a touch of red- and snowflakes. My favorite page so far is this one…

Tinsel ribbon was one of my favorite finds that I’ve been hoarding- red & silver from my LSS. Love this but it adds some bulk.

I’m not sure I will need or keep the pages and patterned paper strips- may end up using some full page photos, etc. but it’s easier to have them done and have less to do later on.

Love that my husband is humoring me with this project- look what he posted to instagram yesterday with the comment “hello december”

December Daily Album

I love this project. This year I was thinking Christmas before Halloween was even over- which was a real problem when we had a huge storm and lost power for a couple days, and Trick Or Treating was postponed until tonight. I ordered the kit from Studio Calico- mainly for the binder. To be honest, I have enough stash to do the entire album without the kit, but the binder alone made it worth it. Plus I knew once it sold out that’s when I’d really want one

My kit won’t arrive until next week, but I decided to get started early- I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to include. I started by going through my Holiday stash and pulling out things that I might want to use. And then I made a mess with it all over the floor

I love Ali’s album (as usual), and given the fact that I work full time and have two kids, plus wanting to actually enjoy the holidays- I tend to stick pretty much to her foundation. Last week I purchased her new digital templates for my photo pages – I’ll likely use a mix of these and paper pages. I love the design, and they’re already sized to exactly what I need. Today is Digital Scrapbooking Day, so there’s a sale over at DesignerDigitals.com, so I purchased the dated pages and printed those to cut out sometime this week.

I liked Ali’s version of her cover with the large embossed numbers, but right now I’m loving kraft and red so was experimenting with what different combinations would look like using a scrap of cardboard.

I think this one’s the winner so far- American Crafts Zing in Rouge, and Versamark Ink. Still thinking about whether or not that much bright red is going to be too much.

Here’s some of the other combos I tried:

 

Jenni Bowlin Cough Syrup Ink w/ clear embossing powder- came out darker than I had wanted.

Amuse Studio Diamond embossing powder is very pretty / glittery, but a bit much on a large scale.

Here’s all my transparency pages laid out:

And the first few pieces that I’m working on. Martha Stewart Snow Glitter & a star I punched with silver glitter sticker paper (sewed the top of the pocket shut). Phrase stickers from Girl’s Paperie last year’s Christmas release – stuck inside the pocket, then sewed on top so they wouldn’t move around. Felt star punched with Papertrey Star dies and Papertrey felt. Jenni Bowlin peace card & October Afternoon red sticker.

Star & Clock transparency by Teresa Collins. Chicken Wire -Hambly, and Christmas circles is from 2 years ago- can’t remember the name. Looking forward to getting the kit and having all the pages in the binder, ready to go!

Playing catch up

Here’s a few more pages from my December Daily

Love this page- we made tissue paper snowflakes from a tutorial on Howaboutorange, put a smaller one here. Plus a sticker from my Studio Calico black friday sale box that arrived that day, and a printout of the weather report.

Real washi tape used on the photo (as opposed to the digital one used a few days ago)

And then we jump from page 11 to 16 That’s how we roll… I had the story for day 16 all in my head, and so I just went with it.

Paper from a magic show at Ryan’s school, and the tag she made for her ornament gift to us that she made at school

Close up of the ornament. They do such a good job at her school coming up with really special ornaments that will last (as opposed to the paper ones I made when I was in preschool!)

A Whole Lot of December Daily

Wow, today I was all about finishing those half-finished pages and printing photos. I think I started to make some serious progress because 1) I started to simplify, and 2) I started to realize that each and every day is not going to be a long story. I’m okay with that.

used some digital washi tape on the left side- love how it came out.

silly girls with reindeer antlers

This page is hard to see but the right side is baseball card protectors, cut to size. I’ll stitch them closed when I do the mass sewing probably at the end. Too hard to break out the sewing machine each day

Cut out the box from our gingerbread village and made a lift up flap (similar to Ali’s on Day 1)

Didn’t have much in the way of photos for today, so I included two from my cell phone, and this Christmas manifesto from Shimelle’s blog.

