Done - December Daily Album

Finally completed the last few days and finishing touches to my December Daily album. This is the third year that I've made one. I love to look back on the details of my busy and not-so-busy days of past Decembers!

Days 16&17

Santa flip-up on Page 17

Pages 18&19 (Merry Christmas piece on Pg 18 is a Target gift card)

Pages 20-21

above pages with tip-ins opened

Days 22&23 - busy days w/lots of pics

Pages 24&25

Pages 26&27 (with tags)

Pages 28&29

Pages 30&31

Back page - New Year's Day and Back inside cover with
puzzle card from the "12 Days of Christmas" online swap

I'm Back!

Happy Belated New Year! I wish everyone the very best in 2018.

We returned New Years' Eve from our San Diego Christmas vacation with the family. It was a great time, but exhausting being with four little ones five and under for the entire week! But I do miss them already!

After a much-needed morning sleep-in on New Years' Day I've been catching up on my December Daily. There was lots of activity in San Diego so it was a challenge to fit most of it into the traveler's notebook.  I am now officially finished and the book is bursting at the seams!

Days 23 - 24

The reindeer pocket on day 23 was the holder for a gift in my recent swap. It holds a tag with journaling.  On day 24, the journal card opens to reveal a vintage Christmas image and journaling. This was a special day as we met the parents of our oldest daughter's significant other after 5 years' of dating.

Christmas Day - Day 25

This was supposed to be a quiet day at home before leaving for San Diego on the 26th. But it turned out that the flights were all filling, so we flew to Albuquerque and spent Christmas with Dana, John and the boys before leaving for San Diego from there the next day.  The "joy" tag is also from the recent swap, the vintage Santa is from one of this year's Christmas cards and the top of the right page is a Christmas card from a friend years ago.

Days 26 - 27

We arrived in San Diego on the 26th and the entire family came in at different times. The decorated glassine pocket holds a tag with journaling. The "Ballast Point" image is a napkin from a brewery we went to. 

On the 27th we went to the San Diego Safari Park.  The two older boys were treated to a helium balloon ride which they loved. Later we grilled at the Air B'nB and had a fire in the fire pit and made s'mores.

Days 28 - 29

Day 28 was the Hollywood Bowl Parade by the harbor and the 5K Run which my three girls and one son-in-law ran.

On the 29th we toured the Midway aircraft carrier. The boys had a blast. After that they played in a large fountain in the park and we went to a Japanese steak house for dinner. Carl and Mitchell had never been and they enjoyed the show!

I had so many photos of the ship tour that I made a tag flip for them (see below).

Days 30 - 31

We went to the San Diego Zoo on the 30th. I pieced together several smaller scraps of patterned paper for the background and added photos and a title from the zoo brochure.

We returned home on the 31st. I decoupaged part of the Southwest napkin to the background paper and added "home" from a Michael's sales flyer.  The word strip at the bottom of the page is washi tape.

Back page - Jan. 1

This last page is for the new year. The background is tissue paper and the "peace" is a die cut from one of this year's Christmas cards.

And, I am FINISHED!

Here is the humongous album now. I think I will have to tie it closed!

This was such a fun project, my second year doing a December Daily. If you have never done one, you should really think about doing it next year. You can assemble your foundation book way before December to make it easier and any book will do.

Again, Happy New Year. I wish you lots of creative time this coming year!

December Daily - Days 19 - 22

Days 19-20

For the 19th I made a pocket and added a digital image (the pickup with tree) from The Planner Society at the top. Inside I placed a tag made with coordinating patterned paper on which I wrote a story of our family's last real tree (1988). I also added a photo of said tree on the back of a journaling card.

Here's a close-up of the tags out of the pocket.

On the 20th I added a plaid paper for the background and a digital journal card from Heidi Swapp. The Merry is an old Maya Road chipboard I painted and Stickled red. The ribbon at the top is from a recent "12 Days of Christmas" gift swap. I love the chalkboard feel. I fastened it at the left side with two brads and when it lifts up I journaled about how this December Daily was falling apart and how I took it apart and added a new spine to hold all the lovely chunkiness! Next year I will have to plan better for the expansion!  I made a shaker pocket with Christmas sequins that lays over the journaling card at the bottom.

Shaker pocket tip-in

 Days 21-22

There wasn't anything memorable going on these days so for the 21st I used tissue paper for the background with two photos of a Christmas project I finally finished up that day. I had bought it at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in June, promptly covered it in papers and then just let it sit forever without finishing! The Christmas bulbs at the top of the page is an image transfer from a magazine ad.

Today (the 22nd) I used a beautiful handmade Christmas card I received last year reminding me of the reason for the season!

