Today's December Daily post

Here is a full copy of my December Daily Memory Works post:

Hey there bloggers, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to you all from southeast PA where it's a blustery cold winter day.  All is as it should be.

Jenn here to share with you my Daily pages for Christmas day.  Yes, I said pages.

Before I get into my pages I'd like to express my delight in seeing the various December Daily styles represented by my fellow design team members.  They are all amazing!  From the altered children's book to the countdown clipboard, to the hand bound books, each designer has showcased products beautifully, shared new and interesting techniques and let us into their world by sharing their days this month.  I love the range of styles and products.  You can't help but be inspired to try something new in your scrapbooks whether you're a traditional scrapper, Project Life-er, love to use mixed media, artsy-fartsy techniques--or all of the above.  :)

Back to my pages.  As I mentioned in previous posts, I pre-designed my Daily.  I was concerned that if I didn't I'd start a Daily and by day 5 it would be tossed to the way-side for more fun, important scrappy/crafty tasks.  In the interests of full disclosure, I didn't finish my pre-design before the month started, and I still have photos to print and put in.  I have scheduled that into my calendar however, so it will be finished within the first couple days of the new year.  During my pre-design process I decided to devote several pages Christmas day.  I couldn't think of one single photo that depicts the day, rather numerous photos to show the progression of the day.

 I started by creating a "chapter page," no photos, just a 3x4" card, old-school heat embossed and a die-cut page with a polka-dot background.

 Embellishment and paper layers.  I took a die-cut 4x6" card and cut it down--yes, you can do that!--so that I show that these photos continue to be from the 25th.  Additionally, I adhered that card to the outside of the protector.  You can do that too.

 Layers, rub-ons, stamps, and punches create these two pages.  Again, I used elements that include the date for a reference point.

 Punches, bits of an old border strip and sequins, lots of sequins.  I didn't plan to put a sequin in every die-cut opening but a few spilled out of the bag onto the layered card and I thought, "Perfect!". 

 Sorry for the glare here, it's hard when you have those divided pocket protectors to get the lighting just right.  The last of the pages.  I took tons of photos however and I'm thinking they'll go into the general scrapbook in divided pages.  There's just so many unforgettable pix I have to include them all.

 A future page--I need to add the date, but in my pre-design phase I included extra pages for days I knew there would be too much to include in one photo.  This page is for the weekend, for the Edwardson-Roberts Shindig when we celebrate Christmas with my husband's family. 

 I acutally stitched right through the protector and one layer of paper.  I used my We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy tool to pierce the protector (the foam mat slipped in so I'd only go through one side) and lightly poked the holes into the paper with my piercer.  Then I hand-sewed the border.  Cool, huh?

I added a backer so you wouldn't see the sewing and made good use of my tools--punches!--to add interest. Again, I layered these on top of the protector so I could go out of bounds.  I find the Beacon 3-in-1 glue adheres to the plastic nicely.















If you've made it this far, thanks!  I had a lot I wanted to say and show.

So, this is it.  My last Memory Works blog post.  I am feeling bittersweet.  I have loved every minute of being on the design team these last two years. I am sad to see it all end.  I look forward to the blog shares and hops that other, former design team members are planning and participating in.  I hope you will follow my personal blog, which you can access from the sidebar here to stay on top of my scrappy adventures.  I hope Kevin and Amber and Simple Stories grow far beyond their dreams.  I thank all the great folks in the office who supported us throughout the years.  And to all my fellow Memory Works consultants, cheers to you!  Best wishes for a blessed New Year.  Thanks Memory Works, it's been wonderful.

Be happy, Get scrappy,

Jenn

December Daily Weekend Edition #2

December Daily post from the MemoryWorks blog... Once again craziness reigned supreme in my life.  Between shopping, cooking, decorating, celebrating, kid's Christmas programs and parties and a couple of inches of snow and ice I took a couple of photos to chronicle the madness-of-it-all.
Friday the 13th...bwahaha...

