Ali Edwards's Blog, page 79
November 30, 2021
December Daily® 2021 | Special Guest Geralyn Sy
Hi everyone! I'm Geralyn, the designer behind In a Creative Bubble, and I'm based in British Columbia, Canada. I began scrapbooking in 2007 and it was my passion for this hobby (and the creativity that it entails) that led me to pursue graphic design. I design memory keeping products in the paper crafting industry and it brings me so much joy to see my work go from computer screen to tangible products for scrapbookers to use and enjoy when documenting their lives.
I've been a big fan of December Daily since the early years; this will be my twelfth year participating in this annual project. Documenting the festive season has become such a meaningful part of my holidays and working on this mini-book helps me focus on finding joy and magic throughout the holiday season. It's truly one of my favorite projects so I'm honored and thankful for the opportunity to contribute some designs to this year's December Daily release.
When Ali's team contacted me about designing the 6x8 traveler's notebook for December Daily, I was excited to hear there would be new products introduced to this year's collection of supplies. I love that there are so many different sizes and ways to approach this project. With the traveler's notebook in particular, this method provides a little structure to the project with some decorated pages, but still allows for plenty of flexibility with the blank pages included in the mix. I was given a lovely color palette and moodboard as starting points for the project and these inspired the modern and graphic aesthetic you'll see in the notebook. I wanted the pages to have an assortment of prompts, whimsical + geometric patterns, and standout titles to help document your December stories. Many of the patterns are tone-on-tone so they won't be too busy and detract from your photos. You'll notice that some of the page designs are arranged in a grid-like fashion (like a large journaling card) to provide prompts and room for photos and journaling...these ones are my personal favorite! They make it super simple to complete a page by printing out a photo and jotting down some notes.
I was also happy to design a 4x6 stamp set to accompany the traveler's notebook. Stamps are definitely some of my favorite products to design and I hope you'll find this stamp set to be versatile and useful for your December documenting. The stamps may look simple but there are so many different ways to combine the phrases and icons. Many of the phrases and icons also fit inside the rectangular label stamp or circle seal stamp so you can create your own embellishments. The rectangular label can be folded in half to create a small tab and the icons can be stamped repeatedly on a page to create your own patterns. These are just a couple of ideas I had with the stamp set but the possibilities are endless.
Even if you choose to document your December using a different format, I think it would be fun and easy to cut down the pages of the notebook and use them in your album. If you prefer pocket pages, Ali's shop also has a coordinating journaling card set that is based on the designs in my notebook. Ali's team has really thought of it all and I hope you enjoy using these products for December Daily! I can't wait to see how these designs make their way onto your projects :)
Find more inspiration from Geralyn here.
November 29, 2021
AE Creative Team | November Stories By The Month™ Digital Kits
As we approach the end of a month of gatherings and gratitude, we are delighted to share some creative inspiration from our awesome Creative Team Creative Team created using our November 2021 Stories by the Month™ Digital Kits!
As always, we are so grateful to our Creative Team for sharing their stories and creative inspiration with all of us!
November 24, 2021
December Daily® 2021 Live Chat | Playing With Product
Starting the first week of November, we kicked off a series of live December Daily®-themed conversations on our December Daily® Instagram account. This week’s theme was playing with product and we were thrilled to have host @frecklepickle, and Creative Team Members @babz510 and @amandarosezamp for this conversation! You can find a recording of the conversation below, or on our Instagram account.
The ladies covered a wide range of topics and some of their favorites included:
Barbara and Lisa use photo paper from Red River Paper. Barbara uses a Satin Luster and Lisa uses a Polar Luster finish. Amanda uses HP photo paper. Here is a link to Amanda's Pinterest December Daily® Board. Barbara's Youtube channel. Amanda's Youtube channel.
As a reminder, our themes for the next few weeks are:
Week of November 29th // Getting it Done, happening Monday, November 29th at 1pm ET with Jess Forster and Jill Drangsholt.
Week of December 1st // Let's Go!
Week of December 15th // Mid-Month Check-In
Final dates, times, and guests will be shared as we get closer. Recordings of the conversations will be available on our December Daily® Instagram account and will also be shared here in the blog.
As always, thank you so much for being a part of this community!
Finishing Up Pieces Of Home
Finishing up my Pieces Of Home notebook today and wanted to share a look at how I added my words + photos into my project.
