December Daily

I left off on Day 11 on this post. Here are the following 10 pages that I finished today :) I am really enjoying working on this album!

Day 12 - I used the sketch from Stuck! sketches. This is a picture of the white board in our office with all the football stats. I was in the final 4 pool at work but unfortunately went out on the Broncos vs Raiders upset!! :(

Day 13 - My sicky first graders caught up to me on the 13th. I spent the day in bed with a box of tissues, saltines, 7up, chicken noodle soup and my advil cold and sinus. My hubby took good care of me and luckily the bug only lasted 24 hours.

Day 15 - My secret Santa gift from my Scrappin-N-Chattin group came in the mail. My friend Sandi spoiled me with embossing powders and a heat gun. I can't wait to work on more cards!

Day 15 - Spent the evening scrappin while my puppy was nappin. We bought him a dog bed for Christmas (he is being weened off his crate) and as you can tell he hated it LOL. Even though he lays on it a lot, he will not give up his blankets. He drags them all over the house! I used a file folder from a pet swap - hidden journaling behind. Love the stamp they used on the front.

Day 16 - the Christmas card photo shoot. One of the many hilarious shots of Jax in his reindeer suit. He humored us for a whole half hour :) He's such a good sport!

Day 17 - Yes, a print out of an email my hubby sent from work. It says I have good news for you and we are going to dinner to celebrate. He said he is allowed to work from home the week between Christmas and New Years. Hooray!

Day 18 - Wrapping gifts in the living room :) I love how it shows Jax on his new bed in front of the fire, our tree, wrapping supplies and gifts all over the floor, Frosty on tv and the "winter storm advisory" scrolling across.

Day 19 - Let it snow! We got a total of 2 feet dumped on us. It came Saturday into Sunday.

Day 20 - Playing in the snow with Jax (it was too deep for him). I love how the journaling is on the photo.

Day 21 - Digging out of the blizzard and going to McDonalds for dinner. This was last Monday. We did get a 2 hour delay!

Thanks so much for taking a peek at my album!

December Daily - Days 10 and 11

How great it feels to be scrappin' again after taking a week "off". So much going on here with school and the holidays and other committments. But I'm so glad I made a list each day of what I wanted to do for this album, or else I think I would of held of till next year. Grab a cup of hot chocolate because this is going to be a LONG post of days 1-11 that I scrapped last night and this morning. I broke it up into 2 days each to be more managable. I would love to hear your comments. This is my first big mini album :)

You can catch up with what I've been doing on my December Daily posts here.

Going in reverse order, yesterday was all about babies. I had a baby shower in the morning, did some Christmas shopping, and then stopped by to visit my cousin's new little girl. Such a fun day!

Friday night, Dave went to the store and picked up groceries on the way home. We are helping each other be healthy in the new year. I had to laugh when he said he got "his and her" salad stuff because we have very very different tastes. He loves the dark greens and veggies and dressing etc. And I love the lighter greens, olives, bacon, and no dressing LOL.

This is on one of the bag end flaps, so I am experimenting with halving my pictures to make it work. No journaling on this page, just a fun picture of our salad ingredients.

Keep reading, lots more posts below :)

December Daily - Days 8 and 9

I think it's good to document the good and the bad. This week was really stressful/overwhelming for me - hence not a blog post in a week. It felt good to scrap again! Yes, I took a picture of my gas tank on empty on the 8th. It just fit perfectly with my mood! I really was "on empty". I took a half day from work to kick the cold I started and rejuvenate.

The 8th was my student teacher's last day with us. I took lots of pictures of her and the kids and all the fun we had at the "surprise" party. But, I decided to take a few pics cube of this awesome photo cube she made for me. I forgot all about some of the pics she had of us and the classroom. She also had it engraved, which was so so sweet.

December Daily - Days 6 and 7

The following 4 pages are all pull-outs. They are stored in the flaps between the pages of my bag book.

They can be pulled out by the numbered tabs.

The 7th was my Mom's birthday. We all dressed in our respective jerseys for football a few Sundays ago and I blew up this picture and had it framed for her. Go Cowboys !! I can't believe I grew up in the same house with an Eagles fan AND a Redskins fan ;)

We went to Balitmore to visit our nieces on Sunday. One of the great pics from that day. Just love how this one turned out using Julie's sketch from 52 weeks. The previous layout used the sketch too.

