December Daily® 2017 │ Days 8 thru 11

This past weekend was a travel weekend for us. It was my daughters birthday and we had made plans to take her away for the weekend. We had a great time, but sadly didn't get the big snow that I was hoping for. One thing I noticed after I made these pages is that my album had suddenly become a birthday tribute album. Which is totally fine but I'm really looking forward to getting some more holiday themed days into the album. I feel like its been lacking the Christmas cheer with these first few entries. But that is life and the beauty of the sum total and not just the parts of this project.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below. There is no additional cost to you if you use these links.

For day eight, I had to move up my normal birthday balloon delivery a few days since we wouldn't be home on her actual birthday. It worked out though because it helped me announce that we were taking her to Lake Tahoe after school got out.

Its hard to see in the photos but the blind embossed card from the Kelly Purkey Joyful & Bright kit was one of my favorites and I wanted to make sure it got used. Since I'm always down for a pop of white, it was an easy fit into this side of the page. The journaling card is also from the same kit and since I had the .pdf files of the cards I was able to type my journaling prior to printing it out.

For day nine I knew I was going to include a photo of the lake that actually had a bit of snow in it. This shot was taken from the car while it was moving. Its my favorite spot on the lake to take photos and I always try to snap a shot as we pass by in the car.

The journaling cards are all from the Kelly Purkey Joyful & Bright kit, and again I typed my journaling prior to printing. The rubber square piece was an extra purchase from Ali Edwards. I am still really loving rubber embellishments a lot, so I am always eager to find room for them.

I typically shy away from using the 2x2 square page protectors just because they never seem to look right when I use them. But for things like this that are see through, I enjoy. There were just enough pockets for me to caption my photo while having room for the number and two accents. I stapled the letters to clear transparency sheets that I cut to size. I could have easily stapled them into the protector but I didn't want the backside of the staples to rub against my printed photo. 

Day ten was my daughters big day. It was also super busy. We had to leave Tahoe in the morning get home and unpack and rest for a bit and then head out to a soccer game. After the game we had a small party for just the family which was super fun and it also gave us a chance to order this super fun Unicorn cake.

This digital file is from Studio Calico, you can find it here if you're also into Unicorns or know someone who is. I also added a photo from the soccer game to the backside along with some journaling about the day.

For day eleven it was a pretty busy day getting caught up from the weekend but I had this photo of my daughters hot cocoa that I thought was pretty perfect and a great way to transition back into holiday mode. I knew when I saw a Instagram post from My Minds Eye sharing a super cute banner file that they had created that the Santa face would make a perfect page for my album. This banner was shared to their newsletter subscribers so I'm sorry I cannot link you to it but you can see the Instagram post here.

To make the page I just did a print and cut from my Silhouette Cameo for both the front and the backside photo. For the backside photo I just mirrored the front side to get the right cut lines so that it would match up when adhered down front to back. I added in some simple numbers and a small sentiment sticker to the back photo.

I sure am looking forward to things slowing down a bit so I can start working daily, or at least no more than two days at a time going forward. I hope you are having as much fun as I am working on your album too.

I'll be back soon to share more.

December Daily® 2017 │ Album Walk Through Video Days 1-7

I wanted to pop in real quick to let you know that I have uploaded a video of my December Daily® 2017 album so far to my YouTube channel. In the video I walk you through days 1 thru 7 and talk a little bit about each page. I know that some folks prefer walk through videos instead of looking at static photos so if you prefer that you can watch below or click thru here and watch it via YouTube.

I'll be back soon to share more pages as soon as they are done.

December Daily® 2017 │ Days 5 thru 7

I find sometimes when I have to play catch up at the beginning I tend to work on a few days and then take a few days off. I seem to like batch creating with this project mainly because it does help sometimes knowing what's coming behind a page that I make so that I can accommodate what I have in mind. Again, this is all part of my theory of letting it flow at my pace and creating with what I have to work with.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below. There is no additional cost to you if you use these links.

Day five was a total challenge. If you have been here awhile you know the story of my daughter's wrapping paper but if you are new here its a tradition that started back when she was about two. I decided to pick a special wrapping paper just for her gifts to make it easier for me. If it was all the same I didn't have to tag each package. Hello time saver. When she got a little older she asked if she could pick out her special paper. So each season we make a trip to Target and she picks out her paper. This year, she threw me a curve ball and chose a black holographic pink unicorn paper. Its so perfectly her right now so I really love that she picked it but I did think to myself, how the heck am I going to make this fit! Truth be told, I changed this after I had already made it. I didn't love what I had made, so laying in bed last night I thought about ways to make it better and that meant vellum. I kept the same basic design I just added the layer of vellum between my photo and the paper layer. I wanted it to open so you could still see the paper and I loved how this little switch softened it and make it more special. The pink sequin heart is old Heidi Swapp, the rubber circle is from the Paislee Press mini kit, the black chipboard number is from Ali Edwards, and the black December tab is from Studio Calico.

The vellum is old Cosmo Cricket.

It really is pretty paper when you see it in person. Even the black portion has a slight holographic pattern.

Day six we stuffed and mailed our Christmas Cards. My dear friend DeAnna is a photographer and this is the third year she has shot our family photos. She surprised me with this image of my daughter and I knew it had to be used. I kept the left side simple, just some text and a large number from Studio Calico. The hexagon glitter was purchased at Target in the dollar spot and I stuck each one down with a Martha Stewart glue pen. It went much faster than I thought it would.

And the shine is really pretty in person.

