December Daily 2021 Cover by Paige Evans

 I'm one of those scrappers that can't keep up with the "daily" part of "December Daily" :) So today, on the 13th of the month, I present my cover!

This is my 9th year of doing a December Daily and every year the format has been slightly different: from a traditional pocket page album to a MemoryDex tray, Christmas-tree shaped, a coptic book, wooden cover, chipboard cover, and various sizes/styles between, I love this annual project with my heart and soul!

This year I decided to make my album slightly larger than in years past - it's about 7.25x9" to hold pocket page protectors so it's going to be a mix of types of pages, all featuring my 25 Days of Christmas Cut Files 2021!

For this year's cover, I once again featured stitching/embroidery :) My 2018 and 2020 covers also feature embroidery - what can I say, I love love love stitching :) I started with a sort of pattern based on my Nordic Background Cut File.

I've used this Nordic Background Cut File a few times before in my December Dailies, it's one of my favorites.

 I've even stitched it on a layout (along with a process video!) so I knew it could be super fun for a cover.

I shrunk the design down to about 6x8 and printed it out. Then I went to Michaels and bought a hoop that could fit the entire pattern (except for the very tips of the corners) inside. I used white Aida Cloth 16 Count Cross Stitch Fabric. I am not an official cross-stitcher or embroiderer so I don't even really know what all that means, all I know is I did some test stitches through a few different fabrics and liked this one the best. Then I got to work! I started at the bottom with the "candy cane" red and white border and decided to turn it into a frame. From there I winged the pattern as I went along and tried to fill in as much white space as I could, adding details here and there and even more borders and icons for a completely full and festive cover!

It took me about 40 hours to stitch the entire cover. I don't have an official pattern since I just made it up as I went along, but if there is enough interest I will definitely make one :)

Once I finished stitching I took it out of the hoop, trimmed it out with scissors, then wrapped it around chipboard using hot glue to secure it in place. I shouldn't have trimmed so close to my stitching, there was hardly any fabric to wrap around and adhere to the chipboard - lesson learned for next time!

On the back side of the cover (no photo yet - I'll have one with my official December Daily 2021 post), I adhered a piece of patterned paper trimmed just slightly smaller than the cover to hide the chipboard and fabric edges. To help secure the fabric and paper in place and keep the ends from fraying, I machine stitched a couple times around the edges with white thread.

I attached two large red flower brads through the left edge of the cover using a Crop-A-Dile and slipped 2" binder rings through. I might change the size of the rings depending on how many/few pages the album holds when I'm finished. On the top ring I've attached Christmas charms and a tassel. The cute charms are from Emily Inspired Designs and the darling tassel is from Create Happy Handmade.

I have a December Daily Pinterest Board where I keep hundreds of inspiring ideas that I want to try. So much talent in the world!

That my friends is my December Daily 2021 cover in a nutshell!

Now I'm off to finally print pictures and get our memories documented embellished with my 25 Days of Christmas Cut Files 2021!

What format are you using for your December Daily 2021?! I'd love to see!