i make things

December Daily | Day 24 | Xmas Eve!

Day 24 all about Xmas Eve!!!

I took a ton of pictures because there's a lot happening in my family. There are over 30 people spread out over my brother's house. Ages ranging from a newborn to about 60. So there's a lot going on. It's crazy. Ear plugs and aspirin are almost mandatory. I know that doesn't sound like much fun but really it is.

This day and Xmas Day are always the hardest for me. I want to include a picture of everyone but that's really hard and I can never seem to get everyone all together for a group photo. This year I just decided to peruse through my pics and grab my favorites. The 2x2 size makes it easier to get more in.

As you can see it was a crowded room with kids running around, hollaring, piles of presents, Hope Butter (mmmm....) It was a fun night.

I added one large picture of me on the right because I wanted to highlight my favorite gift from the night. The hand cross-stitched stocking my sister made for me. Seriously this thing is ENTIRELY cross-stitched. It's epic. So that pic got it's own 3x4 slot.

I added the milk and cookies because I thought it was a cute (another Pebbles die-cut. dang it they are cute) and I wanted to add something fun to the layout.

My title and journalling were quick and easy.

I used a random 3x4 red polka dotted card and added cream and red letter stickers. Used Ali's 2014 Dec Daily kit for the stars and the jolly tabs.

The old-fashioned book card I got from an October Afternoon Make it Merry Doo-dads kit. I just added the journalling using Photoshop and my printer.  (Remington noiseless font).

December Daily | Day 23 | Gathering

Day 23 is here!

I decided to do a page all about pictures of my nieces and nephews throughout the holiday season. 1 kiddo = 1 pic.

I very consciously make sure that I include a picture of each and every one of them in this album. I make sure that I spend time with each and every one of them during the season. There are 7 of them so sometimes it's hard to do.

They are all so  unique in their own way. I don't want to leave any of them out and I think this is the best way to do it. 1 day = all the kiddos.

I was digging through my stash trying to come up with a plan and I saw the page protector with 12 pockets (2"x2") and knew it was perfect to hold all of the pictures I wanted to do.

Then I kept digging because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to put in the extra pockets. 12 pockets - 7 kiddos - 1 Auntie = 4 extra boxes. I knew I needed a focal point so I picked the second row from the top to put my title and then found those adorably cute gingerbread die-cuts from Pebbles. OMG they are soooo incredibly cute and soooo incredibly perfect for this page.

Honestly that entire die-cut set is incredible I'm so glad I bought it and stuck it in my stash for this album. Cutesy without taking away from the page.

The tag in the middle is from October Afternoon - Make it Merry Doo-dads.

The "gather", "this is us" and hearts line are stamps from Ali's Gatherings Story stamp kit. I've been using it a lot because that particular stamp set has fit so perfectly with the feel of Christmas and togetherness. I LOVE IT!

The square on the bottom is a stamp from Ali's Dec Daily 2014 kit and one of the plastic red stars also from that kit. I just stapled it on with a Tim Holtz  Tiny Attacher. p.s. I use Jet Black Staz-on ink because it goes on dark and dries very quickly.

If you look closely you can see that I've put their names on each square.

This pic is so cute. He was being a stinker and pouting but his dad started picking on him so he turned around to smile at him.

Ashton. He's getting so big! He had about 4 teeth but he still tackled that piece of pizza. I was shocked that he managed to take it down.

This is probably one of my  most favorites just because of the expression on Jack's face. So determined to break open that shark for his birthday and he did it.

Little Clara just staring up at me. Right before this she was fussy and crying. All it took was for me to lay her down. That's it. She just wanted to not be held. Okie dokie girlie.

Onward! Here's the other half of the layout. I decided to do a nice red color because it would show up nicely against all the pictures of the kids and help draw you in to the page (or so I hope...let me know if my plan worked.)

This page is solely journalling and a couple 3x4 cards. One is from Ali's kit (gatherings - story stamp) and the other is from...um...dang it. I can't find the brand I just have the cards. Anyway it's cute and I loved the gray with the red. I covered up mistletoe because it didn't really fit (used a tag from Ali's Dec Daily kit)

I printed the journalling out on some graphed paper using Remington Noiseless font (if you've been reading my December Daily posts you'll notice that I've been very consistent using this font for the album...you're probably sick and tired of me mentioning it. :)

"Ah, Family" and the hearts at the bottom are from Ali's gatherings Story stamp kit. I colored them in with a red Le Pen.

I used the red glittery tape from Ali's Dec Daily kit for the border. I love how it gives it a little something extra and there's a bonus. Oh yes. The glittery doesn't rub off and get all over. SCORE!

