December 19 (part 2) and December 20 (part 1)

My second page for December 19th is all about our Christmas party that we have here at our house with our friends. I took a lot of pictures, and wanted to include most of them, so I decided to do a grid pattern (the design of this page was inspired by a December Daily page that was uploaded into the Flickr group on Ali Edwards' website).

This page is all digital...done in Photoshop Elements. All the photos are 1" x 1". The journaling font is Futura Lt, and the title font is Ma Sexy.

Just a closeup of the journaling.


On the backside I wanted to include a list of the food that we had for the party (this is mainly because I want it as a reference for next year. I couldn't really remember what we had at last year's party, and it probably would have made preparations easier if I could have remembered). I love this glittery polka dot paper from Making Memories. I printed the menu on Kraft paper, then drew a black line around the border. Title letters are from American Crafts, as well as the "Flair" reindeer button at the bottom. The rub-on under the title is from Art Warehouse.

My page for December 20th is one of the canvas pages. I adhered everything onto the page using Glossy Accents. I inked around the journaling strips before glueing them down, and painted a small edging of white paint around the photo. The photo corners were cut using the Cricut Jasmine cartridge (Jillibean Soup paper). The number 20 and "Make Time For Memories" stickers are from Little Yellow Bicycle.

Here's the original page:

December 18 and 19 (part 1)

I was hoping to do a better job of keeping up with this album, so that I wouldn't be more than a day or two behind, but unfortunately I haven't managed to stay on track. Even so, I'm going to keep chugging along, and hopefully it won't be too long before it will be complete.

So, we're back on day 18. I started the 18th on the back of the magazing cover page I used for the 17th, which was on a file folder.

I printed this photo as an 8"x 6.5" (on 8x10 paper...used the remainder of the paper for the photo on the next page). In photoshop, I added the title "Mommy's Little Helper" (Ali Edwards Handwriting font), and then the text below it (Futura Lt font). Then I just cut the photo around the file folder, wrote "december 18" on the side with a Sharpie pen, and punched the holes. Super easy page!

Here's a closeup of the journaling.

This is part 2 of December 18. I wanted to include another page so I could jot down the things we were doing that day since we were very busy, getting ready for a holiday party we were having at our house on the 19th. I don't love this page, because I didn't plan it out very well. I wish I had included something between the photo and the journaling (like a strip of ribbon or some type of holiday text), but I didn't think about it until after I wrote the journaling, and when I tried to add something, it didn't seem to fit. This page was not originally in the book. I just took some white cardstock and punched the edge with the threading waters border punch. The photo size is 8" x 3.5."

This is the backside. My part 1 for December 19 (I'll have a lot more photos to add in here from our party, so I'll be adding another page). This is a 4x6 photo. I added my journaling right on the photo in Photoshop (I find that so much easier than journaling after the fact on strips of paper or somewhere else, and I like the look of it too). Font is again Futura Lt. I rounded two of the corners before adhering it to the PP.

Here's a closeup of the journaling. Thanks for looking...I hope to do some more tonight to be posted tomorrow!

December 16 and 17

We've had a very busy long weekend around here, so I haven't been able to post any new December Daily pages for a while. We had a party here on Saturday, and I had to move all of my scrapbooking stuff out of the basement to make way for lots of toys and kids to run around. But, today I've got it all put back together, so I'm back in business!

December 16 is a picture of a box of cookies that I made, as part of a "Mom's Night Out" event. The picture is 4x6, and then I also printed out the 12 different kinds of cookie dough that we made on half of a 4x6, and then cut it to fit to the width of the page. Ric rac and pattened paper are Jillibean Soup, and the number 16 is Little Yellow Bicycle.

A little bit closer look at the journaling.

This is the original page (I just flipped the paper around, since I thought the green Happy Holidays paper went better with the photo on this page, as well as the page for December 15, which faces this page).

December 17 is on the backside of December 16. Journaling reads "This was my first ever attempt at making sugar cookies. It was all going well until I had to ice them. My icing was too runny, which made it very difficult. So, in the end, they aren't very pretty...but they taste good, so who cares!" The letters at the bottom are from Creative Imaginations, and the embellishment in the center is a piece of "Flair" from American Crafts. Patterned Paper is Jillibean Soup.

This is the second page for December 17. This is where I added the number 17. The base of the page is a file folder. I adhered the cover of a Southern Living magazine to the file folder and cut off the excess. Then I added a Jillibean Soup journaling sprout to the left side (the green circle with white dots was already on the magazing cover, with text inside it. I just covered the text with the journaling sprout). I wrote my journaling there and added the number 17 sticker (from Little Yellow Bicycle).

Here's a closeup of the journaling.

This is the original page.

