Ali Edwards's Blog, page 34

December Daily® 2023 | Story 21 + 22

Welcome back to December Daily® 2023 and my 21st and 22nd stories! 

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and I'm excited to dive back in to my storytelling as I wrap up my album this week. 

I'm combining story 21 and 22 together as a home for an overnight adventure I took with some of our kids up to Seattle to see Macklemore in concert. I'd been looking forward to this event for months and had the best time with all the teenagers. 

Here's the process video: 

Here's what I did on my Table Of Contents: 

This is a good example of how sometimes I'm looking at the numbers as dates and sometimes I'm thinking about them as stories. Don't get caught up in that (numbers vs. dates) - just tell the stories you want to tell! 

For this entry in my album I started with a photo from Seattle Center: 

On top of the photo (measures about 8 inches x 8.25 inches and is adhered to a photo from Story 20) I added black chipboard numbers, a plastic ampersand embellishment from my stash, and chipboard phrase from the Main Kit. 

I used the Bold Foil Quill Freestyle Pen to add the gold foil dots onto the chipboard numbers before adhering them to the photo.

The next page in the spread is part of a large, flip-open that will reveal a big collage of photos along with two 3 inch x 4 inch page protectors. This photo measures 10 inches x 8.25 inches. On top of the photo I added the die cut word "awesome" from a previous Story Kit. 

I used a 1 inch circle punch to punch a partial circle along the inside edge to designate a spot for your finger when you fold open the page. 

When you open up the photo enlargement you find a big collage of photos and the two page protectors. 

I saved the photo collage layered template I created for this page for you to download. I did it twice for the number of photos I wanted to include. The full width of what I created here after you put it all together is 20 inches wide.  

Download the layered template here.

Here's what it looks like on my desk: 

I created a hinge to bring these pages together using a full sheet of basic printer paper (see the details in the video). 

I liked pairing the big collage of photos with the 3 inch x 4 inch page protectors. I was able to add a few more photos and have space for all the -ing journaling cards from the Main Kit. 

Handwritten journaling is so fun especially when mixing in that bright red POSCA paint pen. 

Those 3 inch x 4 inch pockets are great for things like hotel room keys, screenshots of funny text messages, and embellishments. I used a couple of the die cut labels to add a few more details from this adventure. 

Here's a look at the full photo collage spread. I love that a collage like this can incorporate photos from throughout our adventure. 

SUPPLIES

December Daily® 10x8 Album
December Daily® Tab Stickers
December Daily® Main Kit (digital available)
December Daily® Specialty Journal Card Pack (digital available)
December Daily® Die Cut Labels (digital available)
Freestyle Foil Quill Pen Bold
December Daily® Canvas Circles 
Red POSCA Paint Pen
Brush Pen
Slick Writer
Bakers Twine

In Case You Missed It | December 22

Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to the latest
In Case You Missed It. Just a reminder that this is a quick post that will happen every Friday afternoon with all the updates and links that have happened throughout the week. Please note: In Case You Missed It will not be published next Friday, December 29th as our team takes time to celebrate the holidays with family. Thank you for your understanding. So, let's get to it:

END OF YEAR SALE IS HAPPENING NOW
Have you shopped our epic End of Year Sale? For a limited time, shop available kits, components, stamps, and add-ons at up to 80% off! We hope this end of year celebration inspires you to tell more stories and excites you for 2024. The sale includes $10 Story Kit™, $10 stamps, $10 Stories By The Month™ kits, $25 Scrapbook Kits, as well as up to 80% off of subscription components and add-ons. Subscribers save an extra 10% off these sale prices using code SUBSCRIBER10. Shop the sale here.

ONE LITTLE WORD® 2024 IS HERE

Workshop registration opened this week and we have a new collection of carefully curated products available to help make your word visible throughout the year. ⁠Shop the collection here.
Visit our "Classes" page to see all of the details for this year's workshop. Register before 1/1 and receive the early bird pricing of $45 (registration after 1/1 will be $50) for 12 months of content related to making your word visible in your life.⁠ Register + learn more here.

DECEMBER DAILY® IS HAPPENING NOW

December Daily® is a December mini-album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. The simple goal is to capture the spirit of December via one story per day. Ali is sharing her stories in the same way she has in years past, almost-daily blog posts and videos. Find all of those on the blog, as well. Thank you all for making this project so incredibly special.

