the moments in between

december daily 2011 // days 17-20

getting closer to done!!! i've been debating whether i'll stop at 25 or go to 31 - and my plan right now is to include a couple of stories after the 25th to wrap up the album. my bigs always camp by the christmas tree on new years eve, and i'd like that to close my album. i also have my not quite sent out christmas / new years cards to include.

day seventeen, our wreath. i added the tinsel + stars that we used on the wreath to the divider page.

day eighteen, snowflakes. again, i added a snowflake to the divider.

day nineteen, breakfast out. the weekly planner paper came from a cute noetbook that i picked up at anthro last week.

day twenty, part one. a shopping trip. the orange tissue paper is from anthro - LOVE it. the snowflake is from a loft bag.

day twenty : part two, gingerbread men.

this paper is from the old school letter set in the studio calico shop this month. i punched the stars from it and you can see the orange tissue paper from the previous spread peeking through. 

i typed "20" in the bebas font in the silhouette studio software, then moved the numbers to overlap and welded them together and cut them from kraft cardstock. that little tab is a new amy tangerine embellishment. 

day twenty : part three, more gingerbread.

i printed these instagram pics to fit on the back of my other photos, then added pp + tape + letters.

confetti!!! but i kind of ran out of steam by the time i made this page. ha! it may get a little more pretty-ing up when i get back to work on my album. =)

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i've also got my winner for the photo a day class at studio calico!! remember, if you didn't win - registration goes through the 31st. check out all the info here!

congrats, joyce!! check your email - you should have one from me. =) thanks to everyone who entered!

 

happy tuesday! i'm wondering where today went. i was hoping to have this post up this morning, and suddenly it's after 4! the bigs and i spent some time cleaning and organizing their room - that job is going to take more than one day. ;) i'm trying to reclaim the house from the christmas chaos as well. wish me luck!

december daily 2011 // days 14-16

happy winter break!!! =) we started out day with breakfast at jimmy's egg - YUM. totally a good way to kick off the week. the boys are now watching animaniacs while i speed blog before getting some gifts packed up and out the door. trying to take the list on, one item at a time, and not freak out.

 

day thirteen. again. sharing another view since it looks a bit different with the ruler paper backing it. love how this album evolves as i finish each day.

day fourteen. i didn't have any stories that were grabbing me this day, so i sat and made a list of ideas that i wanted to be sure the album included by the end of the month. i used photos that i already had on hand to write about grandma's christmas train. i'd *like* to get a few more photos, possibly with the big camera - i'm planning to do that on christmas eve. i'll just add a small page in between these two to include those.

part one. i had a lot to say, so i divided it by photo and added the arrows to link the words + photos.

part two. i actually completed the day behind this one first, so the doily was already there. i just built from that as a starting point.

 

 

days fifteen and sixteen. 

 

day fifteen. the doily seemed like a natural fit given the photo. =)

day sixteen, part one. "hello joy" is a silhouette cut file that ali made for those of us that bought the studio calico dec daily kit - love it. the confetti was a last minute addition. 

more day sixteen. the boys went to grandma's and matthew & i went out. i carried my us / them theme by using similar designs, just flipflopped.

day sixteen, part two. our night. the speech bubble is a silhouette cut. 

day sixteen, part three. their night.

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happy monday! i am HOPING to share quite a bit with you this week.... i have a new page, an iphone/ipad app giveaway, studio calico sneaks, more december daily and a project life update planned. there's also presents to tag, cookies to make, and some other fun with the boys. i see some late nights in my future. ;)

december daily 2011 // days 11-13

three more days. i finished these up last night. i'm trying to get back to working a little daily, but lately it's worked out more for me to do 2-3 days at a time.

day eleven, part one. we decorated the tree - i wanted to dedicate more than one page/photo to that.

this page came from an anthro catalog. the title is cut with my cameo - i used the pacifico font.

the tag is from marcy's december journal kit - i stamped a sentiment from ali's november studio ae set over the tree. the flair is from jennifer pebbles' etsy shop. i thought about putting the photos on patterned paper, but opted to just stitch them in place within the baseball card page protector.

day eleven, part two. love how the ornament images peek through here.

i just added a little washi and a ticket to the back of the tag.

the base of this page is from marcy's december journal kit - i added the doily and backed it with another piece of patterned paper. 

days twelve and thirteen. both simple and quick.

this stitched grid page is another one from marcy's kit. and i'm totally going to make some more. it's a a great base to add to.

this is just a page from the old school ledger book - i just taped screen shots of the two christmas cards that we were deciding between to it. doesn't get much easier.

