2015 December Documenting...Journal Your Christmas Day #1

Off to a head start this month! I have the start of my 2015 JYC/December Daily album-I printed and embellished this beautiful free calandar printable from Marie Lottermoser's blog (she has several options here !)

A closer look at the embellishments:

A gorgeous red glitter bow, a printed die cut poinsettia cluster, and a red chevron vellum star. Pure Christmas prettiness!

My Day 1, "Manifesto" or "Intentions" page:

And a closer look at these embellishments:

The little wood veneer deer atop the gold foiled vellum die cuts is about the sweetest thing ever!

So, day 1 for December is in the books, and I received my album from Ali Edwards' Black Friday sale this evening, so I started that, and should have my album cover to share with you soon, as well. Happy December Documenting!

Sharing more Christmas Journal pages

As promised and not forgotten, I am getting around to making and sharing more pages in my Journal Your Christmas/ December Daily album. Today, I am sharing my pages for Days 3-5. I took the pages out of the book to photograph individually, and then replaced to show the spread, because the mix of textures, sizes,and materials are all part of the appeal for me!

Day 3, single:

This page showcases my party planning fun that I indulged in on Pinterest- my plan was to have an Ugly Sweater party for my family's get together, and there are so many great ideas for creative parties on Pinterest!

Day 4, front side:

Day 4, back:

The first spread:

Day 5 was simple, I included one of our Christmas cards from this past year:

It photographed a little weird, because I had it printed on a specialty shimmer cardstock from Shutterfly. I was very pleased with them in person, they had a good weight and feel to them!

I added a tab with some of my favorite fasteners, the American Crafts mini staples, and added some sparkle with the date. Obviously, the holes I punched are imperfect, but I don't sweat the small stuff!

The second spread:

I hope you are still enjoying seeing bits of my album, as it is all pretty paper and embellishments to me! And I love seeing any project coming together! My biggest struggle with the December albums seem to be getting all of the right pictures printed. What about you? What do you struggle with when you are trying to complete projects such as December Daily?

The "C" Word...Getting a Jump on It

"Christmas"...I know, I know...it's not even Thanksgiving yet-but, here in blog land, the Christmas season is already in full swing! I am trying to get an early start, myself, as I have a very busy couple of months ahead. So, I am diving in with my Journal Your Christmas album preparations. So far I have a kit, and I have made my album covers, so I am way ahead of last year!

My album covers:

I made them 9 inches x 9 inches (I plan to make my pages 8x8, and I wanted the covers bigger), cut from chipboard sheets leftover from product packaging, and rounded the corners. The paper that I covered the chipboard with is from the Heidi Swapp Believe collection, and I added droplets of gold spray paint and Color Shine mist. The embellishment clusters are made up from a doily, sequins from my stash, pearls and gems from my stash and some grungeboard letters and numbers that I spray painted gold. All kit and album items are from my stash, either won or purchased before I decided to freeze my spending.

Here is the kit I gathered up, "Twinkle Lights":

Filled with beautiful colors, and yummy hints of golden sparkle and silvery shimmer, my stash kit is made up of lovely warm reds and icy spearmint greens, cream based papers with a bit of the chalkboard trend for a fun twist.  I am completely happy with this kit, and I don't think I will mind not having a purchased kit at all! I am a washi girl for sure, and my kit could also be called a "Washi Wonderland", because I have included bunches of it!

Here is a closer look at my pretty papers, since we all know that is my favorite part:

I have included selections from an older October Afternoon line, Very Merry, an older Martha Stewart line, Glitz's Finley collection, red embossed snowflakes from an older We R Memory Keepers line, a red chevron paper from Bella Blvd's Christmas Countdown, and several from Heidi Swapp's Believe line.

I have plans and ideas for handmade numbers, diecuts, and other embellishments, which I will share as I finish them. For now, I am happy with the head start that I have gotten on my Journal Your Christmas project!

December Daily Post (the one with all of the pages, lol)

Good morning! I know I promised I would share this, so I am going to just post it all in one big glob of pictures!
Here is my December Daily for 2011:
Cover:

 December 1st and 2nd:

 3rd and 4th:

 5th and 6th:

 Christmas Card and the 7th:

 8th and 9th:

 10th and 11th:

 12th and 13th: (still missing one photo, I have to print out my collage of Tim Holtz tags for Day 12)

 14th and 15th:

 16th and 17th:

 18th:

 19th and 20th (I still need to add journaling and dates to this):

 December 23rd (I skipped the 21st and 22nd, just too busy to take pics):

 another from the 23rd, 24th:

 24th, continued:

And I haven't done Christmas Day yet, I am still editing those pictures! If you would like to see a list of supplies that I used for my December Daily album, you can see my "Cozy Christmas" Counterfeit Kit here:December Daily kit post.
It's not perfect, it's not complete, but I am excited anyway, because it is the closest I have ever come to completing a December Daily album!! Thanks for looking, leave me a comment to let me know what you think! And come back tomorrow for our Master Forger's Blog Hop/Kit Reveal!

