December Daily Day 2 | 2016

How's everyone's December going so far ?

I've got Day 2 of my December Daily album done. It's a single page and has two small stories to it. Here is what the whole thing looks like.

Maddie came home from school insisting that we must go to Target to get her an elf costume. She has the part of elf #2 in the class play at school. It seemed fitting that she was the #2 elf and this was December 2. I told her that would work something out for her costume because Target most likely does not have an elf costume. Since I didn't have a photo to go along with the story I used one I had taken the day before of her and Rudolph the reindeer.

I used this yellow journaling card from the main DD kit to start out. I added the number 2 circle I had cut out of a studio calico card. I wanted to add some other sort of journaling onto the card so I added this cluster of stickers, stamps, and stuff.

Here is a close up of the photo. 

The second thing I wanted to add to this day was a little bit of journaling about how I did some prep work, planning, etc. to try and get a jump on the holiday. I really do like these gold messy circles that are in the main kit but I think I have FOC or fear of circles. They have always been hard for me to use. I decided to add it in the middle of this cute red card and journal on the bottom part. 

I thought I'd try and add in the Christmas prep saying into the circle somehow. I think it turned out cute, maybe a little busy but I like it. I used a clear photo sticker from Simple Stories and then added small white letter stickers. I added a few more stickers to the card and called it done. 

At first I really didn't know what to do for this day. I played around with a few other things, debated on what to include for day 2. In the end it is done and I'm moving on. Day 3 is next and it's all about picking out our Christmas tree. 

See you all back here soon. Happy Holidays everyone ! 

December Daily 2015 | A mix of days

Hey guys,

I wanted to pop in today with a quick blog post about some pages I created for my 2015 December Daily album. These pages I created for a Simple Stories assignment and I love how the turned out.

Here we go. This one is from day 8. Patrick and I went to a work dinner.

One of my favorites from the Classic Christmas were these gold letters. I had fun with some watercolors on some cardstock and then I layers some stuff to make this filler card.

Here is a close up of the right side. Isn't is so pretty.

Day 13 was talking about how I was finally getting around to finishing up decorating for Christmas.

I used another one of those fun pages. This one was perfect for this day, as it was shaped as a door.

Here are some close ups.

Day 18 we went to see the Star Wars movie. Here is day 18 and 19.

The top of day 18.

The bottom of day 18. I used another gold number and made a christmas tree out of patterened paper.

Day 19 we had a church Christmas party and Santa came.

Journaling card for seeing santa. I cut this cute Santa out and added him onto a 4x6 piece of Cardstock. Then I embellished around it and added a strip of patterened paper to the bottom.

I had 3 Santa photos that I loved and adored. I wanted to make sure I used all of them. I chose to use a photo flip and add it to the bottom pocket.

I added a little embellishments to each of the Santa photo and I also added their initial to the photo.

There you have it. A few pages are now done in my 2015 album. I have to admit that there a lot more pages that need to get done. Last year I had printer problems then I ran out of paper, and just stalled out all together. I am glad that I was able to pick it back up and get some stories told.

I have to run now. We are going to go pick out our Christmas tree. Yippee !

December Daily | Day 1

December is here, December is here !! Yay !

With December usually comes December Daily. Along with twinkle lights, magic moments and joyful adventures. As I mentioned in my last post I am participating in another December Daily. I will be making a whole entire album full of fabulous memories.

I have finished my day 1. Which was all about getting the Christmas decor out and getting the house ready all decked out for Christmas. Oh and the arrival of our Elves.

To begin day 1 I used a 2x2 pocket page filled with a combination of photos, papers, and embellishments. On this back side of the pocket page I added a photo of both elves. They made their entrance today. Our elf Harry was back and brought a friend for him to play with. So I needed a photo of them both. I also added a small pocket with a little journaling on it. 

I also added that cute wood circle embellishment from Color Cast Designs. I had to use it on this day, I just had to. You can find an elf embellishment set in her shop if you are interested. It is seriously soooo cute ! The only other thing I added was some patterned paper that I resized from a journaling card. The card is from One Little Bird. I added the Hello today stamp in red and finished if with a green star.

Let's talk about the other side now. This bottom card is from One Little Bird. on the bottom of the card I added a digital brush from Ali Edwards and then wrote "merrymaking" on the top. Getting the decor out is definitely part of my merrymaking. Once I printed out that journaling card I added the photo I took of the floor where I had everything set out.

One more thing I want to talk about is that cute wood tree. Aren't those just the cutest. They are from Color Cast Designs and I am going to order more of them because I could use them on every page. You can find them here.

