More December Daily {Days 9 to 14}

I finally feel like my December Daily is coming together. Here's a peek at a few more pages:

Day 9

A visit with Santa: a trimmed down trading card page protector makes

the perfect home for little photos documenting this year's visit

with Santa, and on the flip side: the boys writing their

letters to Santa.

Day 10

An envelope holds this year's Christmas card and recipient list.

I journaled about the annual card-making process on the front of the envelope.

Day 11

This is perhaps my favorite page so far. An impromptu morning photo enlarged to 5x7, a stamped title, and a few words (Nothing like a little brotherly love in December--just in case Santa's watching!)

Day 12

December 12th was our annual holiday family party. I was really

lacking photos documenting the day (too busy stuffing my face with

delicious food!) , so the circles on this painted transparency were

great spots to put the few photos I took. I may put some journaling

on the backside of Day 11.

Day 13 Circles punched from a variety of patterned papers cover up the adhesive

showing through the transparency. Day 13 is mounted on some printed vellum.

Day 14

This simple pocket holds the boys Christmas Wish Lists
(tabs on top with each of their initials). The left-side
tells a little story of the picks for their lists.

Catch Up & Mustard {Days 5 thru 8}

Ok, there's not really any mustard, but there is a whole lot of catch up going on (well, heck when December 15th creeps up behind you, taps you on the shoulder and says, "December Daily, where are you?" you kind of have to get crack-a-lackin'). I will spare you any more of my crazy talk (I think I had WAY too much Nutcracker Sweet tea today) and get right to the pages:

Day 5:

A simple photo collage of the boys making jam and the recipe adhered to the backside of day 4's page protector. I am limited to printing in 4x6 or smaller until new ink arrives--makes for a bit of a challenge!

Day 6:

A grid layout documenting the annual family Christmas party. Photos are 2" square.

Day 7:

The story of our Elf on the Shelf. I reduced the opacity of the close-up of the elf's head to type my journaling directly on the photo. Had to play up the text on the clock in the photo by dating Wilfred's establishment in the family.

Day 8:

This photo is adhered directly to a transparency. The red mat is created on the flip side of the page, where a photo for day 9 is adhered. I journaled directly onto the transparency with a Sharpie.

More to come. . .

December Daily day 3 & 4

I knew I would not be able to keep up with posting my December Daily's on a daily basis, but I didn't think I would get this far behind! December has a way of whipping right by us. But I am happy to say that we are busy making the memories and cherishing the moments (so far, anyway!) Here are the LO's for the 3rd and 4th:

The left side is a card front I had saved, and my journaling is recorded at the bottom for day 3.

I realized that the front of my album is a bit page-protector-heavy, but I love the way the little pockets help to organize the LO. For the left of day 4, I simply adhered a piece of patterned paper (ripped right from a paper pack--little shreddy things and all--directly to the back side of the page protector from day 3. I am loving how the pages are various sizes so that you get glimpses of the rest of the album as you go. Working with a color scheme helps to unify the *busy-ness* of this.

I have content for the 5th and 6th, but just haven't quite gotten the pages put together yet {sigh}.

December Daily Cover and Day 2

I finally got around to embellishing the cover for my December Daily, so I can share the binding for my album. I lucked out when I discovered an old three-ring binder I had purchased a few years back fit the pages I had already created. I know, I worked a little backwards here, but it worked out better than I could have planned. I spray painted the outside covers and the edges of the inside with a glossy red. It took a few coats to cover the bright yellow and turquoise of the original binder (sorry I didn't take before pics). I then covered the inside covers with patterned paper. After frequent opening and closing of the book, I noticed that the paint was starting to chip off from the edges of the binding. I covered those with a red and cream snowflake twill tape which I ran through the Xyron sticker maker. A title (reads: December's Magic: capturing the memories, recording the stories, celebrating the season) and a couple of embellies, and the look is complete.

Here's a peek at the inside front cover with page one. After I wrapped the twill tape around to the inside, I had to cover up the unsightly ends--a bit of stamped kraft cardstock did the trick.