More rub ons from my Studio Calico Black Friday sale, and Making Memories Vintage Findings word.

I have more, but I’m getting tired, so I’ll post more tomorrow!

 

December Daily Round 2

It’s slow, but I’m getting there. Currently working on Day 8 – not too bad. Here’s some of the pages I’ve finished up since the last post.

Day 3 – picture of me reading to the girls & their Nutcracker music box. A special gift a few years ago from their grandmother, which we bring out each Christmas. It’s been so fun to watch Julia love it as much as Ryan does.

A trip to Starbucks so I had to include the coffee sleeve I’ve been saving since November – love this saying and how much it fits in with my thoughts about this project.  Added in a twill strip from Ali’s Designer Digitals, and some word stickers from The Girls Paperie. I’ve been loving this sticker book as it has tons of letters, sayings and other stickers that are easy and simple to grab and stick on. $5 and still haven’t even made a dent in it- love it.

Day 3 right hand side – photo from Starbucks using Ali’s December word art frames from Designer Digitals.

Day 4 – lots to include as we went to get our tree & then decorated it. Used a digital template I had on hand from Ali Edwards Designer Digitals and resized it to fit this album.

I ended up having too many pictures I wanted to share, so I inserted two smaller pictures back to back, adding some digital elements like this twill.

Love these pictures of Julia watching Ryan hang ornaments and her staring up at the tree. Love seeing her face studying the tree trying to figure it all out – so cool. She especially loves the lights, and makes me laugh by calling the tree “clock”. Clock is her current favorite word (of the 4 words she knows- Mama, Dada, Clock, and Doggie). Everything in our house is named clock and it completely cracks me up. We’re hoping soon she learns to say Ryan because her poor sister is patiently waiting…

Used my favorite felt on the top piece (almost out of this felt-ack!) It is the Creative Imaginations felt that was discontinued- so sad, it was the best color green. On the bottom, I used my Studio Calico rub-ons that I got on Black Friday clearance! Woohoo…Love these and loving that I’m actually using them – they fit perfectly in this space. I got the green and brown patterns for a ridiculously low price. The “Believe” is from the Studio Calico add on kit this month (Making Memories vintage findings words).

Definitely learning that I need to simplify the process and worry less about the embellishments. Finding that adding a few digital elements to the photos and then some word stickers or other simple things is the way to go – might not be the most decorated or elaborate album, but if I don’t move on I’ll never finish

To see larger pictures you can click on my Flickr gallery link here.

December Daily Album

I’ve been working on my December Daily Album a bit each night, and thought I’d share a few pics with you. Here is my cover, which has been redone since my original. Still not my favorite, but good enough. I took Tim Holtz metal numbers and covered them with Martha Stewart Garnet Glitter. I then put a coat of multi-medium on top to make sure I didn’t end up with glitter all over the house.

In order to make sure that the process isn’t too overwhelming, I have been trying not to worry about being “behind”. Each day I make a note in a little notebook about some of the things that happened that day, and potential ideas for stories that I might want to tell. They are quick, but detailed enough that I can go back later and remember.

Title page- will go back later and add some things to this.

Day 1- photo of our advent calendar, and the Ali Edward’s Advent activity cards I made.

Day one close up

Day 2 – will probably add stitching to the number and the star below later

Knowing that I work full time and am busy, I have a list of stories that I want to tell about our holiday traditions or family in general – these I am using to fill in on days when no pictures were taken, or we didn’t have a particular story we wanted to share. This is an example of one of those days – Visiting Santa. This actually happened in late November (I don’t like to visit the mall after Thanksgiving, you know?), but it’s part of the holiday season, so I wanted in our album. I’m not worried too much that it was 10 days before this actual day – it works.

Day 5

One other thing I’m doing differently this year is going out of order. You’ll notice that I’m done with Days 1, 2, and 5, but Days 3 and 4 are still in process. I’m trying to sit down and tell the stories that are inspiring me on that day. I’m also trying to enjoy the process of making the album, and so not pushing myself to get it done at the cost of enjoying the creative process (that is after all one of the main reasons I do this). It’s definitely a delicate balance between that and making sure I don’t spend too much time trying to get it perfect and get it done!