DECEMBER DAILY® DIGITALS

The 2023 December Daily® Digitals are here! Kits, Stamps, Paper, and Embellishments...the same fun & festive designs as the physical @decemberdaily products, only in digital format.⁠ We love to see how this incredibly creative community plays with digitals! Resizing elements and cards, adding journaling to papers, creating cut files, transforming files into transparencies, the sky is the limit with digital files. ⁠Want to learn more about creating with digital files? Our newest class December Daily® Hybrid Product Play is live and available to watch at your convenience.We have incredible content from six amazing contributors ready to explore at your convenience. Shop digitals here.

NEW CLASSES

2023 DECEMBER DAILY® PREP DAY. Join the December Daily® community for a fun online December Daily® prep day on Saturday, November 18th, 2023. Use this opportunity to finish past December Daily® projects or start working on your project for 2023. The first live video will start on Saturday, November 18th at 10:00 am Eastern. Cost is $5.
DECEMBER DAILY® PRODUCT PLAY | TRY THIS. December Daily® Product Play is all about ideas and inspiration for working with physical products from the December Daily® Collection. For 30 days in November, you'll receive one idea per day from the contributors to this class (includes Ali). Ideas in this workshop will focus on physical products from our 2023 December Daily® collection. Whether you are preparing to document 2023 or finishing up telling stories from past years, we hope these fun, creative ideas help you use your products to get your stories told.
2023 DECEMBER DAILY® HYBRID PRODUCT PLAY. Hybrid scrapbooking combines digital products with physical supplies to create paper (or printed) memory-keeping projects. For this class, our contributors will share with fun, creative ideas and inspiration for working with these digital products from the 2023 December Daily® Collection.

As always, we’re so grateful to have you all as members of this community! Thanks for joining me today and have a great weekend!

December Daily® 2023 | Story 20

Welcome to Story 20 in my 2023 December Daily® album!

Just a quick note that I will be out of town for a few days on a family adventure. I'll jump back into the project when I get home and continuing sharing on + off both leading up to and after Christmas. 

I woke up this morning with a page idea and I started down that path and decided it just wasn't what I wanted/needed for today so I did a full pivot to tell the story of these gummy bear ornaments that finally arrived after being backordered for a couple of months (ordered from Terrain + no longer available). They are definitely fitting in with my colorful, festive fun vibe this year. 

Let's dive in: 

Here's my Table Of Contents for today: 

When the collection first released back in late August I made some stamp samples and this circle was one that I made using the Wreath Stamp Set. I've had it in my album since then and my original idea for today included using it on the green floral pattern paper. My pivot included still using this circle and adhering it to the pattern vellum from the specialty paper pack. 

I've had these gold rimmed vellum stars on my table (they are from the December Stories By The Month 2023 kit) just waiting to support a story and today was the day. 

To attach the vellum stars I used embroidery floss to create French knots. Here's the French knot tutorial I followed for my imperfect knots. 

When you turn the page open you'll find a second stamped wreath, more stars, my journaling, and a large photo of one of the gummy bear ornaments. 

Journaling in a circle again for this one and decided to make my journaling a hunter green. I arranged my text in a 2.5 inch circle and printed it on Maco Sticker Paper. 

As you'll see if you watch the video, I made up an embossing powder mix for this one - literally mixing a variety of colors together: it started as an accident + turned into something fun. Have you ever done that? I've never done it before but it was really so fun. I've got the colors listed below that I ended up mixing together. I saved my mix in one of those little plastic cups with a lid (they are also great for custom paint mixing + saving). 

I used a star punch to punch out a couple more vellum stars from some plain vellum sheets. On top of those I added Tim Holtz rub ons and then attached them with French knots before adhering the whole thing to the back of the pattern vellum. 

I printed my full page photo 8 inches wide x 8.25 inches tall. On top I added "joy" using the large gold puffy letters. On the inside of the "O" I added a chipboard circle from my stash and I also added a main kit chipboard phrase below. I added a couple more vellum stars using French knots on top of the large ornament balls. 

Along the outside edge I used red line tape to adhere a strip of pom pom trim. 

This one definitely took some time but it was so fun. 

Also, as I was finishing this one up I was looking at the back of the envelope I used for Story 19. I ended up adding one of the large clear stickers from this sheet. 

