This year I decided to pass on the kit (though what Ali Edwards put together is lovely) and pull things from my stash. I LOVE Christmas supplies so I had an abundance of stuff to be able to fill my album without needing to add more. I also decided to use my Gold WRMK 4x4 album in an effort to keep it really simple! You'll see that there are days where I have more than one photo and in the case of day 4, several photos to include. I've found a way to do that while still keeping it simple!!! For me this year that's what it's all about!! I love that there is no right or wrong way to do this project!! Because I'm sharing 4 days today, this is a bit photo heavy!!
I love making the opening pages for these!! This one was completely inspired by Lisa Truesdell's Summer Bucket List mini book that she created for her Penny Arcade gallery over at Studio Calico.
On the back side of the opening page I included a Crate frame with the initials of both me and my husband. Makes books like this a little more personal!
I ended up taking the spread above out because I wanted to use the Magic page someplace else. I would have liked to have left the "all is calm, all is bright" photo art there but it would have messed up the flow of the days. I am sure I'll fit it in someplace later in the album!!
This is how day 1 and day 2 sit in my album. Kept it very simple with some patterned paper, a photo, a label with typed journaling, and the number maker which consists of a star, a punched circle, and a gold number (from 2 different sets that I had on hand).
I actually made the pattern paper for day 1 using some white cardstock, white pearl paint, and an empty toilet paper roll. Just dipped the edge of the empty toilet paper roll into the pant and "stamped" it onto the white cardstock. Super simple!!! For the memory of the day I captured the Santa photo area int he center of the mall my husband and I went to in order to get my side of the family's Christmas shopping done! I have to ship everything up north for my family, so we like to get that done first. My husband's family is local so we figure we have a bit longer to get shopping for them done, though we did get a few of his family members done on this day as well!
For day 2 it's all about our Elf, Bernard. It's funny when I look back at other December albums, because the title for elf day is always the same...Bernard is back!! Our elf is named after the main elf in The Santa Clause movies. Those are my husband's favorite of the holiday movies!! We don't have kids so Bernard isn't too busy in our house during December. He just gets to hang out with us all month long and reports back to Santa on Christmas Eve!!!
Here's an overview of day 3. I knew I'd have some memorabilia and extra photos to include, so I used a pocket page from Marcy's Mini Album class over at Studio Calico for that. Love that the album for that class is the exact one I'm using for this album. Makes this a perfect fit!! The 3 marker for the day is lifted from Maggie's 25 days class last year (also from Studio Calico). I don't have links for these two classes since you have to be signed up to have access to the info and digital files.
For the left side of the spread I used a selfie my husband and I took inside the theater while we were waiting for the doors to open.
The right side of the spread is the pocket page. I wanted to make sure everything was secured down so I had to plan what was going to go onto the back of the pocket page before I sealed it shut. I sewed everything down on both sides, put some patterned paper on what would be inside the pocket to cover the stitching on the back side of the pocket, then closed it up and sewed along the edge that I would punch the holes into. Inside the pocket, I added a glassine bag to keep everything contained. Inside the bag you'll find our ticket stubs and photos of the inside of the theater and the playbill (since the playbill is obviously too large to fit inside the pocket). This will likely find a home inside our larger 2014 album. I must point out that Chris Mann from the Voice was The Phantom and the show was wonderful!! So very glad we got tickets and included this in our December this year!!
The hello magic frame is from Ali Edwards and I think it's from the 2012 December Daily. I had it on my computer so I am sorry that I don't have a link. It was a 4x6 file that I resized in the Silhouette software to 4x4 and it turned out wonderfully! I put it on some book paper, added the #4 embellishment and stitched it all down. Again, I did my stitching BEFORE I closed and sealed the pocket page!! This is one case where you need to do a little planning!!
Day 4 is all about Disney and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. I knew this day was going to have a lot of photos so I did my best to plan for it! I altered a 4x4 page protector down to 3x4 sewing along the outside edge for the first page of photos. I floated the two photos back to pack on a transparency. I also made the conscious decision to save my words for the very end of what would be the day. You'll see as you scroll through the photos.
I cut the vellum using my Silhouette and used the attacher dies from Studio Calico to include it in the album. This is an idea I got from Maggie's 30 Days of Me class (from Studio Calico of course). Since you won't really know what the day is about until you get to the pocket page I used to bookend the day, I figured this was an easy, non-bulky, way to let anyone looking at the album know what day 4 is all about!
I used a 2x2 page protector to showcase the rides we went on. We ended up going on 9 rides all together so, I had to figure out a way to include them all!! Got 8 here between the front and back of the page protector. The 9th would get something a little special as a 4x4.
I'm not exactly sure when it started, but my husband and I started taking a selfie as we waited to get onto Big Thunder Mountain railroad...so I decided that's how I would highlight that ride and use a 4x4 photo with a label and typed journaling to showcase this tradition. The other rides we went on are all showcased with photos of the ride from the park, with the exception of Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin which is a photo that I took of the screen of the photo taken on the ride. This one is my husband's favorite ride. He's very competitive and crushes my score every year. It's always funny to see how into it he is on the photo they take while we're on the ride so I always take a photo of that with my phone (they're so expensive to by)!
And there is the Magic page I originally had at the beginning of the album. Once I saw the photos taken by the photo people at Disney*, I knew I wanted to include this one with the wooden solders, trees, and ice covered (with lights) castle. It fit perfectly under those letters, I just had to pull them off the vellum a bit to slide them under. You'll see this photo again later in the book because we both loved it so much we decided to use it as our Christmas card!! I used a second pocket page to book end the day. I did the same thing and planned the back side, completed the back side, then sealed & stitched the pocket page shut (again, this requires some planning)!! I sized another pocket page slightly smaller to use as the journaling block, stitched that down to the front of the pocket and hand wrote the journaling for the day. Inside the pocket, I included the map/program from the event, our tickets, and our wrist bands.
*I have gotten into the habit of buying the digital copies of the photo pass photos as they are the same price as most of the physical copies, but I can download them and have them printed in what ever size I want, and I also have immediate and forever access to them. Just a tip.*
And that's my album up through Day 4!! I hope to be back tomorrow to share some more of my album!! Might be Monday though! But I will be back!! Until then...thanks for stopping by!!
deb
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