Jingle, Jingle

MY PROCESS:
So on Saturday, Chris took Natalie out to the store and left with me a short time period that I could sit down at my scrap table, but I had just finished the last layout earlier in the day and wasn't sure what to work on. It was one of those times when I really wanted to make something, so I sat down without any ideas and just started grabbing some papers to look at. Next thing I knew I had the start of a Christmas looking layout with any pictures. Then I thought of a story I really want to scrap about, so added a title.

ABOUT THE STORY/PHOTO:
Now this will sort of make sense why I am scrapping a Christmas layout in January. When Christmas music started coming on the radio last month, Natalie heard the song "Jingle Bell Rock" and when it was over she hopped out of my lap, walked over and pointed to the radio/cd player, "requesting" me to turn it on again. I figured, no harm, I will get my old CD and put it on. Ummm... a month later I am regretting that fateful day I didn't say no to this one little request. Now whenever she wants to hear music, she points and says "Jingle, Jingle!" and still says it even if you try to put a different song on! Even as the song is ending, she'll say "Jingle, Jingle!" till you get up and put the song back on (no repeat button on our CD player [sad face]). I showed her a video on my phone of her and Dada dancing, and that song was in the background, and when the song is over in the video, she says "Jingle, Jingle!" and makes me restart to video so the song is back on! Oh well, I'm glad I've taught her "no" to just about everything else haha!

LAYOUT DESIGN/PRODUCTS USED:
So it wasn't all random that I ended up with a Christmas layout. When I sat down I thought to myself, maybe I'll make a Christmas card, ala Natalie Elphinstone who made 1 Christmas card with every Studio Calico kit for the past year, leaving her with 12 beautiful and unique Christmas cards! But once I pulled the papers, they started to look great as a Christmas layout, and since I'd rather make a layout than a card, I went with that! I used mostly the Ivy Tower add-on kit to the Far Far Away kit. I purchased the black alpha thickers at one of the LSS and only had 1 "L" so I cut up a 7 and an "F" to create my own L for the second Jingle word!

Other than wanting to do more "story first" layouts this year, my other "scrappy resolution" or intention more like, is to be diligent about putting all journaling and the date or dates on the front of my layouts. As much as I have enjoyed the flexibility of adding leftover journaling to the back, I realize that 1. people aren't going to be pulling my layouts out of the page protectors to check for or read the rest of my journaling. 2. I don't even feel like pulling out my layout to do this. It's a pain and so much easier when reading it to just have it all out there on the front. I will leave hidden journaling only for private stories.

So there you have it, a nice Christmas layout in January. It's like driving around seeing people still turn on their Christmas lights they left up... but hopefully not that crazy :)

December Daily 2014: Foundation Pages Day 1&2

DECEMBER DAILY, HERE WE GO!!!

OK first of all, for the most up to date DD posts, you can visit my Creative Instagram: @ScrapperEmily, since I will be posting there as I complete everything, but will probably have to post to my blog in batches.

I bought the Ali Edwards December Daily kit and received it in the mail last week, then the album came as I was getting started on my first page this past weekend! I got the off-white album and love it!! I'm not too much into altering the outside of albums, so I will probably end up keeping it as is and just labeling the spine. That's not fun for me, the fun is what's inside! So here we go...

So the first thing I did was go back and read this blog post that was my Day 25 last year and the conclusions I had. I've done December Daily twice now, and have finished both albums successfully! However, 2012 I did no prep and did not finish until September 2013. Last year I prepped and finished a few days after Christmas! This year I have no expectations to repeat last year, since last year I had a full extra month to work on prep work. My goal is to finish this album before I preorder 2015's album :) But I am going to try to keep up as much as I can, but not feel like I am behind if I do in fact fall behind!

Anyway, then I did the same as Ali Edwards, and put in my page protectors in a semi-random order, except I did not want any page spreads that had one side with 4 3x4 cards and the other side 2 3x4 with 1 4x6 - basically that would be too many 3x4 cards for one spread for my liking. Next I added a few of the 6x8 sheets that I knew I def wanted throughout (the big gold foil 25 def on Day 25). And then I cut up sheets of paper that I knew I would want to be cut up, example, a lot of sheets have 2 3x4 cards and 1 4x6.

Then for this first page, I simply used the transparency with the gold Ali Edwards' writing on it - I knew I just loved that page so I wanted to use it first! I added one rubber label (love these!!) and decided to go big with the gold numbers!

Last year I couldn't really imagine my album with photos, as it was the first pocket page album I ever worked with, so the first few pages I did prep, I over-prepped and tried to fill every pocket. This time I want to be intentional about where I will place photos and how it will look

As I wrote on Instagram, here is my plan of attack: get some papers in; pick a number and a couple of basic embellishments; don't adhere anything; if there's time (prob not) then go back and do more detailed work such as stitching/stamping.