SUPPLIES
December Daily® 10x8 Album December Daily® Main Kit (digital available) December Daily® Specialty Paper Pack (digital available) December Daily® Wreath Stamp December Daily® Holiday Phrases Clear Sticker Sheet December Daily® Gold Foil Alpha Puffy Stickers  Stories By The Month Vellum Stars December 2023 Tim Holtz Rub Ons (similar) Colorful Vellum Star Punch  Embroidery Thread Red Line Tape Maco Sticker Paper Stamping Platform Versamark Embossing Ink  Ranger Embossing Powders: Buttercup, Vintage Pearl, Blush Pearl, Pink Neon, Snowflake Tinsel Snappy Tray  Pom Pom Trim Little Plastic Pot for custom embossing mix Additional basic supplies via my Amazon storefront 

December Daily® 2023 | Story 19

Welcome to Story 19 in my 2023 December Daily® album. 

When I played around with foundation pages prior to December one of the things I set aside was this plastic nutcracker, the
red/white envelope, and the vellum tags from the Main Kit. I didn't identify a specific story to tell during December but left it open to whatever might come up. I decided to play with that today to document some of the text messages and screenshots I've taken/received over the last week or so. Taking screenshots of family text message chains, kids social accounts, emails, etc are a great way to show the technology of our time and bring in some other voices from your life. 

Let's take a look at the process video: 

Here's the Table of Contents for this story: 

The red/white envelope was included with this year's 
envelope bundle. I knew that I wanted to use the nutcracker on the outside of the envelope and when I realized that one of the die cut labels would fit under his arms I was so excited. I used Maco Sticker Paper again for the title and then added gold puffy numbers on top between his arms. 

For my story I gathered up a collection of screenshots and printed them either 2.5 inches x 5.5 inches or 3 inches x 5.5 inches. The vellum tags are from the Main Kit and the paper tags are from the pattern paper pack (
digital version available). Initially I envisioned that the screenshots would fill up the entire space on the bottom of the tags but most of them ended up with a border that I actually like even better. 

I didn't back my tags with anything but you could totally add more photos, screenshots, or pattern paper. 

I used
red line tape to adhere the nutcracker to the envelope. 

I added eyelets to the holes at the top of each tag and used ribbons from this year's 
Trim Pack. 

SUPPLIES

December Daily® 10x8 Album
December Daily® Main Kit (digital available)
December Daily® Envelope Bundle 
Tiny Attacher
Red Line Tape
Maco Sticker Paper
Gold Eyelets
Crop A Dile (to set the eyelets)

December Daily® 2023 | Story 18

Welcome to Story 18 in my 2023 December Daily® album. 

Today is a simple story about early mornings with Betty illustrated by a full page photo, text inside a circle, and a felt title with gold puffy numbers on top. 

Here's the video: 

Today's Table Of Contents: 

I'm so glad I went with the varying pen widths for the Table Of Contents. I really like how that turned out. 

Full page photo turned black + white measures 11 inches x 8.25 inches. On top I'm using one of the circles from the Die Cut Bundle this year as a home for my journaling. 

The red felt with the hand stitched joy was something I did a few months ago when I was starting to get excited about the upcoming season. It's been sitting on my table patiently waiting to support a story this month. 

I ended up cutting a piece of pattern transparency to the same size as the journaling circle and then temporarily adhering the felt piece to it before I ran it through the sewing machine. 

To add my story I used the Maco Sticker Paper again. It works so good! 

Text inside a circle tutorial can be found here.

I used a gold brad to attach the trasnparent/felt piece which turns it into an interactive element to reveal the journaling underneath. 

Puffy numbers from the Main Kit were added on top for the story number. 

SUPPLIES
December Daily® 10x8 Album December Daily® Die Cut Bundle (digital available) December Daily® Specialty Paper Pack (digital available) Maco Sticker Paper Sewing Machine Red Line Tape Benzie Design Felt  Embroidery Thread

December Daily® 2023 | Story 17

Welcome to Story 17 in my 2023 December Daily® album. 

Last night Anna had a team + family bonding gathering for her new club volleyball team. There was cookie decorating, a gift exchange, and fun conversations for the players and the parents. To document this story I played with adding custom sticker paper journaling on top of the banner pattern paper. 

Let's get right to the video: 

Story 17 ended up being a two-page spread because I needed/wanted to fill in some of the circle spaces on the back of Story 16. I decided that I didn't want to do another round of small circle photos so instead I dove into my December Daily® and my regular stash to locate some circle embellishments that I could add on top. 

As I looked through my circle embellishments I was looking at both the sentiments and the colors. 

