December 2014 Crafting Goals

A recap of last month’s goals:

• 30 Days of Pinterest Projects – Fail. Life just got away from me this month.  I had too many other set projects (December Daily, Christmas cards, etc). Plus, moving required me to pack a majority of the house with a one year old in tow. I just couldn't spend any time or brain power to completing this challenge.  Maybe in the spring...
• 30 Days of Gratitude — Success! I finished a card for each day.  The last week's cards are ready to be placed in my album when we get back from Indiana.
• Finish my Christmas cards – Success!  I finished and sent them before Thanksgiving. Crazy I know, but it was the only way it was going to get done.
• Catch up with PL before leaving for Indiana – Fail. I didn't get the last two weeks done. Thankfully I made some notes and left space in my album so I get these done right away in January.
• Create a travel DD kit to work on in Indiana – Success! I took a makeup bag from Target and made a nice little travel kit. Love it!  I'll have to share my kit organization next week.
• Make calendars to give as gifts — Fail... well a 50% fail. I have one started and about 60% done, but I need to get a few more things to finish it. Thankfully I have all of next month.
• Destash before Thanksgiving – Success!  I do a great job at sorting through my craft stuff before it was boxed. Unpacking and creating my new craft space in January should be a breeze.

This month’s goals:

• 30 Days of December Daily -- First time tackling this project. I've got my travel kit of supplies and the base pages. Now to get moving documenting the days.
• Finish grandma's calendar -- About 60% done at the start of December. I can definitely finish this one before Christmas.
• Finish the December Memories albums -- Ambitious, but I want to give everyone their completed albums by the 31st.
• Finish my year end posts before my blogging break on Dec. 22nd -- I will be taking a blogging break from 12/22 to 1/6, but first I want to get my posts finished for the start of 2015.
• Create a 2015 blog plan and ideas list -- Always part of my blogging break activities. You won't see posts up during the break, but I am working behind the scenes.
• Make a organization plan for my new craft space -- I didn't get to unpack before flying to Indiana, but I have pictures of the space and some ideas. Now to really think about and plan what I want. I forsee some Ikea items and maybe a trip to The Container Store.
• Start/plan my PL journal planner -- Oh Life went out of business so I needed a different way of documenting daily activities to use for PL. I bought a planner that fits in the diaper bag, but right now it's unadorned and plain. I need to jazz it up and plan how I really want to use it.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 26-30

For the first time, I'm participating in 30 Days of Gratitude.  I even joined a FB group with other listers. While many use mini albums to document, I created a simple insert to my regular PL pages. You can see my prep work in this post. Once the month started, I realized that I did't really want the extra duty of picture taking, so I'm going strictly with journaling. I thought I would share my daily cards and a few extra decorative ones.

Day #26: Without modern medicine, I may not have had three healthy children...

Day #27: Happy Thanksgiving! Thinking about all that I am grateful for today.

Day #28: I love leftovers! And I'm grateful be able to have leftovers.

Day #29: Every time I visit Indiana, I have to grab a coney dog from Coney Island.  Grateful for long standing businesses.

Day #30: It is downright cold herein Indiana.  Grateful for central heat to make us nice and warm.

December Daily Prep - Embellishments

All the pretties!  My favorite part of making my DD album has been choosing all the embellishments that I want! I went a little crazy buying some great supplies, but I imagine that some of it can be used for other projects.

Washi Tape, glitter tape, and glitter snowflakes -- I am not a fan of ribbon anymore. Washi tape it my new addiction.  Somehow I narrowed it down to five rolls of washi: gold chevron, black stripe, red polka dot, green design, and red stripe (in another bag right now). In addition to regular washi tape, I had to buy some great glitter tape. I ended up with silver, gold, and red.  A late addition to the stash was this package of glitter chipboard snowflakes from Michaels.  Love the sparkle!

Die cuts, sequins, and punch outs -- Buried in that pile is a few packages of die cuts that coordinate with some of teh paper.  I also punched out a ton of trees and ornaments from the leftover paper stash.  Oh course I had to include the gold sequins and snowflake shaped sequins to the stash.  You can also spy a "Christmas" word flair and a bag of small star, ornament, and tree punched out pieces.  I think I'll use those piece for a confetti pocket... Plus, I have a bag of numbers for the main bulk of December.  I didn't want to adhere them to the paper right away.  I like to have options of switching things around during the process. 

Stickers, alphas, enamel shapes, extra paper, and journaling tags -- I pulled a ton of supplies from my regular PL stash but also bought some new holiday themed stickers. These piles are huge, but I love having options.

Stickers and Alphas -- Lastly, I have a few 12x12 sheets of stickers and alphas that coordinate with the paper collections i bought. This alphas are the perfect size for titles.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 21-25

For the first time, I'm participating in 30 Days of Gratitude.  I even joined a FB group with other listers. While many use mini albums to document, I created a simple insert to my regular PL pages. You can see my prep work in this post. Once the month started, I realized that I did't really want the extra duty of picture taking, so I'm going strictly with journaling. I thought I would share my daily cards and a few extra decorative ones.

Day #21: Today is moving day!  I'm so excited about getting more space and less neighbors.

Day #22: The view out of our master bedroom is just hills. Gorgeous!

Day #23: Arthur and I are traveling back to Indiana for the holidays.  Thinking a lot about family today.

Day #24: After a long night, we made it to Indiana.

Day #25: Moving companies.  Grateful that we didn't have to move the house ourselves...

December Daily Prep - Base Pages

After much debating, I decided to do 12x12 pages and put them into my regular PL album.  I'm just not a mini album kind of lady. Without further ado, here are my base pages. I used a hodge podge of papers and cut aparts to create the bases. As the month progresses, I will add the embellishments and journaling spots. Other than the first page, I won't decided on the order of the pages until I start documenting. Right now I'm happy to have the paper done...

