It's the Small Things

December Daily and Crate Paper

I'm really excited about my December Daily album. It's coming together really nicely and I look forward to starting it the day after Thanksgiving. I plan to start with the day we get our Christmas tree and will end it on January 6th, which is the day Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas ends. My album is combining both (Ali Edward's December Daily and Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas) and will be a bit longer than most.

I have been hoarding Crate Paper's North Pole collection for a year, so that I could use it for this year's album. I'm combining it with Crate Paper's Snow Day collection. They may not seem to work well together as they are different color pallettes, but they really look fabulous together!

My cover is pretty simple and I might change it and add some white paint and paint splatters, but for now, I'm happy with it. Donna Downey's Teal Prima Canvas album goes brilliantly with the Snow Day colors. I'm busy finishing up the inside pages, but I'm not stressing about having everything ready before Friday because I work better when I don't have a rigid format to adhere to. I like having a lot of flexiblity. I plan to do some art journaling, as well as traditional scrapbooking, but that needs to be an organic process or I'll feel forced. I'm a little weird that way. I will be posting my inside pages and general format soon, most likely after I have the first few days completed. I am looking foward to seeing all the other December Daily inspiration around the net. It's fun to feel a part of something bigger than yourself in this little art world of ours.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Lori

Recommendations for my Crafty Friends

This is my favorite time of year and, right now, there are many talented friends out there to help us capture our Holiday memories. I thought I'd share a couple of my favorites. 

1. Shimelle Laine has some really amazing online classes. She's been doing them for years and has always had a unique and approachable take on memory capturing. I had heard about Journal Your Christmas for many years, but did not take it until last year. I adore this class. ADORE. It's probably the best Christmas type class I have ever taken. I wish I hadn't waited so long to take it, but am glad I finally did! I believe this class is $35 and can be taken each year after for free!!! If memory serves (ha! don't quote me) I believe Ali Edwards took Journal Your Christmas and it is what inspired her to do #2 on my list. 

2. Ali Edward's Daily December. Each year Ali walks us through creating a book dedicated to daily photos and words to capture the month of December. She has it down to a science and always shares a fabulous formula that is simple to follow. To top it off, it's shared freely on her blog, which is gift of her generosity. The idea is build your book before December, so that it's easy to complete (just add photos and words) each day in December. It's such a wonderful book and a treasure to have year after year. 

Best of all is that BOTH of these can be done together! Ali's December Daily format can be the foundation for photos and format with Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas as the prompts for words each day! To me, it's a can't lose pairing for capturing my holiday year after year. 

This next one isn't about the holidays, but is a free class to help us with the ever elusive "inspiration". It's by Jessica Sprague. It's free and it's called "Inspiration Everywhere". I've taken nearly every Jessica class and always recommend them. In this case, you do not need to be a digital scrapbooker. It's intended for everyone. I signed up and am really looking forward to this one beginning. 

I am truly grateful for those that can inspire others like me to capture the busiest time of year! I'm working on my December Daily and hope to have it completed shortly. I'm loving how it turning out, so far. 

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Lori

 

 

 

Thankful for Today

Thank you to everyone who came to my blog for the Crate Paper blog hop. That was a ton of fun and I really appreciate all of the sweet comments that were left. 

I ended up using my tag on a this layout. I don't often make tags and doing so reminded  me how much fun they are to do and how useful they can be, as well. 

I hope you enjoy your day!

Lori

Crate Paper Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Crate Paper Autumn Blog Hop. Thank you for stopping by my blog, today. I have a quick tutorial to share on making a "thankful" tag. This tag is a reminder for me to be thankful for each day, to live in the present and to let go of past regrets and future worries. 

 

Crate Paper Supplies Used:

• Restoration Paper - Doilies
• Restoration Chipboard Accents
• Restoration Brads
• Restoration Phrase Stickers
• Snow Day Phrase Stickers
• Snow Day Brads

Other:

• Mania Tag (2.5 x 4.5")

Step 1. Start with a plain manila tag to use as the base. 

Step 2. Use scissors to cut out 10 of your favorite doilies from the Doilies paper. 

Step 3. Cut each doily to a quarter of the size. 

Step 4. Ink each doily and curl the edges forward. 

Step 5. Start at the top of the tag (the part with the hole) and layer each doily working down to the bottom of the tag. 

Step 6. When you are finished adhering, turn the tag over and trim away the edges. I left mine cut straight at the top instead of cutting the corners as on the original tag. 

You can see here that the tag has a lot of fun texture with the layers and the bent edges. 

Step 7. Use embellishments to decorate to your preference. 

There are a lot of ways you can use your tag. You can add someone's name and use it as a place setting on Thanksgiving. You can add it to the top of a present, as part of a card or even on a scrapbook layout. 

Be sure to save the letter above, then head back over the the Crate Paper Blog to continue on your hop for your chance to win! Thank you for spending time on my blog!