P.S.I would love it if you would follow my photography blog too: Margie V Photography

December Daily Counterfeit Kit

I really love the idea of doing a December Daily album, but, with 4 kids and a limited scrapbooking budget, I felt that I would be able to make a great "Counterfeit Kit" from the supplies I already had on hand. There are so many great Christmas kits out there that it was HARD to narrow it down to just one kit to copy-so I picked 2! The kits I chose to draw inspiration from were : The hot kit this season from Studio Calico: http://www.studiocalico.com/kits/add_ons/486, and a fantastic kit from last season, from A Kiss On The Chic: http://www.akissonthechic.com/DecemberKits.aspx. I drew inspiration from both kits to come up with a Christmas kit that I just love!I have plenty of supplies to make my December Daily-plus plenty of other goodies to use on layouts and cards.

Supplies in my kit:
Papers:
Making Memories 12x12 Postage Stripe Noel, We R Memory Keepers White Christmas Snow Flurry,  3 papers from the Jenni Bowlin Red and Black paper stack, the craem swirled paper is from a Christmas paper stack from the Paper Studio, and the green and silver small damask prints are from the DCWV Lemon Flower stacks, the gray chevron paper is  a free digi paper that I got on a Jessica Sprague blog hop, and printed on watercolor paper, Making Memories 12x12 Green Snowflake Noel, Music Note Brown Noel,  The Girls Paperie Tinsel&Twig 12x12 Snowfall, Holly Berry Floral, and Christmas Carol Stripe,  and a Candy Cane Stripe paper from a Martha Stewart Christas paper stack I got on clearance at Wal Mart a couple of years ago.

Album:
I am using a green Smash book from K&Co, that I won as a blog candy a few months ago.

Embellishments:
chicken wire die cut from silver cardstock, assortment  of christmas paper scraps, printable journaling spots and vintage graphics, which I mostly printed on watercolor paper for a luxurious feel, Making Memories red Shimmer Stickers alphas, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type green letters, Making Memories Scrapbook Basics shimmer alpha stickers,  a couple of Making Memories Noel embellishments, Paper Studio crochet flowers in white (I may mist these or use as is...we'll see as the inspiration strikes), Petaloo Holiday Dazzlers snowmen (I won these from a Petaloo blog hop-they are so cute!),  Elle's Studio Crazy Numbers 0-9, The Girl's Paperie Paper Girl Chipboard alphabet, red  and green baker's twine, a couple of Maya Rd vintage pins, JHB wood buttons (one of the few things I purchased for this kit, got them at Hancock Fabrics), a few Jenni Bowlin Vintage Christmas chipboard buttons,a couple of tiny die cut envelopes, 2 kraft medallions that I cut with my Cricut  and Mother's Day Bouquet at the same size as the ones in the Studio Calico kit- 1 3/4 inches, a few handmade flowers, some Christmas tags from We R Memory Keepers, and some random felt, acrylic, and chipboard bits from my Christmas stash.

Stamps:
Hampton Arts Postscript Calendar, Hampton Art Joyous Holiday, We R Memory Keepers White Christmas Holly Jolly, Studio G i.cling Doily Stamp

Some of my favorite elements in my kit are the chevron paper ,there is a link for a free chevron pattern here, the "chicken wire" die cut (which I cut with silver Wasua cardstock, my Cricut and SCAL), and my tiny die cut envelopes (cut from Echo Park For The Record digipaper with my Cricut and SCAL), and the awesome free printables from Creativity Prompt, Just Something I Made, Pink Paislee here, here and here , the Graphics Fairy, ormolu. I needed an album to stuff this all into-what better than that new green Smash book I haven't used yet?! I will also be using a mix of photography prompts from http://captureyour365.com/2010/12/25-december-daily-photo-ideas/ , and http://rebeccacooper.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-photo-traditions.html.

I have some awesome December Daily albums, kits, and ideas pinned to my December Daily Christmas Album Inspiration Board, if my kit didn't suit you, have a peek and make one the way you like it!!

As Promised...

I know I am a little late with this, but I have just been crazy busy with Christmas! Here is the cover of my December Daily album, along with the first 3 days-I'll share more next week...

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Thanks for looking, come back tomorrow for a Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Design Team post!

December Daily Album cover

As I was surfing 2 Peas, I started to run across a lot of albums (really cute ones) that were labeled December Daily Albums. I thought it sounded like a cool idea, so I looked into it a little more. It's based on an idea from Ali Edwards' blog ... and basically, it entails taking a photo a day in December, and doing a bit of journaling about it, to capture the whole holiday season. For my album cover, I was inspired by this weeks' sketch from 2Sketches4You. I used chipboard, my Cricut, some scrumptious Basic Grey patterned paper, some cream colored paint from Making Memories , some red Basic Grey cardstock that I Cuttlebugged with the Swiss Dots folder, lots of fabulous red and cream ribbons and trims, and the Christmas Potpourri Wreath digistamp from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff. I used a snowflake chipboard piece from Making Memories, that I coated with Martha Stewart mica flake glitter and attached with a pearl brad.

Lindsay has a contest to win a free set of digistamps going on at MyGraphico in the Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Group, and all sets at MyGraphico are 20% off for Thanksgiving Thursday only! Head on over to Lindsay's blog and check it out! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!