I love eclectic mixes like this! It can be really fun to layer and play around with embellishments that were released at different times as part of other kits. On this page I also used a brush pen to add the story number. 

The "joy" sticker is from the Clear Sticker Sheet and the "let your heart be light" was from the Die Cut Bundle this year. 

The second page is the main story featuring a full page photo collage pairing a photo of Anna and her friend and an up-close image of the candy they were using to decorate cookies. 

On top of the photo seam I cut out and adhered some of the banners from the banner pattern paper. I used Maco Sticker Paper to add my journaling on top and then ran it through my sewing machine with red thread. At the top of the banners I added the "merry" sticker which is from the Clear Sticker Sheet. 

SUPPLIES

December Daily® 10x8 Album
December Daily® Main Kit Paper Pack (digital available)
December Daily® Variety Die Cut Bundle (digital available)
Maco Sticker Paper
December Daily® Clear Sticker Sheet
Circle embellishments from past kits

December Daily® 2023 | Story 16

Welcome to Story 16 in my 2023 December Daily® album. 

We've reached the time in the season where my posting will vary a bit as I celebrate the season with my family (kids are out of school now + here with us through Christmas Day). 

We have two birthdays to celebrate each December: Elliott turned 17 and Audrey turned 15. Today's story includes some details about those celebrations. 

Let's dive in: 

Here's a look at the spread: 

Working off the back of Story 15 gave me the back of the vellum wreath. I decided to print a large partial circle to fit in that space from Audrey's party. I paired the pocket page with the vellum wreath page which is a great home for multiple photos from the events this past week. 

On top of the circle photo (and another one on the second page) I used some washi tape to cover up the portion of the circle that didn't include the photo. For this partial circle I also printed out a custom title that says "celebrating Audrey 15 + Elliott 17 birthdays." For my journaling today I used the prompt card "documenting December details" from the Main Kit. I used a brush pen for their names and then a Slick Writer to document a few details. 

The gold glitter stars are from the Sticker Advent Calendar.

For the second page I printed and punched a bunch of photos from their birthday events. It was fun to vary the sizes and use circle punches to punch out the photos. I also added my story number using the puffy numbers from the Main Kit. 

SUPPLIES

December Daily® 10x8 Album
December Daily® Main Kit (digital available)
December Daily® Advent Calendar (star stickers)
Washi Tape
Brush Pen
Slick Writer
3.5 Inch Circle Punch
2 Inch Circle Punch
2.5 Inch Circle Punch 
1.75 Inch Circle Punch
1.5 Inch Circle Punch 
Red Line Tape

December Daily® 2023 | Story 15

Welcome to Story 15 in my 2023 
December Daily® album. 

Today's story is about the beautiful pink camellia bush blooming in my yard right now. 

I also include a how-to within the video for printing on the 4 inch x 6 inch journal card. 

Here's the process video: 

A look at theTable Of Contents: 

A wonderfully simple story that pairs a 4 inch x 8.25 inch photo with a two-pocket page protector. Inside the page protector I added a 4 inch x 6 inch vellum journal card with a stamped number circle added on top. 

Those green + gold chipboard pieces are so great. 

I had stamped the "merry everything" circle earlier this season and decided to use that as a home for my number. I looked through my stash of stamps and found the Handwritten Number Set (digital available) and stamped it on top and embossed it with gold embossing powder. 

Below the embossed number I repeat stamped "happy hearts" from the Tabs 4x6 stamp set. 

SUPPLIES

Written Numbers Stamp Set (digital available)
December Daily® 10x8 Album
December Daily® Main Kit (digital available)
Tabs 4x6 Stamp Set (happy hearts)
6x8 Circle Stamp Set
Gold Embossing Powder
Versamark Embossing Ink 
Gold Brad
AED McKenzie Ink
AED Willamette Ink 

In Case You Missed It | December 15

Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to the latest
In Case You Missed It. Just a reminder that this is a quick post that will happen every Friday afternoon with all the updates and links that have happened throughout the week. So, let's get to it:

ONE LITTLE WORD® 2024 IS HERE
Workshop registration opened this week and we have a new collection of carefully curated products available to help make your word visible throughout the year. ⁠Shop the collection here.Visit our "Classes" page to see all of the details for this year's workshop. Register before 1/1 and receive the early bird pricing of $45 (registration after 1/1 will be $50) for 12 months of content related to making your word visible in your life.⁠ Register + learn more here.2023 SHIPPING SPECIAL: Use code OLWSHIP24 and enjoy free shipping ($20 international flat rate) when you spend $75+ in the One Little Word® category through December 17th. Offer valid on orders with subtotals of $75 or more from the One Little Word® category. Code valid through 12/17/2024 at 11:59pm EST. Must enter code at checkout to receive offer. Refunds will not be issued for forgotten or misused promo codes. Code not valid on previous purchases. Offer is subject to change.⁠