My 4 year old is completing her own album, and is having lots of fun with it. I LOVE this.  Will share some pictures of hers soon.

You can see more pictures in my Flickr Album here. Thanks for stopping by!

December Advent Cards

Although Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I’m getting super excited for December to come so that I can start to pull together my December Daily project.  Today I started working on another of Ali’s projects- some December Advent cards.

I used A Muse colored cardstock which is white on the backside, so it was easy to print the cards on one side and then cut them out. I hand wrote little fun things for the girls to do (okay maybe not so much for Julia this year, as she’s not even one yet) – things like take a trip to the library to pick out a Christmas book, or chose one of your toys to donate to someone in need, drink hot chocolate, go sledding, take a drive to look at Christmas lights, etc.

I used my stash of Thickers and number stickers for the backs – had to dig deep as I ran out of 2′s – too many December Daily album’s have depleted my stash I love these little cards- printed out some extras to use as journaling cards and decoration for my album.

Here’s some links to free downloadable tags for your December Daily from Ormolu – I’ve ordered some tags from her in other years- love her stuff.

http://ormolu.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/december-daily-day-one-plus-a-december-daily-printable.html

http://ormolu.typepad.com/blog/2010/10/how-about-a-freebie.html

Happy Thanksgiving!

December Daily (times two)

I know, I know – it’s barely November and I’m already talking about Christmas. Didn’t take me very long. But the truth is, as much as I love Halloween, I look forward to creating this album every year.  This will be my 3rd year in a row creating a December Daily album, and I can’t wait. Last year I had a baby on Dec 31st and spent the last few hours before heading to the hospital in my craft room determined to get it done before I had the baby (I was induced so I wasn’t in active labor- not THAT crazy!)  I just knew I wasn’t going to have time after that, and at some point I like to move onto the next thing.  That’s my main problem- I have WAY too many crafty ideas flying in and out of my brain, and not enough time to keep up with them all

This year it almost killed me, but I waited to see what Ali was up to first before I started working on my album. I patiently organized my Christmas supplies while I waited for her to post her ideas for this year’s album I learned the hard way to wait and see what she has in store, because I’m always inspired by what she has planned, and always end up wanting to change something. Here’s what I have started so far.  I’m really still working on the cover- just did some playing this weekend, but will most likely change.

Click on the image above to view the detailed pictures in Flickr.

This year my album is really close to the one Ali created, and I’m okay with that. I loved her ideas, and in the end it’s about the process and capturing the stories & photos from the season as well as getting some time to play. I’m coming to realize that I need to pick and chose where I want to spend my creative time – do I want to spend several hours creating a perfect scrapbook page, or use an idea or sketch that I’ve seen to inspire me, relax and just create without agonizing too much over the details. Some days I do want to do more, but sometimes not.

Ryan saw me start to pull my base album together a few weeks ago, and asked me if she could make one too. “I want one just like Mommy’s” she said. Of course I jumped on that – trust me, I had enough supplies in my stash for both of us Plus, how can I say no to combining my favorite hobby with spending time with her?  As she started to work on it, she got so excited “This will be my first scrapbook album!”  (sigh)  just like her Mama  She created her first scrapbook page a few weeks ago too – so cute. So, now I’m basically creating TWO albums. I had her chose her overlays, patterned paper and paint/stamp her cover, and then did all the cutting and assembly for her (she is only 4 after all).  She definitely is not interested in using her kid’s craft supplies, only mine.  Smart girl.

The idea is to get these ready to go, and have a few embellishments and things to add in during December. I also want to do some stitching before December starts as well.  One of the main reasons I love these albums is mini albums are where I really give myself permission to really experiment and use product – for whatever reason it’s easier for me to step away from my normal style in these smaller spaces.

Of course, I’m already off to my next project – still working on finishing up a mini album for a trip I took last month, and want to start a Halloween mini album too!  Are you planning on doing a December Daily album? Would love to hear what you have done or plan to do if so!