December Daily 2013 - the rest of the days

I think this is the first year that I wasn't done with this project on December 26th and that's okay. It was a Christmas for the record books, having my family here was the greatest gift.  I decided to let myself off the hook and not take time away from being with them and waiting until after the dust settled to finish the last few days.

Sorry in advance for the massive amounts of photos to come....

Her first school holiday pageant, I was pretty excited about this.

A little matchy-matchy holiday attire for her and I from Hello Apparel and a really poorly lit snap of the family arrival that could only be saved by going black and white. I was too excited to take descent pictures, living in the moment instead of behind the camera.

With visiting family came and Elf and one for us too. It was fun for a week to have these two around and I'm looking forward to Twinkle returning next year for even more fun.

Our family skating night was so much fun, the kids skated and the adults watched and cheered. It was the perfect Christmas activity and these photos are at the top of my list of favorites this year.

I had to squeeze in a shot of the tree and all the stockings before the month got away from me.  The Yo print in the middle is from Tina Aszmus and I loved it so much I had to use it.  I printed my journaling directly on the back.

A perfectly timed Monday Night Football game and of course Kurt and Twinkle got in on the fun!  I found the Candlestick image online and turned it into a print and cut and used the Cameo Sticker Paper.  It was super easy. The journaling is printed on gold vellum.

The veneer family is from a recent Studio Calico kit and I used it as a tab to pull out another photo.

The day before Christmas and lots to include so I added a little envelope to hold the last bits of Elf fun and the day continues behind it.

The front of the Checklist card has some journaling from the day that I forgot to photograph.

I trimmed off two of the slots above so these two would lay on top and the transparency card would remain see through. I love how this looks.

The big day and a massive amount of photos meant I went super sized with my flip up.  I've never made one this big and I love it! The template is from Ali Edwards last year.

I made sure to set up my camera on a tripod for the group shot at the bottom and love this image. The outtakes were pretty hysterical and may need to be printed and added in the back in an envelope or something.

I had one last side to fill and added a image of an outing for coffee the day after. It was such a beautiful day and a great way to end the album.

Another year done and another album that I'm completely in love with and over the moon happy that I have this record of my favorite season, favorite holiday, favorite month.

Until next year December Daily!

December Daily 2013 - days 11 to 17

It's been so crazy I just now had a chance to photograph and get these past few days posted, sorry for the delay.  I'm just about to leave for the airport to pick up family so I'm super excited! I've been waiting for a lot of the normal holiday type stuff until they arrive so I'm looking forward to including more of what we love to do the last few days of the season.

Day 11 a trip to the movies with some friends

Day 12 a work day in the Kindergarten class for me

Day 13 the big announcement. The perfect place to use the cute holiday card that came in my Studio Calico kit.

Day 14 some pictures of us getting some shopping done.  The card is attached on the outside of the protector and you'll see it open below.

Day 15 a girls day out to a super cute local craft fair and some yummy dessert.

Day 16 a place to feature some super cute holiday themed things Simone brought home from school.

Day 17 our holiday cards, a simple insert of just the card with my notes on the back.



There's still time to get in on the holiday fun if want to capture your holiday season.  The Studio Calico kits are still in stock and I cannot recommend it enough.  It's been a delight to work with and you won't be disappointed.  You can find the kit here, the album here and the protectors here, here, here and here.

I hope to be back before Christmas with another update so until then, Merry, Merry!

December Daily 2013 - days 6, 7 and 8

This past weekend we took a trip to Lake Tahoe, it was absolutely gorgeous and well timed for lots of snow.  I was lucky and got some really great shots and everything I included on these pages were taken with my iPhone 5.

Day 6

I placed the journaling in the middle printed on vellum.

Day 7

This day was magic! Simone had a blast and there was so much great stuff to include but I held back and just added these few images. The Let it Snow is from a digital card from Oh Snap Boutique I just modified it in Photoshop to just use the text.

The digital pieces on the insert are from Studio Calico this month and can be found here and here. I opted to attached the photos to the outside of the bag instead of slipping them in.

