DECEMBER DAILY, DAYS 15-18

Hey everyone,
and Happy New Year! I hope the year has started in a positive way for you and that 2018 will continue treat you kindly. I have signed up to Ali Edwards' One Little Word workshop this year, and will be making a post about my word on the blog shortly. I will also be making a post where I wrap up the 2017 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge, so I hope you'll stop by again soon.

When Ali shared her last pages of her 2017 December Daily she said "I'm ready to be done with this!" and I've tried to embrace that thought in finishing my album. Don't overwork things, be done with it!

For day 15 I went with an enlargement of a  photo I took while waiting for friends outside this restaurant. I've used these handwritten numbers by Paislee Press throughout my album. The word stickers are from Studio Calico, and the printable is by In A Creative Bubble.

Day 16 is super simple. I printed a photo that I found online of the 2017 Swedish TV Advent Calendar show. I used my typewriter to type out some journaling about this show, and about one of the actors that passed away in November before the show was aired.

On the back is another simple documention of wrapping our Christmas gifts, for day 17. Both 4x6 journaling cards for days 16 and 17 are from the Paislee Press DD addon for 2016.

I intended to make day 18 a fullpage photo, but as I was editing it I though it would be fun to make it a 3x8 page instead. I wrote about dressing up as a snow woman for work and found this poem by Wallace Stevens to print on the back. The phrase for the tab and the houses and trees are all from the same digital stamp set from Ali Edwards, designed by Paislee Press.

 

Before I took Ali's words to heart I was flipping through my album I'd made so far and decided to remake some of the pages I wasn't completely happy with. I do like them better now, but still feel like it was a waste of time. Oh well, I did it and here they are!

To compare days 1-4 look here. I felt that the original journaling was too much of a diary entry, which is a better fit for my PL album, so instead a wrote a shorter text and cut down the 4x6 to a 3x4 photo. The red veneer stars are from the Studio Calico December documenter kit.

Days 5-8 were previously posted here. I didn't like the color combo for my day 5 page so I reprinted the image in black and white. I also replaced the drawing with a second photo. The journaling card is from In A Creative Bubble. I love that this set is black and white, so you can easily add your own colors to the cards.

The story and photos of the original day 6 will also be moved to my PL album. Instead I told the story of this "Kindness Countdown Calendar" I made for my class. Each heart has a kindness mission inside, and every day in December one student pulled a heart from the basket and fullfilled their mission during that day. The next day they got to tell their story about their mission if they wanted to. The missions were for example "Invite someone to play with you", "Give someone a compliment" or "Let someone know what they are good at". The journaling card and printable is by In A Creative Bubble and they are both linked above.

To compare day 9 click here. So I hated the design of day 9 even as I made it. Remaking this page was not a waste of time. I like it so much better now. Photos and journaling blurred for privacy. I enlarged a journaling card designed by Kelly Purkey and folded part of a page protector in half and stapled it to the page. I tucked three photos and a journaling card inside the pockets and added a tab to the front page of the small booklet I'd made. There was a printer mishap on the bottom of the page that I covered up with some gold glitter tape from an earlier Studio Calico documenter kit.

'Til next time!

/Magdalena

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

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

DECEMBER DAILY, DAYS 19-23

Finishing up the last pages of my album took a little longer than planned since I'm finishing up the last bits of my third BPC class at the same time. More news on that later on!

I wasn't sure what date I was stopping at, but now I've decided that the 24th will be the last day of the 2016 album. Christmas Eve is the day we celebrate Christmas in Sweden and I have eight pages for that day alone. I'm hoping to have them up on the blog tomorrow. Today I'll be sharing days 19 to 23. 

My little niece's face is hearted for privacy. Because of bad lighting (Sweden in December!) all photos were grainy. I minimized the graininess by using a template from Paislee Press for several smaller images, and also turning all the photos B&W.

For day twenty I used this fun playlist printable from One Little Bird. There is lots of grain in this photo too, but I left it as is because Nea's Christmas shirt didn't look nearly as fun in B&W! 

 This page is really one of those untold story pages that I aimed to create with the 2016 December Daily album. I've enjoyed focusing on stories rather than happenings on specific dates. It's been so much easier putting this album together, and really much more fun. Here's a photo of me in front of the tree in our livingroom. I'm not sure exactly what year it is, but I look about 4 years old, so I'm guessing 1976. I've written down the story of how we celebrated Christmas when I was little. I was an only child (up until the age of 10), and so were both of my parents, so it was always just me, my parents and both of my grandmas. Both grandfathers passed away before I was born. I always wished for an older brother but they never got me one! Both pocket cards are printables from One Little Bird.

Here is another Paislee Press template that originally was titled "Holiday traditions", but I took the "Christmas" from another template in the same kit and just wrote decorations underneath. These are some of the handmade decorations we've had around the house this year and in case they don't make it into the future I wanted them documented.

Day 23 is a super quick page. Just a large photo with a journaling tag attached. The "Hello Santa" circle is from an Ali Edwards Holiday word art set.

And that's it for today! I still have the intro pages and Day 24 to finish and share. I'll be so happy to be done with this project and to move to documenting the new year. Happy New Year everyone!

/Magdalena