Ali Edwards's Blog, page 207

December Daily® 2014 | Day Nine

Welcome to 
December Daily® 2014 | Day Nine. 

Today I'm playing with black and white and numbers and words. 

Here's a look at the components of Day Nine: 

On the left side I created a 3x4 card using some of the supplies from the kit: the masking tape, the "let your heart be light" stamp, the hand-drawn pattern paper + the bokeh heart + a red star + a brad. I paired that with a photo I took using the timer on my iPhone last night of me sitting by the fire working on my holiday cards. 

I also knew I wanted to use that number paper for today since it went up to 9 and in the 
Foundation Pages video I talked about maybe using it for some kind of list and that's what I ended up doing. 

Another idea if you wanted to make it more meaningful would be to write up your own words on a piece of paper and then place the bokeh heart on top - maybe more parts of your story. 

For this page I used the 
Gold Glitter Zing again to emboss the title + added the date using a date stamp. I drew a box around the two to bring them together. Underneath I wrote out nine things I'm still looking forward to this year before Christmas. 

Those little numbers on the stamp set are totally getting some use this year. 

Here's a look at the full spread in the album: 

SUPPLIES

SHARE YOUR DAY NINE

I'd love to have you share a link to your Day Nine pages below. Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link.

SILHOUETTE GIVEAWAY WINNERS

hiwendyhi said...Have wanted a Silhouette for so long now (YEARS!!) and the budget just never allows it. But, I keep trying!! I'll get one someday. :) Thank you for the giveaway fun!!

k4projl said...WOW! This is such a wonderful giveaway! I have been looking at The Silhouette for quite some time, even just yesterday. So many craft projects can be done! :) Thank you for the opportunity! A side note: your December Daily kit rocks!!!!!

Congratulations! Please email Katie at katie@aliedwards.com with your contact information

December Daily® 2014 | Day Eight

Welcome to 
December Daily® 2014 | Day Eight. 

Many of your know I'm a fan of keeping it real in my memory keeping projects. That doesn't mean I include every negative thought and feeling and experience I encounter in my life but it does mean that I often include documentation about the challenges I'm facing or the things I'm wrestling with in my mind and heart.  

The holidays stir up lots of emotions in people and I'm no different. 

How can we treat each other with even more tender loving kindness during these days of dark and light? Smile at people as we walk by. Open our hearts a little more than we are comfortable with. Forgive. Put ourself in someone else's shoes. Take a broader view of an issue or a closer look at someone else's thoughts/feelings. Take the next step. Write it out. 

For Day Eight I decided to write a bit about the emotions and thoughts I was experiencing last night. I paired that journaling with a fun little pocket of goodies and my list of things I want for Christmas. It's simply how life goes - a crazy combination of silly and serious, light and dark, hard times and good times. 

My journaling for today: 

"Ah, seasons. I was thinking a lot about seasons last night as I sat in Aaron’s living room and watched his kids decorate their tree. I thought about our families and the ways in which we have come together. I thought about Simon and Anna and how they were probably decorating the tree over at Chris’ house and how I hoped they were enjoying it and being in the moment vs. longing for something else (I want this for me too). I thought about the ways in which we move forward and the ways in which we are held back. I thought about giving and receiving and letting go. I thought about traditions new and old and the ways in which my family celebrated the holidays when I was a kid. I thought about imperfections and magic and finding/making my own joy. I thought about expanding hearts. I thought about the seasons of change - how we resist and how we become more flexible through all the days of our lives. I thought about how much I love the season of twinkle lights and how I hope I can bring that joy to the most special people in my life."

Here's to more light than darkness for each and every one of us. 

Here's a look at Day Eight: 

Day Eight pairs a full page 6x8 pattern paper + a pocket holding the large gold 8 and tissue paper circles and the word twinkle + my Christmas list + some thoughts on seasons. 

In Photoshop I opened up this photo, made it horizontal vs. vertical (see video tutorial below), added the word "season" from
this set, and then added my story. 

I also added the gold glitter star along the top using a glue dot (and I embossed the back using the white embossing powder). 