Day seven was a crafty day. I made the silver star garland when I couldn't find one in the stores anywhere. I also thought it was the perfect time to share what our mantle looks like this year since I decided to switch it all up. The white houses and many of the bottle brush trees were in the Target dollar spot this year. I purchased the wool felt ball garland from Etsy and I made the silver star garland by cutting varying star shapes on my Silhouette Cameo and stapling them to a silver cord with my tiny attacher.

To label the day I added in one of the stars that I had cut and slipped in one of Kelly Purkey's letterpress numbers from this years Joyful & Bright kit. The green really popped and I love it.

Thanks for being here and I'll be back next week some time to share more. Its a big birthday weekend around here for a certain little girl so I'l have lots to include.

December Daily® 2017 │ Days 1 thru 4

The happiest time of the year is here and that means another year of December Daily®. This is my ninth album and I'm still as in love with this project today as I was in 2009. I got a little bit of a later start this year, mainly because the first weekend of December was a pretty busy one and also because my Mom was visiting and I didn't want to take time away from that. I always know that I'll catch up so starting late never really bothers me. I look forward to working on my pages each day, I just may not share them every day but I will check in to share them all here as well as on my Instagram feed. You can find me here.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below. There is no additional cost to you if you use these links.

To answer a few questions up front about my plans and supplies, etc. 1) I do not create foundation pages. I stopped a few years ago when I realized I enjoy the process more when I didn't have something started ahead of time. I found I was spending way too much time fitting a square peg into a round hole so to speak. Its so much faster and more freeing for me to be able to create fresh each day based on what I have photo wise. 2) most of the photos I use come from my iphone 7+. I also have a Canon DSLR that I take my album pictures with and I may pick it up here and there for some shots. I also have a Sony A5100 that's new to me this year. I'll probably use that out of the home and for larger events. 3) I print all of my photos at home on a Canon TS6020 printer. I love it! 4) I post edit all of my phone photos using the app Pic Tap Go app on my phone and I also edit on my desktop computer using Rad Lab. 5) the fonts I'm using for my printed journaling this year are Avenir Next Pro and Marista which looks like a cursive typewriter.

My supplies this year are from a few sources. I purchased the mini kit from Paislee Press offered by Ali Edwards as well as a few smaller embellishments. I will also be using the three kits from Kelly Purkey. These will be the focus for me, because I really love the papers and cards from Kelly's kits. I also picked up some stuff from Studio Calico, Felicity Jane, and Tim Holtz. Here is a shot of the two bins on my work table, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I also have a few sets of numbers and specialty papers and cards not pictured that you might see pop up in my album. I'll tag everything I can in my posts each day. If I miss something just ask in the comments or shoot me an email.

I was struggling for a bit on how to start my album. I usually like to make a cover page that fits over the top of all of the page protectors but I just couldn't come up with a design. I had initially thought of using a printable that I found online but I may save that for a later page, I also thought about a tree cut file but I wasn't feeling anything and then I remember this tree journaling card that came in Kelly Purkey's Joyful & Bright kit. Luckily I had the digital pdf file of the card that you can purchase here. I enlarged it in Photoshop Elements to fill the page and I loved it. I added in a gold glitter star in place of the printed star, the year using my favorite number thickers from Hobby Lobby and a rubber banner that I believe came in a past Studio Calico kit or maybe it was an old Ali kit, I can't remember but I loved the simplicity of the sentiment.

I love how the matte gold of these thickers plays with that soft pink.

I ended up with two stories for day one, way to start out big huh. I opted to cut down a page protector so that it flowed together and didn't end up looking like two separate days. I used the pink card from Kelly's kit because I loved the sentiment on it. I added in a white chipboard number that was from Ali's kit last year and the journaling card has a printable from In A Creative Bubble that I recolored to match Kelly's card. It still needed something so I added a silver glitter star on top of the number and placed it on the outside of the page protector. I also added in an avery tab and stamped sentiments on the front and back using the stamp set that was designed by Paislee Press for Ali Edwards. The stamp set is sold out but you can get it digitally.

I always write a little note to my daughter each year, you can zoom in a read it here if you like.

The second story of the day is a Holiday House tour that my Mom and I attended. It was super fun but they don't let you take pictures inside the homes but this giant Nutcracker was begging to have his photo taken. The journaling card is from In A Creative Bubble, I just filled in the text with red to tie it all in.

Day two happened at the end of November but I'm okay with that and always include the story in this album. I'm from the camp that stories can be told on any day and it doesn't have to happen that day to be included. I used a journaling card from the Paislee Press mini kit and added one of the kits rubber banners on top of the page protector. The card originally said home for the holidays which could totally worked here but I knew I wouldn't have a place for that rubber banner anywhere else and I really wanted to use it. The black chipboard number is from Ali's shop this year. I'll get a lot of use of the black numbers this year I'm sure.

Day three and we finally bought our tree. As you can read on the journaling this was late for us but I'm really glad we waited. I loved the pop of green as well as the graphics on the tag that was on our tree so I just cut it down to fit and added a white number. I love how that green pops. I kept everything else pretty simple to focus on the photos. I used a journaling card from In A Creative Bubble that I modified a bit and placed one of the tiny little square stickers from the Holiday Tradition kit designed by Jamaica. Man I love those little square stickers.

Day four was a simple entry. Sadly my Mom was heading home and we always snap a picture of her and my daughter before she leaves so I included it here. I used a card from the Holiday Tradition kit and the letterpress number sheet came in Kelly's Joyful & Bright kit. I love those numbers and I love how they pop on this red and pink card. I may end up adding a tab but I'll decide that after I work on day five.

I hadn't really intended to make my first few pages so simple but playing catch up had something to do with it, but then again I like to make the photos be the star. That means I end up limiting my embellishments to only what really makes sense.

I hope your albums are coming along too and I'll be back to share more soon.