So my plan with this Day 1 layout is to have 1 square or vertical photo on the left and 1 horizontal square or 4x6 for the bottom right. Depending on the spacing, I will add my story alongside either photo and leave the two 3x4 pockets for embellishing.

For day 2, again just keeping it very simple and easily changeable, I first chose where my photos would probably go (lower left and upper right), and then picked some papers. I added the wood veneer 2 (I plan to use those wood veneer as much as I can), and added another rubber label here there I thought would go as well.

I'm not adhering anything this time because last year there were certain cards that I embellished that I would've liked to have changed slightly once I had my photos (because of colors or arrangement etc), so then I was stuck. This will allow me to change as I see fit. Also, since I changed my goal - from finishing by end of this year, to finishing before preorder next year, I know I can spend some more time on some of these later.

My other goal is to use mostly just the kit and the digital overlays that I purchased from Ali Edwards' site. I bought the combo pack to have the various sizes. I'm not sure yet how I will incorporate these, but I will have them if I need them! I love the look of them, but not sure I am so good at playing off the simple look like Ali does, so I might end up using them more for overlaying the photos, we'll see.

Anyway, good luck to everyone who is participating this year!!

December Daily Day 25 and Conclusions

So even though I'm posting this a few days later, I actually completed the last spread and this year's DD album on December 26th!! Not only do I feel great about completing this on time, but it felt so good to clean up my DD supplies that I left out on my table all month long!! I love that I can go back to my 12x12 scrapping once again yay!

For this last layout I really wanted to keep it simple again so I could just be done with it. Even though it's the last spread and I should've wanted to put more effort into it, I got more and better pictures for Christmas Eve and had spent the most to that layout, so I felt ok with just keeping this one simple. So the left side I just added a few embellishments and a picture of Natalie and her cousin Joey "playing" together :)

For the right side card, I used Shanna Noel's 3x4 layered template sold at Studio Calico, and customized it to a similar color scheme as the page! This is the tutorial video she made that I watched to customize the colors and text! So far, I am REALLY enjoying Photoshop Elements and I hope to get a new printer soon!

So now that I can say I successfully completed my December Daily right after Christmas, here are a few things that I learned worked for me that I would like to remember this time next year!

1. Prep work really paid off for me! Even just having papers cut up and put in there helped me have enough of a head start that most of my page spreads didn't take longer than an hour - about 2-3 hours total with photo printing/editing. I will definitely do this portion ahead of time again next year!

2. Filler cards - luckily I had placed most of my premade filler cards towards the end of the album, and that helped because the beginning of the month is when you're all amped up and ready to tackle this project, use all your creative ideas and get going... then it becomes hard! But thankfully I didn't have to do as much as I did at the beginning because of the filler cards I had!

3. Die-cuts: I wasn't too sure if I should pre cut all my diecuts or not. I didn't except for a few that matched the papers. If I precut the diecuts next year, I will cut them for specific layouts after I have the paper selected etc. I like that my diecuts are not all the same color card stock. Some in glitter POW paper, others in gold, others in white or vellum.

4. Which reminds me, next year I want to buy some more card stock or POW glitter paper that I can use throughout the album - maybe gold or silver or even sparkly white... it helped to have a sort of "base" to be able to use on almost all the pages (for me it was mostly gold).

5. Even though prior to the month, I liked the pages that I did the most prep work for the best, some of those turned out to be the hardest to embellish, depending on my photos. I ended up liking the pages best that I just stuck embellishments into the pockets loosely for potential use but didn't adhere down in case I changed my mind! I will do that next year - I will not adhere anything and just stick them in the pockets - maybe even stick a piece of paper with my ideas in it.

6. If next year's kit doesn't come with thin washi tape... I will go to great lengths to find more! I used that stuff on more than half my layouts - it was so awesome!

7. Also, if next year's kit doesn't come with some sort of numbered decor like the gold numbered circle clips, I will pre-make all the numbers in the same way. I loved having the clips as the first embellishment I could use, then build up from there. It made it super easy.

8. Another super easy (and unexpected) go-to item were the gold glitter star stickers I had purchased as a Halloween set from Target! I liked the idea of being able to use stars throughout the album, so I might get something similar - something simple I can use on every layout, if the kit doesn't come with something like that.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a happy New Year!! Looking forward to next year's December Daily challenge :)

December Daily 2013 - Foundation pages part 1!!

Wow, so here we are so fast - it's time for December Daily 2013! I got my Studio Calico kit with Ali Edwards yesterday in the mail and my husband so graciously took care of our DD so I could work on my DD... got that!? I've decided a few things ahead of time this year:

1. I will keep it simple and stick to the kit supplies! Last year I bought extras and added my own stuff in there, and when I think about how much I spent already on the kit and then to add extras, it's too expensive for me to justify, especially now that I have quite a bit of leftover from last year!

2. I will not care or mind that I don't have photos first - last year I waited to do anything because I thought I couldn't make a page without photos, but I think that's partially what made me fall behind. So this year I am forcing myself to just get as much done in advance as possible!

