DECEMBER DAILY, DAYS 11-18

We ended up visiting my mom yesterday, and going to the movies today instead. Sing was amazing! Lots of great characters and good music. Before we left I hurried to photograph the rest of my finished December Daily pages. After page 18 I have a few gaps and bits and pieces that need to be added in.

The tree print paper is from the sold out Redwood kit from Studio Calico. The "be present" chip board piece is me trying to be witty, since there are presents under the tree. The pocket cards on the right are from the December Wonder digi kit by One Little Bird. I combined them with a digi stamp from the Merrier set by Paislee Press.

Another tradition I wanted to write about is our family Advent celebration. The kids take turns to light the next candle for Advent and then we have a "fika" together. Swedish fika means hot drinks and something sweet to eat. The photos I had from Dante lighting the candle for the first Sunday of Advent was really grainy. I redid this spread several times because I didn't like how the photos looked. Finally I decided to shrink them down to make the grain less noticeable, and I was happy with Day 12 at last!

I made a photo collage using this set of 3x4 templates by Paislee Press. Small vellum stickers come from the Cypress Grove documenter kit by Studio Calico. All other products are from my stash.

No Swedish December Daily without a page about the Saint Lucia celebration on the 13th of the month! This is another template from Paislee Press included in the December Mini Album kit. This kit does cost a bit more than just the regular pocket card kits but the $15 were more than worth it to me. Even though I've used it throughout my 2016 album there are so much product in this kit I'll easily be able to use it for future December Daily albums without repeating myself.

I got the idea to add in this piece of packaging from Ali Edwards from another December Daily maker. I thought it was a brilliant way to easily add in all the Christmas greetings we've recieved. I've also included the card that we sent out this year.

The supermoon is my story for Day 15. I was out of the letter N so I constructed one from two I's and a cut up W. Star pocket card and (circle punched) sticker both from Studio Calico.

On Friday the 16th we had our annual Christmas party at work. And yes, I have asked my colleagues for permission to post this spread! Top two pocket cards and glittery stars from the Cypress Grove documenter kit. The red 4x6 card is cut from a patterned paper that came in the Redwood addon. The right side of the spread is another photo template from the Paislee Press mini album kit mentioned above.

Since this is a family album I've also recorded what my husband did on the day of the Christmas party. The journaling also talks about the kids getting to spend time with grandma who stayed overnight since both mommy and daddy was away for the evening.

For Day 18 it was time to tell the story of making our own candy for Christmas. A tradition I've kept from my childhood Christmases. This tradition is important to me because taking the time to make our own candy signals that Christmas is a special time. The rest of the year we may buy our candy, but at Christmas we make it together!

The cork numbers below are actually painted with gold acrylic paint but it doesn't show in the photo. It's more visible in real life.

Most likely my next post will be on New Years Eve. See you then!

/Magdalena

DECEMBER DAILY, DAYS 6-10

Hey people, and welcome back to my blog!

Today I'll be sharing the next five days of my December Daily album. I've changed directions this year with what I document in my pages. It's not so much what we did on a specific date, I'm saving that for our PL album. Instead I have been focusing on the stories I want to tell. I've been asking myself "What will the kids enjoy reading about in 20 years?" and that is what has gone into my album. 

I have used up every single piece of this wood grain paper. It has a Christmasy feel to me, without being overmuch. For Day 6 I wanted to document everyones favorite Christmas movie, and I wanted the page to look like a wall with the movie posters tacked to it. All products from my stash.

Day 7 tells the story about picking out the wrapping paper and wrapping the presents. "That's a wrap" digi stamp from the Grinch Moment digi set by Kellie Stamps.

Day 8 has an envelope with my kids' letters to Santa inside. Number tag and stamps from Studio Calico, but unfortunately they are no longer being sold.

The letter stamps below are from the cutest little wooden alpha stamp set I bought on Etsy many years ago. "Fragile" and "Return to" stamps by Stromsvigt Design, which no longer produces stamps, but you can find her Etsy shop here. She makes digital PL cards and planner related products. Happy Holidays sticker by Studio Calico. 

Initially that was it for Day 8, but I went back to add this piece of journaling about not believing in Santa Claus as a child. My mom has told me a story about taking me to a Christmas party when I was 4 yo and about a funny conversation I had with a grown man trying to convince me that Santa Claus was real. I wasn't buying it. Background pattern from the Christmas Album kit by Paislee Press and the digi stamps can be found in the Merrier elements kit by Paislee Press.

More Paislee Press for Day 9, also from the Merrier elements kit. This day is about me and my siblings sending videos of our kids singing Christmas songs to each other. We had a pretend fight about who's kid had the best articulation. All four videos was really funny and cute so I wanted to save them in my album. Faces hearted for privacy and the QR codes go to a private account where only I can see them. 

