December Daily 2011- prep work

This will be my second year creating a December Daily album and I have to say, I couldn't be more excited. (Cue music- "Its The Most... Wonderful Time... Of The Year"). If you're unfamilar with the concept, definatly check out www.AliEdwards.com. Ali is the pioneer of the December Daily and does amazing things every year.
So anyway... After thinking about my 2010 album and what kind of album I wanted to make this year, I really knew 2 things: 1. That I wanted to use more fun colors (last year's album was mostly black, grey and red) and 2. I wanted to try a square format. I also remembered that my absolute favorite page from last year was when I used an entire 5x7 photo as the page itself. So I figured I'd work with that 7" dimension and create a 7" square album. Here's the cover I created for the album. I started with a 7.5"x7.5" (slightly larger than the 7" square) piece of thick cardstock (7 Gypsies), added holes for the binding, rounded the corners, covered 1 side with self-adhesive felt (to give it some cusion) and then I wrapped that same side with fabric I sprayed with a spray adhesive. I cut the fabric about 1/2" larger than the chipbaord and tucked the edges around. I coverd the inside face of the covers with another sheet of self-adhesive felt and added oversized grommets to the holes.

Here is the album as it stands now. I'm using 4 binder rings as the binding. I'll add the date and some kind of embellishment at some point:


Here is the inside of the front cover, where the felt is:


I spent a good amount of time looking at different manufacturer's 2011 Christmas releases and finally decied that the "Holly Jolly" collection by Echo Park would be perfect. I love the color combinations and all the adorable patterns. It'll be a nice change of pace from my album last year. I pre-cut all my papers down to 7"x7"" and rounded the corners:


To make the most of the Echo Park Holly Jolly collection's bright & cheerey patterns, and to accomodate that 5"x7" spot I wanted, I used my patterned paper scraps to cut 2"x7" strips. I plan to attach them to each pair of facing pages either on the outside edges, inside edges, or along the bottom. I'm going to alternate a solid cardstcok or glitter cardstcok page with a patterened page, so each pair of facing pages has 1 of each. The 2"x7" strips will match though, kind of like book-ends. Here's a loose-laid example:


I decided that I liked interjecting some surprise "transparency" pages last year, so I grabbed some scrap acetate packaging, trimmed them to 7"x7" with rounded corners and used spray-adhesive to adhere some Ki Memories die-cut paper to them:


I also wanted a few smaller "pages" here and there, to allow me to add more small pics on busy days, or for more journalling. After giving it some thought I created these large tags:


I'm not sure if I'll add them in pairs or just 1 here and 1 there, top or bottom, but with the rings positioned where they are, I'm open to both options. Here's what they look like inserted into the album:


I also pre-cut some mini tags for journalling (I added some old Cosmo Cricut paper that coordinated and had some good journalling lines), and a stack of 4.25"x4.25" white cardstcok for matting 4" square photos. I won't use that photo format on ALL the pages, but it at least gives me the supplies to create some fast pages during a hectic month. So here's where I'm at. It's been a lot of fun doing all the prep, now I'm just waitng until December!:

Halloween Banner

Just finished this "Spooky" Halloween banner for our house. Patterned Paper- K&Company and Making Memories Cardstcok- American Crafts Embellishments- Recollections and unknown

Sketch Challenge

Anyone that has scrapped with me knows, I love my sketches! So when I read Lori at Apron Strings was hosting a sketch challenge, I knew it was perfect for me. Below is my take on 3 of the challenges, all using this PageMaps sketch.


Challenge #3- Use the sketch as is (I also combined 2 vertical 4x6 photos to fill the larger 5x7 spot and cropped my photos a bit larger as that worked better for the images I was using)

Challenge #4- Re-orient 2 photos (I also added a additional photo)


Challenge #6- Replace 2 smaller photos for a larger one (I misted over an alphabet mask to create the "background" paper for the right-hand side... and then couldn't bear to cover it up with the large mat so I matted all the individual photos to make them pop a bit)

December Daily 2010- Day 6-10

Day 6-
The left side is the back of the glitter chipboard (it’s WHITE chipboard). The right side is just another piece of thick grey cardstock. I added a mini paper clip and “Adore” ticket stub to the top and a strip of patterned paper under the photos. I love these photos. Its this kind of stuff that I really want to document… I fear our days of innocent holiday “decorations” are numbered. 


Day 7-
Another salvaged cover of a Christmas card on the left with some patterned paper and a postage stamp. There’s really no right-side base here, just our Christmas card with some canvas Technique Tuesday stickers sandwiched together and a canvas Thickers number.