Big thanks to those of you who documented along with me. I loved reading the stories of your homes that were shared on Instagram. We will be offering this project again next year with two new themes (TBA). I seriously love having little documenting projects like this sprinkled in a couple times during the year.
Check out my first post on how I started bringing my content together for this project here.
Here's a look at the last three prompts added to my Pieces Of Home Notebook:
And a look at each of the spreads:
I loved the plastic butterfly/tag/word stamp combo I used earlier in the notebook and decided to repeat it again for the "watch" prompt page. Pattern paper here is from the Star Scrapbook Kit.
For the "grow" prompt I paired one of the stitched heart pockets with a plastic sunshine from my stash. I repeat stamped "this yard" following the design I also used earlier in this album.
To finish up the album I dove into my stash and found a journal card I had punched into a circle at some time in the past (Katie dove into the archives for me and found it as part of the "We" Story Kit designs). I punched a hole in the top and paired it with a small silver glitter star and attached it with blue and white twine.
So fun. Seriously loved this one as it felt like the perfect balance for me between words, photos, and a little bit of product from my stash.
SUPPLIESPieces Of Home Notebook
Pieces Of Home Stamp
Pieces Of Life Charcoal Folio
Pieces Of Me Notebook
Star Scrapbook Kit
Great Outdoors Plastic Butterflies
Stitched Heart Pockets (past subscriber add on - may be available in an upcoming sale)
Classic Heidi Swapp Mini Tags
Blue + White Twine
We R Memory Keepers Hole Punch
Scotch Rolling Adhesive
Fiskars Paper Trimmer
Black Staz On Ink
Rolling Date Stamp
November 23, 2021
December Daily® 2021 | Special Guest Ashley Horton
We're thrilled to welcome December Daily® Creative Team member Ashley Horton! Today, Ashley will be sharing a few of the amazing foundation pages she's put together for this year's album.
This is my second year doing Foundation Pages for my December Daily album. I loved it last year, because I found that it makes my process so much simpler, once I start documenting my photos on December 1st. Today, I'm sharing some of the pages I've worked on to go in my 2021 album.
One of my favorite products from this year's release is the fun Canvas Pockets. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to use them, and I came up with a fun idea to document some of the days that we will be out of town during December. I took two of the two tag pockets and one of the full size pockets and overlapped them, so I could stitch them together on my sewing machine. Then I used this year's number stamp and inks to stamp the coordinating numbers on each pocket. The tags inside the pockets will be perfect for adding a photo and my journaling.
Last year, we started the tradition of picking out an ornament for each one of us. I knew this 10x8 grid paper would be a great way to document those photos. I used the Window Cards in some of the squares, and placed each of our initials on the front of it. On the inside I can add the name of the ornament that each of us chose.
When I was thinking about how I wanted to document the ceramic tree that belonged to my grandparents, I decided to tell the story from the past, present and future perspective. I used a mix of the 10x8 papers to create pockets and cut the words "past", "present" and "future" on my Cameo. I attached each of the words to the top of the pockets. Then I printed one of the large digital tags, so I could have three of them to place in each pocket, so I could add my journaling to the back of each one.
I always love to include a page about our favorite Christmas movies in my December Daily. This year, I loved the transparent photo strips and thought they would be perfect for a movie themed page. I love that Ali and I had the same idea for this product! We both put it together with one of the 4x8 papers and stitched the photo strips together, to create our full sized page.
I hope you've found some inspiration for your pages, this year!
We can't wait top try some of Ashley's ideas! Want more inspiration from Ashley? Make sure to follow her on Instagram here.
November 22, 2021
December Daily® 2021 | Creating A Foundation Page Using The Plastic Hearts
Today I'm playing along with some of our December Daily® Creative Team members in sharing an idea for using the December Daily® Plastic Hearts. I'm super excited to see what everyone creates and shares using these hearts.
The plastic heart did sell out during our Order Selection Period this year but you could replicate many of the ideas shared by cutting or punching out hearts using pattern paper or transparencies.
Check out my starting place/foundation pages for my 2021 December Daily® album here.
Here's an overview video of how my idea came together:
And some basic information:
For this page I ended up using 2 sheets of 10x8 pattern papers from the Main Kit (the size is actually 11x8.25 inches which is the size of the outside of the page protectors) and cut a 5.5 inch x 7 inch rectangle about 1/2 inch in from the outside edges of both sheets to create a window home for my heart mobiles.