The card on the left-side is from Ali's Gathering Story Stamp kit as are the other stamps used: "hearts", "in good times and hard times", the heart, "this is" and "how we roll".

Thanks for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it.

If you have any comments or questions please leave them. I LOVE having questions and comments.

Have a great day!

 

 

December Daily | Day 22 | Minion Cookie Help

Day 22. In the home stretch. Almost done. Yeah, I know these posts are extremely late but hey, better late than never right. I always figure as long as I get them done it's a win. Even if I'm late getting to it, I documented my life. It doesn't matter that it took me a couple months. I did it. Score 1 for me.

I gotta say, this one isn't my favorite. It has a lot of pictures I wanted to put but I just didn't find what I needed like in the last couple of days.

but, that being said, it's okay. I documented it and realistically I can't come up with lovable pages every single time so I'm rolling with this one in hopes that the next one is awesome. Plus, I documented it. Score 1 for me.

Page 1: All about the kiddos coming over to help me make Christmas cookies. The one cookie that they love to eat and love to help make and it doesn't take long. Perfect trifecta for the kiddos.

They are called "Pretzel Huggy Goodness" (I just made that up.) I'm not sure what they are really called. A friend of mine calls them Reindeer n*pples and I haven't heard anything else so that's what I'm going to call them.

This page is super busy. All pics which is fine. None of them I wanted to leave out so I added thick borders in between each picture to at least get some definition.

Tis the Season is from Ali's Dec Daily Kit. The heart is from Ali's Digital "gatherings" story stamp kit.

While this layout is pretty crazy I still love that I have all of these different pictures in it: me hugging Jack, my sister sitting on the couch with the kiddos, the kiddos watching the dessert baking, the kiddos helping me make them. All of it I wanted to put on there and I did.

Here's the right side of the page.

This is a little less crazy because of the journalling. I used a 3x4 card from Ali's kit and typed my story of the day using the Remington Noiseless font.

In retrospect...being a monday morning quarterback...I should have added a title or something just to give it a better focal point. BUT...I say but a lot...well, I do, anyway, it's done and over. I've documented this. YEAH!

Top of the card.

Bottom of the card.

I hope you enjoyed this post and please come back to my blog soon.

As always if you have any questions or comments please leave them below. I LOVE COMMENTS!

Have a great day!

 

December Daily | Day 21 | COOKIES

I love to Bake! A LOT! and Christmas I go all out. I spend an entire weekend...and then some baking all day. This year I made over a dozen different types of desserts.

I knew I had to dedicate one whole day just to cookies (even though I spent way more than that making them).

Most of the products used on this layout are from Ali's December Daily Kit except the glittery foam stickers of "cookies" (american crafts) and the small tag under 21 were I wrote "mmmmmm""

Once I saw the chipboard piece with the cutouts I KNEW I would use it for a day about cookies. It was the perfect vehicle to show each of my cookies. Granted it took some time for me to make this page but I think it was worth it.

This is what the chipboard piece looked like bare. I added a couple coats of white paint to it. It didn't take long to dry. (I believe I used Martha Stewart's white craft paint).

In order to get the pictures to fit behind the cutouts I did the following (I will prepare a tutorial post on this later this week but for now here are the instructions.):

1. I scanned the piece of chipboard into Photoshop.
2. Use the magic wand to highlight each circle.
3. Inverse the image (everything else will be selected minus the circles)
4. Add all my images behind the chipboard layer (in photoshop) and resize them to approximately fit the circles.  This was a little tricky because some images overlapped one another. As long as they didn't overlap into the next circle I was okay.
5. Use the paint bucket to turn the chipboard layer into white.
6. Print your page.
7. Then adhere behind the chipboard and cut off excess with exacto knife or scissors...or whichever sharp implement you prefer. :)

Here's what it will look like:

I used a gray Le Pen to write the names of the desserts (mostly cookies LOL) around each oblong circle and added a red puffy heart (Ali's kit) and "Love this Tradition" stamp using a Staz-On Jet  Black Ink Pad (also Ali's kit)

Working on that page took a little bit more time than normal but it was worth it because the result is so cool!

Now, on to the left-side of the page. Usually I don't go right to left but I really wanted to start with the cookies...cause who doesn't want dessert first? right?

The left side is all about the journalling.

I used Ali's gray circles paper (cause it reminds me of the shape of a cookie), then cut a piece of transparency paper with red circles (cuz it reminds me of a cookie...is there a pattern here? LOL).

