And So I Don't Forget...

December Daily 2015: Days 24 - 25

Somehow, with some crazy fast forward of the calendar, it's almost time to start thinking December Daily again! Of course I am planning to document my sweet little Milly's first Christmas, but I have no thoughts so far on what form my December Daily will take this year. I've been keeping on eye on the new Christmas collections being released, although nothing has really caught my attention yet, and I'm eager to see the new December Daily kits Ali is releasing this month.   

But before I become too focused on this year, how about I finish sharing last year's mini album. 

December 24 - It wasn't a technically great photo of me snuggling with my friends' little baby so I turned the photo black and white. The photo of my cranberry sauce cooking on the stove wasn't particularly inspiring either, so I printed the recipe on vellum and sewed it on top of the photo. Using the same border punch helped unite the two pages and add some interest. 

December 25 - With my December Daily being the only Christmas scrapbooking I do, as per usual (2014, 2013, 2012) Christmas Day is never documented in just one spread. I began with a favourite selfie of Mike and I from Christmas morning. I was conscious that this was the last Christmas with the two of us, and Christmas morning will never be the same again. :)

On the right I included a card my Mum had made for Chip, aka Amelia. ;) I attached the back of the card to a strip of transparency so it's sturdy in the album, can be opened and the back still seen. 

Inspired by Ali Edwards' Storytelling with December Daily class, I created a foldout page of photos of Christmas morning and lunch. You can use the tab to fold the page to the right, then it all pulls over to the left.  

I used a full spread photo, about 10 by 7 inches, as the basis for the next page. Who can resist little cutie niece's face there? She wanted to sit next to her Auntie Lanie. :) Again, not a technically perfect photo by any stretch, but there is my family and Mike's mixed together, Santa hats and crackers and paper crowns and food and mess and colour. I love it.   

I included a page of printed journaling in the middle of the spread, with a few simple red embellishments.

On the other side I included a collage of photos from the afternoon, and struck two fabric-covered chipboard stars back to back on the edge of the page to form a tab. It does split the full spread photo but I figure holding the page on it's edge will allow the photos be seen easy enough.   

To finish the album I created a vellum pocket which I sewed onto a piece of glitter paper. Mementos like gift tags, wrapping paper, a joke from a cracker are tucked inside. I used a piece of patterned paper to line the cardboard back cover, with the sentiment cut down from a 3x4 card on the bottom.

Normally I continue the album through to December 31st; I think it's the first year I ended here on Christmas Day. I'm off work over Christmas through to New Year so the time feels like a holiday to me. For this Christmas I was only two weeks work off beginning maternity leave so the time didn't feel as precious. With nothing I particularly wanted to document happening, I simply decided not to.

This is the end of my December Daily album, but I think I've got another page of two still to share. 

 

You can find links to all my December Daily albums and pages here.

December Daily 2015: Days 15 - 19

I'm still optimistic of finishing this December Daily album before Chip arrives but the days are disappearing fast. I seem to be going out for lunch too often to spend much time at my scrap table! It's a hard life. ;) 

Day 15: I cut down a paper shopping bag for the left page and on the right I used a kraft tag to print my journaling. I used strips of paper from the One Little Bird December Daily mini kit, sewing them to add some texture. The label is from the October Afternoon Under the Tree collection. 

Day 16: I had an obstetrician appointment and our last prenatal class on this day so I paired journaling, printed on vellum, with a photo of the baby bump taken in front of the Christmas tree. The photo wasn't actually taken on the 16th, but who is going to know or care?

The photo corners are from My Mind's Eye's Christmas on Market Street and I added a rub on from Cozy Christmas directly to the photo. The wood veneer were coloured with Brilliance gold ink and the bow is cut from cardstock with my Silhouette with pop dots tucked inside to maintain the dimension. 

Day 17: I used a free older printable from A Pair of Pears to write up my present list all neatly, then decided it looked too neat and cut my original messy list out of my diary to use instead. The page on the right is a section of a plastic shopping bag. Once I cut into the bag it was quite fragile, so I used spray adhesive to attach it to a clear transparency. I'm quite pleased with how that turned out.  

Day 17 and 18: I used the back of the shopping bag to continue Day 17, converting the photos to black and white. Most of the products are from the One Little Bird December Daily mini kit, apart from the fabric stars which is an older product from Studio Calico. I coloured them with a red mist which took ages to dry. 

A very simple page for Day 18, both in content and design. It was the midst of a bout of very hot days so I included the chorus to Aussie Jingle Bells by Greg Champion and Colin Buchanan. I know in past years I've used lyrics to more winter-focused Christmas carols so I like the contrast to our southern hemisphere hot.