Here's a short video that shows you how to make a 4x6 horizontal photo from a vertical photo using the clone tool in Photoshop. 

December Daily® 2014 | Using The Clone Stamp Tool To Transform A Vertical Image To Horizontal from Ali Edwards on Vimeo.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about that in the comments. 

The pockets are a fun place for adding those extra little embellishments. I just ran the pocket through 
my sewing machine to keep it closed. 

In addition to my thought-filled journaling I love the idea of adding in what I want for Christmas. My kids will be doing their letter to Santa soon (probably this week) and that usually finds its way into my album as well. On the card I used the number stamps from the kit with gray ink. 

Here's a look at the whole thing again:

SUPPLIES

TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY | SCRAPROOM

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SHARE YOUR DAY EIGHT

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AE Digital Creative Team | Holiday Product Inspiration

Today I wanted to take some time to share with you some really awesome samples that my Digital Creative Team has been creating with my holiday products. 

As you'll notice, many of these women are what I call hybrid memory keepers - meaning they are using digital products on paper projects (which is a lot of what I personally do too). If you'd like to learn more about getting started with digital scrapbooking (with the goal of purely digital projects or a hybrid projects) check out my series on Getting Started here. Those posts include information on basic file management plus tips on printing and working with many of the products I have available here in my shop and at Designer Digitals. 

Each week we are adding new examples created by this team to the product image sliders in my Digital Shop to give you a variety of examples of how the products can be used. 

One thing I want you to know is that this team isn't restricted to only using my products in their projects. I like seeing how they combine my products with other cool things available out there for memory keeping. 

Below each example we've included the web address so you can go check out their blogs and see what other cool things they are creating. Super thankful for the support they are providing me and looking forward to their future creations. I've also added a bit of commentary next to their names detailing what I like about the page/project. 

Here we go: 

Noel | A fun set of holiday script. Great for adding to photos or as titles above your journaling. 

Here's some cool ideas of how to work with this product from the Digital Creative Team:  

Pam Baldwin | Full page photo + second page for a large title and two columns of journaling. Love it. 

Ginny Hughes | Super in love with the circle image + the gold dots and stitching. Ginny used the Silhouette to cut out the words "christmas" and "tree" from the Noel set. 

Sasha Farina | A couple things I think are cool about this page: (1) I love the two areas of stitched background pattern paper - something super cool about that separation and (2) I like how she created a simple card by repeating the "twinkle" script over and over again. I also love that this isn't a holiday page - it shows that these words can be used in other projects vs. strictly used during December. 

Cristina C. | Two page layout - again loving that she used "merry" on a non-Christmas page. Great full page photo combined with a fun collection of repeated words on the other page. 

Christmas Rocks 3x4 Cards | Great for adding to pocket pages or on traditional layouts, this graphic and bold set of cards emphasize my love of words and type.

Here's some cool ideas of how to work with this product from the Digital Creative Team: 

Kelly Schmidt | I love how this page could easily translate into a December Daily page pairing the 3x4 card with a 3x4 photo. I also really like that grid pattern paper in the background. 

Stephanie Baxter | Stephanie took the design and used it to create her holiday card for this year. 

Carly Robertson | Simple and lovely. 

Paige Taylor Evans | Paige took the 6x8 version of this design and turned it into a cut file for the Silhouette. Awesome. Read her post about that here. 

3x4 December Stories Cards | Another 3x4 card set available includes sentiments for documenting your December stories. 

Here's some cool ideas of how to work with this product from the Digital Creative Team: 

Lindsay Bateman | Love how Lindsay varied the size of the cards here and gathered them all together on the layout. 

Donya Gjerdingen | Love these cute photos and love how Donya added patterns behind the word art on the cards to customize her pages. 

Emily Webster | I love this example from Emily because of it's emphasis on the photos and the words. The products compliment her images and story. 

Teresa Victor | Another lovely example of simplicity. 

Merry & Bright 6x8 Text Overlays | This product is designed to add word-based texture to your photos or can also be used on it's own to create a home for journaling. 