So before December started I did a little bit of prep work. One thing that I did was to print out the Kraft colored Merry card that is in the bottom pocket. I figured that I would talk about decorating the house. I had no idea that my cute daughter would give me the perfect quote and story to go with it !
I added the quote onto this green card that has the number on it. The card itself is from Studio Calico and originally it was yellow. I changed it to green and printed it out after I had all of my journaling onto it.

On the top where it says Quote merry the Quote digital brush comes from a SC set and the merry is from the 2016 freebie that Ali Edwards made available. I love how it turned out.

The photo next it is of the kids playing with the reindeer set we have with our Christmas stuff. I want to say that we have had that set now for 5 years now and the kids love to play with it. They were up in my bedroom at the time and so I snapped a few photos. The light in my room is not the best and so I turned it black and white to help the photo out. I wish you could see the reindeer set better but oh well. It is still a cute photo. At the bottom of the photo I added the cheer digital brush from Ali's messy words set.

I used the flip up technique here so I could add in some more journaling and still have my photo as part of the page. I used the washi tape that came in the main kit and adhered it to both of the cards so that it flips up to reveal the journaling.

The photo itself is out of the pocket here. Leaving the journaling card inside the pocket. ( I did take it out to photograph it)

I love how this day has turned out. Here is one more look at the flip up pocket. I talked about getting the Christmas boxes out and that the kids played with the reindeer set. This card is from One Little Bird.

Whew, I am glad to get a start on this album. I think it is always nerve wracking to start something like this. Now it is on to day 2.

Until next time.

December Daily 2016 | Title Page

December is here. And that means I will be embarking in another round of December Daily magic. 

I am so excited for this Christmas season to start. I am ready for a semi quiet, magical, twinkly, month. Full of wonder, cheer, joy, and all things Merry. 

I wanted to share with you my December Daily album so far. It took me a while to get an actual start on it this year. I ordered Ali's Main DD kit this year and I will be using that along with my stash. I also plan on adding in some digital cards and stuff as well. 

Let's get this party started shall we ?!!! 

As a bonus for ordering early I received this star transparency sheet. I went along with Ali and added the wooden star onto the transparency to start out my album. I really love the look. Instead of leaving my star the wood grained color, I decided to paint it red. Once it was dry I added it onto the transparency sheet. 

For now I will be using this album I found on clearance at Michael's a few months back. It is kind of small so we shall see how it goes as my album grows. I might have to switch it out. 

So this first page took me a while and two different tries to get it right. I didn't know exactly what I wanted and had a few ideas that just weren't coming together. In the end I made this simple title page that you see here. 

I had spotted these wonderful numbers on Pinterest while I was looking for some inspiration. I decided they would look great behind the wood star. Here is the link if you want to download a copy for you to use in your album. It was a freebie that Life Love Paper had available last year. 

After I had the numbers spaced accordingly I added the word stories from an Ali Edwards brush. I knew I wanted to add a few more things to this page. I played around with a few things but I really wanted it to stay simple and clean as this is the first page you see. 

In the end you can see I added a yellow star ( from the Surprise Story Kit ) and then the green word strip. 

I went back and forth about whether or not to add in an intentions/reasons why page. I decided that I needed to add in some sort of journaling about the album and such. So I used the freebie from Ali that she made available and put that on the top. The "december daily" I added the word joy in red letters up on top of the december daily. If you have an account on Ali's website you should have the freebie under your digital files. 

On the bottom I used a journaling card from Studio Calico. You can find that card here. I resized it, making adjustments to the wreath down at the bottom to fit my needs. Once I knew that I wanted the gold wreath on there I set out to figure out how to add the date on there. I loved those cork numbers and then built everything else around them. 

In the very early stages of putting my pages together I wanted to try and use these 2x2 pockets. I liked how Ali incorporated some photos and other items as part of her Day 1. I decided to do the same. 

I originally had a whole sheet of 2x2's but that just seemed like a lot. So I chopped off a row and added a tab. There we go, much better. These pockets can be fun. I looked through my stash for items to add into the pockets. One of the things I liked was that star kraft tag from the Main kit. I wanted to add in some green to this page and as part of day 1 so I cut up that green ombre card from the Main kit. Let's see, I also added in that cute typewriter from Simple Stories, the white number 1 from the kit and a few fun photos. 

On the bottom here I added one of the circle pieces from the kit and a digital paper from One Little Bird. That black little square was part of a digital card that I shrunk/cropped down to fit into the 2x2 pocket and printed it out. 