3. I will not become discouraged if I happen to miss a day - I missed a day last year and used a picture from the next day and just explained that I didn't do anything the previous day anyway. I will keep taking pictures and documenting the stories! That helped a ton after day 12 since I didn't finish DD 2012 till last month!

4. I will not give up if I don't finish DD by the end of December or the beginning of January. If I put it away for a few months, that's ok! This year, stepping away from it for many months helped me get excited again for DD and gave me that extra boost to finish it up.

5. Not every page has to be perfect, but I definitely like the look of each page looking holiday-ish even without holiday-ish photos. I did the last half of my last year's album that way - ex. I made a picture of taco night holiday-themed just by not caring what stickers and embellishments I used, and love that look so much better!

Anyway, now that I've made those decisions - here are the steps I took to start filling this album!

1. I mixed up the page protectors and removed the ones beyond 25 page spreads plus cover. I will only attempt to do 25 days, not 31.

2. I counted how many full size pages I had, and set aside that number of 6x8 pieces of paper to use and filled those pages first - except I ended up with one too few, but that's ok I might do a collage or something for the last one!

3. I cut up the rest of the papers in half to leave two 4x6 pieces

4. I knew I wanted to use things like the "25" wood veneer piece on the last layout and "the night before Christmas" premade card on day 24, so I put those specifically on those pages

5. I randomly placed the Ho Ho Ho wood veneer and the transparency cards throughout the album

6. I went through and tried to match up some papers that I thought looked good together and leave some intentional blank spots. I cut some of the 4x6 pieces in half to make two 3x4 pieces and added those where needed.

7. I am left with 2 pieces of 4x6 paper and 8 pieces of 3x4 - so basically 3 sheets from the 24 pack of 6x8 that came with the kit! Next step I will print and cut out the free digital printables that came with the kit, as well as the diecuts, then start doing some light decorating and then put it away until December... if I can wait that long!!

That's about it! Here's a look at the very start of my album!!

First of all, don't mind the swing, the breast pump and the weight to hold down the swing in the background... I have a 2 month old you know! Here's a look from the bottom:

Here's a look down from the top - don't mind the shag carpet either!

And here are the rest of the pages!

Thanks for stopping by!

December Daily Finished!!

Woohoo, I finally finished December Daily 2012!! I know it's October 1st, 2013... but... well... um... I never completed my December Daily and thought it would never happen. But then Studio Calico posted some sneaks of their upcoming December Daily kit with Ali Edwards for this year and I really like that it's going back to a bigger size, so that was the motivation for me to finish up DD from last year so I wouldn't feel so guilty about pre-ordering this year's kit!! I had finished up to Day 12, but had stopped and then thought it wasn't going to get finished, but the long break from it actually helped me get some pages done quickly and over the past couple weeks I was able to finish it out! Here are my pages!


Day 13: I found some scraps of paper and stopped worrying about finding the "perfect" use for that gold polkadot vellum paper, so I just kept it simple and moved on.

Day 14: Not too holiday-ish but I used the postcard from the Studio Calico journal boxes and some airmail twine since Chris' coat had blue and red to match and he came home for lunch that day to take a walk with me!

Day 15: I had seen one of Ali's pages I think it was that had the diagonal red lettering like that, so I used it for my title - this was me and my friend scrapping December Daily haha!

Day 16: I had also seen somebody use those Studio Calico diamond stickers like this as well and scraplifted the idea. I decided to keep my album holiday-themed in appearance even for non-holiday themed photos!

Day 17: Another quick layout - I had decided if I was going to finish this by the end of September (which I would have if Natalie wasn't sick and kept me busy all day yesterday), then I would just have to keep these pages simple!

Day 18: I looked back to my 25 Days class pdf's and saw Kinsey Wilson had a layout where she used that washi tape diagonal, so I did the same, but added in the sparkly silver washi since it sort of matched my new/used car!

Day 19: Just some simple stamping and embossing here

Day 20: I had printed out some of the class printable labels and decided to stamp on them and add some to the journal box along with some of those enamel dots - simple!

Day 21: Again just simple, did some stamping and added some stickers and called it a day!

Day 22: My least favorite but I got it done - I cut the note card from my Silhouette

Day 23: Decided to also embellish the photo a little too - what a difference that makes!

Day 24: I used the multi print feature (not sure what it's called exactly) on my Canon Selphy CP800 and decided to mimic the layout on the opposite page! I love how it turned out and it was so simple too!

Day 25: My only use of a transparency, I had cut that Dec 25 glittery piece with my Silhouette last year! I bought it from the Silhouette online store with the intention to use it specifically like this... I just didn't know I wouldn't get to it for another 10 months!

So there it is!! 2012 is completed and I'm ready to do this year's and maybe even finish it before October 1, 2014!! Haha, no promises though!