December Daily 2017

Hope you had a very merry Christmas and happy last day of 2017!! What a year! So many highs, a few lows, and overall, another wonderful year! Today I want to share with you my entire December Daily 2017!

There are almost 70 photos in this post - #sorrynotsorry hahaha. I don't know why I didn't share updates along the way... but alas here it is, all in one ginormous post!

First, here is a YouTube flip through so you can see the book from beginning to end:

Last December I made this candy cane coptic book intended for a giveaway but ended up making a different one to give away because I liked this one so much! It happens! Chris was actually the one who suggested the candy cane stripes - he's a keeper! One of my favorite parts of this album is the SOUND it makes - I tied jingle bells into the binding so it makes super festive jingles and jangles as it's being handled!

There were about 150 patterned paper spreads when I first started this album. There's no way I could fit or even think of 150 spreads so I ended up taking out at least 2 pages from every signature (a signature is a group of paper and there are 11 signatures in this book). I ended up making about 48 spreads - many more than the 25 days of a traditional December Daily. For that reason I didn't number my pages by date or even scrap in chronological order - this is more of an art journal filled with all of our December 2017 memories AND my very first finished coptic book! I always get asked if I put anything inside my coptic books and now the answer is YES! :) But mostly they're just for decoration ;) Since every page was a patterned paper, some photos looked better on certain backgrounds - which is also why I didn't scrap chronologically, I scrapped aesthetically (pink photos next to pink papers, snowy pictures next to blue papers, etc.). Hey, as long as all the memories got documented, does it really matter on which day it occurred?! I would argue no :)

My favorite thing about this album, and mini albums in general, is all the little bits peeking out - from tabs and tags to ribbons and strings, I LOVE all of the textures that add so much interest and are just begging to be touched!

The entire album is closed with a white eyelet ribbon that wraps around the pin that I stuck into the wooden cover. I wasn't planning on tying it closed, but without it the book splays open and the ribbon actually condenses it quite a bit into a more manageable size for display next to all my other December Daily books. Let's go through it page by page!

On the opening page I die cut my Christmas Tree Scalloped cut file from white cardstock and backed it with all kinds of colorful papers. You know I love color and could never in a million years stick to just red and green :) You'll find lots of color all throughout my book! Also, because all of the papers were patterned, I needed to tone some of them down so to do this I whitewashed them with acrylic paint. I probably whitewashed 1/6 of the pages.

On the next page I added the most dimensional embellishment you'll see in this book - a wooden "peace" sign. I'm not sure where it's from... I've used collections as old as Basic Grey's Juniper Berry and as new as Crate Paper's Falala and everything between! It's a big jumble of supplies and companies and products!

I also used a lot of full-sized (4x6") photos in my book - some pictures are worth a thousand words and need to be big! I have a large photo of Rachel the cat sleeping under the Christmas tree topped with a smaller photo held in place with washi tape. On the right I whitewashed the paper, added strips of washi tape, then journaled between. I slid on a snowflake paperclip to the top and super glued it in place.

This spread is about the outing to the Girlfriends Christmas Market I went to with Shanna Noel. All the cute die cuts are from Brandi Kincaid.

I created a textured top half for this page about our Christmas decor using modeling paste and a tiny circles template to look like falling snow and then created ornaments from circles of patterned paper topped with die cuts and dangling from baker's twine.

PINK! I got a new pink Christmas tree for my scrap room and since this patterned paper is pink I thought it was a perfect spot. I decorated the edges with all the pink embellishments I could find and made with punches and wrote a simple caption.

I LOVE the Nativity set my mom crafted - she's artsy too! I embellished this wreath die cut with some sequins and journaled around the edge.

On this spread about our house twinkling at night I created a banner with baker's twine and dangled all kinds of festive die cuts from it.

I've seen a version of this sequin Christmas tree in many December Daily books this year :) Thank you Pinterest!! Jane worked on her December Daily with me and it was a really precious moment.

We decked the halls back in November, but it's definitely something that needs to be documented in December! The ribbon is my Holiday Bow cut file that I backed with yellow patterned paper.

Snow! In November! But to me the first snowfall marks the first day of the holidays so again it must be documented in the December Daily. I completely whitewashed this spread and then die cut my Snowflake cut file from white cardstock to use as a pretty mat for photos and flat wintery embellishments.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how design team member Audrey Yeager used my Christmas Village cut file to create gingerbread houses so I did the same with white cardstock and kraft paper!

One of the first nights in December we went on a walk around the neighborhood and found some "efic" (how the kids say "epic") houses decorated with so.many.things! A simple spread with lots of photos and journaling.

This is a special photo because it was the first time my entire family has been together in one place at the same time since Allie's wedding back in April 2013!! We met up at our favorite Thai place in Seattle and had a jolly time. I turned the photo into a pocket by adding adhesive only on the left, bottom, and right edges, and punched the top edge into scallops. Then I made a tag from kraft paper, heat embossed it with clear powder using a presents background stamp, and tied pink pom pom ribbon through the top. On the right side I wanted to heat emboss the same stamp with gold, but the whitewashing must not have been completely dry because only the edges got embossed. It's okay! Embrace the imperfections! The gold mirror stickers in the middle convey the perfect sentiment.