I ended up gluing down the huge 21 and stapling the transparency over it with my title because I needed the title to be big and have it lay even and flat. It worked out perfect plus it repeated the whole "circular theme" for me which I liked.

Then I added some embellishments (triangle, circle and "mmmm" on a tag) just to fill the space.

The journalling is using Remington Noiseless font (It's free to download on dafont.com). I've used this font throughout the entire December Daily because I like having a couple things that remain consistent in this project. I can change each page to fit the day but a couple things remain consistent which I think helps bring it all together.

Thank you for reading the post and I hope you enjoyed the layout.

Come back soon and if you have any comments or questions please feel free to leave them.

Have a great day!

 

 

December Daily | Day 20 | First Christmas

December Daily - Day 20 was one of the most nerve-wracking pages I did.

Right now I"m thinking, this shouldn't be nerve-wracking. I'm scrapbooking my life. As long as I get my story down I should be good. In 5-10 or even 15 years that's all that will really matter. It won't matter if I put 1 or 50 embellishments. I'll just be happy that I have the story. I won't even care that I used a heart chipboard embellishment. I'll just love seeing the pictures and reliving the story.

So...I should stop stressing that stuff and just get it done. (I need to refer to this post in a week when I'm working on something and stupidly trying to "perfect it" or "get it right" and wasting time futzing over embellishments or paper or what-not.)

Okay so I gotta say, it was nerve-wracking because I wanted to "get it right" because it was special and meant SO much to me. I wanted it to be "perfect".

It was so special because it was Bruce and I's first Christmas living together. Our relationship is perfect to me. It's not perfect in and of itself but it's perfect for me. The love we share is something that I've been waiting for.

Yes, I'm writing that for all the world to see. Jen+Bruce=True Love

The layout. It's a couple of pages because I had a lot to say and a lot of pictures to show.

 

 

I'm using the Firsts and Gather story stamp kit for the First and the heart stamp above. I used an old Authentique sticker for the Christmas. (I don't believe you can buy it anymore.)

 

I love this picture. It's one of my favorites. It was a bit crazy in color so I turned it into a black and white. Bruce was not too happy about posing for pictures (cuz he's note a picture kinda guy) but I sweet talked him into it.

I got to play with my new remote shutter which was SWEET! My brother gave it to me for Christmas (so I didn't really take these pics on the 20th but that doesn't really matter)

Second-half of the page. Used Ali's kit again for the tab sticker "magic", the wooden-ish paper, heart & #20 (heart is actually two hearts. One red and one a black and white bokeh). Used her Gather story stamp kit for "my cup runneth over"

Another favorite picture of mine. I colorized the picture using PW's actions for Photoshop Elements. The action took out some of the crazy colors and kind of muted it a bit better which seemed more appropriate to me. We aren't wild and crazy. We are salt-of-the-earth, down-to-earth people. Crazy color just doesn't fit that.

Flipping the page not quite like flipping a pancake. Maybe I should say turning the page instead...but flipping sounds more fun and scrapbooking should be fun, so flipping it is.

Second part of Day 20

Another fun picture and embelishment. I used all Ali's Dec Daily kit for this. (I am working on using what I have instead of searching around for "the right" product. I make this work and surprisingly it's faster for me and I don't waste as much time.) How do you like to use kits?

Love this. Was waiting for the right moment to use this bokeh ampersand and add J&B with the heart chipboard sticker. I got the idea from a layout I saw but for the life of me can't find right now or I'd link it in. I didn't copy it exactly but got the idea to do J&B in there.

 
Right-side of the page. I couldn't decide what pictures to  use so I ended up going with making my own photo strips and putting them.  Then stamping in the middle because leaving that white space blank was a distraction for me. Added the journalling on the right side with a big heart (Ali Edwards digital stamp) and the writing "so in love" and printing on the pink graphic paper.

 

These pictures were so much fun to take and now to look at. The first strip you can so see our interaction together: 1. Bruce not happy about doing pictures. 2. Me teasing him about it. 3. Him laughing and being shy. 4. Him getting into it. I just love the procession you don't even need words to follow it.

The second strip is similar except has more of us being goofy.

I hope you enjoyed my layouts.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them.

Have a great day!

December Daily | Day 19 | Gift Wrapping

December Daily - Day 19 - Gift Wrapping

Gift wrapping is a one-night job. I like to get it all done at once. I grab all the empty cardboard boxes that I've been saving all year; shoe boxes, paper boxes, shipping boxes, etc, my wrapping paper, bow, ribbon and tape and go to town.

