December Daily

Christmas Preparations

| cristina

The new releases at The Lilypad have gotten my gears going and my December Daily preparation has begun! This month’s Memory Pockets Monthly made it so easy..

I know it’s only the second month, but this month’s kit is a big favorite of mine!! I made a few pages that will go in my 2014 album. I am planning to assemble the album from scratch. These pages are 4″x6″ or 4″x4″ in size.

Here’s a closer look at a couple of pages.

Hot pink, white and black?? I am digging this combination!

I wasn’t planning to make Christmas cards this year, but this card right here is making me reconsider!!

I also combined this gorgeous kit with a bunch of the add ons to scrap a few digi pages. I simply couldn’t stop using it.. I am in love with the colors SO much!!

Credits:
Arboretum {Joy} and Joy papers by Sara Gleason


Credits:

Templates: Polly Love by Amy Martin
Joyful Papers, Joyful Elements and Pocket Full of Joy by Stolen Moments Design

 


Credits:

Joy word art by Sara Gleason
Holiday Word Art by Designs by Lili

But that’s not all to get your Christmas crafting going. This month’s Mixed Media Monthly (M3) kit is super festive:

It includes papers, elements, cut files, alpha, and even a gorgeous template that I used in this page.


Credits:

And it gets even better.. the Mixed Media Monthly kit is a perfect match with all the Document Your December products! I didn’t have time to use them last week when they were released, but I definitely did use them now. 🙂 I love them!

Credits:

DYD Collection by Sara Gleason
Pocket Stuffers no. 4 by Valorie Wibbens
Journal Junkie: Shine by CD Muckosky
Woodbitsy Christmas by Pink Reptile Designs

I love the gold and pink bits! Finally, I made another page with the M3 with more traditional colors (and some pink thrown in for good measure :)).


Credits:

DYD Collection by Sara Gleason

My plan for today is to put up the tree. Feels about right, doesn’t it? 🙂

Finally, there are also some great new products in the store that don’t fall under the MPM or M3 umbrellas. Of course I had to scrap with a few of those too. 🙂


Credits:

Background paper from Joy papers by Sara Gleason

 


Credits:

Loving Life by CD Muckosky

 


Credits:

Don’t miss the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales at The Lilypad! Nothing beats online shopping as far as I’m concerned! 🙂

December Daily – Take 5

| cristina
This post was originally posted on the write.click.scrapbook blog.
The most wonderful time of the year is starting soon.. and I am starting to make plans on how I want to document December this year.
I have completed a December Daily album in each of the past four years, and I am at it again this year for the fifth album. This really is my favorite project. I love Christmas, and I love documenting it.
In these past four years, I have taken different approaches to putting my album together, and I want to share my impressions with you. Each of these four albums was put together using my stash.
 
My 2010-2013 albums
In 2010, I used a 2-ring album. The pages were all hybrid, and I used my Silhouette extensively. In 2011, which was once again all hybrid, I assembled the album using my Cinch. In 2012 and 2013 I used pocket scrapbooking. Here’s a look at the inside of the albums.
 
 
I love combining different shapes and textures in the album – you can see how I used bubble wrap at the front of my 2010 album and vellum at the front of the 2011 and 2013 albums.
 
What I liked & what I want to change
 
 And here is a peek at some random pages in my albums.
 
 
As you can see, in my 2010 album I combined a lot of different shapes of pages. I love this and want to do it again in 2014!
In 2011, I added lots of journaling to tell my Christmas stories. I used each 2-page spread per day, one story per day. I want to do this again in 2014!
In all my albums, the number of the day is featured prominently. I want to do this again in 2014!
The pocket-album approach I used in 2012 and 2013 made it very quick and easy to put together my album and I was able to use up a lot of journal cards from my stash, but I found myself writing less. I also dislike that the different textures get lost behind a plastic protector.  I will not do a pocket album in 2014.
 
My process
In 2010, my first December Daily, I pre-made all the pages because I was traveling for most of December. I ended up not being able to keep up with the album during my trip, and finished it a few months later. The other three years I worked on my album as we went. In 2013 I actually fell behind and I finished my album after the summer. I definitely lose inspiration if I don’t work on my album in December, so I will try to stay current as much as I can. But I know now not to worry if that fails, because I can catch up when things slow down. In any case, I find that waiting to have my pictures in front of me works best, rather than having all the foundation pages made first. I will make a list of Christmas topics to use for the days in which I don’t have any Christmas-related story to tell.
And now.. I’d love to hear from you! Are you looking forward to December? What are your plans for documenting this month? Leave me a comment and let me know!

December Daily 2013 – Days 1-4

| cristina

Whoops I am a few days late with this post but it’s just been a crazy week. Here are Days 1-4 of my December Daily.

On day 1 I took a picture of our four advent calendars. 🙂 Our elf reminded us to open the advent calendars this day (he’s leaning back and pointing to the calendars, and not sleeping like DH thought! ;)).

I am using vellum numbers by Crate Paper to mark the days this year. I layered a punched snowflake and gold numbers to identify our advent calendars.

In the second spread I have four days (part of day 1 and days 2, 3, and 4).

 

Here are the details.

I am starting to freak out because Christmas is less than a week away and I have done close to zero holiday related events.. I have just been too busy with work, but it sucks because this is my favorite time of the year and I wish I could savor it more.

More December Daily preparation

| cristina

I have a couple more cards to share for my December Daily album. These are from a gorgeous Christmas collection by two of my favorite designers ever (isn’t it just awesome when they team up?? ;)), Mari Koegelenberg and Jenn Barrette.
Here are my mock pages (photos are from last year, but these cards will go in the 2013 album).

 
Credits:
Fa La La La La by Jenn Barrette and Mari Koegelenberg

The Santa + reindeer card is totally adorable!!

Are you going to put together a December Daily album this year? What are your plans? I’d love to know! 🙂

DYD 2013

| cristina

As I promised, here is what I have put together so far for this year’s December Daily album using the Document Your December products at The Lilypad.

Truth be told, I have an excess of Christmas paper products already, but as soon as I saw these digital cards I knew I had to get them printed out and into my album. They are just too cute not to use!

 

Credits: 
Joyeux: Documented Cards by Allison Pennington 
Clearly Christmas Cards by Amy Martin 
Counting The Days | Journal Cards by Pink Reptile Designs 
Santa Claus is coming {Journal Cards} by Little Butterfly Wings

This year I will make things simple and use a pocket page album. A Handbook album by Studio Calico to be exact. I won’t be premaking pages, but I did steal a few photos from last year’s album to show how these cards will look like in the album. 🙂

We have already gotten snow this year so I’m hoping in a whiter Christmas than we had last year.

I always love including a calendar card towards the beginning of my album.

The colors of this collection are so much fun!

These cards may very well be my favorites of the bunch.. although it’s hard to pick a favorite! 🙂

This definitely gets me even more in the mood for Christmas! Only a little over two weeks to December now..

I’ll be back tomorrow with a couple more DD things. 🙂

December Daily – Days 23-25

| cristina

Whoops.. I forgot to post the last two pages of my December Daily album here! Here they are. 🙂

DD 2012 - Days 23-25

The reindeer card is from A Month of Memories by Jenn Barrette. Alpha stickers: Basic Grey; the rest is from Kringle & Co. by American Crafts.

DD 2012 - Days 23-25

Day stamp by Kelly Purkey, embellishment from Kringle & Co. by American Crafts plus some glitter brads.

As usual by the time I get to Christmas Day I don’t feel like embellishing much, but it’s OK – I love giving room to photos. 🙂 Another year done, yay!

December Daily – Days 15-23

| cristina

I am almost done catching up with my December Daily album – and it feels good! We were gone Dec. 26-30, but as soon as I got back home I got working on it. I just have 2 days to go before the album is done. December Daily is for sure my favorite project to work on. 🙂

DD 2012 - Days 16-19

This is probably my favorite spread in the album! The word art card is by Little Butterfly Wings.

DD 2012 - Days 16-19

The alpha stickers and the paper are by Basic Grey. The stamp is a digital element I had cut out with my Silhouette in 2010 for my DD album, but never used. 🙂 I’m loving the number stamp for the date.

DD 2012 - Days 16-19

The letter stickers are from Dear Lizzy. The number stamp is by Kelly Purkey. I covered the Studio Calico wood veneer arrow with Stickles. The green paper is a leftover from a previous page – I stamped the Studio Calico stamp and embossed in gold glitter zing, and then I sprayed Estate Green Mister Huey on top. And here comes my favorite thing in the album…

DD 2012 - Days 16-19

This is my first see through pocket ever, and I love it!! I did some sewing to create compartments, and put in sequins, chunky glitter, punched shapes (snowflakes and stars), wood veneer and micro beads to decorate. I stamped on the back of a digital element (more below) and I love how it turned out! Stamps by Martha Stewart and Kelly Purkey.

DD 2012 - Days 20-21

I really like this spread too. 🙂

DD 2012 - Days 20-21

Here’s the back of the pocket! Not sure which side I like more – I love them both! 😉 The word art is by Little Butterfly Wings. The star card is by Paislee Press.

DD 2012 - Days 20-21

The reindeer card  is by Paislee Press, and I added a red sequin for the nose. 🙂

DD 2012 - Days 21-22

The polka red dot wrap was from the chocolate basket pictured above – I love that you can see it peeking from the pocket in the previous page too!

DD 2012 - Day 23

The reindeer paper is from Kitschy Christmas by Jenn Barrette and Sahlin Studio, and I also used the Christmas Journal Cards and Ephemera: Trimming the Tree by Sahlin Studio.

December Daily – Days 8-14

| cristina

I am not on holiday break yet (yuck!), but I conceded myself some time over the weekend to catch up on my December Daily album. 🙂

DD 2012 - Days 8-11

Not much happened these days that was Christmas-related, so I only had elf pictures for my album. 🙂 I also included a funny joke DH forwarded to me on Facebook. The next spread took me a little more time to put together, and I love how it turned out!

DD 2012 - Days 12-14

The green paper is from Basic Grey Fact & Fiction.

DD 2012 - Days 12-14

I stamped a pretty pine stamp by Martha Stewart on the little tag with green ink – so pretty! The date stamp is done with my latest favorite number stamp purchase. The Ho Ho Ho is from a set by Valorie Wibbens, and the glittered stars card is by Paislee Press.

DD 2012 - Days 12-14

I had lots of fun stamping and embossing here! The number stamps (from Kelly Purkey’s December Daily kit) were embossed with gold glitter zing on vellum. The other stamp (from Studio Calico) is also embossed in gold glitter zing, and then I sprayed Estate Green Mister Huey on top – it really makes the gold shine even more! The little stars are punched out from a foil wrapping using this awesome punch – another of my recent purchases, and you’ll be seeing more of it soon. 🙂

I finally bought myself a tiny attacher by Tim Holtz, and I’ve already put it to use to hold down those sequins. I love it!! Here are a few other things I used to make this page.

That’s all I have for now! I’m a little over a week behind, but it’ll be easy to catch up – as soon as I have some free time!