Here's some cool ideas of how to work with this product from the Digital Creative Team: 

Annette Haring | Love this page from Annette's December Daily that includes the text overlays on top of her 6x8 photo. Love that silver and gold and gray color scheme too. 

Celine Navarro | Celine used the text overlays on the top of this photo. I love the subtle quality of the words on the photo combined with the rest of the things she's got going on with the layout. 

Hope you have a great day!

December Daily® 2014 | Day Seven

Welcome to 
December Daily® 2014 | Day Seven. 

I hope that some of you had a chance to work on your albums this weekend - love seeing them linked here and via Instagram. Thank you for sharing using the #decemberdaily hash tag to make them easy to see via Instagram. 

Today I'm going with a combo of our Christmas card + more little stories. 

For the last few years I've ordered and/or partnered with 
Minted for our Christmas card. They are great quality with lots of awesome design choices and my overall experience with them each time has been really good. You can check out the past cards I've ordered and added to my December Daily® albums here: 2013, 2012, 2011.

You might also notice that this year I went for a photo of the three of us vs. just the kids. I love how this one turned out. 

Here's a look at my Day Seven: 

I did move a few things around from how I had set up my 
Foundation Pages to be able to use the 6x8 Day Seven printable in addition to our holiday card.  

You can see what I have up next for tomorrow in my album at the bottom of this post. 

Super simple idea. Obviously you can write more of a story about this as well - why you chose the card you did, the story of taking the photo, etc. 

Holes punched using the 
Crop A Dile. 

I decided not to do anything with the back of the bag or the back of the photo from
Day Six. I might add something later in the month and if I do I'll share it here. The card could have obviously been placed in the bag too but I really wanted it to be a page itself.

I'm back again with more little stories (similar to 
Day Five). The stars stamp + the "the story of today" stamp make a nice little list journaling opportunity. 

Here's what it looked like before I added my stories: 

And after: 

I used the same two pens as 
Day Five. 

A here's the base of what I'll be working with tomorrow: 

Which is perfect since there are "8" spots for what I want for Christmas and I'll add some sort of 4x6 photo in the pocket below. 

Have a great Monday!

SUPPLIES

TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY | MINTED

Ali Edwards' readers can get 20% off Art Prints at 
Minted today only (12/08/14) by using the code AE20ART.

SHARE A LINK TO YOUR DAY SEVEN

I'd love to have you share a link to your Day Seven pages below.
Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link.

December Daily® 2014 | Day Six

Welcome to 
December Daily® 2014 | Day Six. 

I'm hanging out here this weekend working on my Week In The Life™ album and taking breaks to move holiday decor around.

As I decided on my story for today I wanted to pass along this thought: you can let go of worrying about whether something happened on one particular day or another. Don't get caught up in things having to happen on specific days - it's nice when they do but its okay to save up a story for a different day - it's all part of the same season this year. 

For my story today I'm sharing about going to see Aaron's boys at their talent show that was on the 5th - I'm making it my story for the 6th. And it's all good. 

Here's a look at what I came up with for Day Six: 

Remember 
yesterday how I showed you that I was planning to include the Starbucks bag? 

I stuck with that and decided to enlarge a photo with journaling on it (via Photoshop) to fit inside the bag. 

The photo I printed ended up being 6 inches wide x 7 inches tall and I printed it on 
Epson Photo Paper. 

I also really wanted to use that number 6 as a 'pull-tab' for pulling the content (photo and words) out of the bag. 

It's something that's easy for your hands to grab when you come across it in the in album. 

It ended up working great. 

Here's the full page:

On top of the photo I added journaling in Photoshop (Remington Noiseless, type size 8). 

After printing I added the number 6 + the "so merry" using the white letter stickers from the kit (which are awesome) and I used a little 
"have courage" rub on from Tim Holtz as it fit my story. I also added some of the red glitter tape to the bottom. 

Photo was taken with my iPhone. 

Here's what the back looks like for tomorrow:

I'm not sure yet just what I'm going to do with that - I might leave it blank and just do a little decoration. I have to see what my story ends up being for tomorrow first. 

Hope you guys are having a great weekend!

SUPPLIES

Click on the images below to link to the products used in this project.