Alternative Day 18: Before deciding on the simple, colour-blocked design for Day 18, I stamped the lyrics onto vellum with StazOn Ink. Given I spent the time making it, I thought I'd share the original. I do like the effect, but with the shopping bag showing through on the other page I felt that whole spread became way too chaotic.  

Day 19: I've just realised this is a spread without journaling, but I suppose wrapping presents and baking gingerbread is pretty self-explanatory. The 'give joy' is a digital file from Ali Edwards, through her Storytelling with December Daily class I believe, that I cut with the Silhouette from vellum. It is backed with glitter paper, which I've also used to cut the word nineteen. 'Baking treats' is stamped with Brilliance white ink which has come up really bright against the photo. I did originally attempt to emboss that text but that was a bit of a disaster with the photo cracking and needing a reprint. 

With another 5 days to complete this is already a fat little album, but I do love the stories it contains.

 

Links to all my previous December Daily pages are available here.

December Daily 2015: Days 8 - 12

After a lovely Christmas Day full of family, presents and food, I've spent the days since just lazing around home. I'm reminding myself that at 32 weeks pregnant, being lazy is considered perfectly reasonable, maybe even required on occasion. ;) As such, for the first time I am going to end my December Daily with December 25th, rather than continuing through to New Year's Eve. However, true to my normal form, I'm a LONG way from calling my December Daily complete at this stage. 

December 8: I used an old kraft envelope to hold a letter to my little Chip, embellishing with patterned paper and chipboard stars that I'd inked. The date is added with alphabet stickers and a rub-on star for a little colour. I am considering printing up a slightly smaller version of our Baby Warming invitation, that we made and sent around that date, to add into the envelope.     

December 9: It's hard to get more everyday life than a photo of toilet paper, but when Mike arranges it in the shape of a Christmas tree AND decorates it with tinsel, there was NO way it wasn't making its into my December Daily.

I decided to use the diecut frame and then sized the photo to fit. The colours, wood veneer and gems are repeated on both sides of the spread to help tie it together.

Supplies:

December Daily Mini Kit by One Little Bird

My Mind's Eye Christmas on Market Street cardstock labels

October Afternoon's Under the Tree cardstock stickers

American Craft cardstock in Weave 

Silhouette gold foil adhesive paper

Studio Calico diecut frame 

Studio Calico wood veneer stars, heart and number

Kaisercraft gems

December 10: An around here spread, using photos and list-style journaling that combines Christmas and more everyday life. 

Journaling reads: She is counting down; 15 sleeps to Christmas,19 more work days before maternity leave, 11 weeks before Chip is due. He is overseeing construction of built-in benches in our outdoor area. She is procrastinating unpacking the rest of the Christmas decorations. He is making wooden planes as gifts, following his Grandpa's design. She is thinking in lists; to do lists, present lists, shopping lists. 

Supplies:

December Daily Mini Kit by One Little Bird

'around here' stamp from the 2015 Week in the Life kit

Kaisercraft enamel stars

Studio Calico wood veneer banner

American Crafts Zing! embossing powder in metallic teal

VersaMark ink

December 11: I used an older Ali Edwards' template to contain my photos and paired that with a piece cut from the Carols by Candlelight program. I added journaling strips on top of the ephemera piece, decorating with washi tape and sequins.   

Journaling reads: With no Christmas Eve Carols by Candlelight attendance for me this year, I organised to get my fix at a local carols with Peta and the kids. There were free helium balloons, face painting, bubbles, even Ana and Elsa appeared. We didn't quite make the fireworks - I too had to head home to put my very tired boy to bed - but we're definitely planning to attend a Carols by Candlelight together again next year. 

Supplies:

Craft Medley sequins in green and red/pink

December 12: Meeting sweet little April, less than 24 hours old. The journaling is largely taken from a blog post, formatted in Photoshop Elements before I printed the page elements separately. My friend Nicole was incredibly organised and had a birth announcement to give me on Christmas Eve (I spent a big portion of Christmas Eve snuggling with this little one, only sharing her begrudgingly with Mike) so I trimmed that slightly and used it for the right page. How adorable is she in that little plum pudding hat! 

Supplies:

December Daily Mini Kit by One Little Bird

Studio Calico wood veneer numbers

Scrapbook Adhesives foam squares 

 

There a few more photos printed and a couple pages partially complete, but that's as far as I've got for now. And I do have to laugh; this time last year I was in the exact (and I mean EXACT) same stage. According to my blog post a year ago today, Days 1 to 11 were complete. This year Days 1 to 12 are complete, with the exception of Day 5 which I've skipped for the moment. The exact same stage I was last year! ;)   

 

Links to all my previous December Daily pages are available here.

