a few layouts to share | Ali Edwards Digital Creative Team

I'm excited to share with you a few layouts I have recently created for the Ali Edwards Digital Creative Team. I know, I know. Still pinching myself! I just love her products and they work so great with the stories I want to tell.

First up: Everyday Love

This is a two page layout in my 2014 Week in the Life. The pages are 6x8 in size each. The beautiful words from Ali's Stories of Life set just jumped out at me so I created a background patterned paper from two of the words and then repeated that "everyday love" at the bottom of the right hand side. I also just used the one "story" at the top of the second page which created a nice visual triangle there. I can't tell you how much I love script + type + photos. I added a simple chipboard circle that I had painted gold and a silver glitter letter sticker. Love this layout.

Next up: Jingle All the Way

This is a two page (6x8 size) layout from my 2012 December Daily / Bucket List album. I posted this one on Instagram and commented about the upside of taking a long time to finish projects is that new fun products come out that can spark you to finish a page. It's another way of looking at being content with where you are in your process. 

The set I used here is the Merry and Bright Text Overlays. Oh, how I adore overlays! These are so fun because they add a softness at the edge that is so cool. I just added the .png file right over the photo and turned it white. 

For the title I cut out the original words, enlarged them and added them to their own layers to make "Jingle All the Way" stand out a little more as the title.

And it's hard to see, but I also used "holiday delights" on the grey card with white handwriting to list all the delights of the night. Also, at the bottom of Ali's "remember this moment" card, I printed just the "merry & bright" words from that file. 

To print onto regular journaling cards, I created a new 3x4 file in PSE and added the overlay, printed it on white copy paper, then taped the card onto the paper and ran it through the printer again. It worked great! Only I had taped along the bottom of that grey one, so there was empty space when I removed the tape. No worries! I just started adding silver washi and then it just kept going! So I ended up lining both cards with silver washi tape. Fun way to make mistakes work in your favor! Just cover them up! 

Anyways, I adore this page as I've been wanting to use jingle bells for quite some time and finally made it happen! I picked these up at my local craft store and had to use metallic thread instead of twine because the bell is quite tiny (I didn't want to add too much bulk.) I added some gold chipboard to play off the sequins I added to the confetti / star pocket. It's attached with a glue dot and redline tape on the outside of the page protector. I may stitch it down too once I have the backside finished. 

Was hoping to add more detail shots, but I figured something is better than nothing! And again, I just loved working with these products and really love being able to finish up some pages in my projects.

"Amazing and Adorable!" Excited about the Ali Edwards December Daily kit!

And just like that it is prep time for December Daily! We got our kit today and my daughter was so excited to open it! She says it perfectly: "Amazing and Adorable!"

We love it Ali!

"Amazing and Adorable!" December Daily kit from Ali Edwards from Annette Haring on Vimeo.

You can still purchase a kit on Ali's site here.

(no affiliate link, just sharing what we love!)

December Daily 2012 | Days One & Two

Hello December!

We started December 1st with everything from breakfast tacos, a Christmas Parade and Stroll (downtown street celebration), being with friends and meeting Santa! It was her first time meeting Santa and she did great. I was so proud of her. A little shy, but she gave him high fives and hook 'em horns. And she remembered to ask for what she wanted with a small cue. (she wants a sheep and something pink--have I mentioned how much I love this girl?) 

Last night we came home to meet our Elf on the Shelf. She quickly named her Cookie. Maybe we were all hungry, but I love it. She loves her Cookie the Elf and we found her this morning eating little Christmas cookies! So cute.

Not surprising, we all needed a lot of rest today. And I got some pages done during her nap.

Here's a look at my day one. Hard to choose just one story, so I decided to highlight the photo of meeting Santa and write down our bucket list, since we accomplished two of them and got started on three others! I traced some cookie cutters I have to make the stars. I'm thinking I'll try something like this inside the cover of my bucket list album. I also did a light spray of Mister Huey's Shine and the silver pen is a little bit glittery which is fun.

