December Daily® 2019 │ The Beginning

I simply cannot believe that December is three days away! I really, really hate when Thanksgiving is so late but I'm doing my best to keep calm and just let it happen and role with it. I just finished all of the creative assignments I have for the month and I'm ready to clear my desk off and set up my supplies for my TENTH December Daily® album. That seems like such a big milestone but man do I still love this project so much.

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.

As normal I'm not prepping anything in advance other than my cover page. I know I will do more intro pages because I plan to use a lot of Kelly Purkey's December Details kit and there are a lot of papers in that kit I want to include. I'm not going to worry too much about that just yet but I did sit down and make a cover page for my album the other day. This idea has been floating around in my head for the past few weeks and I kind of love when that happens. I can mentally work out the details prior to sitting down to work. 

I knew I wanted to use the Fifth Avenue Outline stamp set on the cover and I decided to stamp and emboss it in red glitter embossing powder on vellum. I just love how the red pops off the page. After stamping everything I fussy cut the numbers out, not worrying about the number centers. I used a sheet from the Black and White December Details kit printables so that I could enlarge it to 7" x 8.25". I like my cover pages to cover all the contents behind and while I don't think I will use page protectors this year (like last year) I always want to make sure things will be covered up. 

I dressed up the rest of the cover using white and gold letter beads and some sequins. Friendship bracelets have been a big thing in our home this year and it was a way for me to pay homage to that with this project. I just love how that little banner turned out so don't be surprised if you see more beads in this album.

I wanted to also mention that Kelly Purkey shop update was today and there is also a really big Black Friday sale happening. All the holiday kits and stamps are included in the sale and even this months kits and stamps are marked down until Monday. Don't miss this sale! Its a great one. 

I'm looking forward to using the new Highline Months and Highline Days stamps in my December Daily® album this year so be on the lookout for that. 

And this Block Numbers stamp set that is the same as Kelly's letterpress sheets! OMG I cannot wait to stamp and emboss them!

And this Oh Dear LifeLovePaper mini kit is just begging to be added into a DD album!!

I'll be back again soon to share my albums as it progresses! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Featuring Kelly Purkey Shop │ Around the Table

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is the entertaining. I love having people over for any occasion be it baking parties, cocktail parties, movie parties, or pretty much just about any type of party. I'm always ready and willing to host it. I think that comes from us having so many family members that live far away, my friends become my family so I love hosting them whenever I can.

This past Christmas we were lucky enough to have family in town for Christmas which is super rare. Our favorite way to celebrate Christmas Eve is to have a huge cocktail and appetizer night so that's what we did.

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.

Luckily for me Kelly designed the perfect stamp set that ties in to my favorite entertaining appetizer these days, cheeseboards or cheese plates. I love a good grazing opportunity and have really dug right into the cheeseboard trend and all that that entails. For this spread I used the Around the Table stamp set, the Warm and Cozy kit and the base papers are from the We Are F(r)amily Travelers Notebook kit.

I knew the focal point of this layout was going to be the cheese plate masterpiece stamp and of course the cheese stamps. I used the platter that was part of the turkey stamp and then just stamped and fussy cut out the cheeses and the wine bottles. They layered perfectly on top of the platter and the plaid card base from the Warm and Cozy kit was the perfect focal point for the stamped cluster.

I used some Tim Holtz Flip Frame pockets to create the flip up and printed my photos to size. I love the interactive aspect and it allowed for three photos to accompany the story. There is one on the back too.

The journaling was printed on vellum with some more stamping up top in the available space. I love the little houses and the different greenery stamps on the Warm and Cozy stamp set. There are so many options on what you can make besides the simple greenery bough I made. 

I look forward to many more holiday entertaining opportunities this season and can't wait to used these stamps some more. 

Don't forget that there are digital files for the kits and stamp sets in the shop too if you want to print off just a few of the cards and stamps or create your own cards that way. 

Kelly Purkey Shop Hipster Santa holiday garland

I know its early to be talking about Christmas decor but when I saw the Hipster Santa stamp set from the Kelly Purkey Shop holiday release it became an immediate favorite and I had so many ideas on what I could make with it. When the stamp set arrived and I started playing with it the stamped Santa's seemed to be dancing across the page. I knew I wanted to stamp them and fussy cut them out and make something non traditional with them.

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.