Sometimes I wonder what my gift wrapping "regime" will be when I'm older. Will I use a table instead of the floor? Will I only have 3 rolls of wrapping paper instead of an entire rubbermaid bin? Will I stop using bows and ribbon? Will I use only one color? Will I be able to use only "3 pieces of sticky tape?"

My entire page. I only had one picture that I really wanted to showcase so I kept it at one.
 I had fun with this one. I added a bunch of embellishments to this one that I thought fit the "wrapping paper" theme. For instance, the red striped paper looked like wrapping paper to me.

The top of the page was lots of fun. I ended up using the huge gold numbers and added a bow to keep with the gift theme.

Left side of the top of the page: I used a couple different embellishments here: a circle die cut (I can't remember the brand) that I stamped with a stamp from Ali's kit, a "Do Not Open Before" tag, a plastic star from Ali's kit and a circle puffy sticker, also from Ali's kit.

It was so much fun to layer these embellishments together. I just happened to find something that fit together like a T and fit the page so perfectly.

I put my journalling directly on some empty space on the wall. Then I added an Ali stamp in the corner with a red-striped sticker with a red puffy heart in the middle (all Ali's kit).

I wasn't originally going to add anything on the page but the black interior of the cardboard box was distracting so I added some embellishments to it to fill the space.

I also ended up adding the red glitter tape to the corners (simulating ribbon on a package.

I didn't really intend on making the page look like a wrapped gift but it ended up going in the direction.

I love when that happens. I love when it all turns out and ends up being something that I think is cute and proud of.

 

December Daily | Day 18 | Card Night

December Daily - Day 18

CARD NIGHT! Pinochle night! A family tradition for YEARS! I was taught by my Aunt when I was 10 and I played with my Grandparents until they passed away and they played since they were young too.

So...card night has gone on for awhile and it's so much fun carrying on that tradition.

All 6 of us look forward to getting together and my mom and aunt ALWAYS watch the kiddos so my cousin, sister and brother can play. They never tell us no. They know how much it means to us.

I wanted this layout to look like a giant playing card...because quite frankly I couldn't think of anything else to do.

I happened to be perusing through my December Daily kit papers (Ali Edwards) looking for something I could use that would work for my pictures and I kept coming back to the "north pole" paper. It was loud and obnoxious but the colors were so pretty and I thought, "hey, I could use this. I just need to cover up the crazy parts. It kinda, sorta, looks like it could be the middle part of a playing card."

So I went with it. I added the pink border just to bring out some of the other colors in the patterned paper and try to not be so "one note".

Since the background was so wild I decided to put the three pictures all in a row (so they would fit) and turn them into black and white. Being color was way too much for the eye to see.

I also add the tradition plastic word because that was the whole point I wanted to get across on the layout and I thought it would be a nice focal point.

Tradition is attached with Tim Holz's tiny attacher. Which lately is one of my favorite tools. I've finally gotten over the idea that I don't want to put metal in my layouts. (because eventually when paper is squished together with metal it will warp the paper) by making sure I don't squish pages together and I keep my layouts upright.

I added the journalling on the bottom using some of the kit paper in the same color as the background using Remington noiseless font.

I added the 18 for the date in each corner making sure to flip the bottom upside down just like a real playing card. The puffy hearts are from Ali's kit as well.

I really had fun with this one. It isn't a traditional layout for me but I think it turned out so neat and I'm glad I finally used that north pole paper.

Thank you for reading my blog post. If you have any questions or comments please leave them below. Have a great day!

December Daily | Day 17 | Dance Recital

 December Daily - Day 17 - Grace's Christmas Dance Recital

I FINALLY had a really good reason to use all of the pink in my stash. Woot woot! All of this pink paper and stars are from the Ali Edwards December Daily Kit from 2014.

Granted my niece Grace is wearing purple but purple and pink go together like peanut butter and jelly so I figure it's all good.

 The entire layout. I had fun with this one. Did some different things I don't normally do. I'll get to all that below but looking at this page I will say I used the visual triangle again to connect the two pages.

Visual Triangle: Stars on the top left (#17), a star on the bottom right picture of Grace twirling and a star within a circle on the right page in the layout.

It's one of my favorite design techniques. I like how it can draw the eye across a layout so even if you have a lot going on but make sure to have the obvious "triangle" it'll help keep your layout cohesive.

I had a hard time deciding which pictures of Grace I wanted to post because, and trust me on this, there were A LOT. Most of the time when I photograph her dance recital I just sit there watching her through the lens of my camera snapping away hoping I get something good.

You just never know what she's going to do. What's going to look fun. What will look cute. etc.

