Chrissie's December Daily {Day 1 & Day 2}

OK, so we've been really bad about updating this blog, I know. But Roxanne and I both have New Year's Resolutions to update more. And being that it's the holidays, it's busier than normal, so we really and truly haven't had the time!

We are both working on December Daily Albums. If you aren't familiar with the December Daily concept, check out Ali Edwards's site - she is the originator of this awesome idea. Basically, a book is created to document the daily routine of a person/family in December. Being that so much usually happens in December, it's a little more exciting than other months. I know today is December 17th and I'm just posting Days 1 & 2, but I will have more to update in the days to come. Sooo.... onto {DAY ONE}!!!!!

The idea is that you create an empty book ahead of time so it is easier to fill it in the busy month of December. All I can say is THANK GOODNESS I got my entire book made ahead of time or I wouldn't even know how to start it at this point!!! I opted to cut out all pages by hand this year. I didn't want to use a pre-made book. I also decided to use some rag translucent marker paper I had as cover sheets for each day. I thought that would be fun to use with my Copics.

My Day One Before:

I stamped the day with a little design element on the translucent paper (I did this for each day), so it would sit on top of the actual page and it would just give a little hint of what is to come behind it. I used a lot of Fresh Snow White Ink from Papertrey Ink in the corners and edges of the cover pages. If you look closely, you can see some flourishes in the upper left corner of this one. For the actual page, I kept it simple, since I had no idea what I'd actually be doing on December 1st... The only days that I knew we had plans were the 16th for my son's Winter Concert at school (his last one in elementary school *sniff*) and Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. All other days were just me guessing at what MIGHT be happening. Since I'm a MAJOR planner, this was tough for me at first, but I learned to adapt... Kinda...

Here is my Day One After:

As you can see, I ended up taking a different page from later in the book instead of my original Day 1 page. The pictures I had just didn't fit right, so I pulled a switcheroo. I took the images into Photoshop and I turned the one of my son's hand putting the first ornament on our Advent Calendar tree black and white, but I kept the ornament in color. For the picture of my daughter, I decided to stamp onto the picture with the "Sweet" sentiment and a small flourish (all stamps are Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted). I used a little bit of gold crackle paint (from Ranger) up at the top and then I stamped over it when it was all dry.

Day One Back:

My journaling is a nice explanation of what the December daily is all about.  So, when my kids are older, they can look at it and know exactly why I hounded them constantly for pictures of silly things!

Now, onto Day Two....

Before:

And After:

I just added the pictures and a few well-placed stamps.  I actually used part of a gift tag as an embellishment in the lower right corner.  I just love Kraft cardstock, so my tags this year involve Kraft.  The particular design was mistletoe, and I thought that was appropirate to use since the picture is of my daughter kissing my husband.  :-)


The Back:

 Right now, it's just a picture that makes me giggle.  All I can think of is "A Christmas Story" when the kid can't put his arms down becuase he's is sooo bundled up.  That's how Rachel looks when she's ready to go outside.  So, I just couldn't put anything else on this page that might take away from the cuteness of this picture!!!! I might end up adding more, but I might not.... We'll see!!!!


I have more pages, waiting to be worked on and waiting to be posted, so I will have more updates in a few days.  This weekend is going to be full of last-minute shopping and wrapping, but hopefully I will be able to work on some things at night, after the kids are in bed!

Roxanne and I will also have posts of our Holiday creations (Teacher's Gifts, Tags, etc), so stop back soon to check for more updates.

Thanks for stopping by!!!