DECEMBER DAILY® IS HAPPENING NOW

December Daily® is a December mini-album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. The simple goal is to capture the spirit of December via one story per day. Ali and Lisa have been chatting about various topics related to the project over the past few weeks. Community member Linda Jordan was live today talking about story ideas. Find those recordings on Instagram. Ali is sharing her stories in the same way she has in years past, almost-daily blog posts and videos. Find all of those on the blog, as well. Thank you all for making this project so incredibly special.

DECEMBER DAILY® DIGITALS

The 2023 December Daily® Digitals are here! Kits, Stamps, Paper, and Embellishments...the same fun & festive designs as the physical @decemberdaily products, only in digital format.⁠ We love to see how this incredibly creative community plays with digitals! Resizing elements and cards, adding journaling to papers, creating cut files, transforming files into transparencies, the sky is the limit with digital files. ⁠Want to learn more about creating with digital files? Our newest class December Daily® Hybrid Product Play is live and available to watch at your convenience.We have incredible content from six amazing contributors ready to explore at your convenience. Shop digitals here.

NEW CLASSES

2023 DECEMBER DAILY® PREP DAY. Join the December Daily® community for a fun online December Daily® prep day on Saturday, November 18th, 2023. Use this opportunity to finish past December Daily® projects or start working on your project for 2023. The first live video will start on Saturday, November 18th at 10:00 am Eastern. Cost is $5.
DECEMBER DAILY® PRODUCT PLAY | TRY THIS. December Daily® Product Play is all about ideas and inspiration for working with physical products from the December Daily® Collection. For 30 days in November, you'll receive one idea per day from the contributors to this class (includes Ali). Ideas in this workshop will focus on physical products from our 2023 December Daily® collection. Whether you are preparing to document 2023 or finishing up telling stories from past years, we hope these fun, creative ideas help you use your products to get your stories told.
2023 DECEMBER DAILY® HYBRID PRODUCT PLAY. Hybrid scrapbooking combines digital products with physical supplies to create paper (or printed) memory-keeping projects. For this class, our contributors will share with fun, creative ideas and inspiration for working with these digital products from the 2023 December Daily® Collection.

As always, we’re so grateful to have you all as members of this community! Thanks for joining me today and have a great weekend!

December Daily® 2023 | Story 14

Welcome to Story 14 in my 2023 December Daily® album. 

Most years I love to include something from my parents. This year I've been saving up some of the recent photos they've sent via text in order to get their voices/images into my project. I love seeing them enjoy these years in their lives together. 

Let's go to the video: 

Here's my Table Of Contents entry: 

Here's a look at the different pieces in this spread:

I printed my photo 10 inches wide x 8.25 inches tall to fit the back of Story 13. I printed three smaller photos that are each about 1.5 inches wide x 2.25 inches tall. 

I used foam adhesive to attach the three smaller photos on top of my enlarged photo. Above the photos I added the "falala" die cut and the quotation marks from a past chipboard set. 

The second part of the spread includes the large die cut page insert stitched to a numbered 3 inch x 8 inch journal card from the Present Story Kit. On top of the journal card I added a 3 inch x 8 inch gold star page  and added a photo of me and my Dad from 1980. On the outside of the page I added a gold embossed circle stamp and added gold puffy numbers on top and added a gold tab sticker along the outside edge. 

On the journal card I added a few details about each of the three small photos on top of the rainbow photo. 

I added the year to the photo of me + my Dad back in 1980. I loved combining the brush pen with the slick writer again. 

SUPPLIES

December Daily® 10x8 Album
Present Story Kit 3x8 Journal Card
December Daily® Die Cut Page Inserts (digital available)
December Daily® Die Cut Pack (digital available)
December Daily® 3x8 Journal Card Set
December Daily® Gold Foil Sticker Tabs
Circles 6x8 Stamp Set
Kuretake Brush Pen
Slick Writer
Sewing Machine
Foam Adhesive
Vellum
Gold Embossing Powder
Versamark
Epson XP15000 Printer