When life gets in the way of fun stuff.

So how was your Christmas? :)
I got totally blindsided this year. Everything seemed to be going along swimmingly until around mid-month, when I got a call telling me my Dad was going to have to be moved again, thanks to the lovely government system we have here. One week before Christmas! It was a major bummer for him, and for us too, as he's farther away and it's more difficult for us to get there. Lots of adjustment and adapting to do. After getting him settled in somewhat, things just turned into one big blur, and the DD got put on the back burner once again. I have all photos downloaded and journaling to go along with, but alas, time has been short and I haven't had time to work on it at all since then. If you're not averse to seeing Christmas stuff in February, I'll be posting it here as I get it done. It will be simple with a capitol 'S', but I'm determined to finish it, and for once have a completed album to look back on next year. I'm so tired of having unfinished projects laying around!


 One of my other Christmas projects these past few weeks was to make Noah the sock monkey he's been asking for for a few years now. I bought the original 'sock monkey' socks on e Bay in the fall, after not being able to find them anywhere here- I'm glad I did, because he turned out adorable, and quite like the monkeys you see all over now. The boy adores him, and says he was his favourite present, so that made me feel pretty great. I of course had to do a quick layout about the monkey, since I'm pretty proud he got done at all... sewing is definitely not one of my skills, and I now know why thimbles were invented, after pricking myself about 1,000 times during the process.

Wishing all of you a happy, healthy and peaceful 2011~

Happy New Year!

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December Daily, Days 6 & 7

Ahh.. it's Sunday morning and the snow is falling quietly. I'm sitting here all cozy in my pyjamas, and dreading the fact that I have to get dressed and go to work in an hour.  Needless to say, I would much rather stay in and work on the book, nap, and bake some Christmas cookies. Working weekends is not much fun, especially in winter!

This will be another quick post, because I need to get ready for said job, so here's a few photos of Day 6&7. I'm a little behind, but on a path to getting everything done & caught up in the next few days if the stars align, and I can stay on track. The days are getting busier now. I have barely any shopping completed, and I think I need to concentrate on that this week, as the 25th is fast approaching! We're doing a more minimal Christmas list this year. The kids are older, and the Santa factor has all but disappeared. It's a little sad, but nice all at once. The gifts are bigger and more $$$, but there are many less little niggly ones to think about.

How's your DD going? I'm feeling good about mine, feeling like it's do-able and I will be able to keep it up.  And keeping it simple is definitely THE way for me to go with it... I'm enjoying this size immensely, it works well for what I want. Thanks a ton for all your wonderful comments on the last post. If you have questions about anything, just shoot me an email or ask me here, and I'll reply in the comments.

Day 6

Day 7

Day 7 detail


And here's the photo from Day 7, taken from my sons's bedroom that day and pretty much what today looks like outside too... 
Happy Sunday, all!

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December Daily- days 3-5

I haven't forgotten about Day 2. It will be done eventually, when I figure out photos.. I didn't take any of what I want to use for that day, so I'm looking at alternatives to that.
In the meantime, here's a bit of what I've got done so far:

Day 3:- Incomplete, but idea is on paper. :) I used the Teresa Collins star transparency, which I LOVE. Even though I'm not using transparencies throughout the book, I couldn't resist this beauty. I have a weakness for stars, and loved the bold, graphic look of it. I added a tag on which I embossed a Fontwerks star stamp in a shimmery white, attached the date tag to that, and stapled it onto my page.

Underneath the transparency, I used the front page from a little catalogue from Simons that I got in the mail last week, I really loved the title and graphic design on it. I'm not sure yet how I will cover up the 'Simons' part, but maybe with a photo or two. Too bad I don't have a boy named Simon. ;)

Days 4& 5:

Because I work on weekends, and have very limited time to take photos on those days, I decided to do single pages for these days, and it has really simplified my process. I used some shots of my sons on Saturday am taken before I left for work, and journaled my thoughts about working weekends. Sunday's photo is really from Friday, taken for the Big Picture class I'm doing right now.
Here's how it looks in the book: (click on the photos to get a bigger view)

 Day 4 is super simple & fast, done digitally, printed onto photo paper, and then cut out and simply adhered onto the patterned paper background. I added a handwritten 'December' on the number tag, and a red brad on the bottom under my journaling after I took this photo, so it looks a little more finished.
Day 5 is very influenced by a layout in Molly's beautiful book from last year. I loved her detail of the digital tape and frame on one of her pages. I added some real washi tape (from Martha Stewart) to my photo, and an American Crafts tag.

And some detail shots below, since my journaling is fuzzy on the above photo:

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me here. I can't reply personally through Blogger like Typepad does, ( a feature I can't believe they haven't addressed yet), but I can answer here in the comments.

I'm off to make up 25 very last minute card kits for my son's Cub Scout group tonight. And hoping for some more snow today, I'm dreaming of winter photos.

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Day one down.

Just a hit and run post with some badly lit photos taken on my table tonight. It got dark before I realized, which is about 4:30pm here now, and that makes for a short day. It was balmy & sunny here today, so I can't complain too much.
Here's the first page done with Ali's freebie template from today. I'm not sure what I'm going to put there, so for now it's staying blank. Maybe photos, maybe a poem, or I may change the entire page all together.The inside cover is done with a very pretty and classic Anna Griffin glittery paper that I love.. the look totally reminds me of vintage books that I remember from childhood that were pretty vintage even then... maybe the 50's era?