December Daily - Days 13 - 18

Days 13 - 14

The backgrounds for these pages are patterned paper. On the left, I added a photo and journaled a bit about my online group's annual tradition of a "12 Days of Christmas" Swap. We are split into groups of twelve and each of us makes a small handmade gift for the eleven others. We are each assigned one of the days and on the 13th of December we start unwrapping one per day. This is so much fun and one of the highlights of my Christmas so I had to devote the 13th to it. The photo shows all the gifts before I started opening.

For the right page, I had this awesome tissue border of toy soldier nutcrackers in my stash so I used it and journaled about how every year when my girls were younger we would attend The Nutcracker Ballet. I miss that - next year I need to go again!

Days 15-16

There wasn't much happening on these days so I added a beautiful Christmas postcard on the left which I've saved for years. It feels good to have a home for it where I can enjoy it.

On the right page I made a tree out of fringed and stacked scrap strips of paper. I love how it turned out but it made the page very thick!

Days 17-18

Again, not much going on on the 17th so I used an old Jenni Bowlin Christmas bingo card, tiny scrabble tile alphas and a photo of my four oldest kids visiting Santa in 1982. I did a Christmas Past page in my Dec. Daily last year (using an old photo of my siblings and I) and really love adding it.

Today (the 18th) I have an old Christmas card as a tip-in, under which I journaled that my husband went in to the VA Hospital today for a three-day observation for new heart medication. Below you can see the tip-in opened. I cut the "making spirits bright" from a magazine ad. You can see that there's no limit to things you can find to add to the album!

December Daily - Days 1-12

I've been keeping up with my December Daily but had to wait for a few photos for one of the pages before I could post. I just love working in this traveler's notebook size and will enjoy looking back on this for years to come. You can see my cover in this post.

Days 1 and 2

Tissue paper background on left and patterned papers on right. Gingerbread house cut on Silhouette. Photos printed on my Polaroid Zip Instant Printer. Numbers for days are from a pack from Fun Stampers Journey (a new stamp company much like Stamping Up). Washi tape and old stickers!

Days 3 and 4

Left page has painted background and a flip page with more photos on back. Right page journal card is a pocket with a tag with four tiny photos (not shown).

Flip card open revealing photos with Santa.

Days 5 and 6

Not much going on these days, so I printed the story of the candy cane for the left page. The right page is dedicated to shopping for little gifts for the boys' stockings and ordering their regular gifts online. Washi tape and, again, some old stickers! The owl clothespins were bought last year at the Target $1 Spot.

Days 7 and 8

Day 7 was spent doing lots of errands. I also had to make a return at Michael's and purchased myself a little gift of Jane Davenport Aquapastels. I added swatches inside the glassine envelope/pocket.

Day 8 I baked cookies for the boys who arrived that night. They were an epic fail! The banner is from an old sticker set from Jennie Bowman, the images and phrases from a Crafty Secrets collage sheet and the little spatula from my stash from who-knows-where.

Days 9 and 10

Kelly, Josh and the boys came this weekend and on Saturday, I took Carl to Michael's for their free Kid's Club craft session. He made a darling elf t-shirt with felt and pompoms and had a blast! I couldn't resist adding that stamped elf banner.

On Sunday we all went to the Gaylord Texan ICE event and met Josh's sister and niece there. The photos from in the venue are all very blue. My phone even froze up after a few minutes because it was so cold (9 degrees)! I watercolored a journal card from Adorn It for the flip in order to add another photo and more journaling. I had to stack the photos in a waterfall in order to get more on the page. Below shows the opened flip section.

Days 11 and 12

There wasn't much going on these days - I was recuperating from the weekend! On the 11th I received a text message and photo of Drew's (5-yr-old in Albuquerque) letter to Santa. It was so hilarious that he wrote such a brief, to-the-point wish list that I had to add it to my page.

The right page has a copy of our 2017 Christmas card that I had just picked up that day. I attached it with washi tape at the top so it flips up for journaling.  The background of this page is foiled tissue paper.

I hope you enjoy peeking into my December Daily. It's such a fun thing to do every year.

Life Documented 2017 - last week of November

We returned from Austin last night from a fun weekend. On Saturday I helped the boys make gingerbread houses (I had forgotten how frustrating those can be!) and then yesterday we rode the North Pole Flyer from Cedar Park to Bertram and back to Cedar Park. This is a 2-hr. steam engine special event excursion similar to the Polar Express and features a visit with Santa, hot cocoa, cookies with Mrs. Claus, a coloring page activity, elves reading the exclusive North Pole Flyer book, a Christmas carol sing-along and an elf making custom balloon creations. The kids had a blast!

Today I finished the last week of November in my Life Documented 2017 planner.
This will be my last entry as I will move into my December Daily for the month of December. 

The background was done with a watercolor "smooshing" technique where you add any water-soluble medium on a piece of acetate, spritz with water and smoosh onto your substrate. It's an easy way to get a unique background. 

