DECEMBER DAILY, DAYS 9 - 14

It's time to share another batch of December Daily pages with you. Just like Project Life the best way to get things done is to do them right away. A December Daily that does not get finished before the end of January will never be finished by me.

I was going back and forth wether to share day nine on here or not, because I've had cover so much of it up. But here it is anyways, since I thought the page design could still be inspiring. I cut up some cards from the 2016 Paislee Press DD addon, and dug up some old wood veneer alphas to put this page together. The photos are taken indoors at my mom's apartment and they were dark and blurry. Shrinking them to 2x2" squares and turning them black and white was the best option. Me and my brother brought our families to my mom's to have sushi and hang out.

Day ten was the second of Advent. I took this photo as our son was lighting the second candle. The journaling talks about the importance of "being fair". The kids each get to light five candles for Advent. Nea got 1st and 4th, and Dante got 2nd and 3rd. The drama that ensues when something isn't fair is familiar to all parents I should think.

We finally put the tree up on the 11th. This day needed no journaling, so I did an all photos collage instead. I used a template from this Paislee Press December digi kit.

Yay for snow! It has been cold enough for snow during December this year, but we haven't gotten any. Today it finally snowed and snowed! The kids were delighted. Snow theme printables from the Paislee Press Merrier Elements digi kit.

On the 13th I usually document our Saint Lucia celebration but our kids didn't participate this year. They won't be part of the celebrations at school, other than being in the audience, until they're in the 5th grade. Instead I took some photos of Nea and her friend Sally walking home from school, and wrote about how much fun they have together.

I added a drawing by Nea as an insert between days 13 and 14. I love how she did the shading. She loves watching Kristina Werner do colouring on youtube, and tries to copy her work. So cute!

A friend and collegue sent me this photo on the 14th. They called from the kids' school saying my son was sick and I had to come pick him up. After I left my friend found my work shoes in the cord basket on top of the laptop cart. Talk about being tired and confused. We got a good laugh from it, but I feel like Winter Break can't come fast enough. Just four more days of work now and then we have two weeks off. I can't wait!

See you in a few days when I'll be sharing another batch of pages. We're on the home stretch now!

/Magdalena

DECEMBER DAILY DAYS 5-8

I'm back to share a few more days of my December Daily album. I've gotten stuck on day 9 where I have both photos and journaling I want to keep hidden. Still thinking about how to do that!

The story of day 5 is our everyday walk home from school, which is done a little differently in the winter. The sun sets at about 2.30 PM now and we don't want the kids walking home by themselves in the dark, so I walk with them every day. I used this fun photo of them wearing some Christmas themed hats from H&M. 

I thought lots about what to put on the back of the photo for day 4, and decided on this awesome patterned paper that came with the Paislee Press December Daily addon from last year. I then added a drawing Dante made for me at school, because it went well with the color scheme.(ETA: I remade this page later. See the new version here.)

The photo for day six was actually taken at the same time as the one for day five. Nea noticed a flight of geese flying south for the winter, and told me to hurry up and take a picture before they disappeared. She wanted to put the photo in her own December Daily album. I accidentaly shot a video instead, but managed to get an okay photo as a still from the video. You can see the geese in the top left photo if you look closely! (ETA: See the new version of day 6 here.)

On day seven I was out with work to celebrate a collegue's retirement. We went shuffleboarding ( She crushed the rest of us!)and then had dinner together. When walking to the restaurant we came across this installation which is part of a light festival in the town of Uppsala every winter. Such a perfect photo opportunity!

I wanted to keep the journaling for this event private so I made a smaller card to tuck in between the photos for days 7 and 8. I used a chipboard piece as a pull tab. I've never made this kind of hidden journaling before so it took me a long time figure things out. There were many mistakes made and on top of that I poked myself on a staple hard enough to draw blood. I was very happy when this page was finally put together!

I'm not super happy with how this page came together, but I decided to embrace "good enough". There is definately something missing, a frame I think, but I spent too much time on this page to risk messing it up again. (I reprinted it three times!) The ornaments flip up to reveal our wishlists to Santa. My hubby hasn't written one so he's not included. I printed out a funny photo from Villfarelser of a Santa riding a motorbike. If you want the sentiment translated - google it!

I printed the journaling on matte photopaper and used a 2" circle punch for the ornaments. I also punched three circles from white cardstock and sandwiched the gold glitter tape between them and the patterned paper. Then I outlined the ornaments and drew strings with a black marker. The Dear Santa digi brush is from this set by Paislee Press.

I hope I've given you some inspiration for your own album, and don't wait to get started putting it together. For me, it's now or never!

I'll be back soon to share more pages from this fun project. Happy scrapping!

/Magdalena

IT'S DECEMBER!

Finally, the month of December is here! Me and Nea has been waiting patiently since the arrival of our December Daily kits. Nea got the children's kit that is new for this year. When I ordered her kit I noticed there was a sale for older December Daily addons, so I got last year's Paislee Press kit for me. I've never ordered the December Daily kit from Ali Edwards because I think it's too expensive. All the years before I've just put my own kit together with a few new items added in from Studio Calico and Paislee Press.

I still haven't decided if I'm putting my 2017 pages into an album or if I'm going to use binder rings. I used a 6x8 album last year, and I found the spine too thick. Those 25 days of December takes up as much space on the shelf as six months of Project Life. I don't have the shelf space to keep that up!

My intro page is the same as last year. It's a digtal page from the Paislee Press December You Are My Fave No. 5 6x8 Mini Album Kit. I love how it looks printed on kraft paper! 

I'm planning to add a family photo on the back of the intro page, but I haven't taken any good photos yet. It will either be a 4x3 selfie or four individual 2x2 photos placed in a grid. We'll see!

Day one is all about going to the shopping centre and gearing up for winter. For the numbers I'll be using the Paislee Press This Day In December No. 2 digital kit throughout my album. (ETA: I've remade this page. To see the new version click here.)

On the second day of December we cleaned the house thoroughly and then I put all the decorations on the kitchen table and told the kids they got to place them around the house. The had a fun time deciding where everything should go and then me and hubby got to go on a house tour to discover them all.

Day three was First of Advent. We have a super heavy cast iron candle holder for Advent. I haven't decided what to fill the bottom with yet, but I think I'll go with nuts this year. I've tried peppermint candies (they get eaten!) and fake crushed ice (it ends up everywhere!) before. Some colorful glass ornaments may be pretty, too.

The Swedish postal service gave out these free postcards for Christmas this year. They are beautiful! I printed the day three photo to fit on the back of the postcard and did a half page insert with the journaling for the day.

On my next spread I brought in a large cork number to change things up a bit. Poinsettias make me think of my grandmother so that's what I wrote about for day four.

I'd love to see your pages too! Have you started in on your album yet?

/Magdalena