Simple Scrapper: Wedding Details Album

With the pretty photographer's wedding album all organised and approved, I wanted to begin a mini album documenting the details and decision of wedding planning and wedding day. Reading the July Simple Scrapper Story Starters, with a theme Soundtrack of Life, gave me the perfect story to begin - ceremony music.   

I printed my journaling on two Project Life cards and added some simple embellishment for a completed 6x8in pocket page.  

I resized the Wedding Run Down document to 6x8, adding some patterned paper to the three pages for some colour.  

Our RSVP cards, intentionally sized to 6x4 as I had something like this in mind, contain some great responses from our guests. I'll slip them into the 2 6x4 pocket pages and scatter the pages through the mini album. 

There are so many stories I'd like to document about our wedding; I'm glad this is a start,  

 

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Simple Scrapper: Honeymoon Mini Album

The last week or so has passed by in a bit of a blur. I've been coughing and sniffling away, not motivated to do anything much more than curl up on the couch and watch TV. Oh, the joys of cold and flu season. Thank goodness for Netflix! 

Before the onset of this bad case of the blahs, the June Simple Scrapper Story Starter theme got me sorting though ephemera and beginning a mini album of our honeymoon. I've a looonng way to go before this album is finished but you have to start somewhere. And in this particular case, that's towards the end of our trip and not the beginning because that's what was inspiring me. :)

My thinking is that each day will have one spread in the album, a left and a right side. I'm not going to make that an unbreakable rule, but it's a starting point. There will be a mix of full page photos and page protectors. I intend the journaling spot (title font, line, text with a small date underneath) to be a point of consistency throughout the pages.

As November 29, shown above, was a travel day with few photos I included a pocket sewn from a Disney World photo frame to house maps and brochures from this portion of the trip,

On the back I added a collage of photos, created in Photoshop Elements.   

I took over 300 photos on our first day in the parks - from rope drop at EPCOT through park close after Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom - but the 14 this spread includes captures the essence of our day.

Pretty darn magic.

I don't think anywhere does fireworks like Disney!  

 

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Simple Scrapper: May

Inspired by the Simple Scrapper story starter theme for May, Leisure Time, I decided to add some pages to my Appreciating Winter mini album. 

Started a few years ago, this mini album is a collection of things I like about winter, just waiting for me to add a page or two whenever the mood strikes.

For my second Simple Scrapper layout of the month I decided to create another wedding day layout, Using a sketch from the membership collection, I selected softer colours for this layout about our wonderfully surreal afternoon tea.    

Journaling reads: Surreal, in a good way, is how Julie described it. Sitting in the middle of the bush (it felt like), greeted by kangaroos on the way in, drinking tea from fine china and dressed in all our wedding finery - surreal it definitely was, but wonderful. Chatting, laughing, taking a moment together. So glad this crazy scheme of mine worked, and was worth it.  

Starting later this month, Simple Scrapper is running a free event that might be of interest. Together with the free sketch and template set that is available on the blog each month, it's a great opportunity to sample what Simple Scrapper has to offer! 

The membership at Simple Scrapper offers tools and support to help you enjoy scrapbooking more – to use the supplies you have, tell your stories, and have some fun among like-minded friends.

The best way to experience our community for yourself is at the upcoming Photo Crush event. During this 7-day challenge, Jennifer Wilson will help you streamline your photo library so that memory keeping is even easier.

Click here to sign up for FREE. 

Simple Scrapper: March Layouts

I'd been wanting to scrap this sentiment for a while and one of the sketch templates from Simple Scrapper's March Premium Membership collection seemed perfect for the story. 

Layout reads: She snuggled in his arms and I saw his heart melt. Our first time babysitting; Claire freshly bathed and cosy in her pajamas and sleeping bag, snuggling into Mike's arms for her bedtime bottle. So trusting, so safe, oh so very loved.

I'd just received a new parcel of scrapbooking products before beginning this layout and it was lovely to use some immediately. Supplies include letter stickers, thickers, diecuts and patterned paper.

The Story Starter theme for March at Simple Scrapper is Back in my Day and one of the prompts in particular resonated with me.

I first had the idea for this minibook back in 2011, when I asked my Mum to write down some recollections for me. Finally, thanks to the story prompt and a Premium Membership template, the minibook has begun. 

This layout is about 7 inches by 7.25 inches in size, to fit a pair of craft wood minibook covers I serendipitously picked up on sale the week before. As I didn't have a photo on hand of Mum from a similar time period, I downloaded a photo from the internet to use instead. Supplies include letter stickers. 