 Day one is a simple collage of photos of things we did during the day, and my journaling on the left.
I combined computer journaling with my handwriting, and stamped the star border with cranberry American Crafts ink. 'Hello December' is older Ali Edwards Holiday word art from Designer Digitals. One aspect of the album I haven't decided on yet is a number scheme, and that is kind of stressing me out a bit in terms of my design. Must relax... ;p I do think I'd prefer them to be all the same rather than mixed up, but I'll wait a few days and see what works best.

Day 2 is on the table right now, but I'm calling it a day and working on it tomorrow with a fresh perspective.
 I'm feeling much more confidant this time around, and I think that has a ton to do with my book having a structure. I'm very happy that I finally listened to Ali's advice, and took the time to make it before I started, it's a huge time saver.

Hope you're enjoying the DD process so far if you're involved!

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December 1st!

I've got a lot on my plate this month, as I'm sure all of you do too... there's so much happening in December that it always seems to fly by in a whirl of craziness. In addition to the December Daily project, I've signed myself up for this online class which starts today. I think the 2 projects will work well together and I'm looking forward to the inspiration it provides, and that little push I'll probably need around mid-month. I'll be sharing my photos throughout the month here and you'll probably be seeing a few of them on my DD pages. I did 'Picture Fall' back in October, and loved it- if you're on the fence about taking this class, I highly recommend it. I saw there's a coupon code for a 5$ off discount, which makes it even more enticing. I"ll try to find a link for it and post it here.

Here's a fun page I did with Noah a few weeks ago... he likes to scrapbook too. :) I was weeding through my quite ginormous sticker stash, and had put these aside for this page following a conversation we'd had about what he wants to be when he grows up. Perfect huh? He wrote his top 3 career choices on the notebook paper, and I instructed him on the rule of thirds & the 'less is more' addage for the star placement, or else there would have been major sticker sneeze all over this page. ;p  Also, I'm not sure what's up with my white pen, but I'm not loving the scratchy mess it made here.. argh! I wish someone would come out with a perfect white pen. I've bought about 10 uniball signos over the past years, and they all get like this- this one is new, so it's rather frustrating.

I'm hauling out some Christmas decorations today, even though it's more like a spring outside- we've had so much rain in the past 24 hours. I was hoping it would have turned into snow overnight for some wintery photos this am, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunity for that in the coming months. ;)
Have a great December 1st, everyone!

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December Daily, 2010 edition

December Daily is a project dear to my heart. It's something that inspires me a ton, even though the extra effort of doing it at this time of the year sometimes seems like an added stress.  This will be the 3rd one I attempt ( years1 & 2 are still unfinished, although all elements, journaling included, are stored in their bags, waiting for me when the day comes!) I've been working on this one for a few weeks now, gathering supplies, jotting down ideas, and thinking of things I want to incorporate in my book. It will be minimal, there's no doubt,  and very photo centric. I'm anxious to get started, and especially excited to take photos again, as I had no time in November, and barely picked up my camera. So here we go...


I made the cover using Eska board and pva glue, and this classic text paper from American Crafts that I love. If you're making any kind of cover or album, I highly recommend the pva glue, although you do have to work fast as it dries quickly, and there`s not much room for error.

 I LOVE the 6x8 size. Last year's square 8x8 format really wasn't my favourite. Since I usually scrap 8.5x11, this is just a smaller version of that size, and feels much more natural to me. Also, I've left it numberless for the time being, since I haven't decided yet if I'll add that digitally or not. I haven't really gone beyond putting in the pages ( mostly kraft, white, and red) and will add embellishments as I go along, since I like/need to have a visual  (ie. photos) when I design a page. The inside is covered in a very pretty silver & cream Anna Griffin paper- sorry, no photo of that, but you'll see it as the days go. I'm counting down now.

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It's sooner than you think.

In an effort to get organized,  I'm trying to get a head start on making some Christmas cards early this year.
Last year, I decided very last minute ( re: the week before)  to make some cards to sell at our school fair to raise money for my son's Scout troop, and they were a huge hit. I probably could have sold another 100, had I started in time. And I was lucky to have had help from a kind friend, or else they wouldn't have gotten done at all.

So this year, seeing as I've been inundated & brainwashed with new Christmas stuff at work since August, and also?...given the fact that I could probably make a 1,000,000 cards with the load of product I have, I decided to get my rear in gear, stop the procrastination habit, and work on a few prototypes.
These are simple- all the same size & basic design, and fine for what I need. I used the adorable new American Crafts Christmas line by Dear Lizzy/Liz Kartchner.

Now I just have to come up with about 25 other styles using the many new Hero Arts stamps I've aquired in the past while. ;)

Speaking of Hero Arts, I'm so excited that none other than the mega talented Jennifer McGuire is coming to teach at our store in mid- November!! I immediately signed up for all 3 of her classes, and can't wait to see what she's got in store for us.  I'm hoping she can help me spice up my cardmaking style and teach this old dog some new tricks. If you're local, there are still a few spots available on the Sunday, but they won't last long. Honestly you don't want to miss out on this, it's going to be a blast!

Alright... I'm off to put away the summer clothing for good, and make some room in my kiddos drawers.
The joys of changing seasons... fall has definitely arrived here.
Have a great Monday!

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