Day 8-
Basic Grey patterned paper covered chipboard and a red glitter numer. That’s about it here.


Day 9-
The left is the white back-side of the chipboard and the right side is another set of page protector sleeves. I added a small kraft journaling tag to the outside of the sleeve, with the Thickers number on it. Super-simple page.


Day 10-
This page was cut from a piece of die-cut journaling paper from Jenni Bowlin. This was the paper I traced to make the covers and it set the shape for the whole album. I squared up the top and bottom lines and set the size so that you could see a border of the next page behind it. The numbers are black felt, from Ki memories. The red glitter circle I made by cutting some tacky paper into a ring and sprinkling on red glitter.

December Daily 2010- Day 1 thru 5

Forgive the image quality here, my camera doesn’t like me anymore.


Day 1-
Just ivory cardstock with a red glitter sticker strip down the right side. A small tag tucked under the top photo explains the official start of our holiday season and the opening of our advent calendar/cabinet.


Day 2-
The left is the cover of a velvety Christmas Card I salvaged. The right side base page is black and cream cardstock and a photo/note about our bedtime conversations and how they are often geared towards Christmas wish lists in December. The “dreams” sticker is black velvet. I used a self-inking date stamp behind the number 2.


Day 3-
Just grey cardstock and some trees I cut out of die-cut paper. I added patterned paper over top one of the trees and some red jewels to many of them. The dots around the number 3 are a rub-on.


Day 4-
This was such a busy day and I had so many things to document. I used page protectors as the right-side base page to gain more photo space. This was really a 12x12 page protector that had 6 4x6 sleeves and a margin on the side for a 3-ring binder. I just cut out a section to give myself these 2 sleeves and hole-punched right through them once the photos were added. Another self-inking stamp under the number 4, adhered to the outside of the page protector. The title on the left is Cosmo Cricket rub-ons.



Day 5-
The left side was just more photos on the back-side of the page protector. I punched holes in an ad from The Nutcracker Ballet we attended, stapled our ticket stubs to it and inserted it in-between the base pages. The base page on the right is glittery red chipboard. It was hard to glue onto this so I used some Zots, but otherwise, I LOVE this chipboard! The glitter stays on and will not flake off. Plus is chipboard, so it’s nice and thick. I traced my cover onto pages like this so they are the same size/shape.

December Daily 2010- Cover

I decided I wanted a shaped album but I couldn’t find anything in stores that was quite right… so I decided to make it. I grabbed some scrap chipboard packaging and sketched out the shape I wanted using a piece of die-cut paper (see Day 10) as a guide. I free-handed the top and bottom lines, using a ruler to keep it symmetrical. I set the size based on the fact that I wanted to use some 2-high 4x6 page protectors. So the overall size was just slightly larger than 6”wide x 8” high. I made sure that the page protectors wouldn’t stick out at the rounded corners of my shaped cover. Once I had the shape, I traced it on a 2nd piece of scrap chipboard packaging so I had a front and back cover. I then painted both sides of each with black acrylic paint. Once they were dry, I used black & ivory polka dot paper (from Paper Pizzaz) to cover the front of the cover. I punched holes in each and added oversized grommets and binder rings. I added the date with some glittery red Thickers and a sticker that reads “happy Holidays.”

December Daily 2010- intro

So I decided sometime last October that I wanted to create my first “December Daily” album. I spent an afternoon reading DD blog posts on Ali Edward’s site and browsed all sorts of Googled images and finally decided to just jump right in. I liked the concept of a mini album that gave me a little more artistic freedom beyond my normal double-page 12x12 spreads... and the freedom to create pages without page protectors! There’s just something about the tactility of a mini album that really appeals to me. So at this point it was October and I thought, “I can do this!” and “How cool will it be to have DD albums out on the coffee table year after year… to compare our lives over the years and see how our traditions have changed and how they’ve stayed the same.” It’s fair to say I was very excited about this project. Looking back at other people’s past DDs (including Ali Edward’s) many were a collection of different shaped and sized pages. Ali’s plans for 2011 was to use a “template” so to speak. Although I liked her intended format for 2011, I decided that I wanted to try the more random approach. I still wanted my album to have a cohesive feel though, so I decided to stick to a color scheme- black, grey, ivory and glittery red. Other years I’ll try something different, but that was my plan for this album. I only spent about $20 at Michael’s for some supplies (printed acetate, thick glittery red chipboard and a few embellishments) and then I rummaged through my supplies at home and threw anything that might work in a drawer together. I spent a few days creating my cover and all my base pages (a combination of printed acetate, glittery red chipboard, extra-thick cardstock in grey or ivory, some page protectors and a few paper-covered chipboard pages) and then set it aside until December.