And here's day two. Can you get any simpler than this?!? A matted photo, a date label, and a phrase Photo Shop'd onto the picture all slipped into a page protector. Finito! I may journal on the back side, but I'll have to see what tomorrow's page ends up being about to see if I want a side-by-side two page spread.

Thanks for following along on this journey with me!

December Daily No. 1

I can't tell you how excited I am with this little project. I love that I am recording the important bits and pieces of our holiday. I love that it's enabling me to slow down this month, to take time each night (and often throughout the day) to appreciate the little things that make this month so amazing. I love that it is QUICK scrapbooking. I love that there are no rules, no right or wrong, no need to pretty it up and add tons of embellies. It's just us, living through this joyous, though at times hectic, month of December, recording our stories, capturing the memories, creating our life, and celebrating His. I love everything about it!

So here is my first page:

Front

Back

It's all about traditions. Journaling reads:

Traditions. I love traditions--little rituals that are repeated year after year. Growing up, our holidays were filled with traditions: opening the little paper doors on the advent calendar to get the chocolate treat hidden behind; attending church on Christmas Eve; listening to John Denver's Christmas album while waiting for Christmas Eve guests to arrive; Grandpa greeting us at the bottom of the stairs on Christmas morning to see our faces light up at the sight of our gifts under the tree; Christmas dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's house and bringing a favorite toy along with which to play; going to Auntie Carol's and Uncle Don's Christmas night and opening yet one last gift left there by Santa; filling up on homemade Christmas cookies (esp. Ethel's Sugar Cookies). Since starting our own family, I have worked to establish some traditions that will help create warm memories for the boys: pictures with Santa, baking holiday cookies, decorating a gingerbread house, exchanging holiday ornaments symbolic of the year, creating and sending holiday cards, counting down the days to Christmas with daily toys and treats, lots of Christmas music playing all month long. This year the boys took it upon themselves to write notes and cards to each other (and us) and tuck them into the stockings hanging on the fireplace. I hope they keep this up all month. And I have started yet another tradition of reading a Christmas story each night until Christmas. Tonight we read Merry Christmas Big Hungry Bear and Silent Night, Holy Night.

If you are creating a December Daily project this month, I would love to see it. Please add your link in the comments. You can check out my friend Alexandra's here. And of course Ali Edwards' here.

I did it! {Cards 28, 29, 30}

Day 28:

New theme, same design as this card

Day 29:

Color scheme inspired by adorable decos at Target.

Day 30:

Whew! Well, there they are. 30 Cards in 30 Days. When I began this project, it was just a fun little way to pass the time of November (to get to December, of course!), and because I like to fall flat on my face with these kind of commitment-laden, daily obligation type of challenges. It was also with the hope that I would find the perfect card to duplicate as my own Holiday Card for '09. Well, I didn't fall on my face (though I had to play catch up. a lot.), and our perfect holiday card is not in this mix. I will be sending each one of these cards out this year, along with a few others I have come up with (I'll share those later this week).

Now for December: I'll be sharing the progress of my December Daily (though it probably won't be daily). Happy December!

Holiday Cards {almost there} days 25, 26, 27

Coming into the final stretch, and I really want to be done with these before the stroke of midnight tonight. But in case I don't make it, I'm posting what I have so far:

Day 25:

Day 26:

Day 27:

A visit with the Easter Bunny

I know this LO is a bit seasonally inappropriate, but the photos fit the design of the page. This week's challenge on the Playground is using negative space (the space around and between an image). This can be the backing to chipboard pieces, sticker sheets, stencils, the leftover from a diecut. Originally, I was thinking of using the negative space as a mask, but let's just say that pairing a way too sticky sticker sheet (even after I rubbed it onto my denim jeans repeatedly) with homemade glimmer mist (which gobbed up my mini-mister and turned it into a mini-dripper) just did not go well.

Onto plan B: a sheet of chipboard left from SU! On Board Lots of Letters. I trimmed it down to 8x8, painted it with two shades of green paint, and filled the 1 3/4" circles with photos, papers, and embellies.