 For the day 17  I used two pieces of paper. One had the little thin  stars on it. I used that as a background and cut out a circle (which I used on the bottom half of the layout) and then stapled a plastic star in there to fill up the space. The 17 are silver thickers from American Crafts.I put the 17 on a punched out circle on pop dots.

I liked the 3 different levels represented; recessed, flat and raised.

The picture of Grace was just her posing for me. I needed to have just one where she wasn't moving.

 This picture is my favorite. She's biting her lip, twirling, her skirt is moving, legs crossed...it's so cute. I added a pink gradient on the bottom of the picture using Photoshop Elements. I thought it would match nicely with the pink theme of the layout...and let's be honest, cuz I just learned the gradient trick and have been desperate to try it out. This picture definitely fit the bill.

The font is Remington Noiseless in Dark gray. The December is a plastic piece from Ali's kit (mentioned&linked above) stapled with my tiny attacher from Tim Holz.

 I used a circle punch on the star paper to get this attachment. It served two purposes; one of which I didn't even realize. 1. to cover up the little girl (who I don't know and didn't have permission to post a picture of) and 2. to complete my visual triangle.

 This is my contact sheet. I thought it was a good way to include all those pictures that I loved but just couldn't justify as a main picture to blow up to 3x4.

I have a Canon Pixma printer and as part of the printing capabilities you can make a contact sheet. All I had to do was pick out the pictures I wanted then print it out. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. :)

I made this embellishment using a circle punch of a piece of the pink paper, a smaller circle punch of white paper, a pink plastic star from Ali and the chipboard "make merry" sticker.

Thank you for reading this post. If you have any questions or comments please post below. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have on this layout or the processes behind it.

Have a great day!

December Daily | Day 16 | Christmas Movies

December Daily Day 16 Baby! Movies Movies Movies Movies Movies!!!!

I LOVE me some Christmas movies. Oh yeah! There definitely had to be a page solely related to Christmas movies....and here it is!

For this page I knew I had to do something special and that something special was the movie reels on the left page. I ended up buying a layered template from Designer Digitals because it was absolutely perfect for the page.

In the reels I used pictures of my favorite Christmas movie covers. I just took pictures and then scaled the size down and put them in the blank spaces of the reel.

I used my top 10 favorite movies.

Top of the page.

Bottom of the page.

Totally loved doing this digital page and printing it off. It was fun to play with something I don't normally do.

The right side of the layout where I put most of the journalling.

It's a little word-heavy but I think it balances out the left side well.

Top of the page.

For the Day 16 card I used paper from the Ali Edwards December Daily Kit and printed in a light gray and darker red another digital layout from the template I bought (above). The red stars and heart are from Ali's as is the 3-star set stamp. The 16 is from a Dear Lizzy chipboard alphabet.

The red card on the left...I can't remember where I got from. It's just something I found in my stash.

I printed on top of it using Remington Noiseless font. The 1 and 0 stickers are from Ali's kit.

Note: What I like to do when printing journalling on a card is to print out a draft on a piece of 4x6 paper. Then I hold the card behind the journalling up to the window or a light box to see if the jouranlling lines up the way I want.

It's kind of an old school technique but it works.

My journalling printed on a card from Ali's kit.

Thank you for reading this post.

If you have any questions or comments on this post please comment below. I LOVE comments. I look forward to hearing from you.

December Daily | Day 15 | Ornament

December Daily - Day 15

A one-pager today. I had one picture that I wanted to showcase so I added a white border to it and put the journalling on the top and bottom of the picture using a white Remington Noiseless font.

I picked this picture because it showcases my favorite Christmas ornament from 2014. Every year I buy a new ornament for my tree. It's became a tradition ever since I moved away from home and had my own Christmas tree and this was the one I bought this year.

This year's ornament was absolutely perfect. I found it while shopping at the Mall of America in a seasonal ornament shop so I knew I had to buy it, put it on my tree and include it in my December Daily Album.

It was perfect. Hearts for me, deer for Bruce, the doe-eyed deer gazing adoringly at her man. Fits us to a tee.

 

For this layout I used the wood-like background because it worked the best with the pine needle background of the picture. Plus I wanted the homey warm feeling it brought. Which is why I added the white doilies as well.

I needed more visual interest so I cut up the doily and made a visual triangle. Corner to middle to corner. Then added the gold-edged circle with wooden #15 as a focal point.

I also decided to add the red puffy hearts because, well...it's a lovey dovey page...it needs more hearts. Not to mention it added more repetition (heart in the picture and more red).

Product:

Ali Edwards December Daily Kit: Background paper, red puffy hearts, white circle with gold trim and wooden #15.

Michaels/Jo-Anns - white paper doily

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