SHARE YOUR DAY SIX

I'd love to have you share a link to your Day Six pages below.
Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link.

December Daily® 2014 | Day Five (And Story Kits™ Now Available For Pre-Order)

Welcome to
December Daily® 2014 | Day Five. 

What's on my mind today are little stories. 

The idea came about when I walked Anna in to school this morning. We were holding hands and walking down the hallway and she said something silly and endearing so I squeezed her hand and she squeezed mine back. "Mom, I love when you squeeze my hand." she said. In that moment I knew that today I wanted to document some of the little stories that I've been noticing and thinking about the past few days - just little bits of our life that are happening as we make our way through December. 

When I got back to the car I opened a note file on my phone and started brainstorming some of these little stories and then transferred them to the journal card when I got home. 

Here's a look at the two cards I ended up with today - yep, a no-photo day because you don't have to include a photo every day: 

One "decorated card" + one "journal card."

The two pens I used today (I like the contrast between thick and thin) are the 
Staedler Lumocolor (Wilna mentioned this previously on a podcast and I had to try it and I really like it and hope to have it in my shop sometime soon) and the Uniball Vision Elite. The Uniball pen is not a specialty archival pen - it's just my favorite regular old pen. 

Here's a closer look at each of the cards: 

So if you remember 
yesterday I shared how I cut that hole where my computer screen was to remove what I was shopping for (I also shared that I backed that photo with this pattern paper). 

To add a little something to this pattern paper I used the rectangle box stamps (from the 
kit stamp set) using red, orange and gray ink (repeating the look of the rectangle boxes that are already a part of the pattern). 

I also embossed using 
gold glitter zing three of the outline stars and added one of the small chipboard glitter stars to the little window embellishment to cover up the back of the brad. 

On 
the journal card I had already embossed the filled-in star using the gold glitter zing as part of getting my foundation pages ready. In addition I added a couple stamps to the top and then wrote out my little stories for the day.  

The tiny numbers on the stamp set worked great as separators for my little stories. 

Everybody has five little stories to tell today. 

Here's a look at both the cards in the album: 

And you might notice in the image above that I've already added something for tomorrow. 

Yesterday I picked up an after-school treat for Anna and ended up keeping this great little Starbucks bag because I love the color and the script and sentiment are awesome and it fits perfectly in the album.

I'm thinking for tomorrow that I will either make something to slip inside (using the bag as a pocket) or will add something to the back for Day 6. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

SUPPLIES

Click on the images below to link to the products used in this project. 

SHARE YOUR DAY FIVE

I'd love to have you share a link to your Day Five pages below. Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link.

STORY KITS™ NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER

The big news today is that after months (and months) of planning 
STORY KITS™ are now available for pre-order. 

So what is this all about? Story Kits™ are monthly, limited edition story-focused paper crafting kits designed by me. Geared towards memory keepers, these products act as sparks to help document and celebrate the stories of your life. 

Each month subscribers will receive an exclusive collection of memory keeping products (
click here to see a full list of what is included this month + images). The goal of the Story Kits™ is to encourage and empower you to craft the stories of your life regardless of your scrapbooking approach (traditional layouts, pockets, minibooks, etc). With that in mind, subscribers will receive access to a members-only area that includes educational content to go along with each monthly theme (multi-page PDF and videos that include how-to's and ideas for getting your stories told) - this is the same classroom as the Story Stamp™. In addition to the inspiration and education, there is a subscribers-only message board and gallery for support and sharing your stories and projects made with the kits.

BONUS | Subscribe to BOTH the 
Story Kit™ and Story Stamp™ and receive the Digital Story Kit™ FREE (see image below). Your free Digital Story Kit™ will be available on or around the 15th of each month in your dashboard under "My Digital Files" for download.

In addition to the 
Story Kit™ and Story Stamp™ I will also be offering a Digital Story Kit™ subscription that will become available on December 15th. This will be a monthly subscription (meaning you subscribe and then it will continue to be auto-delivered to you until you let us know you want to cancel) for $19.99 and you will have access to the same education as the other Story subscriptions.