What can you create with the negative space you've got laying around? Whip something up and post it at Method Playground by Monday, Dec. 14 for a chance at a RAK from Amanda. Check out her Etsy shop.

Holiday Cards {22, 23, 24}

I am still here, I am still making cards, I am still catching up, and I am still behind. Wish I could offer some excuses: too much turkey, busy watching the Macy's Parade, taking photos for our holiday card, recovering from too much turkey, shopping, going to pilates in an attempt to undue the effects of too much turkey, surfing the net for the best shopping deals, researching mini video cameras {settled on one and it's on its way as an early Christmas gift--yippee!}, decorating the house for the holidays, catching up on sleep, reading this book, trying to eat all the boys' Halloween candy before Christmas. Yeah I wish I had a better excuse for you, but there really isn't one to explain how I got so darn behind in this project. Well, here's what I can share so far:

Day 22

Day 23:

Day 24:

Logan Speak

The sketch for this layout comes from Page Maps. Becky does an amazing job of not only creating a great sketch but also adding in so many details that the only thing you have to think about is what to plug in where (note her staples, strips of PP, and stitching drawn on the sketch; yeah, I pretty much copied the exact placement of all those!).

Luckily, I had tucked a scrap of paper with a photo of Logan on which I had written a few of his pronounciations. As much as I thought I would remember every moment of their babyhood, I'm glad my realistic side knew to write things down so that it could be turned into scrapbook pages.

My story is a simple one

This month's prompt at Point Blank Period was to

tell your story, use three photos, and put them in a grid or photo mosaic.

I've had this Basic Grey paper in my stash for over a year now. With three boys, I rarely get to play with pink. But the PBP challenges are all about me (or you, if you play along, too). That's what I love about them. This month, I haven't been able to make too many LO's, but I didn't want to miss the PBP challenge--it's a small way to create for myself and tell my story.

I've decided that every page I do in this album will contain a butterfly.

Title: my story is a simple one

Journaling reads: girl is born. girl grows up happy. girl meets boy. girl falls in love. girl marries boy. girl has babies. girl creates life. girl makes dreams come true.

So what's your story? Write it down. Make a LO. And post it at PBP.

Holiday Cards {day 21}

Snowflakes are punched from the clear backing sheet from stickers (I save these crazy things!). Love this punch--it cuts like butta. Brushed them with Mod Podge (which I like to call Modge Podge cause it's just funner to say) and sprinkled them with fine glitter. So simple.

Holiday Cards Day 20

I just picked up the Martha Stewart snowflake punch the other day, so these flakes are sure to be floating onto lots of cards to come. I've got some glitter ones drying as we speak. The background is stamped with SU! French Script in Kiwi Kiss, inked with Tim Holtz Distress Ink, and spritzed with Tsukineko Walnut Ink. The letters are stamped and cut from red paper.

Holiday Cards Day 19

Day 19:

Quite possibly the simplest card ever: watercolor splotches of red swirled with watercolor crayons, and a simple stamped sentiment. Doesn't really get any easier than this.

Inspired by the end papers in a children's book we picked up from the library yesterday:

December Daily Progress

I think the most difficult part of this project is coming up with 31 unique numbers for the pages. I pulled number stamps & chipboard numbers from my stash, but then moved onto game pieces and other sources. In the coming weeks I will be on the lookout for numbers in my mail (think postage stamps from cards, and junk mail).

Here's what I have come up with so far:I will use a Dymo label maker for a couple, and will end up computer generating some, too.