Candlelight Christmas

For my other Christmas card set, I pulled the leftovers DSP and stickers from the Candlelight Christmas collection (retired). I hoard pretty paper. It's what I do, but I'm really trying to change that.  I've made it my mission to use, sell, give away, or trash my old retired DSP.  I added in the Christmas Cheer and Christmas Bliss stamp sets for sentiments. I'm loving how these turned out.  I sold a few at the craft fair last weekend, but still have a majority left to send to friends and family. Because I finished this DSP pack, I can move on to more current paper. Yippee!

December Daily Prep - The Big Plan

December Daily -- Oh my! I've wanted to participate in documenting our holiday season for years now, but it always seemed just too far out of reach.  Last year, I switched over to Project Life and thought, maybe this year?  But a 2 month old baby made it very difficult to prepare and think though the project.  So I scrapped that idea. Going into this fall season, I started to seriously think about doing some type of DD album. By September, I was determine that this project would be part of our holiday season. Now on to the hard questions:

Dates

Most people do their DD album from Dec 1st to 25th.  But I knew I would be back in Indiana from Thanksgiving on.  And we have a ton of activities the night before Thanksgiving (hometown tree lighting), the day after (tree decorating), and the weekend after (activities with the twins).  I didn't want to limit my album to just December.  So I've decided to run my DD album from Nov. 24th (when I fly to Indiana) to Dec. 31st. To me that time period is the holiday season.

Size and Format

Most people go with a mini album (6x8 or 6x6).  I pulled out a 6x8 PL album I had bought on clearance awhile back.  It could work...  But as I started planning out the other aspects of DD, I realized that I am not a mini album type of person. I didn't want to be looking through our family PL album and then have to switch over to the mini album for Thanksgiving on. I ultimately decided that I would just dedicate regular 12x12 pages in our PL family album to DD. I'm planning on featuring four days per page protector (two on each side) plus on one page for Thanksgiving activities.  Plus I want to do some type of cover page. Nothing super fancy, but just a little introduction to that section of the album.  I planned it out and they should all fit into our 2014 Volume 2 album. When I get back from Indiana, I'll be all ready to start my 2015 Volume 1 album.

Paper, Embellishments, Stamps, and Washi Tape

Now on to the fun part... I started with gathering my Christmas supplies, but realized that I wasn't in love with most of it.  This led to a huge shopping spree online.  Some of those supplies ended up being dedicated to the three Christmas memories albums I am creating for mom, MIL, and grandma. But I did keep a fair amount just for my album.  I was going to included stamped images (I have a fair amount of Christmas stamps), but that would require hauling them all to Indiana with me and I already have two suitcases full of crap.  Ultimately I decided to stick with journaling, stickers, and other non-stamp embellishments.  I did make sure to pack my washi tape!

Deadlines

I'm not going to stress out about getting every day done every day.  Instead, my goal is to be 80% finished by the time I fly back to California.  I want to do all of the journaling, but if I don't get to the embellishments right away, that's okay. I do want to have all of the pages finished by the end of January.  I think that's doable...

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 16-20

For the first time, I'm participating in 30 Days of Gratitude.  I even joined a FB group with other listers. While many use mini albums to document, I created a simple insert to my regular PL pages. You can see my prep work in this post. Once the month started, I realized that I did't really want the extra duty of picture taking, so I'm going strictly with journaling. I thought I would share my daily cards and a few extra decorative ones.

Day #16: All about the beach. We don't get there very often, but it is decently close (less than an hour) and oh so pretty!

Day #17: Our new house has hardwood in the dining room and kitchen areas.  Thank goodness!  Having carpet under our dining room table is just horrible.

Day #18: All the days of the week.  Or most accurately, that I'm alive to enjoy all the days of the week. (Thinking some morbid thoughts lately, good to remind myself that I am alive and can enjoy life.)

Day #19: Love when I see RAKs out in public.  Thank you others for being courteous and considerate.

Day #20: My most favorite flavor combination!  Yum yum!

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 11-15

For the first time, I'm participating in 30 Days of Gratitude.  I even joined a FB group with other listers. While many use mini albums to document, I created a simple insert to my regular PL pages. You can see my prep work in this post. Once the month started, I realized that I did't really want the extra duty of picture taking, so I'm going strictly with journaling. I thought I would share my daily cards and a few extra decorative ones.

Day #11: While the Midwest is getting snow, we're still enjoying moderate temps. Love our California weather.

Day #12: Yep, I'm grateful today for online shopping. I shipped Arthur's supplies to my mom's house for our vacation there.

Day #13: Loving the beautiful falling leaves.  Too beautiful.

Day #14: I love books.  That is about the core of my being.

Day #15: The other twin.  So grateful for my wonderful sensitive boy.

Arthur's Birthday Pages

Arthur's first project life album ends with his first birthday.  While the family album is done by calendar year, I feel that marking each year of his life with a new scrapbook made more sense to me... As I finally printed the photos from his party, it was time to finish his first PL album! The last official page before the ending inserts features his 12 month photos.  I ended up going very simple with four photos, his month card, the stats card, and two filler cards. I wanted the pictures to stand alone with no embellishment.  Clean and Simple.

At his party, I put out some PL journaling cards and asked friends to write him a birthday message.  Most people did leaving me with a stack of cards.  Instead of sprinkling them in, I decided to have one page dedicated to the cards.  I love how they look all lined up in the sheet.

The last page in his album is the once a month photos I took over the course of the first year.  I just slide them into pockets without embellishment.  Simple, yet very striking.

And now it's on to Arthur's second PL album.