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big news today - studio calico's first class has been announced!

i was thrilled to be asked to contribute to nicole samuel's photo a day class - i can't wait to see she's put together. i contributed photos + a project - you can see a peek at both above.

happy thursday! sam and i made a quick run to trader joe's this morning to grab some goodies for teachers and office staff - hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of school before winter break. and yes, i'm totally skipping the handmade teacher's gifts this year - maybe i'll do them for the last day of school? i'll make up for it with some cute wrapping. 

december daily 2011 // days 8-10

day eight. the background is from marcy penner's christmas journal kit - the snowflakes were already stitched in place. i added a bit torn from an anthro catalog + journaling strips, then sprayed the whole thing with mister huey's shine. then i added my photo + embellishments.

day nine, part one. the holiday program at the bigs' school. i just punched holes in the program and added it to the album.

day nine, part two. i'm finding that i do barely any journaling some days, and lots others. i think it will all balance out in the end.

i just clipped a page from the old school ledger to the back of the program.

this is a business card page protector from staples. someone had mentioned them over on the studio calico december daily board, and i had to get my hands on them. i did have to punch new holes, but the size (5.5x8.5in) works well in the album.

day ten. a place to record our favorite christmas specials.

the blue peeking through is really driving me nuts. i might add some neutral pp to the back of that program - it looked ok with the other pages but i don't like it with all the red on this one. trying to ignore it and keep moving forward for now, though.

i kept this side super simple. that's another anthro catalog page behind the ledger - i wanted the image on the reverse side to go with day eleven. i punched a few stars in it - love how that looks. the "noted" is a journaling card from marcy penner - she'll be offering them for sale later this week.

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happy tuesday! my mind is spinning a little today. thinking about teacher gifts. thinking about dressing up my wreath. thinking about adding pages to this book and printing pics for last week's PL. thinking about presents that need to be shipped and ones that still need to be bought. thinking about  everything else on my to do list. tis the season. =) 

december daily 2011 // days 5-7 + christmas lists

i got a little behind on my album this week. between taking the time to paint the chalkboard wall (which is finally in use and TOTALLY worth the time!), alex being home sick one day and being up at school all day yesterday, it just didn't happen. i stole an hour this morning while alex & matthew were at a friend's working on a science fair project and ben & sam were catching up on christmas specials (this mornings picks : olive, the other reindeer & frosty) and added a few more days. i'm hoping i can do the same after they're in bed and be all the way caught back up.

starting up where we left off...

day five, part one. two shipping tags held together with washi tape. i used the page protectors as a guide to punch the holes. this one was super fast. number, initial, ticket from the oa miscellany, done.

i love how the smaller size looks in the book.

day five, part two. i used the stitching from the front to guide my design.

day six. i completed day seven first, and was going to back it with a piece of patterned paper for this day - but i liked the stitching showing on the back and decided to run with it. i also decided it was time for some confetti. =)

since i was journaling about my family's shopping & secret keeping habits, this seemed like a good place to add in the christmas wish lists.

all journaling. i used a page from the old school ledger book that i talked about yesterday. the badge is by marcy penner.

you've seen this before..  just showing it again in context. =)

each boy has a bag that will hold his christmas list. i used numbers from elle's studio to mark their ages.

i found this in an anthro catalog.. perfect for the album!

for sam's list.

for ben's list.

for alex's list.

and for other lists and notes.

(if you want to see more of my december daily progress, click here)

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happy saturday! my boys have been in and out today. matthew and alex were gone this morning. they came back, then ben went to a friend's and sam and matthew went to run errands. it's just alex and i right now, which means a quiet house. definitely enjoying it while it lasts!

december daily 2011 - days 1-4

i've got days 1-4 of my december daily to share today. i was going to aim for updating weekly, but after seeing how many images went into this post, i'm thinking twice a week is the way to go. i'll have another update on saturday, and will plan on posting on mondays and thursdays going forward.

i was worried about keeping up this album + project life - but i'm finding it actually makes things easier. i can focus on all of the little holiday details for this book, and still have a place for the zillion other stories in my PL album. 

i wanted to share a photo of the title page again - i'm loving how it looks with all of the other pages peeking through the confetti!

day one. i really wanted to be able to include a flip up to hide the journaling and another photo. i debated cutting a slit in the page protector, but finally decided on adding some elements ABOVE it instead. the yellow chevron paper, grey mix tape and the ruler paper with the photos are all on top of the page protector. i simply stitched them in place once i had day two (on the flipside) finished. 

the journaling card is a printable from marcy penner.

turning the page... =)

day two. i used the exclusive mist from the studio calico kit to color the thickers. this one was fast fast fast. i built it on the back side of day one and just used the stitching as a guide to my design. the number 2 is a printable that i found via pinterest.

day three, part one. i stamped the studio calico pinked circle with jbs weatherwave ink on a doily.

i'm trying to keep the big picture in mind here - looking at what will peek out behind each page as i add it.

day 3, part two. the tree pic is an instagram - my iphone camera didn't want to focus on the tree. love the blur.

day three, part three. the banner is an ali edwards design from designer digitals - i followed her tutorial here on how to make it into a cutting file for the cameo. LOVE. the photo was taken with a fisheye filter on my kit lens.

i think those tags will be the base for day five. if not, i'll use them later on.

day four. i built the background and then misted it with classic shine before adding the photo - it adds a nice shimmer in real life.