The right page is another quirky collage using some digital collage sheets I mentioned in previous posts. I am having lots of fun with these!

Happy Thanksgiving - and I'm back!

We're back from our Mexico Thanksgiving trip for dental work and I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with loved ones.  We spent Thanksgiving Day finishing up at the dentist and had tacos for dinner! Actually it was quite relaxing and a nice change from the usual hectic turkey meal!

I'm caught up on the past two weeks of my planner.

November Week 3

I used acrylic paint for the background both pages, numbers and days of the week cut from a calendar, washi tape for dividers and some very old flourish and word stickers.  On Wednesday my two besties and I had our annual baking day for Thanksgiving and Christmas cookies. I used a little image from Crafty Secrets as a flip with a photo of some of our cookies on the back (see below).

The collage on the right page is from an old magazine and I added some legs from a clothing catalog. The hat is actually an upside-down martini glass from an ad!

November Week 4

For this week's background on the left page I used Distress Ink and more very old stickers. The right page is decoupaged with a napkin - isn't it a pretty one? I added some glitter tape at the top and bottom and a few word stickers.

The "flips" are portions of my boarding passes. The photo on the right is of my husband and I eating a very untraditional Thanksgiving Day dinner in a little local open-air taco shop in Mexico.

Only five more days of November and one spread until I move into my December Daily for the month of December. How is it possible that this year is almost over???

Life Documented 2017 - November Week 2

One more week in my planner. It was a fairly uneventful week for a change! The background of both pages is watercolor. On the right page I smooshed a few more colors with the yellow, added a doodled border and a tag that I received in a swap years ago! The quote is a stamp.

We are getting ready to leave for Mexico today. We were supposed to go tomorrow, but the flights are all filling so we are going to go to Albuquerque tonight through Houston, and then on to Phoenix, Yuma and Mexico tomorrow. And, no, I won't be lounging on a beautiful beach for Thanksgiving - I will be completing my dental implants! Hopefully this will be the last dental work for awhile.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Catching up on planner pages - Oct. Week 4 and beginning of Nov.

I've done so much traveling/babysitting this year that it seems all I do is play catch-up!

October - Week 4/5

This was a long "week" so I used both pages to include the last days of Oct. I used acrylic paint on the background and then used many washi tapes, stickers and photo flips to document all that happened during this busy time.

November Monthly Spread

The background for this spread is also acrylic paints. I used a very old sticker border on the right edge. The decorative border on the bottom is from a mail advertisement.  I used a small leaf punch to punch out the dates from an old calendar.

November - Week 1

I used a roller stamp with acrylic paint for this background. I used the Art-to-the-5th date stamp on orange card stock and punched with a one-inch circle punch. The quote on the right page is a freebie from a You-Tuber Patreon account and the pumpkins are a stamped image I colored with colored pencils. I also added a photo of Mitchell since this was the week he stayed at our house.

Life Documented 2017 - Oct. Week 3

October - Week 3

This week was a busy week with friends. Tuesday two friends and I celebrated our birthdays jointly. Mine is in August, one is in Oct., and the other is in Nov., so we try to set one date to celebrate them all.  We went to lunch and shopped at a few antique "malls."  Then on Friday a friend who moved away about 2 years ago was coming into town so we met for a long brunch.

The background of this spread is acrylic paints scraped over the pages. I used thin strips of patterned paper for the dividers, stamped the dates and cut out the days of the week from an old calendar.  On the right page I added photos of our birthday celebration with some stickers and three flowers I had saved from the birthday card my Mom had sent me. (Hate throwing things away!)  I've saved the tiny strip of lace for forever so was happy to use it!

I'm Back - and Catching Up, Again

It's been another busy few weeks. On Wed. the 4th, I went to Albuquerque to babysit Drew and Grant while their parents went to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon to run two races. Then I left there on Saturday and went directly to a week-long retreat in Taylor, Texas, with six other artist friends. I just returned this past weekend and we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on Saturday.

I've caught up on my documented life planner and am working on putting finishing touches on my retreat projects, which I will share later.

October Monthly Spread

I used watercolors on background and washi tapes for the top and bottom borders. The dates are punched pumpkins with numbers written in white pen.

October - Week 1

Background is acrylic paint. Dates are stamped and dividers are washi tape. On the right spread I added an ATC I received in a technique swap. The technique was "cracked glass."  The photo is a collage of the boys and I since I was in Abq. that week.

October - Week 2

This was retreat week. We each take a fully-kitted project to "teach" and we do one or two per day, depending on the type of project.  For the right page,  I created a collage of the finished projects and printed a 4x6 photo to use as a tip-in. I also made a tip-in of the business card of the restaurant where we celebrated our anniversary.

The left side of the above photo shows the other side of the "tip-ins."  The right page has more photos from the week.