The hearts were stitched together by running them through my sewing machine (watch the video for details). Essentially you run one plastic heart (no special needle needed) through with a straight stitch and then let it keep stitching past the end of the heart for a few seconds before starting on the next plastic heart.
I initially only ran the hearts through the machine in a single row and then ended up adhering a heart to the back of each of the original hearts so that it was double-sided. If doing this again I would adhere the hearts back to back first and then run them through the machine (I ran mine through my machine again after adhering the hearts back to back).
I love being able to see through from one page/story to the next and this feels like a fun addition to my album - especially the motion of the hearts twirling.
During December I'll add photos or a story to the blank portion of these pages. You can hear me talk through a few ideas in the video above and I'll share a video when I come to this page in my album during the month.
Big thanks to the December Daily® Creative Team for inviting me to play along today!
December Daily® 2021 Plastic Hearts - digital version available here December Daily® 2021 Main Kit Pattern Papers Brother Sewing Machine Tim Holtz Christmas Rub Ons Heart Punch (to make your own) Metal Ruler Craft Knife Scotch Tape 6 Hole PunchINSTAGRAM LINKS FOR DD TEAM PARTICIPATING TODAY
Check out the teams IG accounts today to see how they incorporated the plastic hearts into a foundation page or project idea:
Shu-Wen Tham Ashley Horton Yin Dgs Neela Nalam Nolana Lynch Jill Drangsholt Sabrina Poole Virginie Goujon Pascha Shepard Emily Stebbins Amanda Zampelli
November 21, 2021
Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales
As we head into Thanksgiving week (for those of you in the US), we wanted to give you a heads up on a few promotions we have coming up.
Our Black Friday sale will run from November 22nd at 12pm EST through November 28th, 2021 at 11:59 pm EST. Receive 20% off* site wide use code: BLACKFRIDAY20. Some exclusions apply.
Plus receive FREE** domestic shipping and $20 international flat rate on orders of $75 or more with code: 75SHIPFREE
Mark your calendars and set your alarms for November 29th from 8-9:30pm EST!
We are running a Cyber Monday flash sale where you will receive 40% off site wide for 90 minutes only. More details to come!
Some exclusions apply. Free shipping thresholds will not apply to Cyber Monday sale. Regular shipping rates apply.
For those of you that celebrate, we are wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! We are so grateful for you!
*Code Valid through 11/28/2021 at 11:59pm EST. Must enter code to receive offer. Some exclusions apply: 2021 December Daily® physical and digital products, December Daily® Product Play: Back To Basics Class and Create With Canva Class. Refunds will not be issued for forgotten or misused promo codes. Offer subject to change.
**Offer valid on orders with subtotals of $75 or more sitewide Code valid through 11/28/2021 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.
*** Free domestic shipping and $20 dollar international flat rate shipping thresholds will not apply to the Cyber Monday 40% off sale. Regular shipping rates apply.
November 19, 2021
In Case You Missed It | November 19
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:
CLASSES & DIGITAL SALE
'Tis the season...for great sales! We're excited to offer half-off select classes and digitals now through Sunday, November 21st at 11:59 pm ET. No promo code required.
DECEMBER DAILY
The 2021 December Daily® collection is now available in the shop. Find the collection here.
STORY CHATS
Monday we continued our series of weekly live chats about December Daily® with a conversation about photography. Join Lisa, Amy, Neela, and community member Autumn as they talk all about photography. A recording of the conversation is available on the blog here.In addition, we had special guest Azzari Jarrett sharing her insight into taking more meaningful photos in December. Lisa, Azzari, and Ali on chatted on Thursday. A recording of the conversation is viable in the blog here.Next Monday, November 22nd at 7pm ET we will be back for our next installment in our December Daily® live chat series. We’ll be chatting about playing with product. We’re excited to welcome Creative Team members Barbara Picinich and Amanda Zampelli for this conversation.
CRAFT THE STORY YOUTUBE SERIES
In today's Craft The Story video Ali is sharing a look at how she’s starting to document the Pieces Of Home Project. Find it here.
CLASSES
December Daily® Product Play: Back to Basics // For 30 days in November you’ll receive one new idea per day (for a total of 30) brought to you by members of our December Daily® Creative Team, our AED Creative Team, and Ali. Ideas in this workshop will focus on physical products from the Main Kit and our 2021 collection. Our goal with this workshop is simple, fun ideas to use your products to spark stories. Register or learn more here.