December Daily® 2014 | Day Four

Welcome to 
December Daily® 2014 | Day Four. 

Do you have most of your gifts purchased already? I'm moving through my list so my story today is about sitting at my desk and shopping online. I know some people love it and others hate it (shopping online) - I'm in the love camp as it seems to simplify my shopping experience overall especially when I know what I'm looking for already (and my kids are pretty specific). 

PS | Brene just 
re-posted this great post from a few years ago that is such a great reminder of focusing on what's most important. Definitely worth reading if you feel yourself on the crazy train of more. 

PSS | Remember again, small stories add up to one big December story. Don't feel like you have to re-invent the wheel. Look for one thing to include and move on with your day. 

Here's a look at Day Four: 

Day Four includes the back of the 4x8 inch tree photo from yesterday + 2, 4x6 pockets. 

One thing I've enjoyed including in past years are a page or two cut from a holiday catalog. This one here is from 
Boden and it could be one of my favorites ever - the styling was just awesome throughout. It made a nice compliment to my online shopping story - you could also simply use one of the pattern papers from the kit there. 

You'll also notice that I repeated another gold foil circle + a chipboard shape along the edge as a tab (repeating the same thing from 
Day Three). 

On the right side of the spread I took a photo of myself sitting at my computer and printed it on my Epson printer. 

On my computer screen was an image of some online shopping I was doing for the kids that I don't want to include so I decided to cut that part out and create a window that peeks through to the next pages in the album (you can see my finger peeking through in the image above). 

Cutting out a shape from a photo is pretty easy (easier to see the hole in the image within the whole album). It took my two tries to get it right because I screwed up with the 
craft knife going to far on the first one. 

As you can see above I used a 
craft knife to carefully cut out the computer screen. 

Then I took a piece of 
transparency and added one of the small plastic red stars + a cork star + a brad through the transparent piece. 

You'll also notice that I'm getting ready for tomorrow by cutting out a second window in the pattern paper I want to use tomorrow because I want the window to show through both sides. 

There's the start for tomorrow. 

Someone in the comments yesterday asked if I write the lines or the words first. Usually I write the words first and then underline them. You can totally do it either way. 

"The story of this photo" stamp is from my 
Photos stamp set. 

The wood veneer 4 was embossed and I stamped the heart circle using the 
Gray Flannel Memento Ink. 

SUPPLIES

TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY | SIMON SAYS STAMP

We want to be your ONE STOP SHOP! At
Simon Says Stamp, we care about our customers and pride ourselves on going the extra mile to make customers happy. Offering quality products that you want to use in your December projects is our priority. Our whole team is passionate about crafting & the power of sharing stories. We want to share that passion with you by getting you inspired! Please visit our blog that is updated daily and 2 weekly challenge blogs on Monday and Wednesday! Have a "click" and stay awhile!

SHARE A LINK TO YOUR DAY FOUR

You're invited to share a link to your Day Four pages below. Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link.

Week In The Life™ 2014 | Tuesday In Album

Making time to get back to my 
Week In The Life™ album and am sharing Tuesday with you today. 

Tuesday was word and photo heavy and I love it. 

All the words were taken directly from my 
Tuesday blog post during the week. 

A couple things I was thinking about as I was working through the process of putting this album together:

What's most important in a project like this, or December Daily® or anything really, is making it work for you. My focus this time was even more on words and photos. I used the kit as accents to my story. You might not need this many pages per day - take them out! You might need more pages - figure out a way to add them in (add photos back to back, etc). Don't limit you story because you have too many or not enough of something. 
On the other hand, the limits might help you. You can definitely use the structure to MAKE CHOICES about what to include in your album. I always leave something out - I choose what to include - and I'm okay with that. As I work with my photos I do pick and choose, being mindful of the overall story of the week. Limits can be a positive thing as long as you don't spend too long agonizing over which photos to use to tell these stories. 

I also wanted to say thank you for your patience as I finish up this project. I've cleared my calendar and my plan is to get album completed this weekend. 

