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 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.