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® 2021 Live Chat | Photography
Starting the first week of November, we kicked off a series of live December Daily®-themed conversations on our December Daily® Instagram account.This week’s theme was photography and we were thrilled to have two amazing chats! Our first chat, on Monday included host @frecklepickle, Creative Team Members @amygretchenstudio, @neelanalam, and community member @simplyautumnnguyen for this conversation! You can find a recording of the conversation below, or on our Instagram account.
The ladies covered a wide range of topics and some of their favorites included:
PicTapGo // smartphone app for photo editingMoment Pro Camera // for manual control (ISO, shutter speed, etc.) of your smartphone cameraLightroom CC // for desktop photo editingRadLab extension for Photoshop // easy filters for editing photosEpson PM400 // printer for printing up to 5x7 photosEpson XP15000 // oversize printer, up to 13x19 inchesWe also had a wonderful conversation with Lisa, Ali and Azzari Jarrett. Find a recording of that conversation below.
As a reminder, our themes for the next few weeks are:
Week of November 22nd // Playing With ProductWeek of December 1st // Let's Go!Week of December 15th // Mid-Month Check-InFinal dates, times, and guests will be shared as we get closer. Recordings of the conversations will be available on our December Daily® Instagram account and will also be shared here in the blog.
As always, thank you so much for being a part of this community!
Pieces Of Home | Ali's Starting Place
Today I wanted to share a look at how I'm getting my photos + words from the Pieces Of Home project into my notebook.
You can see how I approached Pieces Of Me earlier this year here (as well as past Pieces Of Us projects).
For Pieces Of Home I decided to follow a simple design formula (laid out in the notebook) and then give myself a little room to play on top of some pattern papers. For this particular project I printed my photos 4.25 inches wide x 4 inches tall using my Epson PictureMate PM400 and repeated the same sizing for my journal blocks (words were copied + pasted from what I've been sharing this week on my Instagram posts). On the long portion of each of the spreads I picked a pattern paper and cut it to about 4.25 inches wide x 8.25 inches tall and then embellished each spread with elements from my stash. This project is an excellent opportunity to use what you have - especially some of those pattern papers you might be hanging onto for the "perfect" project.
Let's dive into the process video:
And here's a look at my first four spreads:
Pattern paper from the Star Scrapbook Kit paired with a stitched pocket heart + a vellum star (these would be great to add to a December Daily® stash) + two Classic Heidi tags + some blue/white twine. My journaling was copied + pasted from Instagram and printed onto Epson Ultra Premium Matte Presentation Paper. I repeat stamped "this table" on the outside of the stitched heart pocket.
Font for my journaling is Sentinel.
On top of the tags I used the Pieces Of Home stamp set to add "this home" and the heart shape that includes the sentiment "loving my home as it is."
For my second spread I used pattern paper from the Heart Scrapbook Kit + one of the large stitched felt pieces from this year's Day In The Life™ kit (digital version of the circle available here).
Heart Scrapbook Kit pattern paperpaired with a plastic butterfly from the The Great Outdoors collection + a Classic Heidi tag + "make" stamped using the Pieces Of Home Stamp Set. I love this little combination and could have totally used a variation of it on each spread.
Pattern paper is from the Circle Scrapbook Kit paired with a wood veneer speech bubble.
I'll be back again next week sharing the last three spreads in this project.
SUPPLIESPieces Of Home Notebook Pieces Of Home Stamp Pieces Of Life Charcoal Folio Pieces Of Me Notebook AED Olympia Ink Star Scrapbook Kit Heart Scrapbook Kit Circles Scrapbook Kit Great Outdoors Plastic Butterflies Happy Wood Veneer Speech Bubble (past subscriber add on - may be available in an upcoming sale) Day In The Life™ Large Stitched Felt Circle: digital version Gold Rimmed Vellum Stars Stitched Heart Pockets (past subscriber add on - may be available in an upcoming sale) Classic Heidi Swapp Mini Tags Blue + White Twine We R Memory Keepers Hole Punch Scotch Rolling Adhesive Fiskars Paper Trimmer Tiny Attacher Stapler Black Staz On Ink Rolling Date Stamp