Here's a look at my Tuesday:

Sometimes when I chose the photo to enlarge for the start of the day I choose my favorite and sometimes I choose the first shot of the day and other times I just choose one I feel would make a good enlargement. For Tuesday I went with something that came from the words I included on my blog post:
Tuesday began and ended with rain. 

The font I'm using is my current typewriter go-to 
Remington Noiseless. The words were all added to my photos in Photoshop before printing. 

On top of the enlarged photo I added one of the gold foil label stickers - on top of that I had embossed "stories of life" from the stamp kit (in 
gold of course). 

On the 3x8 insert I stamped "this is my life" using 
red ink and then took some of the details from my Daily Sheet and hand-wrote them (including the times). It's a very simple overview but I like how it contrasts with all the typed words on the photos. 

The small plastic tab is from the kit - remember that I'm folding the printed-side down and using the stamps on those instead? I did that again here. 

On the back side I added another 3x8 photo. Love that look. 

On the next page I stamped "#everyday" using 
red Stazon ink directly onto my photo. On the bottom photo I added the blue circle with the gold star from the chipboard pieces + the orange Tuesday card and the number two above. 

I had a lot of photos I wanted to include today so I really went for it. On the left side I simply added my words in Photoshop, printed and then added phrases from the phrase sheet. 

On the right side I used the 2x2 inch pocket page which is also awesome. I can't wait to have more of those in my stash. 

I cropped all those photos to 2x2, added my words and printed here at home (I put them all on an 8.5x11 canvas and printed them on that size photo paper). 

I left a few of the pockets blank so you could see through to the other photos coming later in the day. 

To the top center pocket I added two chipboard circles back to back and stapled them in place. 

The white TUE circle is from the rub-on set - it's applied directly to the top of the page protector. 

On the back side I added the rest of the 2x2 photos (you can also see the chipboard circle back). You can also see where I added three of the blue stars (for three people in my house) and I ran that through my sewing machine to close the pocket and keep those in place. 

After cropping all those 2x2 photos I still had three photos I wanted to include (that had stories to go along with them) + the last 6x8 enlargement. 

I decided to print them 4x6 and do the back-to-back thing again and punch holes in the photo using the Crop-A-Dile. 

On the back of the first photo I added a cropped piece of my Daily Sheet. On the top I used the "today" stamp and on the bottom I added the circle stamp + this is our life. 

Two more 4x6 photos were printed and adhered back to back. You'll also notice that I added the
2-inch Avery plastic tabs along the edge of the back-to-back photos. When I add photos straight in like that I really like to have some sort of tab along the edge. 

I used my 
Photos stamp set for the sentiments inside those tabs. 

I also added more of those torn phrases. 

I finished off my Tuesday with an enlarged photo of the kids emptying the dishwasher. The story is about challenges with Anna. Because that's how life goes. 

Check out my Monday Week In The Life™ post 
here. 

SUPPLIES

Click on the images below to link to the products used in this project.

InLinkz.com

December Daily® 2014 | Day Three

Welcome to 
December Daily® 2014 | Day Three. 

Here's my story for today: 

"The boxes are out. The tree is up. There is stuff everywhere and I love it. My prayer and hope for this month is peace - in our home and in my heart. Slow. Calm. Cozy. I'm loving our evenings so far - fires in the fireplace, holiday books out, and twinkle lights. The cold temps and early darkness are just helping to foster coziness. We've also been doing early bedtimes. Rest and peace. Christmas movies. Snuggling. Quiet. No frenzy. No crazy making. All about making our own joy."

I'm really embracing the mess of getting everything up and making space for coziness right now. I know that the pace will likely pick up a bit as the month rolls on and especially as we get closer to the 25th, but for now I'm all about the calm evenings with my kids and the twinkle lights. 

Also, heads up that I'll have a second post up later today sharing my completed Tuesday in my 
Week In The Life™ album. 

Here's a closer look at Day Three: 

Day Three includes the back of Day Two - here you can see the back of the glitter tree (cut pattern paper to fit) and how I embossed the "S" with my contaminated white embossing powder (gold got in there last year I think). 

The 
gold foil 3x4 peace card came in the mail from my friend Cristina at Sweat Pea Ink. It is absolutely what I want for myself (and for others) during this season of light and I wrote about that in my journaling. 

