Goodbye 2014

As the year comes to a close, I thought it would be fun to look back at 2014. It has been a good crafty/memory keeping year for me.

I took close to 5,000 pictures on my dSLR and ~2,000 on my iPhone - indeed, I love my big camera!!
I made:

• about 115 digital layouts,
• 28 paper layouts,
• ~36 cards,
• 3 mini books (a fourth one - December Daily 2014 - is on its way),
• a dozen tags,
• and 42 weeks documented in my 2014 Project Life album (slowly but surely, I'm catching up on those remaining 10 weeks).

Here are just a few of my favorite pages from 2014..

I tried new things: die cutting, letterpressing. I attended my very first crop and met up with some online friends.

It has been a good year. And now, bring on 2015! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

December MPM

The December Memory Pockets Monthly kit at The Lilypad is just what I needed to get in the mood for starting a new year.

In truth, I am *so* not ready for a new year to start.. but with some scrap therapy I was able to focus on the good things and stay positive. I'm actually pretty excited for what's to come.

Credits:

Memory Pockets Monthly: Folio at The Lilypad

The Serif's Sister font by Heather Joyce

What about you? Are you ready for 2015??

Merry Christmas!

Pajama day, awesome food, nice gifts, family time.. and a little bit of crafting too. It was a good Christmas! :)

ETA: the letterpress paper I'm using is 4"x9.2" in size.. perfect for Project Life!

December M3 at The Lilypad

I have a few pages to share today. One is a Christmas page, and the other two are made with the December Mixed Media Monthly kit and add ons.

Credits:

Woodsy Winterland by Stolen Moments Design and Wishing Well Creations

Doodled Borders no. 1 by Pink Reptile Designs

The December Mixed Media Monthly kit and add ons has such a lovely color palette!!

So refreshing! The theme is also very inspiring for the new year (less than 2 weeks away!!).

The fun painted backgrounds in the M3 make it so easy to build a page!

One more day of class before my winter class break. Yay!

December Daily Update

I want to give you an update on how my December Daily album is progressing. Last month I talked a bit about what my plans were for this year, and it's time to check in and see how I am doing.

My plan for this year included: handmade album, with pages of different sizes; one story per day.

As fate has it, this December has turned out to be by far the busiest I have  ever had. I thought it would be hard to top last year's craziness, but it has indeed happened. In the past two out of three days I have been at the office from 8 AM to 10:30 PM. And I see no end in sight, yet Christmas is less than a week away. Ugh! So while I am not up to date with my December Daily album, given that I have very little time to work on it, I have made a little progress and I have been taking photos regularly and keeping track of what story I want to tell each day. I hope to get a good chunk of it done just before Christmas, because I know my inspiration dips significantly once Christmas Day has passed. 

I haven't bought any new Christmas supplies this year, but I have a sizeable stash to draw from and it is fun to finally use all these pretty bits that I had been hoarding.

Now it's time to show you some pictures of my album so far. I haven't worked on the cover yet - I will do it at the end since I need to see what size my album will have. But I plan to include this pretty gold star vellum paper at the front. of the album.

And here's what all my pages stacked together look so far. I have days 1-7 done at this point.

I love having pages peeking out. I think it adds a lot of interest to the album!

For December 1st, my story was about the tea advent calendar we got this year.

For this spread, I included a 3x4 pocket as a page to hold some journaling.

I like to include stamping in my album because I love stamps so much!

And now.. I'd love to hear from you! Have you been documenting your December? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Thanksgiving

Yeah, yeah, I know... only 9 days to Christmas (!!!).. but I just scrapped a Thanksgiving page this weekend so I want to share it with you. :)

This page started out with the awesome Story Bubbles Brushes by Ali Edwards, and it quickly came together thanks to the fun background paper.

It was so awesome to have both my parents with us on Thanksgiving! I am so glad I took this photo of us with my tripod.

Penguin Cuteness

The latest kit by Jenn Barrette is filled with penguin cuteness!!

It is also 20% off today! I used it to make a couple of Christmas tags. :)

Eeek.. less than two weeks to Christmas!

December

Ah, December... I love this month because of Christmas, but I hate hate hate all the bustle of the end of the year deadlines! This year is especially bad... I have started working on my December Daily in the evenings, but I have only about four days done so far.

So for now all I have to share is the layout I made for the December gallery at write.click.scrapbook.

I am really in love with this page!! Not your traditional Christmas colors, but so festive nonetheless. :)

December BYOC at The Lilypad

It's BYOC time at The Lilypad!!

I have been running all week but I did manage to squeeze in two pages last night with some of the BYOC products. They are soooo good!

Credits:

Chalet papers and Sprinkles v30 by Valorie Wibbens

Every Day of the Week alpha by Pink Reptile Designs

There's Something About Merry Elements by One Little Bird

This next page uses a set of digital brushes by Ali Edwards. I used them to build a template for my page. I love how it turned out!

Credits:

Chalet papers by Valorie Wibbens
Daily Digital brushes by Ali Edwards

This one will get printed in 6"x8" size for my Week in the Life album. :)
And it is now December 5th, and I have not even started my December Daily album yet. It is not looking good, the next couple weeks are riddled with deadlines and long work hours.. but it will all happen at some point. :)

creashens's New Shop

creashens has opened up a new shop at The Digital Press, and her latest kit is adorable!