I thought they would look super cute strung together on a garland so that's what I decided to make. There are so many fun combinations you can create with the Hipster Santa stamp set so I sat down and wrote out a list of the ones that would work for the garland. I decided to stamp two of each combo so I would have enough to stretch out across our six foot mantle. It didn't take long to fussy cut these out because the Tim Holtz scissor is so sharp and cut paper like a dream. If you don't have these scissors in your supplies, get a pair. I have three different pairs I love them so much.

I knew I wanted them to have some dimension so I also stamped extras so that I could cut out the banners, the coffee cup, the cell phone and the presents. I used foam tape to add the extra piece on top of the base Santa. I love how that little touch of added dimension looks.

I also picked up two bags of red and white tinsel pom poms from Hobby Lobby. Each bag has multiple sizes and I pulled out the large white and the smallest red from the bags to use on the garland. I also purchase thicker thread made for quilting and it was super easy to string them up. I opted to staple the Santa's to the thread but a little piece of washi or regular tape would have worked too.

I couldn't wait to see how this would look hung up so I gathered up some of the holiday stuff I purchased for this year and set up a festive little mantle so I could snap some pictures. How cute are those darn Santa's. The tinsel pom poms really add some fun sparkle and shine.

I think this could also be a super cute alternative to ribbon on your wrapped presents. I can see using some thicker twine to string the Santa's and pom poms and it would be super cute. Or at least have the Santa's dangling from gift tags.

Don't miss out on this stamp set, its my top pick for the season for sure. If you haven't picked up anything from the release or decide to go back for more, you can save 10% on your full order of anything from the shop, (not just holiday kits) with the code OCT10. Its good thru 10/27 so don't wait on that.

This project has me super excited to document our holiday season this year and I cannot wait!!

See you soon,

Featuring Kelly Purkey Shop │ September Shop Update

OMG guys, its actually chilly as I sit here and type this!! I'm so happy that its feels like fall! I'm so in the mood after making all of these fall themed projects using the latest kits and stamps from Kelly Purkey Shop. I'm ready to light fires, burn candles and eat all the pumpkin foods I can find.

In the meantime lets get to the projects that I made shall we.  First up was a super fun mini album that I made using the You're Magic mini kit from LifeLovePaper. This kit is sooo cute and I always love Tina's Halloween kits. I use the kit along with cards from the Big Days kit along with papers from the Feels Like Fall TN kit and also the stamps and then stamps from the Pumpkin Spice World and A Walk in the Forest to embellish it.

I wanted it to be an accordion fold so I created the pockets first and then added hinges created with folded cardstock to the back of each page. I covered the front as you will see below and just covered the backs of the remaining three pages with plain white cardstock to keep it clean.

The base of each section is a large tag that I created and stamped with all of the stamps I mentioned above. I then clipped photos and journaling cards to each tag and then tucked them into the pockets. I love things with varying layers so this was super fun to make.

 
This section focuses on the pre Halloween stuff like decorating and the first Pumpkin Spice latte of the season.

This section focuses on a Halloween Movie Night party we had which was so much fun. I adored all the little black banner stamps and the witch hat stamps in the mini kit.

This section focused on carving pumpkins

And lastly this section is all about Halloween itself. So much more to include here so I added in an extra photo strip and three journaling cards with photos and text.

Here is the album all folded and you can see all the tag clusters together. The cover was embellished with items from the Crate Paper Hey Pumpkin line which ties in the with the washi tape that was included in the You're Magic mini kit since it was from that line.

When my stamps first arrived I couldn't wait to play with them so I used several including the awesome Big Days alpha in my bullet journal to dress up my calendar spread.

I really loved the Pumpkin Spice World stamp set!!

The Feels Life Fall travelers notebook kit was perfect for documting my love of Trader Joe's pumpkin foods and fussy cutting all the leaves was tedious but relaxing at the same time.

If you love Halloween don't miss out on the Halloween themed Swag Bag! Its super cute and the metallic elements are so awesome!

I hope you loved the release! I'm off to find some long pants and maybe go grab a Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew!!

Take care,

Featuring Kelly Purkey Shop │ August Shop Update

August is such a big month around here and it feels like a new beginning more so than it does in January. Summer break is over and my daughter is officially back to school which means things start to get hectic again and the lazy days are over. It also means I have a little bit more creative time on my hands during school hours so I had a little extra time to make a special back to school mini album using the Kelly Purkey Shop August kits and stamps.