December Daily - Days 4 and 5

More pull out pages...

I just love how this one turned out. I used the sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. First snow of the season came on Saturday morning. This is the view from our bedroom window. So pretty!

This layout I used the sketch from Scrappin-n-Chattin and made the title on my Cricut/SCAL. Anytime one of us lays on the couch with Jax, you are bound to fall asleep!!

December Daily - Days 1, 2 and 3

Day 3 is photos and journaling of Jax's holiday shirts. I found his first one in the bottom of a Christmas decoration box and couldn't resist a comparison shot. I have yet to wrestle him into this year's. Maybe today! Used up a few doggie embellishments that I probably wouldn't use on a normal page, but they fit right in in this eclectic album.

Day 2 is a picture of the Rockefeller Center. That night we watched the Christmas special of the tree lighting. Always fun because that's where Dave proposed. I decided to do all handwritten journaling throughout my DD album, even if I hate it LOL.

Day 1 is a picture of our tree. I am experimenting with doing a smaller album than 12x12 and trying to accommodate all my titles and journaling I like to do. It surprises me there are no embellishments on this page!

December Daily Album

Friday night I worked a bit on my December Daily album. It took longer than I expected to cover all of the inside pages of my bag book. I used Cosmo Cricket's Be Good collection and like the unified look of it. Here are a few sneak peeks.

Are you working on one too? December starts Tuesday~!

Album Cover

I finished the cover for my December Daily album! This is the background post on my album so far. I used a poinsettia fake flower from the Dollar Tree and took off 2 of the petals. Normally, I pop them off the stem because it won't lay flat in a regular album. But, this is my first mini so I can go all out 3D right? ;)

The center of the flower has gold glitter on the tips, which inspired me to freehand these glittered swirls in gold! I really like how that turned out.

Then, I justed added a strip of patterned paper and a chipboard title. I might add a little something along the bottom or above the title on the right side. But I haven't decided yet, any thoughts? ;)

December Daily

Hello November. Time to start thinking about December :)

I've been following the awesome Ali Edwards' blog for over a year. I've "oohed" and "ahhed" her concept of December Daily and the albums she has created.

To quote Ali, "December Daily is an album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. Many people start their documentation earlier and many people go longer. I have found that 25 days is just right for me.

One of the keys to success in this project is getting an album structure set-up in advance of December so that during December you can enjoy the season & enjoy the process of documenting your days without having to be putting the entire thing together at the same time. It is not meant to be stressful. It is meant to be a way to creatively celebrate the season and document you special holiday memories in one album. "

You can see different takes on 2008 December Daily albums in Ali Edwards' Flickr gallery.

So why am I posting about this?

I've decided that it's time to step off the sidelines and play in the game! I'm going to create my first real mini album.

I'm in Ali's stage 1 of the process. Gathering materials. After much deliberation and consulting my scrappin-n-chattin' friends - I've decided to go WAY outside my box. I'm going to make a paper bag album.

I took 3 paper bags that measued 15" tall by 8" wide. I alternated which way they opened and laid them on top of each other. I had a friend sew down the middle and my hubby used his drill to make 5 holes through them.

Here is the bare cover.

Not including the covers, there are 10 8" x 7" pages. I have not decided on whether or not I will glue down the bag end flaps or use them as mini pages or hidden journaling.

The tops of the bags open up on the sides to insert more pages and memorabilia.

I'm so excited to have a base for my project! I love how it is a standard size, but I can make it 3D and chunky if I want to, with many interactive elements.

Now, the fun begins. Embellishing!

As promised, I've updated my Etsy store for the holiday season and will be featuring "December Daily Dollar Deals!"

Are you making an album this year too? I'm going to be making multiple sets of some of the things I'm cutting and featuring in my album - and offering them for $1 !

These are the letters I decided on for my album. 2 other fonts available in your choice of red, green, black or white. Check them out here.

Can you tell I am excited about this project? I would love to hear if you are doing something similar, please comment and leave a link so I can check it out. If there are any embellishments, die cuts, or custom made titles etc. that you would like made for your album - let me know, I love personalized orders!