scrapbooking made fresh

December Daily: Wrapping it up!

 
Well, December has come...and gone. And, my December Daily album is nearly done! It's a great feeling to know that I already have an album to show friends and family about our holiday season. I'm so glad I started this process back in November.

Did you know that Green Tangerines has an awesome workshop and classroom available during the week where you can go scrapbook for only $2.00 per hour? (And, that fee can be waved with any purchases you make while you're there!!) Let me just say that I love my children, but it was pure heaven getting to sit at Green Tangerines for several hours yesterday without them, scrapping away on my December Daily album while they were at the baby-sitter! It's a great way to get some "me" time - some creative R&R.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the progress I made on my album to date. I have a few more pictures to add from the week of Christmas and some more ephemera to find and add, but it's mostly all "wrapped up".

Did you create a December Daily along with me? We'd love to see it. Create a slideshow at www.slide.com and link it in the comments. Or, if you haven't finished yet, join us at an upcoming Scrappy Hour or the daily workshop hours to get yours done! Happy New Year!

December Daily: Keeping Up

 
 
I won’t lie. It’s not easy keeping up with the daily journaling, photo-taking, and creative process with a thousand other things going on. It does take effort. BUT, I will say that having a framework and knowing that I just need to snap a few pictures of what’s going on has made this December Daily process easier. I’m giving myself permission to stop for 10 minutes each day to reflect on what we did, where we went, what we saw. Ten minutes really isn’t so much time.

I’m also realizing that I don’t even have to include pictures on my daily pages if I don’t want to. To quote Ali Edwards, “It’s ok.” I’m also finding that having some “fill-in” photos on days where my pictures didn’t turn out so well is a good thing. In fact, it’s helping me really capture the holiday-goodness that I want to include in my album. So, to be purposeful about it, I sat down and made a list of things I want to photograph or include:

• drinking hot chocolate with marshmellows (see December 8th below)
• our stockings (see December 8th below)
• making our gingerbread house (from a kit, I’m not that crazy)
• our church – decorated for Christmas
• my ‘holiday’ antenna ball
• a stack of our christmas cds, and/or print a list of our itunes holiday playlist
• special decorations around the house
• christmas wrapping paper, wrapping presents
• baking
• the tree on christmas eve (with the presents around it)
• the tree christmas morning after the presents are open (aka the house is trashed!)
• the kids with their favorite gift(s)

I’m also collecting memorabilia I want to include. For example, we went to the Nutcracker Ballet last Saturday, so I’m going to include part of the program. I included our Christmas Card from this year, and I’m going to add the sheet of lyrics from the boy & girl scouts caroling night we attended.

So, here’s some pictures of some of my pages from this past week. I picked up some of the new Teresa Collins Noel line at Green Tangerines...and I'm loving it!

December 5th

 
 

December 6th

 
 

December 7th

 
December 8th

 

So, what's on your list to capture this holiday season?

December Daily: Appreciating the little things

 
Happy December!

If you've been following along with me here on the Green Tangerines blog, you know that I created an album called "The 25 days of Christmas Joy" in November so I could add pictures and journaling in December. Now that it's December, I've been taking pictures and journaling in a notebook by my bedside every night - and I'm finding that it's helping me stop to appreciate the "little things" a whole lot more. It's really changing my attitude about the holidays. Even when I learned I was coming down with walking pneumonia this past week, I realized that it was a great opportunity to stop, slow down, and relax! (And yes, I even captured that in my album!)

Some observations thus far:

-To save time, I'm writing my journaling. I don't always love my handwriting - and I make mistakes. But, it's faster and captures more of "me" in the album

-I'm using a mix of new and older products on my journaling pages. Adding as I go. I imagine I'll go back and add some embellishments later...or not. We'll see...

-I printed photos on Saturday - and put my pages together (using my journal to jumpstart my memories for the photos and journaling) on Sunday. Going forward I may do this twice a week if I know I'm going to be somewhere I can pick up pictures. Or, I may even print my own at home. We'll see...

Check out the first four days in my album:

Day one:

front

  

back (note that I had no pictures of visiting Santa...but I journaled it anyway! It's a story I wanted to capture)
 

Day 2:

front

 
back

 

Day 3:

front

 

back

 

Day 4:

front

 

back

 
 
Join me next week as I share the next few days of my album! How's your December Daily album going?

December Daily: Prepped and Ready

 

Can you feel the anticipation in the air? December is almost HERE! Only two more days...! If you’re playing along with me and creating your own December Daily album it’s time to get your pages ready so you can scrap along during the month of December!

In the past month I’ve prepped an album to capture my family’s experience from December 1-25. Read about the process and what I’ve been creating here and here . This past week I finished the cover of my album.



• For the covers, I used a 12x12 raw chipboard sheet (from Green Tangerines), which I cut in half to create a front and back measuring 6"x12" each.
• Then, I covered the fronts with a beautiful white clear-beaded paper. (Sorry, I don’t know the manufacturer, but it’s in the wedding section in the back of the store at GT). I adhered a pearl-linen paper (also from the wedding section) to the backs of those pages for the interior covers. I recommend a strong adhesive around the edges to ensure it stays put! I used my ATG gun, but Zip Dry Glue or the Tombow liquid glue would also work well.

 
 

• I used my WeRMemoryKeepers corner chomper to round the corners of the covers
• I created my album title using a variety of products to create dimension and give a sneak peek to the overall look of the products I used inside the album inside glittery reds, silvers, and golds!
• Here’s what I used for the title "25 Days of Christmas Joy":
  • (25) American Craft Thickers: chipboard Lullaby in Glitter Rouge
  • (Days and Christmas with bird) girls paperie Tinsel & Twig Market Sticker Pack sticker
  • (of) Cosmo Cricket: Tiny Type alphabet stickers in Red
  • (Joy) My Minds Eye: Lost & Found Union Square Moments Glitter Alphabet Stickers
  • Queen & Co. White Snowflake rhinestone shape
  • Pop Dots and mini-glue dots (I adhered every item with these except the snowflake, and added pop dots to "Joy" and the "Christmas bird" sticker to add some dimension)
• I decided the edge needed a little "something" so I carefully scraped two rows of clear beads off the left side of my page, then I adhered one of the 12x12 border stickers from the girls paperie market sticker pack.
• Finally, I 3-hole punched the edge with my Crop-a-dile, then added silver eyelets to reinforce the holes.

So, now all I have to do is take a picture or two each day of December, print the photos and add some journaling! I'm prepped and ready!

I’m planning to print my photos once per week in December so I can add them as I go and journal while I can still remember details. Next week, I’ll update you on how it’s going. Would love to hear where you’re at in the process…Have you created a December Daily?