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happy tuesday! i've got a can of chalkboard paint and a crazy plan for this afternoon, thanks to some emails w/ marcy yesterday.... if all goes well, i'll have a chalkboard wall in my dining room by the end of the week. ;)

december daily 2011 - ready to go!

two days till december first - and i'm getting excited to start filling this book in! i've decided that i'm going to commit to a page a day. since the studio calico kit album came with 25 page protectors, that means i can do one page for most days, and bump it up to two if more happens. i'm also planning on adding some things between the page protectors, so i have some flexibilty as to how many pages i'll end up with at the end of the month.

i'm storing everything i'm using together. this tray came from target - i have another (in aqua!) that i use for my studio calico kits. i LOVE that these stack. i also love that i can pick everything up and move it to the living room to work while i'm with my family.

my album cover was a bit of an experiment - but i love how it turned out! i started with a light coat of acrylic paint, and then added three coats of chalkboard spray paint. i drew the starburst design (totally inspired by the stamp in studio calico's now sold out snow cone add-on) and added punched confetti over a layer of martha stewart decoupage glue (totally inspired by nicole harper's card here). i still have to figure out how to seal the chalkboard. i tried a tiny bit of the martha glue on the bottom left ray - it didn't work. i'm thinking a spray sealer. will figure that out later. ;) the december 2011 button was a freebie with an order from ormolu, and it was perfect for this design! it's layered over a ruler die cut from the october afternoon farmhouse miscellany and a pinked circle stamped from a studio calico set.

a note on confetti. it's awesome. and it's addicting. and you have to punch waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than you'd think. ;) i brought together a bunch of PPs in colors that i liked (and be sure BOTH sides fit your color scheme) and went to work with an EK success large swiss cheese punch. you cannot do this with a handpunch, you'll end up with carpal tunnel! i ended up punching about 20 strips - and who knows how many more i'll do before i'm done.

here's a peek inside my book - for now i'm just showing the title page + a couple of special pages that i made this weekend. for the daily pages, i'm mostly using premade pages from marcy penner's december journal kit. i've got some patterned paper cut down to 6x6, 4x6 & 2x6 that may be layered into other pages as i go along.  my embellishments are a mix - most are from the studio calico december daily kit, but i pulled in a few things from my stash that i thought would coordinate well. all products are linked at the bottom of the post - and if you can't find info on something you're looking for, email me and i'll try to help out!

the calendar pocket on the left came from marcy's kit - i used washi to hold it in place.

i'm not going to lie - i was totally intimidated by the idea of 6x8 pages. but i am SO glad i decided to get the sc kit & album as these page protectors have so many possibilities. the tag here is from marcy's kit - i added the pp on the top to hide a screw up. ;) after decorating both sides of the tag, i stitched it in place (through the middle) in the page protector. i then added my confetti and stitched across the top.

see? confetti. is. addicting.

i used the stamp from snowcone here - with more confetti. that T is an ancient october afternoon alphabet, and the "five" is from elle's studio.

i cut down a couple of baseball card page protectors - i borrowed that idea from ali edwards.  this one got confetti + veneer astericks in one pocket and a card from marcy's kit in another.

flip through all those holiday catalogs before you recycle them - this came from an anthropologie catalog.

i'm planning on using these bags to hold a christmas lists from the boys - just not sure how i'll embellish them. i just punched holes in them and added them into the book. i did the same with the calendar chipboard from the studio calico kit. i'm still pondering exactly how i'll use those as well.

i'm planning to post my progress weekly - i'll try to get a post up each tuesday. i'm a little nervous about keeping up with this + project life + holiday festivities + other work so i'm sure i'll share some thoughts on that as well.

for those still looking for a kit to make the process easier, i've got a couple to recommend. i LOVE the idea of a kit for this project - and am relying on the ones that i picked up to streamline the process of making my own album. 

jack frost kit by elle's studio- LOVE the exclusive tags in this one!!!

mini charcoal holiday book by jamaica makes - streamlined and gorgeous!

holiday mixed paper book by elisa blaha - a perfect album base, just add photos + embellishments + words.

jingle all the way holiday journal by evalicious - eclectic album + embellies. i may or may not need to get some of the extra embellishments from her shop for my own album! ;)