It was just perfect to scrap this photo.

I am finding it really hard getting back to work this weekend after the nice holiday.. plus, it's December and I have so many crafty projects I'd rather be working on! :) The weekend cannot come soon enough!

Christmas Preparations

The new releases at The Lilypad have gotten my gears going and my December Daily preparation has begun! This month's Memory Pockets Monthly made it so easy..

I know it's only the second month, but this month's kit is a big favorite of mine!! I made a few pages that will go in my 2014 album. I am planning to assemble the album from scratch. These pages are 4"x6" or 4"x4" in size.

Here's a closer look at a couple of pages.

Hot pink, white and black?? I am digging this combination!

I wasn't planning to make Christmas cards this year, but this card right here is making me reconsider!!

I also combined this gorgeous kit with a bunch of the add ons to scrap a few digi pages. I simply couldn't stop using it.. I am in love with the colors SO much!!

Credits:

Arboretum {Joy} and Joy papers by Sara Gleason

Memory Pockets Monthly: JOY at The Lilypad

Credits:

Templates: Polly Love by Amy Martin

Joyful Papers, Joyful Elements and Pocket Full of Joy by Stolen Moments Design

Memory Pockets Monthly: JOY at The Lilypad

Credits:

Overjoyed: Patterns and Backgrounds and Overjoyed: So Transparent by Allison Pennington

Joy word art by Sara Gleason

Holiday Word Art by Designs by Lili

Memory Pockets Monthly: JOY at The Lilypad

But that's not all to get your Christmas crafting going. This month's Mixed Media Monthly (M3) kit is super festive:

It includes papers, elements, cut files, alpha, and even a gorgeous template that I used in this page.

Credits:

Mixed Media Monthly November at The Lilypad

And it gets even better.. the Mixed Media Monthly kit is a perfect match with all the Document Your December products! I didn't have time to use them last week when they were released, but I definitely did use them now. :) I love them!

Credits:

Mixed Media Monthly November at The Lilypad

DYD Collection by Sara Gleason

Pocket Stuffers no. 4 by Valorie Wibbens

Journal Junkie: Shine by CD Muckosky

Woodbitsy Christmas by Pink Reptile Designs

I love the gold and pink bits! Finally, I made another page with the M3 with more traditional colors (and some pink thrown in for good measure :)).

Credits:

Mixed Media Monthly November at The Lilypad

DYD Collection by Sara Gleason

My plan for today is to put up the tree. Feels about right, doesn't it? :)

Finally, there are also some great new products in the store that don't fall under the MPM or M3 umbrellas. Of course I had to scrap with a few of those too. :)

Credits:

December Storyteller 2014 kit collection by Just Jaimee

Background paper from Joy papers by Sara Gleason

Credits:

Once Upon a Christmas kit and Once Upon a Christmas journal cards by Little Butterfly Wings

Loving Life by CD Muckosky

Credits:

Merry Everything card template by Paislee Press

Don't miss the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales at The Lilypad! Nothing beats online shopping as far as I'm concerned! :)

December Daily - Take 5

This post was originally posted on the write.click.scrapbook blog.

The most wonderful time of the year is starting soon.. and I am starting to make plans on how I want to document December this year.

I have completed a December Daily album in each of the past four years, and I am at it again this year for the fifth album. This really is my favorite project. I love Christmas, and I love documenting it.

In these past four years, I have taken different approaches to putting my album together, and I want to share my impressions with you. Each of these four albums was put together using my stash.

My 2010-2013 albums

In 2010, I used a 2-ring album. The pages were all hybrid, and I used my Silhouette extensively. In 2011, which was once again all hybrid, I assembled the album using my Cinch. In 2012 and 2013 I used pocket scrapbooking. Here's a look at the inside of the albums.

I love combining different shapes and textures in the album - you can see how I used bubble wrap at the front of my 2010 album and vellum at the front of the 2011 and 2013 albums.

What I liked & what I want to change

 And here is a peek at some random pages in my albums.

As you can see, in my 2010 album I combined a lot of different shapes of pages. I love this and want to do it again in 2014!

In 2011, I added lots of journaling to tell my Christmas stories. I used each 2-page spread per day, one story per day. I want to do this again in 2014!

In all my albums, the number of the day is featured prominently. I want to do this again in 2014!

The pocket-album approach I used in 2012 and 2013 made it very quick and easy to put together my album and I was able to use up a lot of journal cards from my stash, but I found myself writing less. I also dislike that the different textures get lost behind a plastic protector.  I will not do a pocket album in 2014.

My process

In 2010, my first December Daily, I pre-made all the pages because I was traveling for most of December. I ended up not being able to keep up with the album during my trip, and finished it a few months later. The other three years I worked on my album as we went. In 2013 I actually fell behind and I finished my album after the summer. I definitely lose inspiration if I don't work on my album in December, so I will try to stay current as much as I can. But I know now not to worry if that fails, because I can catch up when things slow down. In any case, I find that waiting to have my pictures in front of me works best, rather than having all the foundation pages made first. I will make a list of Christmas topics to use for the days in which I don't have any Christmas-related story to tell.

And now.. I'd love to hear from you! Are you looking forward to December? What are your plans for documenting this month? Leave me a comment and let me know!