December 1: Hello Santa!
Excited to meet Santa and start of our bucket list.

Day 2: Just a little bit of magic. Wanted to highlight little Cookie the Elf. I started with the hearts and then added a few stars and a bit more. A little messy but I don't want the pressure for this journal to be perfect. Just having fun and adding a little magic here and there. (love that Kelly Purkey stamp too)

December 2: December Magic
Excited to find Cookie the Elf eating cookies

Also got a chance to work on a little bit of my Project Life for December. I had already printed these journal cards from Ali Edwards and added them in a Design F page protector from Becky Higgins. I just added the photos and journaling, along with the title, which is a download from Ali Edwards in the 25 Days class at Studio Calico. I recolored it red and printed it on vellum. Also added the mini stars with a little glue dot on the back. I may add some tiny confetti stars too when I finally dare to try my new sewing machine! (printing on vellum or transparencies is a fun way to add a see-through element, especially if you don't have a die-cut machine)

I'm kind of liking the Design F lately. I'm thinking of using it more in 2013. We'll see. For December I think I'll end up with a Design A on the left of this, then there are three Design F pages, and another Design A. I've already started a Design G as an insert about yesterday's adventures.

December Daily in Project Life using Ali Edwards journal cards

Finally, I wanted to share a peek of my other project, the bucket list mini album in a 6x8 Studio Calico Handbook. I'm doing 12 things here, and probably Christmas Eve and Day. Really loving Liz Tamanaha's templates (Paislee Press). I'm using a mix of hers and Ali's 6x8 templates from this year, as well as various journal cards, etc. Hope to do a post about it soon.

It's awesome to see everyone's pages and albums and I'm excited to be able to share a bit today. Thanks so much for stopping by!

InLinkz.com

This December | A Bucket List Album

Hello December!

I wanted to share a bit more of the plans I have for this December. I'm excited.

I'm carrying on the idea from the summer that Ali Edwards had to do a Summer Manifesto. I did it during the summer and absolutely loved it. Like she said, it was about living with intention, and I was so happy I did it, that I didn't miss out on those roadside peaches. Awesome stuff.

Bring on the bucket list! 

My husband and I have come up with 12 items for our bucket list/manifesto. We may not get to all 12 but I'm really hoping we can. I wanted to call it "this Christmas" but I ended up losing a letter s and actually "this December" works better, as all our items are not necessarily Christmas related.

So here's our list:

1. A Downtown Christmas Celebration
2. Meet Santa (this will be her first time so I hope it goes good!)
3. 25 Days of Books (M really loves books and I thought it would be a great way to get some Christmas books + be a bit of a countdown to Christmas. I've heard it's a really great activity so we are hoping it will turn out to be fun).
4. Watch Elf, make (or decorate) cookies and snuggle. (I really want to bake my sister's awesome sugar cookies but being realistic here).
5. Elf on the Shelf! (thanks to my husband for surprising us today with it!)
6. Gingerbread houses. (This is one my husband put down and really wants to do with M).
7. Relax and enjoy the lights and some Christmas music. (with a busy schedule we really need to make this one a priority).
8. Decorate the tree. 
9. Do some art with Maggie. (take time to do some hand painting with her--she loves it).
10. Date night. 
11. Travel (road trip) to visit relatives out of state (a visit long over-due). 
12. Watch a bowl game with my Mom. (both my husband and I put this one on here--she really loves football). Also in this category will be a possible fishing trip with my Dad. (depends on the weather, etc but we are hoping it happens).

I'm also thinking I'll include Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in this album as I think there will be room. I'm planning on making an intro page about why we are doing it, what our regular schedules and routines are in order to give an overall view of us right now. I have a feeling this season is going to fly by, and I'm hoping we can make some magic this year. I loved that as a child my parents did things to make it magical. I hope to carry on that idea.

I'll update with pics of the album when I can--check out my Instagram feed for some sneaks!