p.s. Of course, as I write this its early September 2011… so yeah, I took a few months off. I kept up with slapping some pages together for the first couple weeks but then as our schedules got hectic, I set it aside until recently. I did maintain taking photos every day in December, I just didn’t have time to have them printed really. But that’s the nice part about having all the base pages pre-done and all my supplies gathered in one place. Even many months later it was still super easy and fun to complete!

feb.14

Play Softball

Welcome Avery

Luau Pinata

More party prep…
So I decided to attempt a homemade piñata for T’s birthday party this year. I’m still not entirely sure why. I researched some information online and found there were basically 2 methods to do this: a) to cover a blown-up balloon with paper mache & crepe paper or b) to create a shape from thin cardboard and cover with paper mache & crepe paper. I decided method ‘b’ gave me more control over the shape/design so that’s the method I used.

Step 1- Formwork:
I created the formwork for the piñata using old cut-up clothing gift boxes, taped together. I added a stiffener (piece of cardboard) in the center as some tips I had read suggested, so the weight of the wet paper mache wouldn’t make it cave in. I realize now I should have added even more, perhaps 1 in each petal, rather than 1 in the center.


Steps 2,3,4- Paper Mache:
I covered the formwork with 3 separate layers of paper mache. This is just this strips of newspaper, dipped in a ‘glue’ mixture (2 parts warm water to 1 part flour), squeegee’d between my fingers and layered on the formwork. The first and last layer I used plain newspaper. For the middle layer I used colored ad’s, so I could easily make sure I was covering each previous layer. Between layers 2 and 3 I added a portion of a metal coat hanger to the top, to act as the hanging loop. I added a few extra layers around this, to help secure it in place.


Step 5:
Decorating. I used crepe paper to decirate the flower. I took a length of the crepe paper, folded it in half lengthwise to make a double layer, and then folded that in half in the opposite direction. I made lots of little ‘slits’ to make the fringe, and then pulled the 2 double-layer strips apart, so I had 2 lengths to add to the piñata. 2x the rewards for each effort. Sounds complicated and confusing, but it went pretty fast. I added the strips with a little Emler’s school glue at the top of the crepe paper, starting from the bottom of the flower and working my way up, overlapping each layer as I moved up.
I added a pale pink center and yellow step out of tissue paper I had lying around the house.

Total cost for the piñata: $2 (for the hot pink crepe paper). Plus another $15 to fill it with candy of course.

Luau party banner

I made this banner for Taylor’s upcoming Hawaiian luau birthday party. It was free to make, if you consider that all the paper came from my stash. I had bought a “stack” of colorful We Are Memory Keepers paper a year or so ago and only used it on 1 layout. It’s more colorful than I’d normally use and it came with 3 or 4 sheets of each pattern/solid so it was just sitting there collecting dust. The colors worked for her party, so I went with it. I used a good handful of white cardstock from my stash to back each pennant as well. I borrowed the “Life’s a Beach” Cricut cart from a friend and used it for the hibiscus flowers and the bamboo letters. I borrowed some punches and dies from another friend for the large scallops, ribbon slots and smaller punched flowers. I was planning on using ribbon to tie each pennant together but then remembered I had bought some raffia grass skirts so I grabbed a few strands from one and used them in place of ribbon. I’m so glad I thought of that, it really added a nice tropical touch! I plan to hang this in 1 long run (3 “swoops, 1 for each word) along the top of our fence behind the pool. I threw them up on the wall like this just for the purpose of a quick photo.
Coming up… a homemade piñata, cardboard surfboards and goody bags.

Florida Friends

 

We see our friends in Florida only once a year, but each time we seem to pick right up where we left off. I love how the kids don't waste any time getting used to one another again... they dive right in and don't stop laughing until it's time to leave.

Derby Girls

During one of those cold, boring weekends in January we stumbled upon a movie called “Whip It,” about girls roller derby. I happened to mention that I’d like to go to a local match someday and Taylor just couldn’t BELIEVE that it was real. I guess she thought it was only in the movies. So we looked up the schedule and there happened to be a match that night. We brought her friend Hannah with us and the girls had a blast choosing a “derby crush” to cheer for. It was a great way to spend a cold January night!

new blog, new girl

So... I started a new blog. I started the old one before I knew a thing about blogging (still don't, really) and I was just ready for a fresh start with a new look. Seems like as good a time as any... my little girl made her 1st Communion just a couple days ago and in a way, has begun a new phase in her own life. It was a great day and we are so proud of her!