Serious Play

December Daily 2011:: Day 25

So, here is Day 25, the last page of my December Daily album!

 

This page is one from Marcy Penner and it included the sewn kraft tab. I added the number and punched silver stars from glitter paper (Michaels).

 

This "Tis the Season" template is from Ali Edwards. Her templates came at 6x8.5 but I reduced it down to 5x7 in Photoshop. I printed it out and adhered it to a 6x8.5 piece of CP Peppermint paper. Finally, I added a tab sticker from the same Peppermint pack and used another silver snowflake to balance out the two-page spread.

 

On the back of that page, I created a collage in Photoshop of our Christmas morning photos. I printed it at 6x8.5 so that it would fit on the previous page perfectly.

The music page is another from a kit by Marcy Penner. I loved it just as it is. Looking at it now, I may add some embellishments just to use up the ones still remaining from the Peppermint pack.

 

So, that concludes my 25 days of December.

I have loved every day of this project.

What I love most about this album is that it will be revisited year after year and the stories will be retold.

 

 

 

 

December Daily 2011:: Day 24

On Day 24, we attended our church for the Christmas Eve Service.

 

The message was one of peace. In such a busy and frantic world, it is good to be reminded that peace is an option through Christ.

 

After the service, we head over to Sean's sister's house for a full spread of food and games.

This little envelope pocket was one that came in the kit I ordered from Marcy Penner. I stamped around the number 24 and tucked the story inside.

 

On the back of that same little pocket page I adhered a knit wreath that I have had in my Christmas stash for a couple of years along with some simply words.

 

Here is the complete spread.

 

My girls love being with their cousins, so there was a lot of silliness and laughter. Even though the lighting was not great for this photo, I love it!

 

 

 

 

December Daily 2011:: Day 23

So, today was the last day of school for both the kids and myself.

 

We were ready for a break, that's for sure!

This vintage page from The Christmas Carol is the one that I adhered to the back of DD22. I have been trying to incorporate it into this album all month, but it is rather frail and I was hesitant to use it where it would be too fragile. This was the perfect solution.

The cupcake photo was taken with the Instagram app and then I used a piece of white paper trimmed to make it look like a Polaroid photo. Once again, I tucked a strip of doily paper behind the photo on the left side. The snowflake with a red gem is from a kit I purchased from Marcy Penner.

 

My daughter loves to bake and she is the one who make the cupcakes from scratch. I am so glad to have this story written down, as I want to always remember her love of baking. 

 

 

 

 

 

December Daily 2011:: Day 22

So, Day 22 was movie night.

 

A picture of us in front of the movie poster taken with my iPhone. I layered some glitter tape (Michaels), punched snowflakes and stickers (CP Peppermint pack). And just a little strip of vintage book paper tucked behind the photo.

 

This calendar page was included in the kit that I purchased from Marcy Penner. I used it as my journaling spot. Across the top, I ran a strip of glitter tape (Michaels) as well as some stars (Michaels).

Because this was a thin piece of paper, I reinforced it by adhering another page to the back of it (barely visible along the right side). Between the two pages, I adhered a punched scalloped circle and layered a star punched from glitter paper (Michaels). The number is from Marcy Penner as well.

 

 

 

 

December Daily 2011:: Day 21

So, Day 21 was about my friend.

 

Trish and I met back in 1997 when we were both hired to teach at a brand new school that was opening up. She was teaching grade one and I was teaching Kindergarten. We shared the same room, with our desks and a large bookshelf separating our spaces. Every evening when the children left to go home, Trish and I would sit at our desks facing one another and talk about everything under the sun. That first year teaching together solidified our friendship.

Now, we are in separate ends of the school (still the same school though) and rarely see one another. We do text. We do attend the odd yoga class together. We do some scrapbooking together now and again. My girls babysit her two adorable kids once in a while.

But one thing we do make time for, is a chat over a Starbucks chai latte!

 

So glad to know this girl.

 

 

December Daily 2011:: Day 20

So, Day 20 was a family night out.

 

Things are changing in our family as our girls are becoming more independent and able to drive themselves around. There are fewer dinner meals together. There are fewer evenings together. There are fewer times that we all drive as a family of four in the same vehicle. But tonight, we ate out together.

 

Our girls are growing up. Even looking back at last year's DD album, I can see the change. It is rare that I get to photograph them anymore either, so this was a meaningful opportunity for me.

