Merry Christmas

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas full of cheer, joy and love!

xoxo

Oh December

Oh December, we love you!

Only two more sleeps until Santa is here and you can feel the excitement in our house! We are making as much merry as we can around here! Hope your days are full of fun, joy and merriment! 

xoxo

DIY Photo Calendar

There might be just a few more days left before Christmas, but there's plenty of time to make a personalized handmade gift!  Using just a few pieces of patterned paper and photos, you can create a desktop calendar to be enjoyed all year long! Hop on over to Maggie's blog to see how easy it is to create an awesome photo calendar for a loved one (or yourself)!!

A few favorites...

I sat down this weekend and looked back through all of the projects I've created this year.  I didn't create as many layouts as I did in years past since a lot of my creative time was spent on my Project Life albums and a few other projects, but I seriously love every single one from this year.

Grids were a common design point for a lot of my layouts. I love using grids with papers, photos and embellishments.  They are so versatile and so easy to manipulate! I love adding in alpha or letters in my grids, and from looking back through my favorites, I obviously really loved spelling out my titles in a "mixed-up" grid design!

I've mostly been working on my December Daily album, so I haven't created a layout in quite some time and I'm on the fence about continuing to document our memories through layouts. I've noticed that my actual layouts have become more "photo-focused" and less "story-focused", so I'm doing a little soul searching over the next few weeks to decide how I want to continue telling our story. 

What about you?  Do you go back and forth about creating layouts and/or other projects??  

December Daily 2015 - Days 5-14

All of my previous December Daily albums have been the 6x8 inch size, so I was really excited to switch things up a little this year.  I've had this gorgeous 4x4 album from Jamaica Edgell for years, so I pulled it out of my stash and decided to give the smaller size a go this season.

While I do LOVE square photos, I was really really worried that I wouldn't be able to "fit" all of our photos in this book.  But, thankfully, there was nothing to worry about!!  This size is just SO fun and so very easy to work with!  As you'll see from my pages below, I've kept this album VERY simple - usually a large 4x4 photo paired with a 4x4 journaling card (the Studio Calico 25 Days class kit has been perfect for this album)!

Day 5

I've still managed to add in lots of fun extras, like envelopes, tags, journaling cards and more.  Like in all of my albums, the "extras" are my favorite.

Day 5

Day 6

Each day, I print out my photo for the day (or a photo collage), pick out a coordinating journaling card, type my journaling (or maybe handwrite it), punch my holes and add it into my album.

Day 7

The smaller size definitely makes this project manageable for me right now. Things are busy, and keeping up with a big 6x8 album isn't in the cards for me now.  This repetitive size takes out all of the guesswork about what size photos to print, how many to print, etc...

Day 8

I'm using a mix of old December Daily kits and new December kits (as well as the SC class kit too) throughout my book.  Pulling out my older Christmas supplies ranks right up there with Christmas morning to me!

Day 9

For this day, Anna "stole" some of the journaling cards from the DD mini kit and starting drawing and writing.  I thought they were the perfect addition to the album. There's just something so magical about seeing her little Christmas tree, her spelling and her list in the book.  THIS is what a December Daily is all about to me.  

Day 10

Another simple day here with a photo (and a really cute "deer") and a 4x4 journaling card. Simple and easy!

Day 11

I didn't have a photo for this past Friday, so I decided to write a little about our day and snuggling on the couch to watch The Polar Express together.  I perused google and found a good image of the movie poster and printed it out onto a 4x4 piece of photo paper.  Ironically, this page is actually my kiddos favorite page...go figure. 

Day 12

We spent most of the day on Saturday either out running errands and shopping, or out playing at the park (Christmas picnic and all), so I created a little stitched pocket using my 4x4 photo and a 4x4 journaling card. Inside of the pocket is a "12" tag with my journaling written on the back .

Day 13

Yep. Simple and easy here again.

A "Sunday best" photo and some notes about our day. 

Day 14

Day 14 would pretty much be called a "photo shoot gone wrong". Between a dog who was DETERMINED to stand in front of me and two kids who had the giggles, we ended up with more out-takes than actually "good" photos, but I'm totally ok with that.  Since I had so many, I decided to create two collages of four photos and then pair them side-by-side for this day.  Have I ever mentioned that I love collages??

And that's a look at my book so far (the first 5 days are a part of the Studio Calico 25 Days class, so if you are taking that class, hop in there and check out my lessons)!

Are you doing a December album this year??  How is your book coming along? I know it's a lot of work, but honestly, this project is priceless. We all love looking back at the memories and moments I've captured over the years. And my, oh my, how fast these little ones grow up.

xoxo

Around Here

A little glimpse of life around here!

Lots of holiday cheer, some shopping and tons of running around outside with this crazy warm December weather!  Can't day the days until both of my kids are out of school for Christmas! Only 11 more sleeps until Santa comes! Eeeep!

Happy Monday!

DIY Tassel Necklaces

If there is one thing I love, it's handmade gifts, and this year, we are all about giving out handmade pretties!  Anna and I spent some time a few weekends ago creating beaded tassel necklaces with charms for her sweet little friends and we just love how they turned out!

Stop by Maggie's blog to see how easy these necklaces are to make! 

Holiday Craft Party at Big Picture Classes

Hey hey!

I'm over hanging out at the Big Picture Classes Holiday Craft Party today! There are eight lessons up in the party that are sure to get you in the holiday crafting mood!

I'm combining two of my classes over at BPC (Photo-A-Day | 01 and Interactive Elements) to bring you three holiday photo prompts, as well as an interactive project using those photos! 

Here's a little peek at my project!!

Hope you will join us!! 

(You can check out all of my BPC classes here.)

Making Merry

We are well into December and I'm still having a hard time believing that Christmas will be here in just a few weeks. So far December has been full of the typical school schedules, activities, birthday parties and more, but I'm determined to make the rest of this month MERRY and fun! I think I often get too caught up in the everyday and forget to slow down and appreciate the moment.  Working hard these next few weeks to do just that. To slow down. To sit and enjoy. To let the laundry and house cleaning wait. To color with my kids and make Christmas crafts. To read a book by the fire. To just be.  It sounds so simple, but really, it's so darn hard.  

Hoping your days are slow and merry-ful. 

xoxo

Join me for Pocket Prompts | 11

My latest class at Big Picture Classes is up and running and I hope you will join me!

This class is all about Project Life, so if you need some help finishing out your album this year, I have five photo prompts, five journaling prompts, and a walk through of how I put my pages together!  

I promise you this class (and all of the other Pocket Prompts classes) will get your books finished in time for the new year!!

I love Project Life; and whether you are doing monthly books, one BIG album or a mix of everything, this prompts will be perfect to guide you along the way!

Hope to see you in class!!  If you do join in, drop me a line!!

xoxo