 I included a pocket here for cards.  I wanted a place to pop all those wonderful photo cards we receive from family and friends and even though they won't all have come on the 13th, it was an opportune spot for this pocket.

When I made my album I was aware of many of the activities we had planned for the month.  I knew for instance, that this weekend would be bookended by church events and I allowed extra space to include photos of those two events.


 

 As you'll quickly notice, I created my album assuming I'd have portrait style photos to pop on those conveniently placed 3x4" cards, but alas, that didn't happen.  No matter.  I just stacked the photos and popped on a stocking and rhinestone word embellishment.

I used a die cut page layered on a pattern paper page for fun and a wood veneer flourish with a holly sprig that I colored and added sequins to.



Shout out to my STARs, who performed their very first puppet show ever, on five weeks of lessons and        practice.  They did a wonderful job.

Saturday...snow and ice.  I decorated my tree, made a big pot of turkey soup and my husband and I went to a party with a white elephant gift exchange.  The box of hardware will be emptied and I'll use the compartments for scrappy organization but that snowman tray is going to find a new home...;)

I put embellishments on both the inside of the pockets as well as the outside.  These snowflakes were stamped, die cut and embellished with more sequins and adhered to the outside of the protector.

 Sunday--Week three of Advent, focused on joy.  The devotional materials are in one pocket.  The photos depict our annual church Christmas Celebration.  The room was packed out as usual, you could barely walk through.  The kids performed their program again and the STARs did their puppet presentation again. 

I love to repeat embellishments, especially in a theme mini, so you'll see lots of these snowflakes dropping down. 

Bonus!  I wanted to share this page topper I made.  Inspiration can be found everywhere.  From the first minute I saw the swag/banner decorations in Target I knew I was going to recreate the effect on a scrapbook page.  If you've shopped your local Target and looked up, you will have noted that there was mostly flat circles with a few 3-D circles mixed in.  I created that look, punching circles, folding them in half and gluing them together to create the 3-D circles.  I embossed some of the circles to add texture and interest. 


Be happy, get scrappy,

Jenn

December Daily--Weekend Catch-up Edition

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend filled with holiday fun!  I sure did.  I'll start by backtracking to my December Daily set-up.
 

I started with a red-spined Sn@p binder, the pages and protectors inside and added to that the December Documented Sn@p pages.  I didn't end up using all the the pages from both sets, so I cut some up and am making good use of all my materials.  I added in the December Sn@p 3x4 cards, the December Documented Designer Cardstock pack, and December Documented Pockets pack along with the 6x6 pad and other bits and pieces from my stash.  I titled my Daily "Waiting for Christmas" to go along with the Advent devotional I'm doing this season.  I layered up papers from the 6x6 pad, cards and pockets with a doily from my stash and ribbon left over from MME Lush collection (which I used for my daughter's wedding album).  I inked everything of course, that's just my style.  I set up my pages thinking about my month, leaving extra space in weekend pages for the extra activities we enjoy then.

There a lot of bits and pieces sticking out, that's also my style.  :)

Onto the weekend.  As you'll see it was all about food and snow. 

I stamped all the day numbers with an old foam stamp set and punched them out with tag punches.  I used my Instax camera to take the pix so they could go right into the album.  

As you can see I've included my Advent devotion right into the pockets of my Daily.  It is important to me to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas and this devotional is helping me stay focused on that in the midst of the constant barrage of materialism this season brings.  It just so happened that this week's message in church mirrored the message in my devotion so I tucked the notes right into the pocket behind my devotion notes. 

 

I created this element by cutting a piece of cardstock 8 1/8" long, 3" wide and scored it at 4" and slid it right into the protector pocket, creating this little flap that allowed for an extra photo and journaling card.  I adhered a Sn@p pocket on the outside to tuck in the devotional notes. 

So that was my weekend.  What about yours?  Did you cook,  bake, decorate, shop, enjoy time with family and friends, or just enjoy some quiet time before the rush?  I pretty much hit all of the above, and love this crazy time of the year. 

Be happy, get scrappy!

Jenn