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 Foundation Pages Part 2 (Days 1-8)

OK so this second part of preparing my December Daily pages is taking me a lot longer, but mostly because I am back at work now and not really scrapping during the week anymore! Bummer! I need to take more maternity leaves :)

Anyway, slowly I am making my way through this album, trying to prepare as much as possible before December actually hits! I went through and started my foundation pages here, but since then I already changed a few things. I signed up for the 25 Days class with Maggie Holmes from Studio Calico and I bought some of the Holly Jolly collection from In A Creative Bubble by Geralyn Sy. So I ordered all my digital items from the class, from the shoppe, and from the original DD kit online from OfficeMax Impress Printing Services! I ordered them to be printed on bright white 80# cover stock - so they'd turn out brighter than if I printed at home, and also have a slight shine to them. The files printed and turned out great!

So after I received all these new cards, I went through the album again and swapped out some of the papers I had cut out with the new cards. Then I finally got started for real. Keep in mind, I've decided not to care if my pictures will match - theme or colors! I will keep it holiday-ish and figure if worse comes to worst, I will print my pic some days in black & white or sepia to match!

Here's my cover! I kept it simple and knew I wanted to use those gold letter stickers - I have an extra theme since this is my daughter's first Christmas! I'm sure she will be in a majority of the pictures (why else would you have a kid hehe)!

The only day of the season that I sort of know what we will be doing is Day 1 - I want to always pick out our tree! Except this year, we might not have room for a tree... but even if it means getting the LED tabletop tree from the basement, that will be the theme haha! I used the wood veneer trees from last year's kit (I cheated already and used other stash)!

This Day 2 page came together last out of all these pages so far - I kept going back to it, and finally filled one of the pockets with that white brick wall paper from Studio Calico's latest Cuppa kit! I used the Silhouette to make some cuts and also used some Ali Edwards stamps I purchased from Technique Tuesday:

Day 3 sort of stumped me too, so I'm not crazy about it, but that's ok!

For Day 4 I used a bow from the Printshop collection at Studio Calico, to add some much-needed dimension!

Day 5 is the first page I really love! I finally used one of those gold number chipboard clips and incorporated some gold POW paper to cut out a reindeer head... what I didn't plan on was using that negative like that - I originally was planning to use it for a border around a square 4x4 pic but if I don't have one, then I sort of like just the cut by itself! I would just need to decorate a little more but it works!

I kept day 6 much simpler, and just added that black glittery star from a pack of star stickers I bought at Target - I think they were from American Crafts, part of a Halloween collection!

For day 7, I had some really shiny gold paper I had bought awhile back from one of the LSS (Local Scrapbook Stores) and cut out that ornament and punched some circles to match the gold number again!

And finally for day 8, I got some inspiration from Maggie's foundation pages in her 25 days class and added some sequins and wood veneer 8!

Hopefully I'll get some more days done before December hits and post them, but wanted to get these up as soon as I could! Thanks for stopping by!!

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!