Journaling reads:  I was in high school when man first landed on the moon. It was considered such a significant event that any girl living in town who owned a television was allowed to leave school that day and go home to witness this historical event via the new exciting medium of television. I suspect those who remained at school that day, including the bus girls, gathered around some set at school. I sat for hours in our lounge room, absorbing the slow progress being made. My mother was home but I recall a sense of frustration that she was more consumed with household tasks than sharing such a moment in history with me. I assume my younger sister was at primary school that day. I have no memory of her being in the lounge room too.       Recounted on January 27, 2011.

And if you're noticing little dots on the layout, it's possible I may have photographed this layout immediately after eating breakfast one morning. (Love my vegemite toast.) But why is it I only notice this after photographing, uploading and editing the photos? Oih. 

 

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Scrapbook on the Road Mini: Version Two

After the success of my last Scrapbook on the Road mini album - it's one holiday that is actually fully documented! - I decided to create a similar mini for my trip to Europe/Africa back in February.  

I used pieces of transparency for the cover, sized about 8 inches by 5 inches. No additional decoration to the cover yet as it needed to survive being pulled in and out of bags. 

Inside, I cut down some neutral and lined patterned papers, many to 6x4 but there are a variety of sizes. On some of the pages I stamped phrases and images in a neutral colour, Wet Cement Hero Arts Shadow Ink.

I took very minimal supplies with me this time, partly because I was organising this mini album at the last minute. (Literally. Mum and Dad were at my house waiting to take us to the airport when I snapped that photo!) But I also knew I wanted my mini to be simpler this time, less colour and pattern fighting for attention with the memorabilia, photos and journaling. 

 

I used stamps to create titles and add a little colour to some of the journaling pages.

Most memorabilia I hole-punched and added straight to the binder rings. I like the look of sticking out in all different sizes, although for pieces taller than the mini album I tried to keep the base fairly consistent with the bottom of the cover, so I could stand it up on a shelf when finished if I so chose.  

I took my Instax camera with me on holiday and I used washi tape to add some of these photos to the album as I travelled.

I have journaled extensively about some days and others don't have anything recorded yet. The way I look at it, everything documented is a bonus - I do this because I want to, not because I have to.

Some of my favourite pages contain lists, such as observations about London or the food I ate in Paris. Collating the information gives a strong impression than scattering it through the journaling.  

I also love capturing moments - quotes and passing impressions that I otherwise wouldn't remember at the end of the trip. I think that's the advantage of documenting while you travel, whether simply jotting down notes or working on a Scrapbook on the Road, those wonderful little details make the holiday special. The 'I went here then here then here' you can work out from your photos after.    

You can see photos and video of my first Scrapbook on the Road here, and I also posted my thoughts on Scrapbooking on the Road and working on that album just after I returned from the trip. (I also posted what supplies I took with me and my reasoning, plan and pre-prepared pages.)

I've lots more work to do on this album before it's complete, but I've started and I'll post more about that soon. 

Finished: Scrapbook on the Road Travel Album

The night before my birthday, at about 11pm, I completed one last 30 before 30 goal:

24.  Finish a travel scrapbook. Any of them. 

How's that for cutting it close? ;)

But, only 16 months after beginning, my Scrapbook on the Road album is finally complete!

I thought I'd make a little video, showing the pages of the album and talking about some things that I did and didn't like.

I posted my thoughts on Scrapbooking on the Road and working on this album just after I returned from my trip. (I also posted what supplies I took with me and my reasoning, plan and pre-prepared pages.)

There are just a couple more things I want to remember for next time:

• Completing the album in batches - printing all photos, adding photos to album and then embellishing - doesn't work best for me. 
• All the same size photos becomes repetitive, particularly when they are entire pages. 
• Use less bold patterned papers as I find them hard to work with when pulling the album together.
• Journaling spots and little spaces for lists or comments works well.
• Random observations gathered together are one of my favourite things to record and include. 

It may have taken me 16 months, but I got there in the end. One travel scrapbook, complete.

23 down, 7 to go.

Snow

After my trip to the snow a few months back, I knew I wanted to include it in my Appreciating Winter mini.

The concept came to mind when I was at work one day - photo with a Silhouette-cut banner, transparency with square photos on both sides and the word snow, cut from white cardstock, embossed in clear powder and attached to white cardstock.

I created the transparency page and it was ok.

I cut out the snow word, stamped and embossed and it was a disaster. I'd held the heat gun too close and discoloured the paper. I decided to add some misting to fix the problem. It really didn't.

So, the project sat on my scrap table for quite a while. Mocking me. 

Until I decided to measure the remnants of the snow word cut out and realised it actually would fit in the album. Then I remembered the dotted vellum that was hiding among my paper, bought for invitations I'd made years ago. Perfect.  

A little stitching, printing journaling on the photo after realising it didn't really fit on the snow page, and I was done.

And I adore it.

There is something about projects and pages that have overcome adversity than makes them all the more special. ;)