And for Day 10 there's actually something that happened on the tenth. Me and my husband dropped the kids off at my mom's and went gift shopping. We ran into Darth Vader at ToysRus which has to be recorded of course. I combined two different digi stamps for my title. Christmas by Pailsee Press ( I erased the "Merry" part of it in Photoshop) and Shopping by Kellie Stamps.

We have plans for the rest of today, including seeing Sing at the movies, so I'm not sure if I'll have the time to photograph pages 11-15 and have them up on my blog for Thursday. If not, they'll be up on Friday. See you then!

/Magdalena

DECEMBER DAILY, DAYS 1-5

Hey guys!

Long time, no see! I've taken some time away from my blog partly because I needed some time off, and partly because lots of the time it feels like not many people read blogs anymore. 

I have been working on my December Daily album throughout the month, but since I haven't finished the pages in chronological order I haven't been posting them online. I plan to be done with my album within a week or so, and the pages will go up here on my blog during that time as well. I've scheduled pages 6-10 for tomorrow, so come on back Wednesday for some more inspiration!

My intro pages aren't finished yet so I'll be sharing them later in the week. Here is my first spread using a template from the December You Are My Fave mini album kit from Paislee Press. The "December" digi stamp comes from the same kit. The acetate word is from Studio Calico's November documenter kit. All other products come from my stash.

The second spread tells the story of the annual Swedish Christmas TV show known as the "Julkalender", or Christmas Calendar". It's been running every year since 1960! I used another template from the Paislee Press December Album kit to document me and my husbands favorite "julkalender" from when we were kids, and the right side is about the kids' favorite julkalender which is the current one. The printables are from the December Magic digital card kit by One Little Bird. The antlers are from a stamp set sold by Studio Calico last year, and all other products are from my stash.

The printables on the spread of day 3 is from the Wonder set by One Little Bird. I layered some text over the pine star and then printed it on kraft paper. I love the result! The filler page on the left is also printed on kraft paper and is another page from the Paislee Press December album kit.

There haven't been much of this kind of weather this December, which is what my journaling for day 4 is all about. It's been way too warm for my taste! Let it snow digi stamp is from the Merrier kit by Paislee Press. The woodgrain journaling card comes in the Wonder set by One Little Bird. I layered a white rectangle and text over the woodgrain. The other two cards and the banner are cut from a patterned paper by Crate Paper.

I've had lots of fun with my nails this December and day five has my two favorite designs and no journaling. Cards from the December documenter kit by Studio Calico. I used a circle punch on the Santa sticker from this set by Studio Calico. 

Welcome back tomorrow to see the next five pages of my album!

/Magdalena

KELLIE STAMPS AUGUST REVEAL

This month Kellie Stamps is releasing a birthday stamp and it's AWESOME! You can buy it in digital form or as a clear stamp. And can I just add that I love the Wayne's World wink!

My daughter turned seven in August so this stamp set for perfect to use for my traditional birthday interview project. I also wrote a bit about her day.

I found this pin to inspire my layout design. It gave the layout great movement together with the photos of her trying out her brand new roller blades.

Here is the birthday interview translated into English:

My favorite colur: blue, purple and pink
My favorite toy: my crafty stuff
My favorite TV-show: Ben 10
My favorite movie: Frozen
My favorite animal: ladybug
My favorite game: Twister
My favorite game to play outside: running with my friends
My best friends are: Smilla, Thea, Rosaline, Sally and Isabel
My favorite thing to do: sports such as gymnastics and dancing
My favorite holiday: Halloween
My favorite food: sushi
My favorite candy: anything jelly
My favorite drink: soda
My favorite breakfast: pancakes
My favorite school subject: maths
When I grow up I want to be: someone who makes things like furniture

Happy birthday Nea!

/Magdalena

SC DESIGN SCHOOL

I knew that catherine Davis' class Design School would blow me away, and it has. Her design skills are beyond amazing. I've made as many layouts for the class as I've made for the rest of the year all together. So much inspiration!

Here's the layout I made after reading through the Typography lessons.

This is how you illustrate your title and cover up the fact that there is only one E in the kit. I drew inspiration from this pin.

I found that what I struggle with in design is movement. I'm not fond of too obvious designs like putting too much emphasis on the visual triangle or using really obvious arrows to point the viewer in the right direction. Subtle is my game! When I found this washi tape I knew it was discrete enough to work as my arrows towards the photo. 

Here is another movement layout I did, using sequins to symbolize the waterfall we had just come down.

I'd also like to share a sneak for Kellie Stamps August release. This month her stamps are birthday themed. You won't be disappointed! Full project will be shared on Saturday the 27th.

See you on Saturday!

