Hey friends. Wow. Can't believe Christmas is over. It went by so quickly! I was sick for about a week and got behind in my December Daily® progress, but today I wanted to share my day five with you as well as a little tutorial.
On the fifth day of Christmas we decorated our tree. So I decided to make a full page photo of it to back the full page photo from day four. Here's the photo...
Our funny little tree, crooked on top. So, I wanted to crop this photo to 7 x 8.25, but it was going to cut off either the top of the tree, or the skirt. And I didn't want to compromise. So, I decided to crop the photo in a way that allowed me to put a pattern on the right side and I love how it turned out!
I used Ali Edwards December Daily Transparencies (a digital version of the transparencies that were included in the 2015 and 2016 main kit) to put some pattern down the side. I kind of dig it. Probably going to do it again. I made a little video tutorial showing you how easy it was. I also added a digital stamp from the Jasmine Jones December Daily® Cozy Christmas stamps.
I used the same digital files with my silhouette + some watercolor paper (love it's sturdiness) to create the facing page. I added some gold glitter embossing powder to my number five and stapled a ticket from the main kit below it.
Kept it really simple. I think that's okay. It helps me to focus on the story and, most importantly, get it done.
I've linked to all available products below, except for Ali's which are linked throughout the post. Look for more December Daily® share videos/blog posts from me soon as I play a little catch up. And thanks so much for sharing some time with me. Truly appreciate it.
It's that time of year...time for December Daily®, I mean. I'll be sharing my album pages here and over on my YouTube channel each week. If you saw my foundation pages video, you know that my daughter Malia is also doing an album this year. She will be sharing her layouts in my videos as well.
So, today is the 7th and I have done days one through four. My mantra this year is
...done is better than perfect.
And I'm sticking to that. I will be so much happier if I have a finished album. With that in mind, let me share my pages with you.
Day 01
On the first day of Christmas...we went to the Festival of Trees. People can decorate and donate trees which are then auctioned. All of the proceeds go to Primary Children's Hospital, which is awesome. My mother-in-law does a tree or two each year so we definitely make a point of going.
I printed a full page photo on vellum (cheap from Hobby Lobby). I added a title with some letter stickers from the Main December Daily® kit + my handwriting with a white Gelly Roll pen. I used a stamp from the Felicity Jane Christmas kit with some AE Pendelton Ink and stapled it with gold staples from American Crafts.
Behind the vellum, there's a pocket page with another photo and a few 3x4 cards from the Paislee Press mini kit.
I journaled on one of the cards and the other one holds my day number (from last year's December Daily® kit) + a ticket from this year's kit. Simple.
Day 02
On the second day of Christmas...we went to get our Christmas tree. We went to the same local lot that we buy from every year. On the left side of the page I adhered a tree tag on the back of the card from day one, added a few stickers and a sequin from the main DD kit. I added my journaling on another card from the main kit. The word stickers on the bottom photo are by American Crafts (purchased at the warehouse sale).
I felt a bit crazy when I picked up the off-cut when they gave our tree a fresh cut at the lot, but I love the way it looks in my album! I originally punched holes in the wood using my Crop-a-dile, but it broke. Sad. So I ended up using Wood Veneer Attachers from Elle's Studio. I added a gold foil circle from Ali's main kit to the front and stamped "So Fond of This" with the AE Sentiment Strip stamp set. Love how easy it is to curve acrylic stamp phrases like that. The acrylic heart is from Elle's Studio as well.
The facing page started out as a divided 6x8 pocket, but I cut two pockets off and printed my photo at 3x8, cut it in half and placed it in the pockets. I added a little clear tab on the side and stamped using the stamp set that came with the Storytelling with December Daily® class.
Day 03
On the third day of Christmas...we had a church Christmas party. I lead music for the kids at our church and the cute little angels and shepherds sang two songs, so I definitely had to document that!
On the 3x8 pocket page, I did a bit of journaling on a card from the Paislee Press mini kit using my typewriter. I stamped on the bottom with Pendleton ink. The bottom is a photo of a tag (one of many) that I did some hand-lettering on for each table. You can see that I included the actual tag right in the middle of this spread.
On the back of the tag, I did a bit more journaling on some hand-doodled lines. I added a star sequin and a word stickers (these are old 7Paper by Studio Calico).
The right side of the spread has a card from the Paislee Press mini kit and a photo of the cute kids with a word strip from the Surprise Story Kit stapled to the top. Again, simple.
Day 04
On the fourth day of Christmas...we went to my in-law's house for Sunday dinner. Something we are doing a lot lately because they are leaving for a mission in Ghana, Africa for two years soon. On this day, I broke my own rule of one story a day, because this day kind of has two. Ish. The focus is really on finding magic in moments. But the family being together was one of those bits of magic.
So the first spread is a 4x6 card from the Paislee Press mini kit + a photo. I stamped "This Story" from the Storytelling with December Daily stamp set three times and wrote a little blurb next to each. I brought in another gold foil word strip too. The right page is just a 6x8 paper from last year's December Daily® kit with a little canvas die-cut star (my friend Jana Eubank gave me those).
The next pages are a full photo that I cropped into two 7x8.25" pieces. I love full page photos and a double page is even better. I added some word art from the digital December Daily® Christmas Phrases stamp + my journaling before I printed it. I embellished it really simply with another canvas star, more gold foil word strips, some gold sequins from the Paislee Press mini kit, and some phrase stickers from Freckled Fawn.
The transparent "4" is older from Studio Calico. Love adding elements like that into projects like these.
You can see me talk through the whole thing (and see Malia's album) in the video below!
I've linked to all available products below, except for Ali's, which are linked throughout the post. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer in the comments below.
