my december {not so daily} 2011

So before Christmas gets here and I am taking pictures again for another December Daily project, I thought I should get my buns in gear and finish last year's album. Novel idea, huh? What started out as a daily project ended at like day 6. It was a hard month. My aunt passed away and I was sick for most of it, but I still had some good pictures and fun memories to record. So I ditched the "daily" part and just went in chronological order with the things that happened in December. So now I have a finished 2009 album, an I-have-the-paper-trimmed-but-that-is-all album for 2010, and I'm over half-way done with 2011.

For this album I used up some chipboard, stickers, dimensional embellishments, and what-not from one of the previous year's DCWV stacks from JoAnn's. Part of the collection was in the kraft/red/green color scheme {which is what I've got trimmed and ready to use for 2010} and the other part was in this wintery blue/lime green color scheme. It's more winter than Christmas, really, but that's ok. I like to mix it up a little.

I'm using an 8X8 album that I got for cheap at Tuesday Morning. It's really sold as a baby boy book, but the color matches perfectly, and, like I said, I got it for cheap. I also used some matching Bazzill cardstock to try to balance out all the different patterns and my trusty Cat's Eye chalk ink to make everything show up. Here's a view of what is finished so far:

page 1: close up picture of our front door wreath.

pg 2-3: getting ready for the ladies' Christmas luncheon and my pinterest inspired centerpiece.

pg 4-5: a 5X7 collage of the luncheon and picking out our tree.

pg. 6-7: decorating the house. I like how I added the "Deck the halls" text on the photo and then I found the little journaling card that said "fa-la-la-la-la" on it. I was also experimenting with layering different patterns on this page.

pg. 8-9: our tree and the decorations in the living room. I used my cricut a lot for the titles. The cursive font is from the Opposites Attract cartridge. I spritzed my titles with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in pearl.

pg. 10-11: the outside lights, a reference to our anniversary, and a note from the Christmas card our realtor sent us. This was our first Christmas in our new house. . . thus the title "First Noel."

pg. 12-13: my 2nd annual cookie exchange {so much fun, you should try hosting one!} and pictures my sister texted me of her elf on the shelf, Stuart. He was named after Tony Stuart, their favorite Nascar driver. It was their first year of having him around, so I would get ideas off pinterest for her. The kids LOVED him and we got the biggest kick out of all the crazy stuff he'd do. I used my trusty Creative Memories hexagon punch on these pages, and I still need to journal about Stuart.

pg. 14-15: I learned how to make pocket pages on youtube, so I made one to hold some things from my Aunt Nancy's memorial. I felt the title Home for Christmas was more than appropriate for this page. On the other side I used my 2 inch square punch and went to town ala Ali Edwards' style with some of the photo cards we received. Strangely, the 2 inch punch didn't quite turn out to be exactly 2 inches, so I had to cut down a few of them, but I like the collage look - especially Phil's Aunt Mary Jeanne with Elmo!

More about my pocket page: on the front of the tag I included a copy of her obituary, on the back is a copy of the Daily Bread from that day my mom sent me. It talked about heaven. I also made two accordian fold books - one for pictures when she was first diagnosed and undergoing treatment, the other for pictures that were taken of the police officers lined up at her memorial. She had worked for the chief of police and was buried with full honors. I left room for lots of journaling.

What I need to remember for this year:

• get someone to take pictures of me. I think I'm in two pictures last year. Sad.
• more pictures of me and the mr.
• if I do photo collages on picasa, don't use black as the color for the dividing lines. Makes the pictures way to dark.
• take lots of cute pictures of my dog wearing a Santa hat.
• keep better notes. I really slacked last year in that department.
• don't wait until October to start working on the album.