/Magdalena

JULY PL

When July begins it's time for me to start a new Project Life album. The plan was to do 12x12 for the second half of 2016. I put together four pages, and I hated how it looked. I went back and forth on wether to stick with it and eventually get used to the size again or, order a 9x12 instead and redo the pages. After starting a thread in the Studio Calico forum and recieveing the advice from someone that I should do what makes me happy - that's what crafting is for!- I decided that yes, I'm redoing the pages. I will from now on be sticking to 9x12. No more thoughts on going back to 12x12. The end!

This is the title page for the second album. The letter cards are from the SC Pool Party scrapbook kit, and the photos were taken at Skagen beach in Denmark.

I didn't want to leave the back of the page blank, but adding full size cards to the back of the letter cards would ruin the look of the title page, so I stuck letter cards to the back too, doing a "Summer" title page.

I've chosen not to share all my July pages, but here are some I picked out! This is a page about the Children's obstacle course event that our kids took part in. It's organized by the Swedish gladiators from TV and the proceeds go to the Children's Cancer research fund. The kids had so much fun "fighting" the real gladiators and we will definitely do this next year again. The colour photos are taken by a photographer at the event, and the black and whites are mine. Template and digi stamp by Paislee Press.

The next four pages are from our road trip to Denmark. You can read more about our vacation and see the mini album I made in my previous blog post.

Lots of One Little Bird and Paislee Press goodies in this spread!

And here is the last page for July I'll be sharing. The photo's are from a visit to the Furuvik zoo. The sweet little boy is a cousin. I love the photo of me and Nea on the park bench! She's not grumpy, just exhausted from walking all day in the heat. It was a great day that ended with us winning a box of twenty chocolate bars, another box of eight snack bags and a stuffed R2D2, see bottom right.

Now I'm waiting for my August kits to arrive so I can start in on my August pages.

/Magdalena

ROAD TRIP MINI ALBUM

As we planned our family vacation this spring there were two things we as a family wanted out of our vacation. 
1) Visit Legoland
2) Swim in the ocean
From this came the decission to do a road trip to Legoland in Denmark and stop by the beaches of Skagen on the way back.

The album begins with an infographic on our trip. I layered it over a photo of the ocean, and then printed it on vellum. The "road trip" digi stamp is from Kellie Stamps Go See Do set.

Our first stop was Gothenburg, where we stayed at this hotel, which was a little too big in my taste. There are lots of youth sports events going on in Gothenburg in the summer, and at our visit the hotel was shock full of young volley ball players. The breakfast buffé was raided and it was hard to find a table to sit at. We also had several issues with their parking garage that had no signs pointing out the elevators, the exit or the box for leaving your key card when checking out. We did like the room which was nice and clean with bunk beds for the kids, and it was within walking distance from shopping and entertainment.

It took us about six hours to drive to Gothenburg, and we checked in at our hotel at 2 PM. We took a walk to the Universeum and spent the afternoon there. The "read this" speech bubble is an old rub-on that I unearthed when going through my stashed Studio Calico kits.

This vellum pocket came in a PL kit from SC at some point. It holds our tickets and a journaling tag.

We had dinner at an awesome restaurant called Dinner 22, where our son ate "the best fries I've had in my whole life". "Ate this" printable from the Nosh set by One Little Bird.

From Gothenburg we travelled on to Herning in Denmark. First by ferry to Frederikshavn, and then by car down south to Herning. That's about a two hour drive. I cut down a transparency to mark the new location. Digitals from the Road Trip elements by Paislee Press.

The Herning hotel was a small cozy Scandic with a wonderful lobby and restaurant. There were limited parking spaces but other than that it was perfect. The breakfast was amazing and had lots of room for the guests. The clientel was business people and families with children. The day after arrival was spent at Legoland in Billund.

After three days in Herning we drove back north to Frederikshavn for a two day stay at The Reef, a Caribic themed hotel with a huge pool area built up in the middle of the hotel. It includes a wave pool, several jacuzzis, a kids pool area and a large water slide falling all the way from the top floor of the hotel. The restaurant food also differs from other Scandic hotels in that it includes Caribean dishes. The dessert table is divine! I printed a photo of our hotel room wall on vellum to use as a divider for our new destination. In this section of the mini I've added lots of digitals from the Soleil set by One Little Bird.

Frederikshavn is a beach town with lots of restaurants in the centre, but it sort of gave the feel of having left it's golden days behind. The streets were empty and many stores had closed down. The weather was not beachy at all, so that may account for some of the atmosphere. We didn't get to swim in the ocean after all, since it was cold and rainy. We did take a day trip to Skagen though, which was well worth it despite the weather. Such a beautiful place!

Appearantly it wasn't too cold for some to walk into the ocean, get washed over by a wave and be soaked all the way up to your armpits. And no, we didn't bring towels or a change of clothes.

After the day spent in Skagen it was time to drive back north and return home. 

/Magdalena