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.

Lets start with that because it was a big-ish project for me this month. Not so big that it took a lot of time, this took about two days to finish, not working full days but it was a fun bigger than normal project for me to make for the shop update. The A+ Mini kit designed by LifeLovePaper was the base and the heart of the album but I also mixed in some of the other cards, papers and stamp sets from the shop update. I won't go into a lot of detail but will call out when I added in stuff from the shop. The album I used is an older acrylic album from Jamaica Makes and I sprinkled in some embellishments from my stash and loved the little postage stamp stickers from Studio Calico.

For the front cover I wanted a bold number so I stamped using the Highline outline and then used the new Dalton lower case alpha. The stamp set that came in the A+ mini kit is so cute and I loved the interchangeable globe stamps.

The today card is from the Love Language Project Kit and so is the document stamp on the left side.

I adored that little pencil stamp in the A+ kit

I used the writing guide stamp as a little road for the bus stamp and loved stamping directly on top of the acrylic star. It worked fine using stazon ink I just had to pat off the top layer that wouldn't dry.

I couldn't let that book stack stamp from the Well Read stamp set go to waste and it found a home on this spread along with the Love Language kit stamp phrase, which was a favorite too. The long paper on the right side is from the Bad Place travelers notebook kit just cut down to 3x8.

I used the Love Language kit stamp set on this spread and loved the versatility of that stamp set and the Bee paper in the Bad Place kit was perfect to tie in her first day outfit tshirt.

Love all the orange on this spread. That people paper is so cute!

The It's Fine stamp set from LifeLovePaper was a favorite this month and you will see it used again down below but I had to make a little embellishment cluster with them for this spread.

And the end, I always sign and date my mini albums, not sure why but I do and its fun to know the date something was completed.

My next project was a travelers notebook spread using the It's Fine stamp set and papers from the Bad Place travelers notebook kit. I poked a little fun at myself and made a list of some things I may or may not be excelling at lately and it was fun to put together. I typed all my journaling on to vellum and then stamped the icons onto pink vellum and cut them out to make little embellishments.

Lastly I made a little insert for my pocket page album about our back to school shopping using the Love Language project kit. I kept the color scheme tight with lots of yellow, orange and blue to tie in the colors of the photos and love the bold impact the stamping adds.

There are lots of other cute things for book lovers in the shop and plenty of alpha stamps so make sure you check them out. There is also a book themed Swag Bag so don't miss that either.

Take care,

Featuring Kelly Purkey Shop │ July Shop Update

OMG, one day left of July and I cannot believe it. I feel like summer is just getting started and its almost August already. Crazy!

The Kelly Purkey July Shop Update went live this past Sunday and I wanted to share the projects I made. The themes of the kits and stamps this month were so much fun!

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.

Here is my first project using the Me, Myself and I Travelers Notebook kit. I love this kit for many reasons, firstly the pattern papers are gorgeous, I loved all of the cool mosaic patterns and can't wait to use them and second, the stamps! The sentiments can be used for lots of projects and the dancing girl emoji is just too cute.

For this project I used two photos that my daughter snapped of herself to help tell the story of how much she is changing before my eyes and how awesome it is to see her from her own perspective instead of my own.

I mirrored the stamps and tab stickers on each side to create the balance and let the rainbow stripe papers ground everything together. I love this format for a TN spread.

My second project was made using the Gone Fishing mini kit which is sadly sold out. But the Under the Sea stamp set could be used to make a very similar spread like I did below. It has many of the same elements like the under sea plants and fish that you could easily stamp on a transparency to achieve the same look.

I did print the digital paper on to a printable transparency to create the clear page but sadly the digital version of this kit is not part of the shop update so I would totally suggest grabbing some StazOn ink and creating your own stamped transparency which would be super cool.

The stickers that came in this mini kit are sooo cute!!

There were so many other great stamp sets this month especially the National Park Explorers and the Leave No Trace stamp sets.

The July Snapshot kit is perfect for documenting all the fun pics and photo booth fun you have waiting to be documented.

There is also a Summer Stamp Sale going on so make sure you check that out to get some discounts on some great stamp sets.

So much fun stuff to add to all of your projects this month! I hope you enjoy it all!