NEW YEAR, NEW ALBUM

It's been another six months and it's time for another title page and another album. I'll continue with a 9x12 format and I'll keep my former guidelines for Project Life as well. You can find out what they are i9n my Pocket Page design class for Big Picture Classes. The class has tons of inspiration when it comes to designing your pocket pages throughout the year. I'll be talking about seven different design principles and I also give several examples of each. 

If you are looking for a fresh perspective this year there is also my brand new Joint Effort class that introduces you to new ideas on how to bring family and friends into your memory keeping.

I'm in love with the newest 4x6 templates edition from Paislee Press and I've used it throughout my January pages. I love that it combines two 3x4 templates into one 4x6. So versatile!

I used the washi strips in the Roman Holiday DK from Studio Calico to tie the two 4x6 cards in our title page together.

Are doing the 2017 Reading Challenge? I've read two books so far this year. I highly recommend "Entry Island" by Peter May as your book set in to different time periods. It's a Canadian murder mystery that ties back to the deportations of 19th century Scotland. Interesting AND thrilling! If you'd like to follow me through the challenge this year you can revisit my blog or follow my Pinterest board for the 2017 Reading Challenge.

 Dante adores his little baby cousin!

This is my second book read in January. It's by Swedish novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist. It's a collection of classic horror stories that's appeared in Brittish and American anthologies. Many of the stories are in production for TV and movies this year. Looking forwards to seeing them on the screen!

Now onto documenting the month of February!

/Magdalena

PL IN DECEMBER - TO BE OR NOT TO BE

I've seen several discussions in online forums whether people do both a December Daily album and make Project Life documenting for December. What is your take on this? Do you do both, or just one? Which one?

I did both in 2015 and 2016. To me DD and PL have different story purposes. DD to me is a way to tell the stories of past Decembers, of family traditions and gettogethers. In PL I tell the story of everyday life, which happens in December as well as the rest of the year. 

Throughout the month I used digitals from Paislee Press (Mini Album kit, Merrier Word Art and a bunch of Pocket Guide templates) and One Little Bird (Wonder Journaling Cards). I also used Studio Calico's documenter kits Sonnet and Cypress Hill and dug into my stash of Christmasy papers and embellishments. Don't you love finding uses for older items?

Don't you love our Christmas outfits below? We went all out at work when the student council at our school announced the last Friday of the semester would be winter themed dressup day. I found my Snowwoman outfit at this place. They have so many fun costumes at a full range of prices. 

Me and hubs bought each other the same t-shirt for Christmas. Hilarious!

In every documenter kit I get one or more items that I'm not fond of. In this case it was the label transparencies. I usually make myself try to use the items anyway. I found that if I stapled the seethrough labels over printed journaling they looked like regular labels. It's still not a product I would purchase on it's own, but I enjoy the challenge of making things work for me.

Our son Dante is super duper crazy about babies, so when his baby cousin comes for a visit he's in heaven. Here he got to carry her for the first time and he was so proud! (Baby's face covered for privacy.)

And that is all for December. Right now I'm wrapping up our January pages. I'll be sharing them here tomorrow!

/Magdalena