December Daily Final Pages & Thoughts

I'm back with my final post about the December Daily project. I know I'm kinda dragging this out...considering it's almost February, but there were a lot of pictures, so I really needed to break up the post. Today we're starting with:

Day 13:
Harper turned 6 months old, so that was the big story. It has nothing to do with Christmas, but that's what's so great about this project. Not only do you document all of the holiday happenings, but you also capture the everyday happenings. Although, I think turning 6 months old is a big deal, and I love that it happened during the holiday season!

The silver chipboard "H' is from a letter pack that I found in the Target scrapbooking aisle.

The "fantastic memories" is another digital brush from Ali Edwards and the journal card is from bananafish

studios. 

Day 14:

Here is another example of a day when there wasn't really a "big" story to tell. I decided to document the weather because it was so unseasonably warm around here this year.

The background is some wrapping paper I was using for our gifts and wanted to include it in the book. This was the perfect page for it. The journal card is another one from bananafish studios.

Here I simply went to our local news channel's website and printed out the week's forecast. Normally the temps are about 30 degrees colder!

Day 15:
The story for this day was about wrapping presents. I added it because we didn't have any gifts under the tree yet, so we had lots to do and I forced Jeremy to help.

This photo includes another one of Ali;s brushes.

I used more of our wrapping paper under the photos and a journaling card from bananafish studios.

Day 16:
This story is about our Christmas lights tour.

All the little embellishments on the photo were part of a 12x12 piece of cardstock and another digital brush from Ali Edwards.

Day 17:

I caught Jeremy in a very sweet moment with his baby girl, so I snapped a bunch of pictures and turned them into the story of the day. LOVE these pictures...minus the filthy dirty windows...

Digital brush from Ali Edwards.

Here I created a pennant banner out of some leftover scrapbook paper from my advent calendar project and some Martha Stewart baker's twine. Oh, and some star brads from Archiver's that I bought a long time ago. The journal card is yet another from bananafish studios.

Day 18:

For me, this was the best day of the season. We made gingerbread houses. Well, actually graham cracker houses, but that doesn't matter. It was so much fun! I had never done that before, but it's now a annual tradition.

I created the 8.5x11 collage in Picasa and then transferred it to Gimp. The little round tag came from a garage sale signage kit that I bought from Target a few years ago. I figured they would come in handy at some point and I loved them for this project.

I used another circle tag on this page and another digital brush. Not only was this my favorite day, but it's also my favorite spread in the book. I really love all the colors.

Day 19:
Today I wanted to highlight the handmade projects that I made for the season.

The cream ribbon is from a package I ordered from West Elm and the circle tag is from bananafish studios.

All the tags are from bananafish and the red & white paperclip is from Smash.

Day 21:

One of Ali's prompts was to take a self portrait and since I'm always, well almost always the one behind the camera, I thought this photo suited me perfectly for the season!

I got the green paper at Archiver's and the words are cut from the back side of a different piece of cardstock from Archiver's.

The "T" is from Target.

Day 21:

I wanted to write a letter to each kiddo as one of my stories, so I did it for today.

The Christmas stickers are from Archiver's and are a little more cutsie than the rest of the embellishments in the book, but I liked them for this layout since it's about the kids and adds some playfulness and color to the page.

The "happy holidays" tag is cut from a Trader Joe's paper bag and the letters are from Target.

The tag and star strip are also cut from a Trader Joe's bag and the paperclips are from Smash.

Day 22:

Today we had a picnic by the tree which was one of our Advent activities. Loved it and will definitely continue to do it every year!

All I did here was add some journaling over the photo. The font is Garamond.

On this photo I created my own text strip to divide the photos in half.

Day 23:

This day was incredibly busy and then we made the trip to my parent's house for Christmas, so that's what I wrote about.

I simply typed out the journaling using Remington Noiseless for the font and then cut it into strips to add a little interest.

Here I used an Instagram photo taken with my iPhone and the holly berry sticker is from Michael's. The letters are from Target. 

Day 24:
This is the day when we open our family gifts, so that was the story. We took some pictures of all the grand kids and we took another family pic and a pic of our kids by the tree.

I used another digital brush and added journaling. 

The letters are from Target.

Day 25:
This page is all about Christmas morning and the visit from Santa Claus.

