december daily | day 11 . . .

day #11 started out as a little green square of cardstock

 it just so happens we set off on a family adventure to see a house with an extreme light display that day. . .we had driven by in the day time and noticed all the lights - so we figured we'd do a little late-day shopping (to avoid the crowds) and an early dinner (again - to avoid the crowds) and then take a detour past this display on our way home.

we didn't know what to expect - but when we got there, cars were parked all along both sides of the pretty-heavily trafficed road.  We pulled over and realized it was a walk-thru experience.

so we grabbed a bit of cash (thinking there may be a donation opportunity) and strolled through the display - TWICE.

the boys loved it - and truth be told - so did I. . .Santa gave Owen a candy cane too.

kept the page simple with a few poor pictures of the lights and 2 tags just hinting at the magic of the lights.  the "believe" tag on the front is from a swap i did years ago.

catch you soon -

december daily | day 10 . . .

day 10's december daily is one of my favorite pages in the little book . . . this silver paper is gorgeous.

 i have a small playlist on my iPod of holiday songs. . .they are some of my favorites that I don't tire of listening to . . .so this page pays homage to them.

i love the way the front came out with a Reflections transaprency for the journaling (which needs to be done still)

then on the back, i took a few screen shots from my iPhone Holiday Playlist and added a few music note stickers from OLD Creative Memories stash

i really do so much better with this project if i don't over-think everything. . .

catch you soon -

december daily | day 9 . . .

for today, to honor our Christmas Tree finally being fully decorated. . .I made a page using two pictures of the tree (before and after) glued together.

catch you soon -

december daily | day 8 . . .

yes - I skipped day 7 - I am struggling. . .

the page in my book for day 8 was a simple small square of red cardstock.

 this seemed a good time to record our thoughts on santa hats. . .expecially since i had a cute picture of the boys eating dinner while wearing their santa hats.  I used a transparancy overlay for my frame, and just hand wrote journaling on the back.

catch you soon -

december daily / day 6. . .

ok this idea came easily. . .i had a picture from earlier in our festivities that I knew would look great full-sized and put behind that transparency.  I found a charm in an old LRS kit I had in my stash.

here's the before page:

 I just put the photo behind it, and then attached the charm with a bit of ribbon and added a day # tag. . .no journaling. . .

and here is the picture i used to capture my thoughts on "wishes" . . .

i learned today that i am trying too hard on this project. . .I am trying to fit Christmas into everyday so I can document it - rather than finding holiday inspired nuggets to add to a keepsake book. . .thanks to all of you participating in this project for sharing your words, ideas and encouragement!

catch you soon -

december daily / day 5 . . .

today's page is a green scalloped half-circle.  it reminded me of my holiday greenery, so I decided to do a page about the greenery I bought and making my own wreath and swag.

here was the blank page:

i added my raw materials picture in a small picture on the front and hand-wrote my journaling around the edge

my two finished products are pictured on the back. . .

then I realized I forgot my day # tag. . .so I went back and added it loose, just on the ring. . .I'm not in love with these tags - my pages are too little for them. . .but I'm trying to work with what I have this year and learn for next year. . .

how are you doing with the project so far?

catch you soon -

december daily / day 4. . .

for day 4, we attended John's office's Kids Holiday Party.  Each year his office hosts a party for their employee's children - complete with Santa and treats.

this year's party was at Lucky Strike in Philadelphia - and the boys had such a wonderful time bowling the afternoon away, eating pigs in a blanket and Mac-n-cheese bites and hanging out with Santa.

so far, the page doesn't have any journaling. . .not sure yet whether that will change and if it does - how. . .

here is the before - just a simple cream cardstock with a red ribbon tab

after, a big picture of the boys from the alley - the quality is not that great - but it captures the day.  I added some silver writing directly to the photo to note what and where.  I left the day tag loose.

and on the back, 2 smaller pictures of the day and a "joy" tag I had in my stash. . .

catch you soon -

december daily / day 3. . .

ok. . .day 3 was pretty difficult for me. . .we didn't do anything holiday-related.

but in reflecting on the day, we did receive our first holiday card - so i made a note of that, including a picture of our traditional display for holiday cards.

before. . .just a small empty square of kraft paper with red grid lines on it. . .

after. . .the day (#3) and some journaling. . .

and on the back, the rest of the journaling, and my photo of our cards. . .

catch you soon -

december daily / day 2 . . .

for day 2 of my december daily, i focused on our advent calenders. . .

we actually use 2 kinds - a felt tree and Trader Joe's boxes with candy in the windows.

these were the pieces i had available to build my page. . .

I decided I wanted to use a picture of both boys opening the windows on their Trader Joe's Advent Calenders as my main picture...

but I wanted to use a picture of our felt tree advent calender as well - that tree was given to me years ago by my mom and we use it every year. . .I thought I could make a "flip up" to go on the reerse side of my paper, so that I could use the plain red for journaling. . .

I cut a piece of kraft-colored cardstock from my stash, punched 2 holes in it and scored it so that I could fold it.   Then I glued the picture of the felt tree to the cardstock.

 I trimmed the edge of the kraft cardstock with pinking shears. . .here is the front of the page. . .

and here is the back. . .

now to do the journaling. . .

please feel free to link up your own december daily blog posts in the comments section.

catch you soon - 

december daily / day 1 . . .

ok, so as i've mentioned, for the first time, i am taking part in Ali Edwards' December Daily project.

i got a sweet book from the uber crafty Elise to take the pressure off myself.

so far so good. . .for day 1, i decided to document our decorating process and here's how it went:

are you doing a december daily? will you share a link in the comments?

catch you soon -