I took photos of my pages so far to share, but I will spare you the boredom (they're not much to look at yet), and the lousy photos. Instead, here's a summary of what I am using:

• page protectors of various sizes and styles, trimmed down to fit (5x7, trading card, 8 1/2 x 8)
• patterned paper in my color scheme--add a decorative edge to jazz it up
• clear acetate (I cut them from some folders I had been saving), on one I will add a large scallop circle, on the other I painted circles using an empty Glue Dots roll as a stamp
• decorative file folder
• chipboard (see #23 above)
• solid card stock cut into shapes (a circle and bracket)
• a patterned paper bag from a store (one is from Panera. I cut it apart and folded one into a pocket, sewing along two edges). I'll also be using a Trader Joe's bag (I'm hoping their Christmas ones are in stores soon)
• envelopes in various sizes (I made some using templates from the Paper Source)
• patterned vellum
• old holiday cards (some of these need mounting)
• cardstock that's been stamped or embossed, folded, and stitched to create a pocket

Tomorrow's task: tackle the covers that will hold it all together. I'm thinking book board and rings, but we'll see...

Holiday Cards 17 & 18

Day 17:

Are you sick of these Cuttlebug embossing folders, yet?

The edge of this card is machine stitched with some Sulky metallic thread

I had leftover from my quilting days.

It's very cool thread,

and I bet it looks better on this card than it did on the quilt!

Day 18:

After I spotted this poor guy at How About Orange,

I knew I had my inspiration for today's card.

But what to put for a sentiment?

My first thought (and only, so far) was

"Hope your holidays don't bite!"

Ha!

Method Playground

This week's Method Playground challenge is to use ribbon for your title. There are SO many ways to interpret this challenge.

For my LO, I ran some wide ribbon through my Big Shot, and handcut some into letters. Go check out what the Playground Girls did for their pages, then give it a try on your next layout. Don't forget to leave a comment at MP with a link to your page to be entered into a drawing for a RAK.

December Daily

No holiday card today, folks. I have been at work in the stUdio on a December Daily album. This project has been in the back of my head for a few weeks now, and since the start of Jessica Sprague's class Holidays in Hand yesterday, the holiday bug is biting hard (unfortunately, the shopping bug has yet to show his fangs).

So I set to work tonight gathering supplies, trimming things down, doing a bit of painting, stamping, and punching. Right now, I am just creating the backgrounds for the pages. Some are page protectors in various sizes, some are cardstock, or chipboard, or transparencies, a few are envelopes, and even holiday cards from years ago. My goal is to use only supplies I have on hand (I don't want to buy anything extra at this time of year).

The first thing I did was choose a color scheme; mine is red, kraft, white, cream, and a touch of olive, chocolate, and black. This really helped narrow down the selection process when going through supplies.

My December Daily will run the entire month of December (1 thru 31) so that I can include all the play that happens in the days after Christmas, as well as New Year's Eve. I will not be adding the numbers to each page until the day I put the page together, that way I can be flexible in choosing the page depending on what I want to record. Ali has some fantastic posts with loads of pictures of each of her blank pages she'll be using this year. You can also see last year's album here.

I'll be back tomorrow with some photos of my pages so far. And, um, I guess I'll be playing catch-up again with two cards for the holidays.

Holiday Cards no. sixteen

Sitting on my desk:

leftover rhinestones from a project I did with the kiddos in my son's class last week
+ tinfoil I had torn off the roll and didn't need
______________________________________________________________
today's holiday card

A few dry brushstrokes of paint, and then a roll through the ol' Big Shot (I've been Cuttlebug-embossing-folder-happy lately) creates the background. It needed a touch of something so I stitched on a bit of crocheted trim.

Holiday Card {catch-up, again!} 12 through 15

And just like that, this girl is caught up again. But, hmm, there would be no need to ever catch-up, if one never fell behind (but really, what would be the fun in that?!). Anyway, here are the past three days worth of cards, plus one for today.

Day 12:

I'm starting to wonder if my sewing machine

misses sewing through fabric. . .

Day 13:

I upcycled a card from a few years back

to create the white squares in this window card.

I couldn't get a good pic of this one. The white is

embossed with "let it snow" and the snowflake is actually foiled.

Day 14:

Keeping it simple here: a few strips of paper,

some coordinating punched solid, and a touch of bling.

Day 15:

Inspired by this sketch (it's a loose interpretation as I borrowed

only half, but hey you take the mojo where you can get it!)

Whew! It feels really good to be caught up. I'm sure I'll get behind again before this month is over, so I can feel this good again!