Hope you are having a great December 1! If you are looking for more inspiration as to how to approach December Daily and other projects, check out Ali's blog today. Awesome stuff! Click here to see her list of stories she has told over the years of doing this project. Did I mention it's awesome?

Happy December to you!!

updated: here are a few pictures of my album so far. I'm planning on doing another post with how I did the album and hopefully more of my foundation pages. Thanks for looking!

December Daily 2012 | my plans and a few tips

Super excited that my little December Daily album was featured on Ali's blog. She is so inspiring and so generous. I've followed her for quite a while now and needless to say I was so honored she wanted to highlight it! Thank you all for your kind words too. It really means a lot to me.

For the past two years I have done a December Daily, which is an album that documents each day in December. There's no right or wrong way to do these albums. Some people do large 12x12 albums, digital pages, photo-books, smaller 8x8, 6x8, 5x7, 4x6, etc. Some do it in their Project Life albums. Again, there is no right or wrong way. Ali Edwards started it five or six years ago and it has grown to be a popular way to do a holiday album.

Tip #1: make it work for you! 

This year I'm doing a mix of projects, each kind of makes up a layer of my overall memory keeping this December.

1. December Daily in 31 Lists: documenting a little something each day with a photo and a list.
2. 12 December Joys | a Holiday Bucket List: 12 items for 12/2012. 
3. December in Project Life: my regular monthly set up of Project Life.

• December Daily in 31 Lists: I loved the 30 Lists project so much. My friend Stacey on Instagram suggested it would be a fun way to to December Daily. As I was trying to decide what to do this year, this idea kept coming back to me. Remember tip #1: do what works! I decided to alter one of the extra Moleskine journals I had extra to create my December Daily. Here I can do a list or a story a day and I've made up my own prompts for each day (see below if you want to use them too). Journaling can be a struggle sometimes but I found having a prompt and just keeping it in list form really works for me on a daily or daily-ish project. The design is the same each page. Just a photo, washi tape, maybe some stamps, a number for each day, my list and a little date stamp. *note if you use a Moleskine the pages are quite thin. I'm using chalk inks in mine. Here's a look at my album: 

A close up of the tags + here's one of my little date stamps I'm using.

To share the love this holiday season, I'm sharing the prompts I created: if you would like the prompts, please click here to get them from Google Docs. It's a pdf so it should be ready to print. Click on each link for each page.

I printed them on HP Brochure Paper in Matte and cut them out with my paper trimmer. I have the prompt loosely adhered on each page, but am making it so I can change it easily if I want to. I'm keeping the extras (there are quite a few prompts to choose from and both "favorite" and "favourite" spellings) in a little container on my desk to make it easy to pick one each day. Here are the prompts!

Prompts Page 1

Prompts Page 2

Prompts Page 3

My second way for documenting December:

• 12 December Joys | a Holiday Bucket List: I must really like lists! For this project I'm doing a more "crafty" 6x8 album using a Handbook from Studio Calico and a mix of a solid 6x8 page and divided page protectors. My husband and I have come up with 12 items that we want to do in December. Kind of a bucket list or manifesto, whatever you want to call it. Again, I looked back at what has worked for me. The bucket list pages I did this past summer worked great for me, so instead of trying to make each day crafty and doing 25 crafty days, I'm just doing 12. Twelve things we really want to do. It's 2012. The twelve days of Christmas. It just felt fun and felt like the right thing for this year. The pages are almost ready to share, hoping by this next weekend or keep an eye on my Instagram feed. What's cool and feels like a bit of serendipity is that my Moleskine fits perfectly in a page protector that I can add right inside the bigger album. Fun fun stuff!

And finally because I am already doing it anyway:

• December in Project Life: I have a monthly set up for 2012 and I plan to add more of my favorite photos and some everyday life stuff here. You can see how I set up my monthly 2011 album here.  Updated: I am using a Design F page protector and journal cards from Ali Edwards in my Project Life. Really fun! Check them out here.

