December Planner

A couple of weeks ago I talked about changing up my December Daily project this year since last year's is still in the WIP (work in progress) basket.  Well, I've started working on the divider pages for the album and I think it's going to work out great.  Here's a peek-a-boo at four of them:

For the album, I took a three ring photo album I had picked up a few years ago.

It was pretty darn cute already:

but I covered it with one of the papers from Crate Paper's Joyride line:

It was a tight fit on the 12" paper, so I covered the inside seam with a thin strip of coordinating paper:

The floral is part of the original album--perfect!

Each of the divided sections will hold assorted page protectors (5x7, 3.5 x 5, 4x6, trading cards, and any others I can scrounge up) that will be perfect for photos, memorabilia, journaling tags, etc.  Even as I am typing this, I am thinking of more dividers to make.  

Here's the text for the one's I have so far and a little description of what that section will hold:

The title font is Crystal Wilkerson's Playful; the subtitle is Pushkin

Calendar {the hustle and bustle of the holiday season}

     holiday parties, Christmas pageants, school parties

Traditions {the little things we do each year to make the season special}

     photos of any and all traditions: Santa visit, gingerbread house; music score, list of favorite holiday songs

Gifts to Give {making a list and checking it twice}

     storage for receipts (handy when needed, and fun to look back on), photos of gifts, wrapping paper    

     swatch

Wish Lists {Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is...}

     copies of the lists the boys write, photos of them writing letters to Santa at the mall

Recipes {crisp apple streudel and schnitzel with noodles, these are a few of our favorite things}

     recipes from the holidays, cookie baking photos

Greetings {a little smile, a word of cheer, best wishes for the coming year}

     copy of our holiday card, holiday card list, cards from others

Decorations {deck the halls with boughs of holly}

     photos of our decorations, tree, and the process of putting them up.

I am super excited about this album.  I love the organized format, the amount of information it will hold, and that it is also a scrapbook of our memories.  And most of all, I love that I can capture it all and enjoy it without the lurking feeling of being "behind" on the daily entries.

December Daily {Days 15-17}

I am absolutely loving this project! I have wanted to record some of our holday traditions for a while now, but wasn't quite sure how I wanted to do it (an album, a layout, several layouts). This album has become the perfect home for our holiday traditions.

Here are a few of deets, and a look at some more of the pages:

The album: a three ring binder I had kicking around. I'm thinking I must have picked it up on clearance at Target a few years back. It had filler pages for a travel log. I spray painted it red and covered the inside with patterned papers. The album itself measures 9 1/2" across by 8 3/4" tall by 1 3/4" wide. The pages inside are various sizes, the largest of which measures 9 1/4" by 8 1/2".

The timeline: I plan to record in this album for the entire month of December. This way I can record my favorite day of the season (12/26!), and the festivities of New Year's Eve. The children are on vacation from school, so I can capture our time together. And I'll probably include some reflections on 2009, and some goals for 2010.

Day 15:

Originally, I thought I would enlarge this photo to an 8x8 and

cut some of the doors so that they would open to reveal words.

Instead, I opted for a smaller 4" square print that opens to reveal

a word block I created in PSE . The words are some of the goodies that the

boys have opened in this year's advent calendar.

Day 16:

This handmade envelope (using templates from Paper Source) holds scanned and shrunk copies of notes the boys wrote to Wilfred (their elf) and Santa.

The facing page is cut from a Trader Joe's holiday shoping bag.


Day 17:
A photo of some holiday greetings we've received this year.

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.

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...

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.