Day 8

We will miss Tahoe, the cold temps not so much but it's pretty cold at home still.  This week is crazy busy so I'll do my best to stay caught up.

See you soon.

December Daily 2013 - day 5

So here I am breaking the rules again, the hanging of the outdoor lights, didn't happen today but that's okay, it happened and its holiday related.

The spread is super, super simple and some days that's exactly what I need.  I adored this photo of Simone and had to make it nice and large. The deck the halls is a cut file from Studio Calico that was previously available and I decided to cut it on red glitter paper with my Cameo.  Everything is better with glitter.  This paper is from Best Creations and it does cut on the cameo but you have to be careful with the blade settings, this was set on 9 and it had to be double cut.  I added a bit more red glitter with some ribbon from the kit and the gold five to decorate things up just a bit.

Have a great weekend!

December Daily 2013 - days 3 & 4

Sharing two days because they both ended up being single pages and they are sort of related.

Here is day three, we took Simone out to lunch after school and saw a matinee of this super cute new movie.  It was adorable! The background is printed on silver vellum paper which is lovely in person, I kept the photo small and added her ticket and a little post it I found at the dollar section of Target.  I love the mix of the silver and gold here a lot.

Day four was another movie but this time just for me.  I've never seen this movie on the big screen before and had to jump on it while it was showing.  I found the movie images online turned them all black and white and made a contact sheet digitally using a template.  I hand stitched the green around the edge and just added my ticket the gold four and a piece of chalkboard washi that tied in the black.

Here are the two days side by side

I added a little doily cut from a larger sheet of vellum in the middle of the two for a bit of separation.  I cut the white center sections on my cameo to add to the middle on each side.

So far so good, how is it going for you?

December Daily 2013 - day 2

See I like to break the rules with this project, the buying of the tree, well it happened the day after Thanksgiving.  Doesn't mean I can't put it in my December Daily, it's a Christmas tree after all.  Make your own rules, its your album, right!

I always keep track of how much we pay for our tree and was super surprised this year that it was the exact same price as last year.  Not one penny more.  We found a really great tree this year and its super tall! Thankfully we have nice high ceilings to accommodate a large one.

I kept the embellishments to a minimum as you can see.

I did add a little glassine bag to the middle to hold the tag from the tree and I added another picture of it all decorated.  I'll definitely do another shot of the tree in the daylight later on in the album but this was from the night we decorated it and I kind of liked it.

I like a lot of lights and this year we added quite a few. Its never been this bright before and I love it!

December Daily 2013 - Title Page and Day 1

It's December can you believe it!

I kept the red and gold theme going for my title page for this years album, a lot simpler than last years and I love it.

I found the gold foil cardstock at Michael's but have also seen something similar it at my local stamp store if you don't have access to a Michael's.  The cut file is from the Silhouette Store its from Basic Grey.  The banner is also a cut file that came as a free file download recently with a wreath design.  This cut is super intricate and some of the parts are quite small. I used a brand new blade and it still had some issues so dial the speed down and be prepared to wait, its takes a while to cut.

I love how reflective the gold paper is.

Every year I always start day one with the advent calendar.  This year I bought my daughter her first Lego Friends calendar and she was super surprised. She carried that box around with her all day yesterday and that's pretty cool.  Last year I paired it with a letter to her and did the same this year. She is super excited and very in touch with the notion of believing in the magic of Santa and said something pretty cute to him Sunday night that I wanted to capture so it's part of my letter.  The veneer tag in the upper right is from Two Peas, the rest is all from the Studio Calico kit, the woodgrain paper is from Studio Calico but not part of the kit.

Looking over my calendar for the month and I realize this year is going to be super busy and super lively. My brother and his family will all be here for Christmas which is a gift in itself and I cannot wait for Simone to have all kinds of fun with her cousins this year. We will have a packed house on Christmas Day and I'm so looking forward to it.

I hope you all have a magical month and I look forward to sharing more as the days count down.

If you are interested in learning more about this project, make sure you check out Ali Edwards blog, she started this whole thing and what she does with it is truly amazing.  You can see her posts here.