So there it is! My plan for documenting December 2012. I'm really excited about it and it feels right for me this year. 

Tip #2: prepare as much as you can before December. Ali's templates and overlays are a great place to start. I'll be using her 6x8 templates in the bucket list album. Ali calls these her "foundation pages" and it's great because a lot of the design is already done.

Tip #3: have fun! This really should be number 1. Don't compare, it's easy with so much inspiration out there. Take it for what it is. Celebrate others and their creativity. My advice is to try something. You can always change it or try something else another time. It's all good! And realize what works for someone else may not work for you. It's doesn't make either way right or wrong. It's just good stuff no matter how you do it! And don't forget to live and just enjoy the season.

I would love to see how you are documenting the season this year: share on Twitter and Instagram using #decdaily. Updated: also use #decdailylists so we can share! :)

To see the awesome gals behind 30Lists, click here. (note I am not affilitated with them but definitely inspired by them!)

To see more about December Daily and Ali's past albums click here.

P.S. I have some exciting news to share tomorrow. You heard it--there will be a post two days in a row! 

Products used: here is a group of the products I used. I can't find the link but the canvas star is from Maya Road. I stitched it on with white thread. The little silver stars are from a confetti pack I found in the party section of Michael's. The red embossing glitter is actually some old Martha Stewart but I couldn't find any links for it. I've heard the Zing is fantastic and hope to get some soon! The paper I'm using as a backdrop is one of my current favorites from I Lowe Scrap. I used the white Brilliance ink on the cover. Initially I used white chalk ink but it was really really white. I liked this one more for the look I was going for. I also had to order another set of the journals because I messed up on the first one and it said "le twinkle." My husband liked it but I decided to re-do it. Anyways, hope that helps! Have fun with whatever way you decide to document your December!

December Daily 2011: the finished book

So it's officially Christmas in July! I was able to take a few days and finish my December Daily from 2011! Feels really good to have a finished project. It may not be perfect but it is done and for that I am happy. Basically from Dec 1st  to Dec 25th I have a two page spread (meaning one left handed page and a right handed page), with a transparency or an envelope or something with the number of the day on it in the middle. I also have a title page and a closing page. I am pretty happy with how it turned out!

So here is the flickr set: December Daily 2011 Warning: this is a long post! :)

And there it is! Another December Daily complete! And this year I actually did all the days. Last year I had to condense it (leave out) a few days or it would never have gotten done. I still love that album too, so I say whatever works, whatever gets done and makes you happy is good.

For me there is definitely a lot of real life mixed with holiday spirit. And that is a good thing.

To find out more about December Daily, visit Ali Edwards's blog here.

To see my other December Daily posts, click here.

supplies used: chipboard cover cut to 5x7, painted with white acrylic paint, misted with glimmer mist, stamped circles with Jenni Bowlin paint dauber in malted milk (inspired by Ali Edwards cover from 2010), Bananafish studio December Daily kit tags, Martha Stewart labels, Ali Edwards digital templates from Designer Digitals, Ali Edwards stamps from Technique Tuesday, white Zing embossing powder, Tim Holtz vintage labels, fabric and paper washi tape from Paper Source and various places, baker's twine from the Twinery, papers from Hambly, Paper Source, wrapping paper, Einstein bagel bag, Paper Source labels, October Afternoon papers, rub ons and die cuts, wood veneer hearts and arrow from Studio Calico, Mister Huey in white from Studio Calico, stamps from Studio Calico, re-using vellum packaging bags and other packaging from purchases, metal office rim tags, mini paper clips from Tim Holtz, chipboard snowflakes from Maya Road that I embossed with white zing or painted, white pen: Uniball Signo, silver and gold pens: Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens, black pen: Sharpie pen (archival one), various shipping tags, envelopes, ephemera, Studio Calico rub on stars, photo corners from Kolo in white, Tim Holtz metal numbers, Paper Source merry and twinkle word tags, and lots and lots of love. If you have any specific questions I would be happy to help.