December 15

At this point in my December Daily album, the order of my original pages is really screwed up. Since sometimes I'm only using a single side for a day, and other days I'm using two sides or more, and I'm moving around pages to suit the events of the day, I don't know what page is for what day anymore. But it doesn't really matter (it just makes it a bit confusing when I'm trying to add the "original page" here on my blog). So anyway, this was the "next" page in my album that would have been used for day 15:

But...I hadn't done anything with the backside of December 14th yet, so I just decided to use it for day 15, since I only had one photo, and not much to journal about. Again, just trying to keep things simple. I'll probably take the above page out of the album altogether.

So this is a photo of my Christmas cards in my mailbox (felt reeeealllly stupid taking a picture of this outside...hoping no neighbors were watching. If they were, they probably think I'm a real loon). I did a small bit of journaling right on the picture, in Photoshop, which reads "The Christmas cards are addressed, stamped, and in the mail!" The number 15 with circle is "undressed" chipboard from Basic Grey, which I painted with MM paint and then added Glossy Accents on top (did this when I was putting the album together back in November, so it was very easy to add now). I attached the ribbon with Glossy Accents also. The PP at the bottom is Basic Grey Wassail.

*Just a note...I blurred out our address on the mailbox in Photoshop just for the blog....it isn't that way in the actual album.

December 14

This page came together really easily, and is probably one of my favorites in the album so far.

I started out with this acetate sheet (seen above), which I had originally cut into a semi-circular shape.

I used the acetate sheet on top of my page, and used it as a guide for the shape ( I did end up cutting the semi-circle to be a little bit smaller than the original, so that I could use a 5x7 photo, instead of a larger photo). So...I adhered the bottom PP (Making Memories Mistletoe) to the bottom edge of the photo, and then cut the page to the same shape as the top acetate sheet. Then I added the ribbon (Jillibean Soup) between the photo and paper.

Here's a look at the acetate sheet again...I added the number 14 (Little Yellow Bicycle) to the top of the acetate.
A little closeup of the text ("Another Typewriter" font) on the photo - this was added in Photoshop before I printed it. TFL!

December 10, 12 and 13

I took some liberties with my pages this weekend and moved a few things around, to try to work with the pictures I had for each day. I've also skipped over day 11 for now, and will add that in later (I simply don't know what to put in here for that day yet, as we didn't do a whole lot. I may just add in a picture from around the house or something).

This is December 10th. I started the 10th on the back of day 9. The bottom of the picture reads "2009 Christmas Card Outtakes." Avery and I had spent a little bit of time that day in a photo shoot for our Christmas Card. We took LOTS of not-so-great photos, and these were some of the ones that were rejected from our card. That is basically what the journaling says that I wrote in white gel pen around the picture.

I added in our finalized Christmas card after this page. It's not laying flat because it is not attached to anything, so it's sort of popping up. I'll eventually attach day 11 stuff to the back of this card.

This is the original page for December 10. I ended up removing this from the book.

This file folder that I used for day 12 was actually originally intended for day 11 (but I'll be putting 11 on the backside of the Christmas card). I decided to keep it in the album. I printed a 4x6 photo of our visit with Santa. As you can see, Avery was not at all happy that we tried to get her to sit on Santa's lap (or even that we got her anywhere near him). To the bottom of the file folder I adhered some PP (can't remember the name of it right now, but will add it in later), and then cut out some strips of paper to write the journaling on. I drew a white line around the edge of the whole sheet, with a white gel pen, and added in a strip of paper that I printed "You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town" on, between the photo and the PP. The number 12 is a cardstock sticker from Little Yellow Bicycle.

I covered the back of the file folder page with a photo from Saturday night, when we went to Abe's company Christmas party (Avery wanted to jump in the photo). I just added a little bit of text in Photoshop, and then trimmed the photo around the file folder.

This was the original page.

For December 13 I combined 4 photos in Photoshop (I cropped each to 3.25" x 2"), and cut them out as one strip and just adhered them to the page. Then I printed "december 13" over and over in one long strip, and added that to the edge of the photo, and called it done (trying to keep things simple here, so I can stay on top of this album!). The photos are of Avery, my mother-in-law and I making Coquito, which is a traditional Puerto Rican drink that is similar to spiked egg-nog.

On the back I included the recipe for Coquito. I used one of Ali Edwards' title overlays. I deleted the original title and replaced it with "Coquito, the recipe," and then typed in the recipe below. I added a piece of Christmas Flair from American Crafts, and was done.

This was the original page. TFL!