The tag and little 'give' button are from Marcy Penner.

 

Simple embellishments from the CP Peppermint pack. 

 

 

 

December Daily 2011:: Day 19

So, here are the gifts that were under our tree!

 

This page is a bit of woodgrain paper from the Crate Paper Peppermint pack, some stars punched from glitter paper (Michaels), baker's twine, and word stickers.

 

I crafted my own gift tags this year. Here are the steps that I followed...

 

Step 1:  I started with a 4x6 recipe card (dollar store) and cut it into four equal pieces.

Step 2:  After cutting, I rounded the corners. Once the bottom half of the card was cut, there were no red lines so I drew them vertically down the card with a red pen. I wanted my tags to resemble notepaper and was inspired by these tags on Pinterest.

Step 3:  Using blue ink, I stamped the words 'To' and 'From'.

Step 4:  I punched a hole and attached some red baker's twine.

 

To imitate the tags, I created one out of kraft paper on which to do my journaling. This is the same paper that I used to wrap my gifts, and the same goes for the banner paper and little blue snowflake designs that I adhered here and there.

 

Finally, I punched a few snowflakes and added some gems.

 

Still loving this project, and looking forward to finish posting the next few days!

 

 

 

 

December Daily 2011:: Day 18

So, Day 18 begins with the collage on the right hand side.

 

I continued the format from the previous page by laying out the photos and restaurant business card in the same manner.

 

On our second day at the condo, we went for brunch and I had eggs benedict with smoked salmon. Very tasty. We played Sudoku in Starbucks while waiting to see if the snow would lighten up enough for our drive home. But it continued to fall all day. Finally, just before dark, we decided to stay another night, fearing that the roads would be a bit too hazardous. I texted work to say that I would not be in until Tuesday.

At that point, we totally relaxed, knowing that we had another evening to spend together in the mountains. We rented a movie, Extraordinary Measures, and nestled onto the bed while watching it.

 

The second spread for the 18th looks like this.

 

You've already seen this shot the other day. I dressed it up a little here with embellishments from the Peppermint paper pack and bits from Marcy Penner.

 

Still loving this project...

I took it to work today to share with some of my colleagues. Their responses were uplifting.

 

 

 

December Daily 2011:: Day 17

So, I am slowly catching up on my album pages.

 

Over the weekend, both of our girls were busy doing this and that, so Sean and I went out to our condo in Canmore, just the two of us, to celebrate our anniversary. After sleeping in a bit on Saturday morning, we stopped for a Starbucks drink, and head out for a short one hour drive into the mountains.

 

Our first stop in Canmore was a quaint little French bistro for lunch. We enjoyed lovely homemade soup and a glass of wine. We talked and talked and lingered over bread and butter. I snapped this shot of some holiday decor in the window with my iPhone using Instagram.

 

Before lunch, we made dinner reservations at Sage Bistro. Nestled in the mountains, this place has drawn us back time and time again, never to be disappointed. You can probably tell that we enjoy good food.

 

The journaling for Day 17 ended up on the back of the photo page. Not my favourite, but that's the way it worked out. Kept it very simple here as I am just trying to catch up!

More tomorrow...

 

 

 

December Daily 2011:: Day 16

So, I am back from a weekend away with my husband!

 

Day 16 was Friday and we had our staff Christmas party at work.

 

In this collage, I wanted to capture all the pretty things that were used to decorate for the party. This page is one of Ali's DD templates, but I altered it a bit. I started with the template that has three pics in a vertical line but because I had four pics, I added a fourth box. Then I moved them around to be a square as opposed to a line since this allowed me to make the pics a little bigger. I also adjusted the line that Ali has around the boxes to work with this new configuration.

The stars come from one of the other templates. I simply copied and pasted it onto this template and varied the size of the stars. In the smallest star I adhered a silver puffy star from KI Memories.

The second page is a pic of me wearing reindeer antlers that a colleague captured.

I edited it using RadLab which I purchased a few weeks ago. I love all of the choices that they offer for editing your photos. I hope to play around with it more once I am on Christmas vacation (at the end of this week).

I didn't have much to say about the party...it was a potluck, most staff did not show up, everyone went home early...so I chose to use more photos than journaling on this spread.

 

Pics and pages from my anniversary weekend coming...