Here I die cut my Candy Cane Background cut file from white cardstock and backed it with red cardstock for a fun focal element. The right page is simple with a little photo of sleeping baby Daisy, a "joy" die cut, and a small caption.

This is one of, if not the only, time I added the date, using my large Studio Calico roller date stamp. I punched three stars from the right side, hand stitched around them, then backed the open stars with photos of cute Daisy.

I whitewashed the left page so the colorful alphabet stickers could stand out from the busy background and made a fun title from a favorite Elf movie quote. On the right I die cut my Snowflake Wreath cut file from white cardstock, trimmed a portion of it, and added it to be flush with the edge. Three photos of the cousins mingling with each other cascade down the side.

Jane's polar bear sweater matched the polar bears on the walls of the doctor's office to a "T"! How serendipitous! And she didn't have an ear infection afterall! This was the first time I added ribbon to the edge of a page and you'll see that done a few more times. I create a little "scene" on the left page using cute bits from the Snow & Cocoa collection by Crate Paper and the Sweater Weather collection by American Crafts.

One Saturday in December I taught a bookbinding class in Redmond. Enza Gudor from the Pink Paislee Design Team and my mom came so it was really special to have friends and family in my class. I turned the photo on the left into a pocket and added a tag with typed journaling inside. On the right I die cut my Flourish Christmas Tree cut file from white cardstock and covered it with glitter glue.

This cute reindeer is a scraplift of Sharee Forcier's layout for Kerri Bradford Studio. I love how she backed the reindeer with colorful patterned paper strips and stamped, heat embossed with gold, and fussy cut Kerri's lightstrands so I did the same only miniaturized - too cute!! I used the inner reindeer on the right side along with two photos from another meetup with Shanna Noel - love that girl!

Journaling journaling and more journaling is the name of the game on this spread! I wrote down things I'm thankful for then between sentences I added a sentiment sticker for pretty pops of color. I also love mixing and matching all my mini alphabet stickers so you'll see that occur a few more times.

This spread is interactive! I printed my favorite family photos full-size - the one on the right is adhered as is in place with gold sequin ribbon stitched to the edge then the left photo I attached at the edge with washi tape and secured with machine stitching to create a flap that opens. Just in case it's not obvious, I added an "open" tab at the top. Inside, the photo is backed with a collage of all our family photos - I use Picasa to create 4x6" collages then get them printed at Costco. In the center I used my Nordic Background cut file as a stencil to sponge acrylic paint onto a whitewashed page. Then I used my Wonky Hearts Background cut file as a stencil to apply modeling paste at the top. It was all too bright so I toned it down with a layer of white paint which made the colors match my dress much better. I didn't mean to punch a hole through the top left corner, but I fixed the mistake by attaching a sticker-turned-tag with journaling written on it to the hole with baker's twine. All's well that ends well!

We babysat my niece Zoe one morning. She's so cute. I cut a heart from the right side, backed it with a transparency pocket filled with chunky glitter, then wrote journaling with a white pen around it. I stitched red scalloped ribbon to the edge and the top photo lifts up to reveal a second photo underneath.

Yay for date night! I got us tickets to see the Nutcracker Ballet in Olympia. I turned the photo into a pocket to store the ticket stub, more photos from the night, and a journaling tag. I die cut my Snowflake Border cut file from white cardstock and covered it with blue glitter glue for an accent on the right page.

Another spread filled with journaling! This time about my instant pot fiasco... I ruined my brand new instant pot in the first 5 minutes of using it. Heaven help me. And then Joey got a festive bandana from his groomer so he's "hobo Jo no mo'"! (Our dog boarder in Germany used to call him "Hobo Jo" when he was losing his winter and summer coats because he looked so raggedy).

PICK-ME-UP IS IN THE HOUSE!!!! Getting my box of new Pink Paislee goodies in December is definitely always worth documenting! I backed my Cut and Fold Christmas Trees cut file with papers from Pick-Me-Up and made a pocket in which to slide a tag made from the cut apart Paper 01. Oh and a little puffy sticker on the tab actually says "Pick-Me-Up"! :)

We went and saw Santa! The patterned paper on the right was light enough to be a good background without whitewashing it then I used some tiny alphabet stamps by Kerri Bradford to stamp a long title. I filled in the stamps with colored pencils, all while watching Jim Carrey in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

This spread was inspired by a layout from Stefanie Ried - I love how she embellished partial wreaths with colorful Christmas bits so I die cut my Holiday Wreath cut file from white cardstock, trimmed it in half, adhered it to the edges of the spread, then fussy cut tiny images from 6x6 paper pads to adorn the wreaths. Then I added tiny gold sequins on top. Inside the wreaths I placed a picture of Fox & Jane in their new Christmas jammies. This spread was made while watching A Christmas Story :)