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happy tuesday!! sam and i are off to run some errands. staples for shipping tags, and the grocery store. oh, the excitement. ;)

december daily - planning it out

this morning's project - hunting and gathering. i'm still not feeling 100% so this seemed like a good low key way to spend the morning. i pulled together my studio calico kit and my december journal kit from marcy penner and then added in a few other bits and bobs. these kits are both sold out, but if you have a good stash of christmas product, you could totally pull together something similar. i didn't have a stash built up, so i opted to get the kits when they were available.

i spray painted my chipboard album with chalkboard paint yesterday. i'm still not 100% sure what i want to do with it next, but i'm in love with the possibilities. the idea was inspired by this image on pinterest.

as for the insides... i'm still working through how i want to handle that. i added the premade pages from marcy's kit into my page protectors. many are smaller, but i'm intrigued by the possibility of floating pages. i am leaning towards working daily - but it might not be a page a day, so i'll add numbers and embellishments as i go. 

i've started a pinterest board for dec daily inspiration. most are general more than literal - just kind of trying to get a feel for what i want the album to look like. i'm thinking there will be a lot of confetti pockets and banners based on what i'm pinning. ;) i'm also planning to add ideas that might be fun things for us to do during the month of december.

here's a peek at what i'll be using for this project. and while i'm sure i'll end up pulling in other supplies from my desk, i'm going to make myself try and stick with these items to keep it simple. i'm planning on pre-cutting some silhouette shapes from neutral papers so they're reading when i want them. sam loves to help me use the silhouette, so maybe we'll do that today.

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happy thursday! i think sam and i are going to watch a lot of movies today - i gotta kick this cold. i'll be back tomorrow to share 2 project life weeks. =)

december daily(ish), a few more days

it's another snow day here - perfect to share my december daily progress.  i've made it to the 17th! i've also managed to update the album over to the right. finally. =)

the left page of this spread is super simple - i printed a 5x7 copy of the comic the boys were working on and used it as the background for my page, and didn't want to cover any more than i had to! i just added a strip across the bottom to hold my photo + journaling and called it good.  i lovelovelove this little phone snap of a & b. for the right side, i had a lot to say, so i started with a stamped background of journaling lines, added my photo to the middle, and wrote away.

day 12 : pp - sc exclusive from metropolitan, sc exclusive from napa valley, crate, tape - ac city park mixtape, stickers - JBS, stamp - sc time flies, ink - jbs seedpacket, staples - tiny attacher, shipping tags, 2x2in iphone photos

yep, i got that martha shaped glitter i'd been eyeing (it's 50% off at 2peas!).  doris, bridgette and i actually ended up splitting a pack, and i am loving it! i might have to go back and add some to earlier pages in my book.  rather than trying to cover the entire back of the tags, i just layered part of a trader joe's bag over part of them and let the tops show. the facing page is on the back of a MM noel envelope - once again, i folded the flap over to dress up the back. i added some iridescent stars from the glitter pack - they're hard to see in the photo.

day 15 & 16 : little dots - metropolitan + fiskars circle punch, pp - trader joe's bag, SC exclusive from metropolitan, vintage ledger, vintage dictionary & crate, letter stickers - MM + mister huey's warm calico, glitter - martha stewart, stamps - notes from holiday lights, ink - jbs seed packet, punches - martha 1in scalloped circle, ek dotted circle punch & ek real estate sign, envelope - MM noel, staples - tiny attacher, photos 2x3in

as i get further into the month, it seems that i've got more to say. i'm dealing with less everyday moments and more holiday traditions i'm also noticing the bits and pieces of whatever's on my desk start drifting onto my pages - this one has some scraps from who's who. from there, i found some really old stash items to complete the look i wanted. the list inside this envelope records all the friends the boys played with over winter break.  the right page is a 6x6 pad of mm paper from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when.

day 17 & winter break favorites : envelope - mm noel, patterned paper -  basic grey & sc exclusive trees from who's who, sc exclusive from metropolitan, sc exclusive from napa valley & really old mm ledger, numbers - really old ac thickers, punches - ek bumpy road and ms vintage doily, staples - tiny attacher

i am still determined to finish this - but it might not be till february.  and that's okay. i've made notes. my supplies are contained. i've printed most of my photos. i'm keeping it accessible so i can grab it and add a bit as i get a chance. i'd rather wait for a quiet moment to be able to finish it up than squeeze it into nonexistant free time - that would just make me resent it. i know i'm not the only one still plugging away at my album - who out there is still working with me? 

happy tuesday! it's bitterly cold today, so it looks like we'll be inside most of the day. could be a long one. ;)

wordless wednesday : christmas in b&w

(cmas eve, right before bed)

(early cmas morning. stockings unstuffed, waiting for cinnamon rolls)

(shocked to find a phone book)

(it was a gift from sam. mom and dad helped him wrap it)

(figuring it out)

(new book)

(new sketchbook)

(new legos)