**TIP** I want to share that with these little 2x2 photos and papers I adhered them together back to back to make sure they were the same size. Ahhh, my OCD nature is so much better now. LOL. 

Here is what the inside title page and the 2x2 page look like together. 

That is it for me this time. I have to finish up Day 1 and then I will be back to share that with you all. Hopefully sometime tomorrow. Is anyone doing December Daily this year ? Take care now. 

Project Life Week 47 | Thanksgiving week

Welcome to Project Life Week 47. This week was part of the Thanksgiving holiday and we had family come stay with us. Let's just say we had a full house.

I had good intentions of documenting the holiday better than I have previously done. I think I did that and am so excited about it. I got some great photos, and now it is all in pockets thanks to Project Life.

Here is what the whole spread looks like.

Before I started creating this week I knew that I wanted some fun cards. Something that would help tell the story of the week.

I used a lot of journaling cards and digital brushes from the Gather collection by Sahlin Studio's. See the link below if your interested.
You can find them here. These are the cards and you can find the brushes in the shop.

I created this title card by starting with this 4x6 card from Sahlin studios. I decided to change the color of the word gather to match more of my spread. Sometimes when I want to change a color of something I look for inspiration in my photos. I decided to take the orange from the pumpkin pie photo as inspiration. It worked out great. Photoshop is great for being able to play with your digital products. I use it every time I scrapbook.

As you can see I added the week # and the dates to the card before printing it here at home. After it was done I added the star strip from the Surprise Story Kit by Ali Edwards. It needed something else so I added the glitter star ( also from the story kit ) and a family sticker that I had in my stash.

The first journaling card there is from the Gather collection as well. I changed the color of the arrow to match the blue chipboard pieces from the surprise kit. Then I had a thought to add the word THIS to the bottom and those white letters worked out great. The card next to is from a SC kit. I added a few embellishments to it and called it done. The card with the circle silverware piece is also from the Gather collection. Isn't it cute. I changed the colors of the circles and added a word strip from the Story kit. I journaled about our Thanksgiving dinner.

When I started printing photos out to go in this week I thought that maybe the Surprise Story Kit might work along with what I had already planned. The colors worked real well. The blue chipboard pieces seemed to work with my photos and some of the cards as well. I added in this yellow chipboard piece as well. It brought out the yellow in the photo next to it.

I had a few extra photos that I wanted to include of us making our Thanksgiving meal. The top one is of the little kids helping Grandma roll out the rolls. The bottom is of grandma making the pie crusts. I added a digital brush from the Gather collection and finished it off with a sticker heart.

This is a photo of Maddie. The kids were playing tag out in the circle together. She thought it might be a good idea to ride the bike while wearing her rollerblades. I added the story onto the photo to save space for more stuff. Doing this whenever possible is a great space saver. I added a stamp from SC and called it done.

Let's move on to the right side now. Oh but first I want to point out the bottom photo. The kids decorated " Turkey " cupcakes in honor of Thanksgiving. I had them put them all together and I snapped a photo. So cute.

I wanted to keep with the yellow, orange, and blue theme I had going on on the right side.

I kept this card pretty simple. This one is from the Story kit and I loved the colors. I thought it matched really well with my photos. The wood veneers are from my stash, I love when I can use something. I added the #tradition hashtag from the digital Gather brushes and added my journaling on the bottom of it.

This yellow card is from a SC kit, I think the November kit. I loved the pop of yellow that it brought to the page. I added another glitter star and another chipboard word sentence. The photo next to it is of our Thanksgiving table.

The bottom photo might be favorite from the week. It turned out great of my husband putting the turkey in the oven with his gloves.

This first quote card is from the Gather collection and I loved the subtle grey that it had. I added a little story about having 12 people in the house. Next to is a card from the Story kit. I added a few embellishments from the Story kit to the right side of the card. I have to say that I am going to love using more of those tiny banner stickers. So fun. And all those word strips, love. And don't get me started on the chipboard. Lol.

I added some white letters around the PIE dish and added a sticker as well. The sticker says get your pumpkin on, seemed fitting. That one is from Simple Stories.

I am pretty sure Ali Edwards took a photo, or takes photos like this. I got the idea from her so when I saw some of our shoes all piled together I snapped a photo. I found it funny that we seemed to mostly have all the same shoes. I added the wood piece from a SC kit and another white banner sticker.

Week 47 is done. Yes !!! It feels so good to have that one documented. Now it's time for some December Daily lovin'. Stay tuned for another blog post coming very very soon. How is everyone's Project Life albums coming along ?