Speaking of Stefanie Ried, she sent me the most wonderful package: she made me an advent calendar of pillow boxes using my Pink Paislee collections and Silhouette cut files! Such a sweetheart and sweet gift coming all the way from Germany - she knows how much we miss it! There was a cute note too from her daughter too. I love love love it. A photo of the gift spans the right page along with yellow pom pom ribbon stitched to the edge. On the left side, I had die cut my Stuffed Stocking cut file from white cardstock ages ago but hadn't included it yet. I tried getting creative by spraying vellum with adhesive, covering it with chunky glitter, and placing the die cut on top, but it was a hot mess. I nearly tossed it in the trash. But then I still had the colored pencils sitting out from the spread two pics above so I spent some time coloring it in and love how it turned out! I used it on this spread because the colors went well with the advent pillow boxes. To finish I typed, printed, and trimmed journaling to tuck under the stocking.

A simple spread with a pair of photos on each side and then embellished with stickers, sequins, doilies, and journaling.

We went to Wallace, Idaho for Christmas! I made two photo pockets and wrote journaling on tags to tuck into the pockets.

Another element inspired by Stefanie Ried! I love how she included interactive photo flaps in her December Daily so here I made two - one for each restaurant we ate at on this particular day. I used modeling paste and a doily stencil to create layers on opposite corners and journaled around them. Binder clips hold the photos in place and since they're on the edges they don't add any bulk to the album.

A full page photo adorns the right page - I pinked the edge with specialty scissors and added a flower sticker cut in half to the top and bottom sides. On the left I journaled along the diagonal stripes of the patterned paper then glued sequin rows along other stripes.

My mom got the grown up girls matching plaid pajamas! I used my Back This Font cut file to create a title then backed it with patterned papers.

Wallace was a wintery wonderland! A full-sized photo to show how pretty the town looked from above is on the right side and a whitewashed page is on the left with cascading blue embellishments down the middle.

I had a lot of photos and words to go along with Christmas Eve so I made interactive photo flaps on the left side and a mix'n'match sticker title on the right side.

This is the intro page to Christmas day! I whitewashed the right page, wrapped the edges with washi tape, added the photos, then piled on cutesy die cuts and the title.

While we were in Wallace I asked Fox to color me a picture and this is one of the remaining papers that was light enough for markers to show up. Next to it I added a cute photo of him in the snow.

To make this spread I trimmed our one and only entire family photo in half to span the two pages and then painted a white border. I added four clusters of little Christmas embellishments to the paint and then journaled between.

This spread is not in order, but remember none of this is perfectly chronological. I added this event here because the papers are black. It was a very sad day. A train derailed just a few minutes away from our home. Minimal embellishing because it's not a happy story, but should be remembered which is why I chose to include it.

On the next spread I whitewashed both pages so the busy photos could shine. I punched the photos and a few patterned papers into pennants, stitched them into banners with a sewing machine, and then glued them into the book. Underneath the paper pennants is journaling and I added gold glittery Heidi Swapp mini alphabet stickers along the banners for the title.

Jane also drew me a photo and it's on the opposite side of Fox's. I turned her photo into a pocket and wrote journaling on a tag about the fun time we had sledding!

This spread is all about the sledding! I think it was even more fun than opening presents! After whitewashing the backgrounds partially, I die cut my Polaroid Frame Banner cut file from white cardstock then backed the openings with photos and patterned papers. I fussy cut more tiny images from patterned papers and added them across the banners along with a mix'n'match sticker title.

Here is another interactive spread! My mom got her three granddaughters matching pink Christmas jammies and so of course we wanted to take a photo of Jane, Zoe, and Daisy wearing them, but Zoe was not having it, poor cute little thing! I used a scalloped border punch on the left edge of the photo and wove pink ribbon through the holes for a touch of texture. I attached the photo at the right edge with washi tape and machine stitching. On the left side I embossed a piece of white cardstock with a floral pattern then stitched a pink sticker title at the bottom. Above the title I added typed and printed journaling.

Inside is a grid design of round photos and lots of pink things!

Almost done! For this spread, on the left side, I trimmed down the page and punched the edge into a fancy border then glued it down to make a pocket. Inside I tucked photos and memorabilia from Christmas like our votes for daily activities and gift tags and the clues from my treasure hunt. The right page is one last scraplift of a recent layout by Stefanie Ried! Goodness she's amazing. I love how she trimmed around the word "magical" so I did the same here and I love how the last photo of my December Daily peeks through the word. Truly magical!

All I added to this spread was "Oh, Christmas Tree" word stickers and a tab stitched to the top of the photo. Maybe I was running out of steam at this point lol.

The last page is journaling typed in a circle and printed on vellum, topped with a round die cut. It summarizes the Christmas season and talks about how next year we will once again be in a new house somewhere in Colorado, but wherever Chris and the kids are, that is home and I know we will welcome the holiday season with open arms even amidst all the change.

I hope you have found one or two things that have inspired you and hope to include in your December Daily! I love this tradition and looking back through them every year!

Here's to an awesome and productive, happy and healthy 2018!!