On the 
3x4 journal card I stamped "the story of today" (x3) using red ink and hand-wrote my story and underlined the words. 

Opposite my journaling and the 4-pocket page I added a 4 inch x 8 inch photo. On top of that photo I added one of the gold foil circles + the "daily life" chipboard piece from the kit. The two together will act as a page tab. I'll repeat another one of the gold foil circles on the back along with whatever I adhere to the photo page. I punched holes in the photo using the 
Crop A Dile. 

Here's a look at it in the album:

Here's a look at what the back looks like right now - tomorrow I will cover it with something. I'm thinking I might stamp a patten using the star stamps. 

Hope you have a great day!

SUPPLIES

SHARE A LINK TO YOUR DAY THREE

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Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link. 

December Daily® 2014 | Day Two

Welcome to
December Daily® 2014 | Day Two.

NOTE BEFORE READING | Potential holiday spoilers. Some words might not be suitable for young viewers. 

Some of you might remember reading my post from earlier this year called 
Goodbye Kids, Hello Holiday Helper. Well holiday helping season is in full effect around here and this is the story I most wanted to include in my album for Day Two because the joy is contagious. 

I debated exactly how to go about including this story, knowing that Anna might try to read the words at some point before the time is right for her. I decided to write it in a way that was a little vague and to include it inside a folded card that not everyone would know actually included a story. 

Unless you read my blog of course (
and who knows when she might start doing that). 

The "S" can be for Simon or it can be for "Starlight" the elf. 

It's an important part of our December story this year and it's significant for him. And man he is so awesome. 

Here's a look at how it came together: 

Between day one and day two I added 1/2 sheet of one of the transparent pages and attached one of the sticker tabs (see more about that from my Foundation Page post). 

You might also notice that originally I had the "All I Want For Christmas" 3x4 card in the pocket for Day Two. I moved it to another day simply because it didn't match my story for the day and I like that it can almost be it's own story for the day so I'll save it for when I need it. Don't be afraid to move things around based on the stories you most want to tell. 

Be the boss of your own album. 

Here's a look at the page outside of the album: 

The tree and the "S" are both floating inside the pockets which means I get to see through to the next page. I used my Brother sewing machine to stitch the top of the pocket closed (a great gift if you know a crafter who wants a multi-purpose machine). I don't do anything special with my machine - just run it through. This time there happened to be red thread in the machine so I went with it - if it was purple I might have changed it out. 

You might be wondering,
where are the words? Hidden inside that star pattern paper card of course - more about that below. 

On top of the outside of the folded star card I added 1/2 of the gold foil circle and stamped "remember this" from the 
kit stamps. At first I thought I would fold the circle in half and then wrap it around the card - essentially creating a seal to make it even harder for little eyes to look inside without ripping it open but folding the circle didn't work as awesomely as I hoped - too many creases and my stamping was off a bit so I just cut it in a way that makes my stamping look more straight and added two little staples right along the edge. 

The "spread cheer" card was made using the
Christmas Rocks 6x8 layered templates - see a video on that process below. 

Inside that star card is where I added the story: 

A simple easy way to add more words to a smaller pocket (or hide from small eyes). 

The truth is most of the time right now they are just looking at the photos and the pretty sparkly things. 

Here's a look at it totally open: 

I put together a very short video about working with the 
Christmas Rocks 6x8 layered templates (what I used to add Spread Cheer onto the 3x4 photo - simply resize and move the word art down) and the December Stories 4x6 layered templates ("this December story") - that one was printed on Epson Matte Presentation Paper and adhered to the gray star pattern paper. 

I also added the "give love" stamp (from the 
kit stamp set) using Pistachio Memento Luxe ink. 

Here's a look at the full page in the album.

I really do love the see-though pockets. 

PS: I did end up embossing the back of the large gold "S" with white. You'll see that tomorrow. 

Hope your December is off to a great start!

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TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY | CAPTURE YOUR 365

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SHARE A LINK TO YOUR DAY TWO

I'd love to have you share a link to your Day Two pages below. Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link. 

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