The pennant flag is from bananafish studios.

The Santa's are from a bit of leftover paper I kept from a previous page and I just cut them out.

So there you have it!

FINALLY!!!!

I have a few thoughts to share about the project now that it's complete.

First, I knew this project would be a lot of work, and it was, but SO worth the effort. Sure there were some days when I felt like I didn't have a story to tell, but now that I look back at those days, I'm glad those stories are a part of the book. Somehow they just work.

Second, this is by far my favorite project ever! I've done tons of scrapbooks over the years, but this one takes the cake. I loved the holidays when I was young, but for a while I went through I period when I wasn't loving them so much. However, now that I have my own kids, I'm loving the season more than ever and this is such an incredible way to document it all. I plan to tackle this project for as long as I'm enjoying the process.

Third, I learned a lot about my new scrapbooking style and how I have a completely new approach to story telling. When I used to scrapbooking religiously back in high school and college, I didn't add much journaling. It was all about the photos. I may have added a few sentences here and there if I thought it was something I might forget over time, but mostly I just added lots of photos and lots of patterned paper and embellishments. Now, I care more about the journaling and recording the stories and emotions surrounding the photos.

I'm so glad I stumbled upon Ali Edwards blog and took the time to complete this book. Her creativity is inspiring.

If you have any questions about my project or would like more details about the products I used, please leave a comment or send me an email. I'm happy to help!

I'll be back tomorrow with a couple of recipes that I tried for dinner last night. Loved them both!

December Daily

Okay, so I know I'm really behind on my blogging! The holidays were so busy for us and although I stayed on top of my December Daily everyday, I didn't get to finish days 24 and 25 until just last night. I ran out of photo paper and ink on the 23rd, so I had to have the last two pages printed and had to pick them up, which takes much longer! I'm so bad at getting around to pick up pictures!!

Anyway, I thought I would share a few more days with you today. Then tomorrow I have a regular post scheduled. Then I'll post more pages until I've shared my entire book. Maybe some of you aren't interested, but maybe some are and I'm super proud of this scrapbook, so I have to share!

Day 6:
There wasn't a specific story on this day. I snapped a photo of Harper admiring the tree and then took this silly picture of Hudson and added the story explaining it. It was too cute not to add.

I used one of Ali Edwards digital brushes from Designer Digitals on both pictures. It says "Capturing the magical moments of December".

Day 7:
The story for today was our first meal at the Chick-fil-a that had recently opened. We've been waiting for a Chick-fil-a forever and finally got one, so this was kind of special.

The snowflake overlay is from Hambly and I just cut them down to 3 x 11 1/2. I like how it adds a little something extra. 

I used the bag that our food came in as a background for the text. Unfortunately I didn't think to do it until after we crumpled it up, but that's okay. I don't mind the wrinkles. The number 7 is from Bananafish Studios.

I made this photo collage using Picasa and designed it to look like Polaroids. Then I added another one of Ali's digital brushes on top.

Day 8:

This is the day where I added our Christmas card. Very simple.

I cut up a bag that I got when I bought something at Hallmark. I love what it says and knew I wanted to incorporate it into my book.

I just used some Martha Stewart baker's twine at the top and a journal card from Bananafish Studios.

 Day 9:
Today Hudson received a email from Santa that included a video message. He loved it and asked to watch it again and again.

I used another digital brush from Ali Edwards and created a full page of photos. I designed almost all my pages using GIMP.

I printed out the email and cut it up and added some handwritten journaling. I hate my handwriting, but I wanted to include some throughout the book anyway.

Day 10:

My story for today was outlining the things that I was loving about the season so far.

I found this Santa paper at Archiver's (sorry I don't know the designer) and knew I had to use it in the book. So, I used it for the whole page.

The silver letters are from Target and the font I used is called Remington Noiseless.

Day 11:

Jeremy took some beautiful pictures of Harper and I cuddling right before bedtime and right away I knew that was the story for the day. Another simple day.

Day 12:
I didn't have an idea for the day, so I decided to have Jeremy and I list some of our favorite things about the holiday season. I wanted to include some of his handwriting too.

I used a digital brush and blew it up.

 

Again, I used Remington Noiseless for the font.

That's as far as I got today. I have to take the baby to the doctor to check on a possible ear infection.