December 9

I kept things pretty simple, again, today, with a large photo and very little embellishing. The first page of December 9 is actually the backside of December 8. I printed a photo at about 8 1/4" x 8", and adhered this to the back of day 8's cardstock. On this photo, in Photoshop, I had already added my journaling about this photo (the title font is "Wrexham Script", and the main text is "Another Typewriter"). After adhering the photo, I drew a white line around the edge, with "december 9" in the bottom right corner, in white gel pen.

Here's a closeup of the journaling.

On the next page, which was the original page for Dec. 9, I added a journaling block from Ali Edwards. This journaling block originally said "Celebrate" on it, and I deleted this and replaced it with "december 9." I also recolored the journaling block to make it red. I then wrote a little bit about the weather we've been having lately - crazy winds and low temps. Luckily no snow though. While I like snow, I don't think it would be all that enjoyable to go out in it with this much wind. At the top of the journaling block I added two brads that were part of the Basic Grey Wassail collection.

Here's the original December 9 page:

December 6, 7 & 8

Taking a lot of inspiration from Ali Edward's December Daily album (from this year and last)...decided to include a letter to Avery in this album (as she does to her kids each year). I thought it would be nice to write down some of the things about Avery right now that I don't want to forget (like how she loves to dance to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and to the Black Eyed Peas' flash mob dance on Oprah, and how when she's calling me and Abe at the same time, she just shortens it to Mada, instead of mamma and dadda). I know these are things I'll forget about so I definitely want to get them down on paper. I made a card to go inside Day 6's envelope, and stamped "Letter to Avery" on the front. I've yet to write the actual letter, but hope to get to that soon. PP used are Jillibean Soup "Talk Soup" and "Grandma's Christmas Soup" and Basic Grey's Wassail .

This is the envelope for Dec. 6. I didn't change anything on the outside.

Dec. 7 is a picture of Avery in front of the tree in her new Christmas PJ's. The picture is 5"x8." I used a border scallop punch on the picture and the paper beneath it. The "Christmas Jammies" wording is a cardstock sticker from Little Yellow Bicycle, and the other two are digital brushes from Katie Pertiet, found here . I actually printed them separately and not on the photo, because I wasn't sure if I would want to use them, but I ended up liking them on the photo, so I cut them out and adhered them with tape runner. The brown and white polka dot ribbon is Jillibean Soup, and the heart is the back of the red and white polka dot felt from Creative Imaginations. Trinket Pin is from Tim Holtz.

A closeup of day 7. The number 7 is a cardstock sticker from Little Yellow Bicycle.

This is the original page.

December 8's page is about the art class Avery is in. I used Photobooth Frames from Katie Pertiet, and the journaling block is from Jillibean Soup. On the left is a rub-on from Creative Imaginations.

This is the original page. TFL!

December 5

Just a little page or two about the weather, how it's getting really cold around here, and how I bought these great boots that keep me warm through it all :)

This is the back side of Dec. 4 (the shopping page). I took a piece of kraft paper and glued down (with temporary adhesive) letters I cut with the Cricut (Plantin Schoolbook font), to be used as a mask. Then I sprayed Candy Apple Red Glimmer Mist on top of it, and peeled off the letters. I outlined the letters with white gel pen, and outlined COLD with "Candy Cane" Stickles. On the left side of this page, where I had stitched a pocket, I inserted a piece of brown cardstock that I first embossed with the Cuttlebug. On top of the protector sheet I added the chipboard snowflakes and tree (glued down with Glossy Accents).

This is one of the canvas pages. The first thing I did was paint the background with some white MM paint. Then I adhered the photo (again, with Glossy Accents). I had already added text on the photo in Photoshop. Then I stuck the number 5 on top, and called it done. Pretty simple page.

On the back of the Dec 5 page I stitched this piece of felt to make a pocket. I'm not exactly sure what I'll add to it yet...we'll see what I come across during the month that I might want to save.

Here's the original page:

December 4

For today's page I used a plastic protector sheet that came with the album. I had stitched a pocket on the right side of the sheet where I had inserted a strip of Jillibean Soup paper. I decided this paper didn't go with the clean lined/modern-ish look that was happening with the page, so I switched it out with some red cardstock.

The main part of this page is made up of the bags from my shopping trip. The large white background "paper" is actually a Banana Republic bag that I cut to size. The red/pink stripe is from a Victoria's Secret bag, and the black/white stripe is from Sephora. I took a picture while I was in the dressing room at Banana Republic (felt like a total weirdo doing that, by the way, but knew that I'd need something for this page, so I went ahead with it :).

Before I adhered the photo I stamped a journaling block onto the background with black ink, and then stamped another circle in red around that (from the Art Warehouse Christmas stamp set).

On the red cardstock I used that same stamp, and stamped the image several times using Versa Mark ink, then put clear embossing powder on top and heat embossed it.

Here's what the original page looked like: