Journal Your Christmas

 Here is a look at my Journal Your Christmas album. 

The numbers are flat number
stickers that I used Glossy
Accents on to make them
look raised.

 
I used the Glossy Accents on the diamond shapes in the patterned card and on the berries too.  I used pop-dots to have the banner card and holly & berries stand-out.  Ribbon from my stash and December Documented from Simple Stories are the other products used.  The silver reindeer shown in the first photo ended up on the inside of the back cover.  See yesterday's post for details on the painting of the album. Links to the Simple Stories December Documented products I am using this year can be found on the right.  

Journal Your Christmas 2013

 This last week I put aside my 30 Days of Thankful project to begin preparing my album for Journal Your Christmas.

I started with a basic Simple Stories album and painted the brown chipboard part black.  I just used an acrylic paint from Michaels.  

I then use Martha Stewart's silver glitter paint to cover the front of the album .  Let that dry I started on the divider pages.  

I haven't quite figured out how I'm breaking out the topics. 
I'm thinking preparation, every-day and Christmas day but that could change as I go on.  I've also considered a memories section but I'm not sure if I'll have a lot of time to work on that.  As you can see from the photo above the divider pages began to curl but they flattened out as they dried.  
I've done December Daily for the last 2 years and decided to use Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas this year.  With December Daily I felt like I was forcing my story into someone else's formula so I'm hoping this feels more authentic.  I hope too that I have time to build it on a daily basis.  I liked having the album ready by December 1st with December Daily but it did not leave room for changes in plans, life getting busy, etc.  
I'm looking to have less filler and more content.  
Do you have any plans for documenting your Christmas?

December 2012 album

Simple Stories Album - front cover

I really like the combination of cardstock pages and
page protectors in the Simple Stories albums

Our city has Snowflake lights decorating
the downtown area during the holidays.  I used some snowflakes that were meant to be ornaments on the page on the left and cut a Hambly snowflake
transparency to size and added it to the left. 

The Hambly snowflake transparency covered a blurry photo on the right that I wanted in the album.  Its a motorized Christmas tree in our annual Christmas parade.

I added the program for a holiday pops concert we went to.  Fits perfectly!

 I originally set out to do a December Daily type of album.  Date card at top of page is one of Ali Edwards' digital items that I printed and decorated. Working full-time I did not end up with enough "daily" photos and had multiple event type photos so the album evolved into a December album.

I alternated 2 different page protectors throughout the album.  On the right I cut to size another Hambly transparency (reindeers).  I love how these look in the page protector pockets.  (Idea came from Ali Edwards) 

Added a Christmas card right into the album

Cut 4 x 6 photo in half to add to the top 2 pockets.

I've been working on this album since Thanksgiving on & off.  I was able to finish it on Saturday at a Crop.  I used Simple Stories Handmade Holidays and 25 Days of Christmas pieces throughout the album along with items from my stash.  I have a Christmas basket with all sorts of Christmas embellishments that works really well for me. Things I'll do differently for my next December album include:

• I'll not set the album up ahead of time.  This seemed like a real timesaver to me but ended up making me feel like I had to fit a mold that didn't work for the photos I had and stories I wanted to tell.  It felt forced.
• I'll definitely gather a variety of supplies and will probably use the Simple Stories album again.
• I'll set up a paper journal to write things down daily.  This year I just had a sheet of paper that I wrote notes on each day and then I lost it!  
• I'll try to save more memorabilia
• I'm not using a December Daily format.  I took Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas and will use that type of approach instead.
• I'll take more photos.  I'm not a big picture taker.  Probably a throwback to so many years of film photos.  I thought I was taking a lot of photos but when it came to pick photos for the album it didn't seem like many.  

So that wraps that project up - on to the next one!

Ali Edwards/Xyron Giveaway

Yesterday I received a large package in the mail.  As always I get pretty excited when something other than bills arrive in the mail!

 Inside were the Xyron products I won in a giveaway over on Ali Edwards' blog at the beginning of December Daily.  As you can see I received the Creative Station which creates stickers (with both permanent and repositionable adhesive), magnets, laminates, and laminates with permanent adhesive on the bottom.  This is a step up from the 5" Create a Sticker that I had.  I also received a Xyron 510 in the new purple color (my old one is orange).  My first thought was to sell or give away my older items but I may keep them to hold the repositionable adhesive and keep the permanent adhesive in the newer items.  It will probably depend on the amount of space they all take up and whether its just easier to switch out the cartridges.  The other products are new to me and include the Xyron Mega Runner (have always wanted one of these), the Xyron Tape Runner and a Xyron Glue Stick.  This is also a permanent adhesive and the really cool thing with this is the fact that it is shaped for corners!  I think this will be really great for mixed media projects.  I plan to show these products in use in future blog posts.  Or you can check out the full line of Xyron products here:
http://www.xyron.com
And to check out Ali Edwards' blog:
aliedwards.com
I've followed Ali's blog for several years now and frequently leave comments both to share feedback and for giveaways (which are always amazing).  This is the first time I've won anything but I've gotten an incredible amount of information and inspiration from Ali over the years.  This includes December Daily, Photoshop, A Week in the Life, Project Life and so much more!
Thanks Ali!  Thanks Xyron!

Here comes 2013!

So here is what my craft room looks like as we approach the new year.  I'm slowly working on my 12/12/12 album(top photo) from Big Picture Classes (BPC) Twelve class.  I didn't complete 144 layouts (12/month) as part of the class but I learned a lot about storytelling thanks to Stacy Julian!  I'll be reviewing this class with several other class members as we continue to dig into the enormous amount of material that was part of this class. I love the Simple Stories album that we are using for this project.  I'm trying to think how I want to do Project Life and also do another Simple Stories album in 2013.  I love the idea of a Year in Review album like this.

The middle photo shows my December Daily album in progress.  Several snowstorms have prevented me from getting to CVS to print my latest photos but hope to get that done today before more snow tomorrow!  I'm enjoying this process and have several ideas for how I would like to do this next year.  I think I'm changing it to a Holiday album and include Thanksgiving through the New Year next year.  I'm also working my way through Journaling Your Christmas with Shimelle.  Shimelle provides two prompts a day - there is a lot of material and I need to catch up with those as well.  (Can you tell I have a large "to-do" list for the next five days?)

Bottom photo is a look at my three work tables.  Can you see my Project Life album buried and shoved up against the wall in the photo?  That's on my "to-do" list too.

What's on your "to-do" list for this last week of 2012?  And what are your plans for 2013?  Stop back tomorrow as I talk about my One Little Word for 2013 and what that means for my goals and plans for 2013.

December Daily/Journal Your Christmas

The top two photos are a few of my foundation pages in my December Daily/Journal Your Christmas album. I'm using templates from Ali Edwards for these journaling cards and then embellishing them.  Since I didn't not get much journaling done in last year's December Daily album I added Journal Your Christmas (JYC) to my process this year.  Two days in to the class and I'm amazed at the amount of information and material that Shimelle provides. If you're interested, check out www.shimelle.com
I apologize for the slightly dark photos above - its always an adjustment this time of year as I get the lighting figured out.  It gets dark to early and today we didn't the sun at all.
The next photo is a shot of Becky Higgins' 6" x 6" Small Envelope Pages.  I found out these fit in the Sn@p! albums very well.  I was looking through all my stuff for items to use in my Sn@p! albums for December Daily/JYC and 12/12/12 when I figured that out.  Also, in Becky Higgins Small Variety Pack Page Protectors there are 5" x 7" page protectors - the 2 vertically aligned ones work in the Sn@p! album also.
The last photo shows the chaos my room is in right now.  Those are photos I'm gathering for the 12/12/12 event at Big Picture Classes.  We're creating a mini-album showcasing photos and memories from this past year.  All around the photos are Christmas/Holiday items for embellishing the December Daily/JYC album.
Are you doing a holiday album this year?

December Daily/Project Life - preparation & plans



Daily Journal Cards

 I wanted to share with you some of my preparation for my December Daily/Project Life pages that I've been working on.  I had saved this free printable file from Cathy Zielske awhile ago and thought this would work well for my daily journaling for December Daily.  To see Cathy's post and download the files go to her blog
http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/12/a-year-of-tags.html

So far I've cut the individual tags out and stamped the date on it. 

I'm not sure what else I'll be doing with these at this point.  Probably will distress the edges and decorate the top part - maybe to match the daily sheets from Ali. 




Close-up - daily journal card



The other item I have put together is my worksheet for the month.  All I've done at this point is print out a blank calendar and fill in the events that we are planning on doing/attending.  As you can see the weekends are pretty much filled but the weekdays are mostly empty (I work full-time days).  So now I have an idea of what days I need to focus on non-event related photographs.  On the back of the sheet I've written some things I definitely want to take photos of such as wrapping gifts, decorating the tree, etc.  I also have planned out two series of photos I want to include in my pages - these may end up being two different collages.  One is "how it all comes together" - this would be a series of photos getting ready for the holiday - decorating the house, shopping, wrapping, baking & those types of things.  The other is "Christmas past" and these are photos of ornaments/decorations/traditions that I've had since I was a child

My worksheet for daily photos

.  These will include a photo of the coffee cake & cookies we have each Christmas, the Advent calendar, and figurine candles that were my grandmother's.  So that's where I am right now.  How are your plans coming along?

Second Red Lead order

Red Lead PaperWorks had a sale and I can't resist picking up some items I didn't get with my first order.  You can see how they packaged my order in the top photo - I love that its like getting a present!  Just a nice extra touch, as is, the extra little items they send you!  In the middle photo I've placed the reindeer on my window sill for the time being.  I hope to use these in my Tim Holtz Configurations - not sure just yet when that will happen.  The bottle brush trees and strand of beads will be set aside for that project as well.  The little gingerbread men will be used on my December Daily/Project life pages along with the 3 stamps.
If you'd like to check out Red Lead PaperWorks click on their web address in the Links section below.

the creative process??

So this is what my table in my craft room looks like this morning!  In parts of the room it looks like Christmas has exploded all over! And of course, Santa has his elves and I have my helpers too!  This is Patch, one of two cats.  And they both love to check out what I'm doing and think my "toys" are better than their toys.  And you can just see a little bit of the dog bed under the table for our dog, Lily.  She's not quite as interested in the creative process as the cats!  Thankfully. Here are a couple more photos of the pages in my December Daily/Project Life album.                                                                                                                            

I love how easy this page was.  A piece of cardstock and 3 pieces cut from Simple Stories' 25 Days of Christmas collection.   This page is located in the week of Christmas for my favorite Christmas Day photo.  What I am now finding so exciting right now is wondering how these "foundation pages" will change once I add the photos, journaling and final embellishments.   Right now feels like the 'present shopping' phase and afterwards will be like the 'present opening' phase!  Pretty cool!

On the left side is one of Becky Higgins Design A pages with just a few of the 25 Days of Christmas collection pieces.  This page will be filled with photos and other pieces of the collection or embellishments once I finalize the layouts.  On the left side is a 6" x 12" page protector with one card piece from the 25 Days of Christmas.  Right now I'm thinking I'll use this for memorabilia - ticket stubs, etc.  We'll see how it actually ends up.
Are you doing December Daily, Project Life or both?  I'd love to hear what you are working on.

December Daily & Project - Title page and more.....

 Here is my title page for the December Daily section of my Project Life album.  As it stands right now all of the elements are from Simple Stories' 25 Days of Christmas collection.  The calendar block in the top 4" x 6" pocket allows the kraft cardstock of the following page show through.  The top vertically oriented pocket on the right side of the page protector has a 4" x 6" transparency overlay in it with a sheet of white paper (for now).  The bottom vertically oriented pocket is empty and both pockets will eventually hold some photos. 

 Besides the 25 Days of Christmas Collection I am using Ali Edwards' December Daily 8.5"x 11" overlays.  I am not a digital scrapper so I printed the overlays on to kraft cardstock from the pdf files that are provided.  You can find these at http://www.designerdigitals.com/    On the right is one of Becky Higgins Design A pages.  You can find Project Life information on Becky's blog at http://www.beckyhiggins.com/  As I mentioned in a previous post while I use mostly Design A pages in my Project Life album I need to add page protectors that have vertically oriented pockets as well.  In this page the elements are all from the 25 Days of Christmas collection.  What I wanted to point out with this photo and the following photo is that on the right side you can actually see elements on FOUR other pages.  The red/white stripe page is the next set of 8.5" x 11" December Daily pages, the red flower below the "TOGETHER" card is the next vertically oriented page protectors and the red flower with the white paper is another transparency overlay on the fourth page!  Just like with acrylic albums you can have layers showing through and adding depth/dimension to the look of your project.  Love this!   

I received a question about my 8.5" x 11" pages.  The flow of my pages are like this
*Design A page
*December Daily pages in 8.5" x 11" page protectors  (however many days in that week=number of pages
*WRMK page protector with two 4" x 6" vertically oriented pockets
*December Daily pages
*Repeat starting with Becky Higgins's Design A page protector
I hope that helps clarify the page set-up. 

A closer look at a Design A page

 Would love to hear about and see how you are doing December Daily.  Please leave comments and/or your blog address.

A closer look at a December Daily page (Day 12)



December Daily and Red Lead PaperWorks

I've been doing some shopping in preparation for December Daily and one of the places I went to online was Red Lead PaperWorks at http://www.redleadpaperworks.com/
The items in the photo above all came from Red Lead.  I love the feeling of Christmas' past I get from their products and webstore.  The images in particular I remember from my childhood.  Great way to bring back memories!
Watch for these items to be showing up in my December Daily/Project Life album and a few other projects in the future.

Project Life and December Daily

Are you doing a December Daily album along with Ali Edwards?  Are you also doing Project Life?  Are you doing two separate albums or, like me, incorporating December Daily into your Project Life album?  Over the next few days I'll show you my progress in developing my December Daily pages in my Project Life album.  I'll also show you some of the items I've using.  This is so much fun!

I am starting with Ali Edwards' December Daily Layered Templates.  I originally purchased the 6" x 8.5" size but didn't like the size so I  purchased the 8.5" x 11" size as soon as Ali developed it.  I am not a digital scrapper so I like that Ali offers pdf files with some of her Designer Digital designs.  Above you can see that I printed them out on kraft 8.5 x 11 Reflections cardstock that I purchased at Michaels (one just opened up here a few weeks ago!).  I added a piece of printed paper (see next paragraph for details) to the rectangular box next to the number 1 and placed a wooden snowman that I found at Michaels (12 cents!) in the wooden products section.  So far I've done pages 1 through 13 so I have more to do.  Pretty easy so far! With the 8.5" x 11" kraft cardstock I have a variety of options for the  photos I put here.  I can get two 4" x 6" horizontally oriented photos in the space remaining.  I can place a 5" x 7" photo here or a cropped 8" x 10" photo (anything 8" x 8" or less will fit here).  There may be other options but I haven't thought this through any further.  I'll be checking out other options when I print my photos through Shutterfly.  I'd like a collage photo somewhere but that may be on 12 x 12 layout added in somewhere.  This is what makes Project Life so great - its flexibility and adaptability to what you have or what you want to do.

My second product choice was Simple Stories 25 Days of Christmas Collection.  I love the Simple Stories Collections.  They are perfect for Becky Higgins' Project Life page protectors and other We R Memory Keepers page protectors.  I use mostly Becky Higgins page protectors for my Project Life pages but since I have many vertically oriented photos I decided for this project to alternate this We R Memory Keepers (WRMK) page protector with Becky's Design A page protectors.  The WRMK page protector also has room for a 2" x 12" paper strip to the right of the holes.  The Simple Stories Collections come with 12" x 12" sheets that you cut apart for the pieces that you want.  There are various choices that you can make depending on what page protectors you want to use.  You can check out 25 Days of Christmas and the other Simple Stories collections at http://www.simple-stories.com/
I'll replace some of the items in the pockets in the page protector above and put in my 4" x 6" photos.  The item in the lover right pocket is a transparency that will go over the photo I place there. This collection allows me to move things around until I'm happy with what I have.  I will add more embellishments and journaling once I have my photos in place. 
Thanks for stopping by!  I look forward to your comments and hope you stop back or become a follower to see more of my December Daily process.